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Reviews

I rule, you rule, we all rule old-school Hyrule

Completeness

3 - Nicely polished. 2 - Finished and polished, I wanted to give this a 3, but the little things like starting in an unwinnable state and the way that long range enemies can pillar dance you, even when you also have a long range weapon annoys me 3 - a complete game, didn't encounter any serious bugs

Aesthetics

3 - Really pretty. Keys simple to master. 3 - Good graphics, simple controls, only improvement I would like to see is more visual feedback or quicker access to the "look" information. 3 - very nice ascii graphics with pleasing colors. Controls are very easy to understand and work perfectly.

Fun

3 - Choice of items is nice substitute for class selection. To win one has constantly to do something and thus avoid boredom. 3 - An addictive but enjoyable game. 2 - the slow moving projectiles work very nicely in this zelda-meets-roguelike. I also enjoyed the different items at my disposal.

Innovation

2 - Great competitive AI. 3 - The "win" condition makes the while game feel like a game of capture the flag. 2 - I think the main innovation is in the control scheme and the slow moving ranged weapons. Pretty nice experiment in the rl basis.

Scope

3 - A lot of teritory and abilities. 3 - Low 3, but definitely more than i would expect from a 7DRL project. 2 - as far as i can tell this is a complete game & focused, and feels more polished than many non-7drls. The scope is about what I'd expect of a good 7drl.

Roguelikeness

3 - 100% roguelikeness. 3 - Another low 3, definitely has all the features of a roguelike (Procedural content, Permadeath, turn-based, inventory management) but it plays differently that most RLs I've played. 3 - as roguelike as it can be.

You and other computer controlled heroes must gain fame to be declared ruler. To gain fame kill big monsters, discover new regions and find lost artifacts. Eliminating the competition is allowed too but might take too long. Choose items you think can exploit most easily and have fun. Definitely another competitor for best in show, from what I've seen. Try to claim the Hyrulean crown by slaughtering monsters and reclaiming artifacts, but other claimants race against you. This is one title I'll be keeping an eye on, while it is good in it's current state, it will be interesting to see how this one develops.

Drakefire Chasm

Completeness

3 - Complete game 3 - Very polished. No problems. The post-7DRL version fixes some bugs, but they are not serious. 3 - Fully complete. Polished. Nice use of libtcod without going overboard.

Aesthetics

2 - Nice looking and functional UI, could use better feedback for the events 3 - a classical roguelike look via libtcod. Quite simple, but tasteful. Nice animations of attacks. 2 - Pleasing to look at. Looks like a libtcod roguelike, but not over-done. Nice lighting effects on mage/priest spell attacks, and dragon-fire. Could use slightly more varied terrain, even just slightly different/varying colors for walls. I dig the re-use of archetypical nethack/rogue character codes (e.g. D, @).

Fun

3 - Fun, Challenging and gratifying 3 - Very fun to play! Most of the battles are easy, but occasionally you get attacked by many foes, and you get into trouble. I don't survive the second boss level in most of my games, I think it is too hard. While it often annoys me, this game is so fun that I don't mind. 3 - Good solid fun. Recommended to all roguelike fans. Some built-in humor playing as a 'D'ragon when the @-signs show up.

Innovation

2 - Play as a monster, level up on staircase, skills tree 2 - the "be a dragon" fantasy appears to some extent in lots of other roguelikes, but this is the first where it is so well developed. I also like the healing mechanics (there is no rest-to-heal, instead you simply eat your fallen enemies, in a tough situation it might be worthwhile to stop fighting to eat something). Some of the special powers of the enemies are not that typical, and so are the powers of the dragon. However, I think something more is required for an excellent score in Innovation. 2 - Nothing crazy in terms of new roguelike gameplay elements, but excellent integration of abilities w/ cooldowns. Reversal of theme is innovative as well.

Scope

2 - Nicely targetted 3 - lots of enemy powers, lots of PC powers, animation, balance is OK. 3 - Would've given a 2 until I got to explore the entire depth of the ability tree. Very well done without being overwhelming. Shades of borderlands (in a good way).

Roguelikeness

3 - Yes, this is a roguelike 3 - Definitely. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

You are a Wyrmling and... You Wanna Be The Wyrm. Bash weaklings and eat them, become older as you pass through the levels. Have fun! In this game you play as a dragon, watching it grow from a Wyrmling into the Great Wyrm. On later levels, this means that you fight swarms of adventurers, who are trying to kill you. This role reversal works very well, and is very fun to play. Heavily recommended! Some minor faults include the feeling of false progress (you are much powerful on Level 2 than on Level 1, but you still don't kill rats in one hit, because they also become more powerful... I think monster names should be at least slightly adjusted (e.g. "large rat", "giant rat" etc) to avoid that), starting in a tough position usually leads to losing (this usually happens on level 8), and the effect of attacks of enemies should be clearer (my firebolt spell kills bears on Level 2 in one hit, and breath does not; however, according to the ability screen, breath deals much more damage; the damage on the ability screen does not seem affected by my stats). These faults are minor, it still gets straight '3' in my review. Play as a dragon growing from a young wyrmling to powerful Great Wyrm. Surprisingly deep abilities tree makes every new level fun and often tactically different. Corpses as a combination of health & level completeness is also a very interesting mechanic that is done very well, and should be explored further. Enemies surprisingly varied with well-animated magical attacks, class abilities (rogues will disappear and pop out to stab you), and even some humor ('the Paladin judges you'). Occasional 'arena' levels are a challenge, especially in the late game, terrain could use some more color but what do you expect from a lava chasm? Breathing fire and biting entire enemies is very satisfying and brings across the feeling of being a dragon very well.

HyperRogue II

Completeness

2 - Very polished look and feel, missing enough depth of gameplay to warrant a 3. 3 - Large world, no bugs encountered. 3 - Complete with score tracking.

Aesthetics

3 - A pleasure to look at and control. The way the screen jumps to follow the @ is amazing. 3 - Despite seven directions it is easy to navigate. Stunningly beautiful. 3 - It is so easy to get strange map technology wrong. But this doesn't. Movement is smooth. The 8-way is intuitively mapped to the local cell choices. The map scrolls *after* you move smoothly, giving smooth turn based motion.

Fun

2 - Totally fun to play and look at (even if you aren't playing), but missing enough content to make it a full replayable game. 3 - I had great fun exploring this world. Every area has something interesting to it. 2 - Problem of this space may be it is just too big. I feel my main strategy is just to run away. No particular urge to clear one area.

Innovation

3 - Have rarely seen a hex map done as well as this. Parabolic world is also very innovative and worth exploration by other games. 3 - For the topology alone. There are other twists in Hyperbolic Rogue. 3 - Not just interesting geometry, but some interesting enemies such as vines and worms designed around the Rook-like movement.

Scope

2 - About what I'd expect from a 7drl. A unique concept executed tightly and with decent polish. 2 - About right because it builds up on previous version. 2 - While I think there may be nothing more to add to the game, it definitely isn't a massive scoped game either. It is very much the size it should be.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. 3 - There are temporary buff instead of items. No other strays from roguelikeness. 3 - Tactical based dungeon crawler.

A unique experimental roguelike with lots of potential. Visuals are very hard to describe and definitely worth checking out! Player travels through a parabolic world on a hex map that is constantly curving away from the player in all directions. Player must avoid obstacles and destroy enemies without getting stuck -- the game has a nice 'check mate' feature that will prevent you from making ill-fated moves. Not a ton of depth but visually very impressive. Play this thing. So awesome ... I recommend to visit the Alchemist Lab with its two color rules, Desert with sand worms and spice, raid shifting Living Caves for gold, see the Jungle and battle Ivy ... Just go anywhere and you likely will have fun. Consider my mind blown.

Nightfall

Completeness

3 - Polished, feature completed, balanced enough that I didn't win on my first try, but I did by the end of my lunch break. 3 - Very complete and polished. Had it freeze on me a few times, but that could be to do with my system. 3 - Fully functional with a slick UI and even a useful title screen/intro. Did have a game once where no enemies showed up for a long time.. not sure if it was a bug and either way not worth knocking this to a 2.

Aesthetics

3 - Very nice tile graphics, controls look complicated, but all you really use are 1-8 and the f and g keys. 3 - Pretty graphics, simple controls, nice auto-equip system. 3 - Controls very intuitive. Graphics are very cool and well beyond expectations for a 7drl, well done.

Fun

3 - Running like a madman from the shadow while trying to kill enough get power spheres and power ups is quite fun. Will probably pick this one up after the 7DRL is complete and watch for updates 2 - It ends up being a bit one-dimensional with running from the darkness being a far greater focus than item use or combat with enemies. One feels very immobile, not able to tactically position yourself well, with few options available in the limited time/turns you have to act. 3 - increasing shadow mechanic adds a hectic sense of fun to the game

Innovation

2 - Nothing amazingly new, but an innovative little story and the optional real-time shadow is nice. Would have been nice to see more down with the shadow mechanics. 2 - Cool way of doing the hunger clock and thematically forcing it on the player. 2 - increasing shadow mechanic is a unique twist, something that should be explored further by roguelikes

Scope

2 - A high 2, largely because the graphics are nice, but this is on the high end of what I expect from 7DRLs. 2 - Simple game done well. 3 - Mind-boggling that it was done in 7 days

Roguelikeness

3 - A low 3, it has procedural generation, permadeath and turn-based mechanics, but the moving shadow and pure-powerups are a bit un-roguelike. Still a 3 though. 3 - Permadeath, turn-based (though with the option of a real time mechanic). Random levels, but it ends up not feeling all that random as you take a linear path through quite repetitive terrain. Still has a roguelike feel though. 3 - close to a 'pure' roguelike, especially the good parts, ignores lots of the bad

A fun game where you dash to the right to escape an ever advancing shadow. The normal mode has the shadow moving each turn and the hardmode has it advance in real time. Overall an awesome coffee break RL. The gameplay is tight and well balanced, the graphics are stellar and story is decent. Only problems I encountered are a modest lack of documentation (weapons and armor, etc), a bug where monsters aren't respawned in a new game, and some of the items really aren't too useful, particularly the mine. The night is descending upon you, run! Though there are many enemy types and items the focus of the game is entirely on running away from the descending shadow of night, with everything else becoming a brief obstacle. Though done well I found it a little too simplistic for repeated plays. The hard mode (which makes the nightfall move in real time) adds a surprisingly nice spice to the game. Marooned on an alien planet, you must outrun the night (and its horrible shadow creatures) and find a way to repair your ship. The "night" is constantly encroaching from the side of the screen and pushes you forwards, adding a great hectic feel to the usual roguelike mechanics. Nice mix of weapons and usable items. UI was very sharp and polished, tiles equally so. Tile art was amazingly done, especially for a 7DRL.

Porta Lucis

Completeness

3 It does what it sets out to do 3 - Definitely a complete room with full beginning middle and end 3 - Polished, runs perfectly for me.

Aesthetics

2 Basic interface is good and simple, and the light effects are good. There are text narration sequences that introduce a forced delay, which gets annoying fast. The prose is a bit overwritten, but just attempting a more narrativistic game is nice. For some reason no bump-to-attack. 3 - Light plays an important role in the game and the graphics handle this well, controls are simple and concentrated. 3 - Controls are intuitive and explained well in-game. Visuals are very appealing, excellent usage of light (as is appropriate for a game using light as a mechanic)

Fun

2 It's pretty straightforward and working, there's nothing dazzling in the mechanics. Couldn't figure out how to skip the cutscene I get when dying, stopped playing when I got it the third time. 3 - This is the first game so far this 7DRL that I will be playing again after this judging is complete. It his a compiling story the pulls you in enough to keep playing 2 - Lots of fun! Light/dark mechanic makes for lots of interesting tactical decisions when trying to kill scavengers.

Innovation

3 Lots of good stuff, an original theme, a less crunchy, theme appropriate combat dynamic 2 - I don't think a single feature in this RL is completely original, but the light, one-hit kill, and death mechanics are weaved together better than many long running RLs. 3 - Using light as a mechanic is brilliant. (zing!) Would love to see something like this incorporated into other games.

Scope

2 Seems around 7DRL level. 3 - Good story, good gameplay and decent balance at above and beyond in a 7DRL 2 - Solid 7DRL. Picks 1 thing and does it very well. Remaining components are solid and nothing gets in the way of exploring that 1 mechanic.

Roguelikeness

3 It's a roguelike 3 - A bit of a toss on this one, but it is procedurally generated, turn-based and has permadeath and limited inventory management 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

An atmospheric horror game that's set in a low-key abandoned basement full of unnaturally ferocious rats instead of the more usual monster-filled complex. Unskippable narrative cutscenes, for example every time you die, are a terrible UI decision, these NEED to be made skippable or the game is unplayable. Other than that, the thing shows definite promise, with the minimalist presentation showing a pretty convincing modern-day scenario. This is probably one of the better psychological RLs I've seen in a 7DRL. The length makes it a coffee break game and it's as tight as they get. Could use some music, and maybe flickering lights or destructable lights (though the messages for when I tried knifing the lights was a nice touch). Overall, a solid title that is setting the bar high for horror themed RLs this year A well-written (!) roguelike with a very unique light/dark mechanic. Defeating advanced enemies depends entirely on your ability to manipulate light, which is given off by flaming trash bins, dirty halogen lamps, and flickering flourescent lighting scattered throughout an otherwise pitch-black dungeon. The dark is dangerous, but also the only way to lure... well, I will let you figure it out for yourself. Mechanics alone make this a great 7DRL, the extra writing on top (oohh the first death scene) makes this one a must-play for 2012.

Steel Knights

Completeness

3 - Polished. Found one bug that killed me. Be wary of evac packs on hub level. 3 - Three complete story arcs, plenty of weapons, armor and enemies, probably the most "complete" game of this contest 3 - Seems fully complete and is very polished.

Aesthetics

2 - Key layout takes some time to get used to. No way to get manual from game? 3 - Great tiles, only complaint about the controls is that 'g' should be pickup as well. 2 - Visually very pleasing but some controls are annoying (only supports , for pickup, no ? for help) Otherwise controls are great.

Fun

3 - Good old hack and slash all the way. 3 - I got the the second to last level of 32 levels, died and then started it up again. It that's a heck of a game to get me to pick it back up at that point. 3 - Tons of fun. Played for an hour straight without even realizing!

Innovation

1 - What innovation? There is core color system but it could be relabeled to work in elemental fashion. 2 - Really wanted to give this a 3 for the story and the "hub" mechanic, both that are done very well, but nothing about the gameplay is too surprising. 2 - Nothing super-innovative, but the hub system is interesting and the different weapon styles (esp. the carbine) is innovative enough for a 2. Wasn't able to get into the 'cores' system.

Scope

3 - Three locations? A lot really. Plus it has plot. 3 - Would have given it a 4 if it were possible. excellent story, clean gameplay, tons of content. 3 - Big scope for a 7DRL. Lots of 7DRLs have deep level structures but rarely are they filled with so much "stuff". Story shows a lot of effort.

Roguelikeness

3 - Of course. 3 - All the standard features present and most of the optional ones. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

Pretty standard roguelike but this one is well done. Small selection of guns to which you need conserve ammo for. Do not go for middle mission. It is most difficult. Definitely one of the top entries this year, comes with 3 distinct missions that you deploy to from a central hub. Each could have been a 7DRL entry in it's own right. But what really makes this game stand out is the story, not a lot of 7DRL developers put as much effort into the story as in Steel Knights. I am judging this on 3/29 and the game is an online app, so it is possible that the dev has improved it since, but high scores on the online leaderboard go back to the original release date, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. A surprisingly deep and polished game. Pure roguelikey goodness with some interesting tactical decisions coming from weapon/ammo selection. Graphically it looks great, and runs in a browser via java (+1 for browser!). Levels are varied (3 separate 'branches') and well-populated with knick knacks, scenery, NPCs, etc. Two things that took a while to figure out: 1) don't go to the middle mission first (reading the story helps!), and 2) finding ammo in the beginning is super-critical, starting with the "gunner" class helps immensely. One of my favorites from the challenge so far.

Cogmind

Completeness

3 Very polished and feature-complete. 2 - It is well polished but getting this to run was a major pain. 3 - Yikes. Depth and polish here puts other 7DRLs to shame. I think the author has a time machine.

Aesthetics

3 Neat phosphorus-terminal aesthetic that mostly works well with figuring out the world, though item-clutter can be confusing, and a nice positional inventory and equipment managing system. 3 - Controls for dealing with module installation are awkward but good looks and weapon animations make up for it. 2 - Why is the font so small!! Maybe I am just too old, but with so much stuff on the screen I need bigger graphics. Very "busy" at first.. the first level can be a bit overwhelming for a new player. Controls like a dream... keyboard bindings out the wazoo.

Fun

2 Nice to play, but the robot gunfights are a bit boring back-and-forth, with little feedback on how well you are taking the enemy apart. 2 - Not enough feedback in combat. I am rarely not sure whether a robot was hit and if yes did it receive damage. It is a bit hard to guess what kind of damage weapons do. 3 - Tons of fun. This game does take some time to get into, and can seem overwhelming at first, but give it time. It is well worth it. Soon you'll be swapping out cores and weapons on the fly and blowing the crap out of other robots with rocket launchers. Oh and also there are jetpacks!!

Innovation

2 Quite unique setting, and mostly makes it feel like you're operating a modular robot. Pretty standard roguelike mechanics otherwise. 3 - It follows in the steps of Scrap but takes it much further. Multiple systems of one type can be effectively used. 2 - Solid use of standard roguelike mechanics, although many are stretched in great ways.

Scope

2 Looks about right for 7DRL 3 - There is great amount of modules to try swapping in and out. Design well thought out. 3 - More than what I'd expect from a 7DRL. Does the author have a time machine? (I expect it is due to the amazing engine used by X@COM)

Roguelikeness

3 It's a roguelike 3 - Fully roguelike. 3 - It's a roguelike! Combat is a bit too slow paced, but that just means you need to find bigger weapons. Inventory and resource management is deep.

A robot game where you're a robot and must take down other robots who have gone rogue. To do this, you attach various guns to yourself. If your guns get broken, you can't fight. If you run out of energy, you can't move. That pretty much fits with the whole being a robot thing, you don't get quite the same flexibility as a proper biological critter. If you played Scrap the game will look very familiar. You are robot with ability to replace your own parts. This is very interesting mix and match. However, your modules can be destroyed and often are. A downside is battles tend to take too long because of long streaks of misses and uninterruptible animations. One of the best 7DRLs of 2012. You are a robot fighting his way upwards out of the trash heap. To do this, you must find parts and attach them. Parts/slots mechanic is incredibly deep and complex: power cores, movement, weapons, utilities. Because parts take damage you will be constantly re-attaching new parts and upgrading when you find better weapons, treads, jetpacks, heat shields, nuclear power cores, etc, etc, etc. Visually very busy and the controls can see overwhelming at first, but put the time into it and you will be rewarded. The author has gone through painstaking effort to include a keybinding for everything, although I believe everything can be played with only the mouse as well. Combat can be a slog sometimes but go and find a rocket launcher and it will bring a smile to your face. The way enemy robots spill out all of their parts when they explode is a lovely touch. Play this one.

Sword in Hand

Completeness

3 - Nicely polished. The only problem I could spot the sword would only name first item from a stack as uninteresting instead of all. 3 - Fully polished, fairly balanced, bug-free in my experience 3 - Very complete, although difficult

Aesthetics

3 - Just beautiful. 3 - No less than I would expect from Jeff. Good colour choices, simple key layout, well laid out interface, and the blood on the sword is a cool effect. 3 - Simplistic but pleasing. About as excellent as you could ask for ASCII.

Fun

3 - This one is even replayable. 2 - The moves are interesting, but there is little one can do tactically to set them up. The strategic map element is not very compelling. There's not quite enough depth of the gameplay to keep it interesting through more than one playthrough. 3 - Tactically pleasing gameplay.

Innovation

1 - Vicious Orcs engine refitted. Sword in Hand brings nothing new to the table. 2 - The moves are something new as is the map thing, but I think there's some elements missing in the implementation to really make the gameplay truly innovative. Still nice to see these touches though. 2 - Nice continuity between dungeons. Special moves are a nice touch but a little hard to manage properly (e.g. cost in blood versus blood gained)

Scope

3 - Several locations to visit and nice amount of texts. The game relies heavily on engine of Vicious Orcs which probably helped to achieve such scope. A three nonetheless. 2 - Very much the high end of 2, but in many ways this feels like a restricted version of Vicious Orcs. Perhaps Jeff sets too high an expectation... ;) 2 - The perfect length/scope for a 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

3 - Obviously, although maps are static. 3 - True and true. 3 - Definitely a roguelike

This one is actually difficult! Even single attacks cost *you* a point of health. To increase your hit points beyond the norm you have to score combos which deal more damage than they cost in blood. Player needs to do some thinking to be successful. On top of that the game carries a message. If you read quest descriptions and ponder why and what numbers are shown on the war table it becomes readily apparent. However, I seem to have gotten a different message than author may have intended. Sword in Hand lets you play a sword, with no interest in petty items or the affairs of humans beyond an excuse to taste blood. The game involves going through a few dungeons by picking up quests, and watching the effects ripple across a large map of army interactions. I found the quest choosing system a little repetitive and uninteresting, but the flavour is very good. The basic combat is interesting in trying to profit in blood gathering from enemies, and the combat is nicely deterministic, though it doesn't quite retain its interest across multiple playthroughs. You play as a magical sentient sword with a passion for violence. You "work" for King Viola, who is in a constant struggle with his mortal enemy, King Crimson. The quests you choose to undertake affect the outcome of their war. Quests invariably require dungeon diving, and using advanced sword techniques to crush enemies in tactically pleasing ways. Blood acts as both health and "power" to perform these advanced techniques, so there is a constant weighing of tactical options. Hate Kobolds. HATE.

Fragile Wrath

Completeness

3 A full playable game with complete features and mechanics 3 - Feels complete, no problems. 3 - Super-polished. Title sequence alone makes most games look like a pile of garbage.

Aesthetics

3 Functional graphics and an efficient control scheme without extra bits. The combo interface is particularly nice. 2 - OK. A libtcod roguelike, with a checkerboard instead of the typical dot pattern. It was a bit hard for me to understand the game at first, I think the game should tell me that I need to build up wrath of 3 to use my special powers. 3 - Lots of elegantly-done blood violence is very nice to look at. Very pleasing to play, controls are not 100% what I'd expect (space to rest) but there is in-game help.

Fun

3 Much fun, the basic mechanic is interesting and graspable very quickly. Don't know how far it would go, but definitely works in a coffeebreak game scope. 2 - it's OK, but I did not find it particularly fun. I see no connection of the pre-game animation with the actual gameplay. Also the game ends abruptly, I think it could be fun to fight more dangerous enemies with all these powers. As usual with 1HP roguelikes, the puzzle element is strong, but the cost of a tiny mistake is high. 3 - Lots of fun to wail on bad guys. 1 HP mechanic makes you really consider every tiny move on a tactical level. (This is a good thing)

Innovation

2 A unique single-hitpoint PC mechanic, though beyond that it's just beating up demons. 2 - Original features include: paralytic attack as a main weapon (in a 1HP roguelike), locking doors behind the PC to make it harder to return to a safe place, and "combos" activated by a single keypress. 2 - Was not able to explore the 'powers' in a lot of detail but the game does do some interesting things well in terms of forcing the player into making tactical decisions at almost every turn.

Scope

2 Spot on for 7drl. 2 - includes pre-game animation and 8 special moves. Quite a simple dungeon generator, very simple enemies. Okay, but I think that '3' requires more. 2 - A solid 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

3 It's a roguelike. With a bit squishier player character than usual. 3 - Yes, that's a 1HP roguelike. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

The gimmick here is that you need to fight a bunch of demons with some superpowers, but are a regular squishy human (or equivalent) otherwise, and can't take even a single hit without dying. Good thing the demons freeze for a bit when you punch them. So you can fight single opponents easily, but if you get surrounded, you can't freeze-juggle everyone and are dead. You can move around the arena rooms and use strike combos to get by. The combo interface is neat, you use the directional keys to choose a context-appropriate combo move. A 1HP roguelike. In this one, enemies have more than one HP, but they are paralyzed by your attacks, so you have a chance. Includes a pre-game animation (although the interpretation is left to the player). I think it is OK, but nothing special. A very nice-looking game that forces the player to make hard tactical decisions at almost every turn (due to the fact that you only have 1 HP). Intro sequence alone makes the game worth playing. Was not able to explore the powers... game is very difficult even in the first few fights.

Professional Sword Tester the Roguelike

Completeness

3 - The only problem is monsters spawning near stairs which may cause an instakill. Otherwise very polished. Very instructive readme file. 2 - The game seems feature complete, but lacking polish. Specifically, it would be nice to seem some more visual feedback about enemies wield weapons with special properties and a tighter, less nethacky, set of controls would help too. 3 - Appears complete and polished, did not run into any serious problems.

Aesthetics

3 - Controls are old good NetHack style. Commands using weapon slots are cleverly done. Bland looks though. 2 - The graphics are functional, but the the controls are a bit harsh. All of legacy nethack-style controls that break up the flow of play. 2 - Dark blue should be banned as a console colour. The weapon switch keys seem randomly ordered - hjkl have a left-down-up-right mapping in my mind, so overloading them for a four entry list is hard to grasp. Would have prefered asdf for two handed play. Then switching could have been made a single key press, helping encourage that essential mechanic.

Fun

3 - Clear rules make picking the dream set of weapons a tough choice. Each combat is fun puzzle of finding a weakness and exploiting it. Polymorph is neat too. Every death teaches something. 2 - I died a lot and I died quick. Some deaths were unfair (insta-killed when descending to a new level) but most were because I was rushing. I would still like to finish the game, but grinding through enemies gets frustrating. 2 - Starts off too easy with too many items - but - this is likely necessary for people to figure out the plot. I could see people quitting from boredom before hitting monsters that make you think. As you get deeper, it seems imperative to switch weapons and view monsters, so it is rather frustrating this takes so many keypresses.

Innovation

3 - There are some very clever mechanics. Weapon power varies due to numerous factors. Crystal spear is most useful in tight corridors while boomerang in open spaces. There are many more. 2 - While innovative weapon schemes are a common theme in 7DRLs, using the need to balance the versatility of carrying a full load of weapons with the bonuses of having empty slots and polymorphing frequently is an interesting mix. 3 - The combat model is nice an nuanced and complex. A wide range of effects and modifiers to be balanced and examined.

Scope

3 - Nine levels, a bunch of weapons and monsters with varying qualities. Three level generation algorithms. Each promotes different weapons and requires alteration of tactics. Most surprisingly all the mess is well balanced. 2 - It seems like a fair amount of content in both monsters and items added to an existing system with a new combat system added. 2 - Excellent 7DRL scope.

Roguelikeness

3 - Roguelike all the way. 3 - The game is a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels with turn-based movement and permadeath, all the major marks of a roguelike. 3 - Meets all the points.

Sword testing is a dangerous job. The goal is to find good weapon to off an Ancient Dragon. What if you do not find such a weapon? Prepare to become the reptile's another meal. You can check what properties a given weapon has and need to decide whether you want to carry it further. Monsters have their own abilities too. If you desire one very much you can polymorph into a creature after defeating it. To be successful you should read readme file and carefully think about interaction of rules. After you get it the game becomes almost too easy. The game's shtick is that both the player and the monsters have built in bonuses and abilities, and both can carry weapons that give them additional bonuses and abilities. While the enemy's are usually fixed at spawn, the player can adjust theirs by equipping different weapons and polymorphing into monsters. It reminds me a bit of Desktop Dungeons in the sense that every floor can be viewed as a puzzle, where killing monsters in a certain order will maximize your survival while minimizing your expenditure of resources (levels, and thrown weapons). Without diving hard, I had a hard time getting past the 3rd level and I honestly can't tell if that's because the game is just poorly balanced or I lack the skill to play it effectively. Despite its name, you will not be just testing swords in this game! You will find a shockingly wide variety of items, with an equally wide variety of effects. But you face a wide variety of monsters with, again, a wide variety of effects. Trying to determine which items to carry, and which to wield for each round of combat, will strain your min/max abilities.

Shadow Rogue

Completeness

3 - No problems here. 1 - Occassional random assertion failure, locks up after death. Sight artifacts. Does not tell you 'talk to whom' has to be answered by mouse click. 2 - Stable, polish in some areas but lacking in others.

Aesthetics

3 - Looks very nice, and easy to control. Although there are some minor flaws: friendly guards who don't see you are hardly visible; you don't remember crates; and there should be a way to target with keyboard. 2 - Keys well chosen and great looks but no help screen. I had to read the source for keybindings. 2 - Controls well and I like the stealth mechanic (esp. the crates). Visually very much a basic roguelike.. levels feel very empty most of the time.

Fun

3 - There have been several attempts at a stealth based roguelike in the past. Although this one is the simplest I think, it is also the most fun. 3 - There are three distinct playstyles and all works really well. 3 - Lots of fun. I wish it was a bit easier though so I could enjoy some of the mechanics more. Sneaking was kind of hard to figure out.. since you can't see the guards when they can't see you (but maybe that is intentional). It was never apparently obvious to me when sneaking would work and when it wouldn't.

Innovation

3 - Even though the system is very simple, it works surprisingly well. I especially like the charisma-based thievery. 3 - Guards whom you have convinced of your innocence help you fast talk other guards. Similarly, hostile guards attempt to thwart you attempts at pacifyin others. 3 - Giving this game a 3 for having a useful charisma attribute. 'fast talking' guards and the resulting mechanics (friendly guards make other guards more friendly) can be incredibly deep. Would love to see more games do this kind of thing.

Scope

2 - I don't see anything that should be added to the game. But still, I think that there is not enough for a rank of 3. 2 - Could use more balancing and better user interface. 2 - About what I'd expect from a 7DRL

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. 3 - Yeah. 3 - Definitely a roguelike but lacking deep resource or inventory management.

A stealth-based roguelike, where you have a choice of using brute force, stealth, or charisma. There have been several attempts at a stealth based roguelike in the past, but I have found this one to be the most fun, even though simpler than the ones I have seen. I especially like the charisma-based way of getting past the guards. Definitely recommended. Somewhere on a map is an item to pick up. Find it and get back to starting point. You have to deal with guards somehow By force, by stealth or by fast talking your way through. Usually a combination of all three is most successful. Another great "coffee break" roguelike. On each level, you must find the MacGuffin and get the hell out! Guards stand in your way, though. To get around them you have 3 tactically diverse options: combat, stealth, and charisma. Combat works fine for a little bit, but is not recommended (I did not find the combat 'build' to be very rewarding). Stealth is interesting, although the levels could certainly use more stuff to hide behind. The last option is to talk to the guards, and convince them to leave you alone. This is a surprisingly deep mechanic, because once a guard is friendly, it will make it easier to convince other guards if that friendly guard is nearby, creating a chain-reaction if you can pull it off. A bit rough around the edges (no resources or inventory to speak of, no end to the game, figuring out % chance of stealth/talking actually working is hard) but definitely worth playing for the innovative non-combat tactics.

Zaga-33

Completeness

3 Complete game 3 - a complete, playable and fun little game. Didn't see any bugs or missing features. 3 - Polished, balanced, bug-free, lovely!

Aesthetics

3 Very stylish retro-8-bit graphics and sound. Interface is very intuitive. 2 - nice low-fi aesthetics, nothing too fancy but gets the job done and stays out of the way of the great gameplay. 3 - Pretty pixel graphics add good charm to the game, on top of simple and easy controls and a clear interface. Even the level transition screens are compelling and the game over screen makes you just want to play more.

Fun

3 Lots of fun, straightforward tactical gameplay with lots of pattern learning opportunities. 3 - I really like this game. It's a super focused design but with enough content (the different items you find in the dungeon) to still make for interesting and varied situations. 3 - Inherently replayable. I don't think there's an end to the game, but it has an arcade feel of wanting to keep on replaying to see how much further you can get. Gameplay is tight, with deterministic moves and some interesting special items to spice things up. Simple yet fun.

Innovation

2 Great aesthetic for a coffeebreak game, and doesn't devolve into cliches, but nothing really ground-breaking either. 2 - it's pretty standard roguelike fare only boiled down to its essence - each enemy has 2hp, you have 10hp and heal 1 everything you go to a new level. The bulk of the gameplay is in the items you find in the dungeon, each of which is a consumable that doesn't something interesting (bombs of various patterns, change the level structure, teleport, etc). 1 - Not really anything new here, just a well-down and polished game.

Scope

2 Just right for a 7DRL 2 - a complete and well rounded game. Not particularly ambitious but just the right size for a 7drl. 2 - Precisely what you want from a 7DRL. Seems wrong to score it less than the maximum for doing the perfect thing!

Roguelikeness

3 It looks unconventional, but definitely roguelike. 3 - pretty much a roguelike in every way, only reduced to its core essence. 3 - Core elements of procedural content, permadeath and turn-based.

An infinite dive game with the look and feel of a slightly surreal 8-bit game. Combat is deterministic, and the enemies have rigid movement patterns. There's an identification game combined with pattern prediction, and you're basically just trying to get through each room alive. A simple game with charming graphics and basic but fun gameplay. You must traverse levels to get as far as you can, avoiding or killing enemies and collecting power ups / special items. There's no progression system, so simply avoiding enemies is often best, and with no FOV and small maps there is a puzzle feel to it. The procedural nature keeps it fresh though, and the straightforward challenge of reaching higher levels will keep you playing much more than most other 7DRLs.

The Adventurer's Guild

Completeness

3 works smoothly 2 - Polished and bug free. Could use a high score table. Balance needs work. 2 - Solid!

Aesthetics

3 ascii art done well. I love the color palette 3 - Very nice looking. Switching between heros is easy and quick. Miss vi-keys, but arrow+page/home. Excellent visual indicators of party status. One complaint is that death screens are bit harsh - can't even see who killed you. Also, the enemies will move *during* the special attack animation, making it look like they walked into the whirlwind and were unhurt. 2 - Looks great. Simplified colors, great color-change effects when switching dudes. Controls do what you think but wasn't obvious that other squad members had special abilities until you switched to them. Separate keys for each guy's ability should be simplified.

Fun

2 Fails to get 3 because of difficulty 2 - Starts reasonable, but gets ridiculously easy. No ramp in enemy power (they seem to be one-shotted even at depth 22), and a big ramp in gold output means that you can easily employ your troops. It is fun to play the party, just one wishes there was a challenge to pit them against. Special powers are thus not very necessary, and since you can only control a single characters position, often not practical. 2 - Lots of fun but takes a long time to get going! Squad management gets surprisingly tactical later levels, but in general monsters so not pose a threat until level 10 or 12.

Innovation

3 team of heroes, ascii art portraits 3 - An excellent attempt at a party based roguelike. I really like having the characters all on the map. Also, the gold hiring process is very clever, especially how they will rejoin your party if you get enough gold later. 3 - Excellent solution to the player-as-squad "problem". Separate abilities for each guy is great. Forcing player to accumulate gold to "pay" squad members is excellent motivation, especially in the much easier upper levels.

Scope

2 just what it needs to be a game. Begs for more content 2 - A reasonable scope for a 7drl. 2 - Solid 7DRL attempt. Perfect scope. Picks one interesting thing and does it well. Other basic mechanics (dungeons, combat, visuals, etc) are solid.

Roguelikeness

3 innovative roguelike 3 - Randomly generated, tactical combat. While you do control a party, it doesn't break the modality. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

A nice flash roguelike where you control a team of 4 heroes. Features nice ascii art portraits. AI pathfinding could be improved. I can't seem to get enough money to pay my teammate after the first day though. The Adventurer's Guild is a party based roguelike where you have to collect gold fast enough to pay your party's salaries. If you don't make payroll, they abandon you deep in the dungeon. Hopefully you can then make enough gold to hire them back for the next pay cycle! A clean look and smooth play make this a worthwhile game to try out, even if the lack of difficulty means there is little chance for replay. A fun browser (+1) game where you control a squad of dungeon adventurers. Instead of controlling each member individually, control is switched in-game and the other 3 guys will just follow your lead. This is a great solution to the squad "problem" in roguelikes. Aside from the "basic" 1st hero, all others have special abilities. Do yourself a favor and keep your healer alive at all costs. Game is way too easy early on, but unique "payment" clock forces you deeper and deeper. If you don't make enough gold by the next "day", you won't be able to pay your squad and some (or all) of them will leave you. Tactical usefulness of having 4 party members is somewhat limited until you get very deep in the dungeon. Definitely worth checking out.

Me Against the Mutants

Completeness

3 Very polished 3 - a complete game with a bit of a learning curve, but I've found no serious bugs. 3 - Seems polished and bug free

Aesthetics

3 Graphics and UI work very well. The interface is simple and takes no extra effort to learn, the game shows the necessary hints onscreen. 3 - nice pixel art & pretty good controls. 2 - Very pretty game, but the inventory controls are fiddly (why couldn't each item type be set to a certain hotkey?) and using the mouse for the loop creation is annoying when you accidentally select the wrong tile. This wouldn't be such a problem when turn-based, but it's aggravating when real-time and relying on the right move in the midst of combat.

Fun

3 The main gameplay works and the unique mechanic is great fun. 1 - maybe I just didn't get the game, but I haven't really done much except punch rabbits and trap them with me in the infinity. Didn't manage to get inside the building. 1 - I dislike the real time aspect. The infinity system is very interesting, but the rest of the game is actually aggravating. It's far too fast-paced for the style of play the loop system demands.

Innovation

3 Works both with the general form of a roguelike and adds an innovative mechanic with the looping box. 3 - the concept of drawing infinity is cute and interesting, but maybe could be presented a bit more clearly 3 - Creating looping infinities is awesome. Why couldn't this be on a turn-based game?! Would have a much more thoughtful, puzzle-esque feel then.

Scope

3 A bit more polish than I'd expect from a 7DRL. 2 - a complete little game 2 - Not much variety in enemy type, but the one "gimmick" it has is done very well.

Roguelikeness

2 There is a realtime aspect which does change gameplay a bit. In particular, drawing the infinity box needs some dexterity if you need to do it in the middle of a real-time fight. 2 - real time gameplay, otherwise quite a normal roguelike with a twist. 2 - If it were turn-based I'd give it a 3. As it stands it feels too fast-paced and arcadey.

A very polished flash game with an unique mechanic where you can draw a looping portal box around your character to go around walls, ambush enemies and do other clever stuff. Also has very competent sprite graphics and an overall great interface. In this game you must draw squares to create a repeating pattern, and this is the main way of getting through walls as you can make a loop that lets you move from above to below (er, bad description - play the game to see what I mean). This can create some awesome looking effects, as you end up seeing yourself across the loop and walking through what looks like a giant hall of mirrors, dozens of yourself marching across the screen in repeat. Such a cool concept! Alas that the devs threw in a real-time combat system that leaves you blindly bumping into enemies, trying to remember now and then the right key press for a heal item, or clicking wildly on the screen to get a loop set up in the right place. I feel like the whole game would be better simply without any enemies, where you just gather the items needed to deconstruct the infinity bits, letting you enjoy the one cool and innovative mechanic the game has.

Mutant Aliens

Completeness

3 Didn't see any shortcomings 3 works well 3 - Game feels complete. All the items seem to be working as intended, most everything else is procedurally generated.

Aesthetics

3 Basic ASCII with sensible keybindings and good visuals. Slight demerit for using 't' as both trees and creatures. 2 classic roguelike look with a purple / greenish palette 1 - ASCII graphics are functional, but the controls are a tough sell. Commands are very nethacky with required use of the Shift key where it need not be used. The game could probably have been made using the keys near WASD and the numpad/vi-keys without any problems

Fun

2 Fun as it is, but rather simple 2 fun enough to waste your coffee pause on it 2 - A fun coffee RL with a variable difficulty setting. Once you've got the hang of it, it's more a matter of luck than skill. More varied environments and map features would significantly add to replayability.

Innovation

3 Several novel mechanics. There's puzzling out procedurally generated creatures, and a hot/cold game for finding the beacon. 2 some interesting features like procedural enemies and having to find the radio emitter position 2 - At its heart Mutant Aliens is a FEDEX quest where you deliver explosives to point B and return to point A, however it packages the mission in a unique wrapper and adds some features that are rarely implemented well in roguelikes (e.g procedural enemies)

Scope

2 Just right for 7DRL, a small-scope game with some complex features competently implemented. 3 good amount of stuff packed in 2 - Pretty much right on target for a 7DRL. The developer definitely did a good job polishing this one. Features like destructable terrain are implemented quite well.

Roguelikeness

3 It's a roguelike 3 innovative roguelike 3 - Features procedural levels and enemies, turn-based movement and permadeath. Definitely a full fledged RL

A planet exploration game with procedurally generated aliens, where your excuse for exploring the random planet is finding a hidden radio beacon that keeps your ship from lifting off. Figuring out the aliens, running away from them, and distracting them with appropriate treats is an interesting mechanic and nicely conveys a different tone than the usual slay-everything mode. Another sci-fi themed roguelike with some refreshing features. Worth a look. As of this review, this is the best coffee break RL I've played in this crop of 7DRLs. The scope doesn't try to include elements that other more tradition RLs cut down to fit in the coffee break envelope. The learning curve is a bit steep, but that's what the variable difficulty setting is for. My only major complaint is the control scheme, which rates only a step behind Cataclysm as my least from control scheme so far this year. The only other complaint is for low replayability and lack of a leaderboard. Maybe rank by "time to complete" and "alien catalog" or something.

The Well of Enchantments

Completeness

3 - The author wanted to do more, and did indeed do more after the competition ended, but nothing stands out as incomplete here 2 - there are some bugs: crashes when using an item you do not have (e.g. 'd' when you have items a-c); no starvation warning; Orbs remain after restarting the game; sometimes parts of screen are not updated; known armor values should be shown; items with a known enchantment no longer display the available actions. 2 Some help screen would make it better

Aesthetics

3 - Controls work nicely and the visuals remind me of Castle of the Wind. Maybe not as retro as most retro looks, but it works. 2 - tiles taken from other games. I think it's OK, but not very beautiful. 2 really good looking sprite games are rare. This one avoids the total amateur look.

Fun

2 - A pleasant dungeon crawl with a lot of different environments to see 3 - Yeah, I think I can give it a 3 for Fun. But there are some annoying things here, that could be improved for a strong "3". 2 classic fun. kill stuff, grab stuff, equip stuff

Innovation

1 - There's no gimmick here, just solid, standard roguelike play. (Which is rare enough in the 7DRLC) 3 - even though the concept of many-use items appears in other roguelikes, and the usages usually don't make sense in this one, I think that I can give a high score for Innovation. 1 Classic turn by turn roguelike. Nothing new here

Scope

3 - A big game! Lots of places to go, lots of items, lots of monsters. I don't feel like I've scratched the surface yet. 3 - a lot of content. Lots of items, monsters, item enchantments/flavors/inscriptions/charges, and many different types of dungeon. A strong "3" here. 3 Really extensive with weapons, armors, magic and everything

Roguelikeness

3 3 - Definitely a roguelike. Items with many uses are a distinct roguelike feature. :) 3 purebred

(I still need to play a little more and might revise my scores, but I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on it.) Many roguelikes, especially from the Hack branch, allow wielding anything. This one takes this further. Almost everything can be possibly wielded, consumed, zapped, read, and put on. It does not make much sense (how can you consume an iron warhammer?), but this gives sense to a roguelike feature which is included in lots of roguelikes, but rarely actually used. It includes lots of content, I think there are roughly 80 types of effects, lots of monsters, graphics, and items. I think this is a very strong entry, but it has some weak points. The amazing amount of content is not supported by other features. For example, it is cool that there are 80 types of effects, but, since the game is so short (as it is too hard, deep monsters require luck), this means that it is unlikely to find something that you have already identified. Picking just a few types to be available in a particular game could be helpful. There are many qualities of items, on one hand this is amazing, but on the other hand, I cannot guess which one will be better. I think that armor and attack values should be always displayed. A nice and quite deep turn by turn graphical roguelike. Lacks some help screen.

Escape from the Vault

Completeness

2 - Lots of loose ends. Overall the game is fairly complete, but lacking in polish and balance. I maxed out my level about halfway through and most of the monsters repeat heavily. 2 - Great job of reutilizing the already mighty EUO engine, didn't have the time to polish some rough edges and thus make a complete transformation. Game-wise you can play a complete game here 2 - Ladders seem to not always be generated making the game unwinnable.

Aesthetics

1 - Decent sprite graphics, but I had to use Crtl and Alt and Shift for no good reason. I understand that the MOA engine is expandable, but damn those are some whacky controls. 2 - Excellent old school look, somewhat complex old school keybindings :) Music gets annoying after a while. 3 - Nice looking tiles and animated monsters. Keys sensible for most part and good help screen.

Fun

2 - Definitely fun, but way too grindy at the moment. I more or less stumbled over the end and I'm not sure what or how the ending is in anyway connected to anything else. 3 - Classic roguelike fun, very much worth your time to play! 2 - Lots of interesting things to do but inability to win prevents me from rating it higher.

Innovation

2 - A low 2, nothing that hasn't been seen before, but the game does a better job of capturing the feel of Wasteland/Fallout then most so it gets a 2 2 - Rage bar 1 - All stuff is standard.

Scope

3 - Definitely more that I expected from a 7DRL, though it is based on a pre-existing engine. 3 - A whole game reutilizing an existing engine 3 - There are so many things to do it is almost unbelieveable to be done in seven days.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely has all the standard RL elements, procedural generation, turn-based, perma-death and inventory management 3 - A great example of shaping a roguelike from a non-roguelike engine 3 - Yes.

Escape from the Vault is a game with promise that lack polish. You are an inter-dimensional traveler and you have been captured in a post-apocalyptic dimension. Your mission is to escape from you cell in the heart of a mountain, rescue your faithful pet raptor-dog, find the military base and slay the fiend that is guarding the portal to your home dimension. The game doesn't describe any of this, but that's pretty much what I'm calling it. Decent graphics, horrible controls and a bit longer than it has content for. Hopefully the developer will continue work on this one. Well, you should check out EUO if you don't know it. This game was derived from the EUO engine, changed to fit the theme and the gameplay mechanics while keeping its solidity and eye candy. Protip: Use 'M' to turn off the music, it's funny but gets annoying after a time. There are 3 races and 3 classes, each one with unique features. Standard hack and slash in modern era. There are only two types of monsters to fight but repertoire of items is very large. Overall quite fun game.

Fuel

Completeness

2 - Some pretty severe bugs. The distance between you and an enemy actually affects whether you hit it, because your bolt has to touch the enemy's sprite to kill it. Collision detection wreaks havoc on tactical maneuvering since you never know just what can kill you this turn. Death on level start is a common problem. ctrl/shift are detected a little unevenly. 2 - There are some bugs (sometimes the character gets killed for no reason and reload is the only solution). 2 - You can start right on a monster. It locks up the game.

Aesthetics

3 - A gorgeous game and a great feel, interface bugs aside 3 - Aesthetics are ok, a bit Spelunky-like. 3 - Sketchy graphics look cool and very few buttons to learn.

Fun

3 - A really challenging game that's short enough not to be frustrating even when it deserves it. The tightest clock I've seen in a roguelike(like). Lots of interesting gambles and little moments of puzzle. 3 - I have to say that this game is actually very fun to play, and I can recommend it to anyone. 2 - Quite fun but lacks balance a bit. Also, this game being not a roguelike does not cater to usual RL player tastes.

Innovation

3 - The turn-based platformer has been done, of course, but it's never been done in a way that proved that this is a game (and a sub-genre) you'd really want to play, and that could contain everything that roguelikes demand. There's no single element here that counts as strictly innovative, but the particular combination is like nothing I've seen before -- and it actually works. 2 - I think that we had no game like it in the past. But I still think that '3' requires more innovation. 1 - Roguelikes with side view have been done several times already.

Scope

2 2 - Although definitely fun to play, I think the game could be improved. 2 - Slightly below average in this respect.

Roguelikeness

2 - It's worth observing that while the jetpack is on, the game actually functions like a pure 4-way roguelike. It's turn-based, has perma-death (and perma-loss of lesser kinds), has resource management, has a goal (a 'monopole' macguffin), has one-hp combat but no waiting. Collisions are actually registered in real time, which is weird and counts as a bug. 3 - Claimed to be a Spelunky-like, but I don't agree with that. Spelunky is so original that we could name a genre after it, but this game would not be a part of it. Spelunky is real time and this is important. Without that we just get a roguelike with gravity. 2 - It has procedurally generated levels and is turn based but the focus on going through a level in time which decreases the tactical part of the game.

A really exciting offshoot of the roguelike genre, and one that I hope continues to bear fruit. I'm serious -- there's a lot of depth here, and a lot of potential for some really hardcore strategic and tactical action. This installment is a cute little puzzler, but it's got a strong strategic element and it's got a tight, minimalistic design that speaks well of the organizing vision. I have to say that this game is actually very fun to play, and I can recommend it to anyone. But it is not perfect, I think it could be improved. I think it is unfairly difficult and luck dependent. If you go into the wrong place, technically you usually can save yourself, but you will lose so many resources that you could be as well dead. I think that you should be allowed to shoot monsters next to you, and to skip turns (if you don't like how you can always get the first strike advantage in a typical roguelike, it is more logical to allow monsters to skip turns too). You cannot shoot while in the air, but you can shoot while above the floor and using the grav belt, although this is confusing since the graphics suggest that the grav belt has been turned off, while it actually is not (and you waste the power if you move). The stalagmites just above the floor are very annoying, as there is often no way to go below them (if you try, you are immediately killed, and it is impossible to shoot them). I think a neat solution there would be to allow using the grav belt to move below the stalagmite without disturbing it. A turn-based platformer with procedurally generated levels. Not a roguelike really but still fun to play for a while.

RoboCaptain

Completeness

2 - A few bugs 3 no issue 1 - No victory condition, could only have properly refreshing FOV under Opera. Right clicks not captured properly.

Aesthetics

3 - I like the faded look; coupled with the slight blur, it feels like an old game system. The dual control scheme is nice, and while it could be nicer I'd lump its flaws with Incompleteness. Sound and death splotches are satisfying. 2 looks like bright colors seen through a mist. Does not work very well. 2 - Fails to capture space which is also interpreted by browser. It should have been some other key to perform generic action.

Fun

3 - I liked it quite a lot! It would be better if it were harder (with all the fuel pickups available, it's just not much of a challenge) and if consequences of mechs coming online were worse (they're not that hard to beat), but it's a fun little game. 3 a lot of different powers to use to crush your enemies. 2 - Tougher enemies need to be handled carefully but due to overabundance of supplies it is hard to lose.

Innovation

2 - Being able to redirect your power is novel; sadly, it doesn't prove to be terribly important to how the game is played 2 innovation is in the powers 1 - Everything that could be called new was in Scrap years ago.

Scope

2 - A very reasonable target 3 nice amount of content. Even has in-game hints and lore 2 - Some levels, interesting enemies.

Roguelikeness

3 3 purebred 3 - Fits nicely.

A solid little game that does a good job with ranged combat. The small dungeon levels are great for the 7DRL. It's satisfying, blasting away enemies named after roguelike developers. First person plural in the message log has an interesting feel. Not charging a turn to divert power seems like a missed opportunity. Futuristic roguelike where you are a robot searching for the Yendor AI core. You fight other robots using gear you find on the ground. That does not sound as good as it is. Worth a try. As a robot you may turn your power into ammunition, hit points or invisibility time. The point of Robo Captain is management of these resources.

Ascension of the Drillworms

Completeness

2 - Apart from some apparent inventory management bugs, and some missing usability components, the game feels like a solid piece of software 3 - Feature complete, seems to balanced pretty well, only error I saw was the game over text overlapping 2 - Stable, but could use a bit of polish to make it a 3.

Aesthetics

3 - Very cool monochromatic graphics, nice interaction model though could have had a directional cursor and show what an item is on mouse hover (right now you have to pick them up in order to know) 2 - The black and grey graphics are functional, though not a particularly big step up from ASCII. Controls are fairly clean, though buttons to click on to swap between character and inventory would have help. Music is a neat addition 2 - Monochromatic color scheme, but works well for the setting. Ambient background music is used very well. Could've used a better way to swap between inventory and char screen (i and c are very far apart!). Mouse-only input is handled well, although pathfinding as opposed to single-space-per-click would be an obvious improvement.

Fun

3 - Was pretty fun and challenging. 2 - Definitely a fun concept, but walking around hunting for crystals gets old eventually. Needs a bit more variety to the gameplay. 3 - It's fun! Takes a bit of time to get to the tough decisions, but once you figure out how to manage energy flow vs. energy consumption, there are some fun tactical choices multiple times per level.

Innovation

2 - There have been some other "plugin-based" roguelikes in the past (power source+equiped gadgets). Though the mecanic is still innovative 1 - "Dive to collect X items" seems to be a running theme this year. The gadgets and software concept is interesting, but nothing that hasn't been done before. 2 - Power-management subgame makes this different from other roguelikes. Oxygen does not feel forced or tacked-on like some 'food clocks'. Other systems (energy, armor) handled very well.

Scope

2 - About what you'd expect for a 7DRL. 2 - High for a two, but not quite a three. Plenty of content for a coffee break game though. 2 - A strong showing for a 7DRL, fully complete game.

Roguelikeness

3 - Including inventory management 3 - Features procedural levels and enemies, turn-based movement and permadeath. Definitely a full fledged RL 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

A pretty nice mouse controlled monochromatic roguelike which plays pretty well. Reminds me a bit of that hivemind roguelike of previous years. A clean game, decent content and a fairly intuitive control scheme. Collect the crystals, upgrade you gear and shoot your way to the next level. The inventory system reminds me of the 30X9 series of games, but the control is definitely pure RL. The tiles are unique and retro, but some objects just look like soup. Music works well enough. Overall a solid title. Explore a strange alien landscape as you gather crystals to repair your ship (recurring theme this year?). Don't be put off by the monochromatic display, this game hides a deep power management sub-game: players must manage gadgets, software, and armor suits that all use up power. Power generators are found in the dungeon but are rare and precious. In later levels, almost every new item forces you to re-evaluate and re-optimize your build. Player needs to find oxygen to survive, but this does not feel forced. Multiple damage types add another level of complexity, especially in deeper levels.

Beyond the Light

Completeness

3 It feels feature complete for what it's trying to do. 3 - Small, complete game 3 - Feels like a completed, if small, game. 2 - Was tempted to give 3 here but the game crashed on me once.

Aesthetics

2 The graphics are simple, but work well. Pleasing colours and effective use of sound. The keys do what you expect. 2 - Nice looking and easy to play, gets really messed up when you are insane (messages get their letters scrambled), would have been nicer to show insanity in some other, less annoying way :) Also has some ambient "terror" sounds but I am inmune to that so I don't know how well it works 2 - Good ideas for how to use light and darkness. The sound effect mechanic, where a distant enemy's position is revealed by a scary noise, was well done. One problem is the use of the mouse to identify things- having to switch between keyboard and mouse for a single task is irritating, 3 - Controls are so good I found reading the before playing a waste of time.

Fun

2 A short and sweet game. 2 - There's a game here 1 - Not much to do other than get chased by monsters. The stealth element of the game seemed fairly shallow. Insanity, instead of raising the tension, is just annoying. 2 - Challenging and inviting to replay but too short to make better impression.

Innovation

2 The focus of the game is the darkness mechanic which works well. 2 - Some enemies damage your insanity instead of health, being in the dark also makes you go nuts 2 - Interesting use of regular roguelike mechanics. With a bit more work this game could be something really interesting. 2 - Darkness done in a special way.

Scope

2 What you'd expect from a 7DRL 2 - About what I'd expect from a 7drl. A unique concept executed tightly and with decent polish. 2 - Fairly small scope, but it has everything it needs. 2 - Just one map but it works.

Roguelikeness

3 3 - Definitely a roguelike. 3 - Definitely a roguelike. Could maybe be retitled "Ran out of Phase Door, The Game!". 3 - Conformant.

This is a delightfully effective survival horror game where your goal is to escape a house you just woke up in. "When all candles be out, all cats be gray" proves true as the house is very dark and you need a source of light to tell its deadly inhabitants from its not so deadly inhabitants and even the tools you need to escape. This is a libtcod game that uses the colour features for good and not for evil. Few but interesting monsters and short but sweet gameplay. A small game about you escaping a terror house without losing your mind. Nice done although a bit shallow. Has plans for extending it in the future. Beyond the Light is an attempt to make a scary roguelike. It does succeed at creating a spooky atmosphere, but the gameplay doesn't yet live up to the haunted house premise. One map where you need to find the key and reach the door on edge. Kill rats, spiders and snakes but flee from madman, haunt and the Grue! Manage your matches well until you can escape or get a lantern.

Kitchen Masters

Completeness

2 - I have once run into a crash bug (while using the reflection recipe). But other than that, the game is polished. 2 - Lacking balance but seems stable 2 - Stable, runs fine for me in python. Could use some polish on interface and in-game animation to make it a 3.

Aesthetics

3 - A typical high quality libtcod output. One problem: some monsters and items are hard to see on lower floors (due to their colors). 2 - Some bad colour choices, and annoyingly requires mouse for seeing recipe effects, but basic controls are fine. 2 - Very nice usage of simple colors and simple glyphs. Controls work as expected, although some awkwardness switching between keyboard and mouse for a few things.

Fun

3 - The theme is cool. The first few levels are extremely easy, but the difficulty rises quickly. 2 - A bit too easy, and levels are too big, so you end up dying from holding directions too long. Game needs more incentive to use recipes more often. 3 - Lots of fun! The humor is what makes the game for me. Reading new recipe descriptions is worth playing. Inventive enemy names as well. (die, irate customer!)

Innovation

1 - It has a cool theme, but I don't think it is innovative. It also has an original magic/resource management system: there are six types of components which can be used for many kinds of "magic". Other than that, the game is quite typical. Overall, I think it is not enough for a high score in Innovation, but the game is very good in other ways. 2 - The recipes as powers are great, and though the effects aren't entirely new the implementation is very interesting. 2 - Recipes + ingredients are an interesting mechanic, but not super-deep. Other gameplay is crisp standard roguelike fare (in a good way).

Scope

2 - There are many enemies, and many recipes. I think this is a strong "2". 2 - With more involved gameplay this might hit a 3, since the amount of text and attention to theme is really impressive. Everything has an interesting and oft humorous description. 2 - Exactly what I'd expect from a 7DRL, a solid effort.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. 3 - Random levels, turn-based permadeath. 3 - Definitely a roguelike. Definitely.

A roguelike themed around food and chefs. This theme is very tasty, and recipes take place of "spells". They need ingredients to cast, which are a limited resource that can be obtained by defeating monsters. I think that the game is well balanced, although there are too many easy levels in the beginning (although I have not won it yet). Overall, a very good game! In Kitchen Master you must work your way up from being a dishwasher to a master chef, starting with simple recipes and spatulas and working your way up to razor-sharp cheese graters and deadly curries. Enemies drop ingredients when killed and they can be combined to produce interesting effects. Gameplay is mostly very basic, but the coherent theme and attention to detail is really impressive. Kitchen Master is a solid 7DRL with lots of humor. You play as a chef, forced to use spatulas and rolling pins as weapons, and must combine ingredients to create spell-like recipes. Surprising number of recipes adds some nice depth to the game and the humorous descriptions of just about everything (including level names, class names, enemy names) makes this worth checking out. Ingredients + recipe system may be worth exploration by other games, although some polish would be needed to make it work more intuitively.

Mujahid

Completeness

3 no bug found 3 - Polished. 2 - Complete with an end condition. Mostly missing polish, such as better feedback for who you are to kill (The infernal crusader) and why sorcerers are needed, and what pray does (reset chasing monsters?) And I would love a revamped control scheme.

Aesthetics

2 background color makes it possible to hightlight both the player and the enemies' fov. The color palette could be improved though 3 - Good controls, fine looks. 2 - Nice use of high ascii for room decorations. Good selection of colours. The double-tap to move in a direction is very disorienting, really wish I could strafe and rotate separately. The enemy vision cones drops to black which makes it hard to tell how far they actually go.

Fun

2 If you like stealth games, you'll like this one 3 - This one is actually good sneak-em-up game. Praying seems to be only for flavor. 1 - The rotate-then-move made for a very frustrating movement. Rooms are big and enemy movement unpredictable, so I can't figure out how to actually do sneak attacks. Strangely, you can *attack* in a direction you are not facing, and if that creature isn't facing you (which you can't tell cause it is a ? then) you can backstab. This became the only practical way of doing backstabs - run to a creature, pillar dance, and backstab. I think an energy based movement scheme is dangerous in this sort of roguelike as it obscures the turn choice, and with insta-kll backstabs, turn choice is very important.

Innovation

2 while there are few roguelike actually implementing a full stealth gameplay, that's not something really new 1 - Sneak mechanics have been done so many times. This actually plays like more forgiving version of Gruesome. 2 - A good attempt at stealth based roguelikes. I like that you *can* fight enemies, forcing you to learn the importance of sneaking after a few failed traditional fights.

Scope

2 stealth engine and some nice AI features 2 - Just right for 7DRL. 2 - Nicely scoped for a 7drl.

Roguelikeness

3 classic roguelike with stealth. ThiefRL ! 3 - Yes. 3 - Random layout with very tactical combat.

A stealth roguelike with directional fov for player and enemies and thieve-like gameplay (you can throw stones to distract guards) Yet another sneaking rogue. It is a lie about you being significantly weaker than guards. You can waste a few soldiers reliably. The real problem in face to face combat is no hit point regeneration and healing salves give back only single one. There are some tricks to learn and backstabbing becomes reliable deal. The first thing you will notice playing Mujahid is a sense of claustraphobia. This is intentional: it is a stealth based roguelike requiring you to carefull plan your moves with less than perfect knowledge of the positions of your foes. If you do get spotted, you are fleet of foot and can call upon divine assistance to mislead the heathen.

The Challenge!

Completeness

3 - Wrong indefinite article for picking up emacs. 2 - Lacks diagonal movement (from the RogueTemple discussion I see this is unintended). Stats max out early, making some items useless. 3 - Feature complete and unintentional bug free

Aesthetics

3 - Looks fine but could use a few more colors here and there. Keys easy to master. 1 - A typical roguelike look. A very nice ranged attack animation, but I don't think it is enough for a bonus point. 2 - Functional ASCII graphics and decent controls. Nothing that blew me out of the water, but it works well for the game.

Fun

3 - I am biased but I found this simple hack and slash very fun because of theme. 2 - If you like the theme, then you should play it. But not very replayable. 2 - Fun enough for a coffe break. Probably one of the better made meta-RLs I've played. Also, still the developer choose to make emacs more powerful than vi, it's fun to think of the holy war he is inviting.

Innovation

1 - Only the theme is unique. 2 - The game has an original theme, and a focus on a hard time limit. I think this is enough for a 2. The theme could lead to an innovative game in the future, though. 2 - Meta RLs aren't too common and I like the hard trade off mechanic (all potions increase one stat and derease another)

Scope

2 - This begs for extension. 2 - Could be developed more. 2 - Pretty much right on par for a 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

3 - No doubt. 3 - Yes. 3 - Despite the quirky subject matter, this game is pure RL. Procedural maps, permadeath, turn-based and inventory management.

What kind of programmer has the best chances to complete 7DRL Challenge? According to this game he is outrageously lazy, furiously impatient and full of hubris. Fix bugs, segmentation faults, memory leaks and take care of exceptions. Be very wary of family affairs. Oh, the idea that emacs is better editor than vi is HERESY!!! You hear me?! HERESY! This game has a theme of writing your own roguelike, and as such, I recommend it for all programmers to try. I think this theme has much potential, given how many roguelike fans are apparently programmers. But 'The Challenge' does not use this potential. We get a fairly traditional roguelike, while its abstract theme definitely allows for more originality. You have a hard time limit, which would not work very well in a big roguelike, but here, since the game is so small, achieving the balance between finishing on time and getting points could be interesting. Sadly, in the current version, IMO there are not that many interesting things to play it again and again until you have found the perfect balance. I have answered 2 to most questions, which means that the game is solid in most aspects, although there is nothing really groundbreaking: recommended to try, but probably not very replayable. An intresting game where you player a coder coding a 7DRL. Self referenial has been done before, TheChallenge carves out its own niche. It is a solid coffee break title that is sure to make any 7DRL developer crack a smile or shed a tear, either or.

Hope

Completeness

2 The basic system is in place, but there's some serious overreaching with the multiple worlds thing, and they all end up feeling pretty half-baked. 1 - Rarely crashes with critical error. There are numerous cases when player is exposed to IDENTIFIERS_LOOKING_LIKE_THIS_ONE. 2 - Missing text in descriptors show up when you shoot various wall types. A crash due to LASER_VERT6 shows up on occasion.

Aesthetics

2 The tiles go for a 16-bit videogame sprite look instead of the normal roguelike abstraction, but they are quite ugly for that. Still, you generally know what you're looking at. 2 - No idea why one needs to switch action assigned to Z and X. Kebindings seem to be made without reason. 2 - I liked the tileset, though it could really do with flipping actors for facing. The diverse tileset really sells the subworlds (as they are built on a few simple skins) Shooting weapons really could use an animation. The wall tiles that extend beyond their square often makes it hard to tell that you can walk between them. I don't like the harsh LOS on these big tiles, especially the cactuses is ugly.

Fun

3 Very fun innovative concept, though I had no idea what I was meant to be doing in the master world ("surviving" doesn't really cut it for a game), and the sub-worlds were often very unbalanced (though it kinda makes sense in context that they might be). 1 - Lack of a goal or a sense of progress makes playing this a dull experience. 3 - It took a while to figure out what I was trying to do in the subworlds, when I did things started to come together. The game play of the subworlds is balanced all over the place, but this actually doesn't seem odd, as you are really being clocked by the overworld which has a tight resource management.

Innovation

2 The central gimmick is original, but the whole thing doesn't really come together as well as it could. 3 - Shifting between worlds is something totally new and has been nicely fleshed out. 2 - The game-within-a-game is done well, especially as you start on the within game and thus don't really know the top level to begin with. The mechanics of all the levels are pretty straight forward, however.

Scope

3 Massively beyond the 7DRL scope, each of the worlds could use a 7DRL's worth of individual attention, and there are like 20 of them. 2 - A lot of art was prepared but everything else suffered. 3 - Every time I think I've seen all the subworlds I see some more. It is an impressive job in skinning to get a lot of different feels out of the same code.

Roguelikeness

3 The theme is unusual, but the gameplay is pretty straight roguelike. 2 - Lacks many roguelike elements. 2 - I'm having troubles placing this. The subgames really are not roguelikish, more just gauntlet action games played turn based. The overmap has a lot of roguelike qualities in resource management and exploration, but as the combat is so simplistic, I'm not willing to call it a roguelike either.

Unique concept, which you'll want to learn by playing this instead of reading about it here. Unfortunately the 7DRL nature hurts the game in a couple of ways. First, the idea really demands a much larger amount of diverse attention than is possible in the 7D timespan. The other problem is that the graphics try to evoke classic 16-bit games very directly, and fall very much short in quality from those. This thing might have worked better in plain ASCII (better yet, use the tiles for the "realistic" master world and ASCII for the subworlds). Strange game. You play several characters and switch control between them every once a while. There might be a goal or a message in the game but I did not bear the dull gameplay for long enough to get it. Ride your motorcycle over the desolate post-apoclyptic desert, looting houses for food, water, and ammo. And then run out of fuel and die of starvation. Or, try to figure out the key...

HunterRL

Completeness

2 - seems pretty complete except for puzzling control scheme and some UI quirks. 2 - Seems feature complete, but lacks polish and balance. For example, traps don't seem to work. 3 - Stable, no problems running python. Excellent example of polishing a small number of features.

Aesthetics

2 - nice colors and some tiles 2 - Decent tiles, but the controls are overly complicated for their need. 2 - Controls well. Got annoyed at a separate command for 'open/close door'.. until I realized later this was definitely required! Visually very much a basic roguelike but pleasant to look at.

Fun

2 - base concept is interesting but gets old pretty quickly. If there was goal I didn't see it. 2 - Simply not enough content to play for more than 5 minutes. Not actively annoying to play, but not to do either. 3 - So much fun! Kept coming back to this one to play more and more. The open-ended nature of the game means you will always come back and try to beat your previous score. Very cool chain of tactics leading from carrot to (eventually) trapping wolves. How many wolf corpses can you pile up? Accidentally stepping into your own traps is the perfect roguelike death!

Innovation

2 - tracking and luring animals was a nice touch. 2 - The theme is new, as is using corpses to attract monsters. 2 - Not doing anything amazingly new, but what it does do, the game does very well. Monsters (wolves, rabbits) do seem especially intelligent compared to most roguelikes.

Scope

2 - could be a bit bigger (not that much to do in the game) but overall nicely done. 1 - Only one map, two enemies that aren't very distinct. 2 - Perfect example of a 7DRL. One mechanic, polished. Extremely fun in short bursts.

Roguelikeness

3 - nothing unorthodox in this regard. 3 - Procedural maps, turn-based and permadeath are all present, along with inventory management. 3 - Certainly a roguelike. Plenty of permadeath and inventory management is key.

You grab a knife, carrot and tracker and go hunt some rabbits. Dead rabbits attract wolves that kill you unless you find a rifle to kill them. The game is well put together but short and a bit clunky to control. Three times as much content and it would be a decent coffee-break RL. A great "coffee break" roguelike... your coffee will probably be cold by the time you finish. In this incredibly simple but fun game you are a hunter, and must use your limited inventory (carrots, traps, knives) to capture and kill as many wolves as possible. Animals seem surprisingly intelligent. Some tactical depth in managing your inventory when out in the field (don't forget to close the door to your hunting lodge!!) and working your way up from a carrot to a dead wolf is rewarding. Not very deep but what it does do.. is done very well.

JaggedRL

Completeness

3 It seems to be doing what it tries to do. 3 - The challenge victory post claims there are some bugs. But still, I think that the game is quite polished. 2 - Stable, runs with no problems, seems feature complete

Aesthetics

2 The interface is pretty simple, but not really like either a roguelike or a Jagged Alliance game. The menu graphics are good, but the levels are very, very plain. 3 - The graphics are beautiful, and the controls are OK. But please add a fullscreen option, I simply cannot play roguelikes in a tiny window. (I have tried to change the Python source to achieve fullscreen, but I have lost the mouse pointer then) 2 - Graphics are great. Controls take a bit of getting used to -- could definitely use a 'wait' command, otherwise takes too many clicks to set up a useful tactical scenario (e.g. moving through a door with enemies on the other side)

Fun

2 There's a basic game there, but the controls seem a bit too simplistic. Squad game maneuvers like popping in a doorway to shoot into a room and going back into cover are hard to pull off without getting shot. The game experience feels like a very simple real-time strategy game more than a roguelike. 2 - I don't find the game very fun, but it might just mean that this game is not for me (I have not played Jagged Alliance, maybe I would understand JaggedRL better if I did). I think you should try it for yourself. 2 - Definitely fun but takes a LONG time to play on easier settings and levels are too big for as empty as they are. This is much better on medium/high difficulty levels.

Innovation

2 It's trying to do squad-based, which is always interesting. 1 - I think that JaggedRL is much simpler than squad based games like X-Com (I have not played Jagged Alliance so I cannot compare). It would be innovative to mix more roguelike elements, but I don't think that this has been done: random level generation already appears in squad games (X-Com). There are also many roguelikes which have some form of team management. The implementation in JaggedRL is different, but I don't think it is that innovative. 2 - Adding tactical turn-based play is no easy feat for a roguelike. This game pulls it off rather well.

Scope

2 It goes for a bunch of stuff but mostly sticks to the straightforward single missions. 3 - Lots of features there: completing the squad, squad member abilities, choosing the mission, tutorial, graphics, save/load. Even though the gameplay itself feels quite limited, I think it is enough for a '3'. 3 - Definitely over what I would expect for a 7DRL. Includes a tutorial!!

Roguelikeness

2 Not quite there. The world model is roguelike, but the gameplay feel when you give indirect orders to multiple characters is quite different. 2 - I feel that the gameplay complexity here is quite limited: you can only move and shoot the enemies. Although the squad management brings some complexity, I feel that it is less complex than usual roguelikes. Also, UI features such as the lack of keyboard movement and lack of fullscreen mode tell me that I am not playing a roguelike. 2 - Moving towards a tactical turn-based game sacrifices some roguelike-ness.

A game based on the Jagged Alliance games, but one that doesn't really play like either a roguelike or a JA game, but instead resembles a real-time strategy game. You give the characters orders like a place to travel to, and they do their own stuff until finished, at which point you get back to giving them orders. Didn't really get a good command flow going with this, guiding the guys felt clumsy both when moving the squads around (can't rect-select multiple guys) and in close combat, where the system was too simplistic for the JA style maneuvers like going prone or doing shoot-and-run moves. JaggedRL is an attempt to mix squad-based turn-based strategy games and roguelikes. I think it is quite well polished (beautiful graphics). However, unfortunately, I don't think the game is that fun to play: it seems to be mostly moving your squad members and firing when they see an enemy, and hoping that they win the fight. It seems hard to attack an enemy using several members of the squad, for example: the battle goes on so fast that it is often finished before the other guys arrive. There are some elements such as stamina and morale, which drop during the mission and seem to cause problems, but I don't know how to raise them (maybe I would understand it better if I played Jagged Alliance). Overall, I had less fun with this than I expected, but I think you should play for yourself and see. A very nicely polished "roguelike" version of the excellent turn-based tactical squad game "Jagged Alliance". Player controls a squad of four commandos through a variety of missions (including escort!). Levels can feel empty on lower difficulty levels so don't be afraid to kick it up to 11. Some situations take many more clicks than they should -- could use a "wait" command for units. But overall, keeping a squad together in a tactically useful manner is fairly simple. Sacrifices some traditional roguelike-ness but will be great fun for fans of Jagged Alliance/X-COM tactical battles.

Waaghammer

Completeness

3 Competent implementation and a good set of features 2 Some errors in world generation after level 4. Depending when the error occurs, you can get an empty world (no creatures) 3 - Seems feature complete, balance is pretty good, all the enemies have unique flavor texts.

Aesthetics

3 Looks good for the most part, though the dark-blue player avatar can be hard to distinguish at times. Nice little touches like the gray fade of the message lines. Having the single-choice option to choose "race [1] Orc" for the orc campaign was a nice touch too. 2 classic, sober but pleasing look 2 - Functional Ascii graphics, the controls are a little nethacky, but functional.

Fun

2 Good basic gameplay, but balance seems a bit off. It's very easy to die, and you don't get that much stuff to keep from dying. 2 standard roguelike fun level 2 - Fun but a bit frustrating as death happens quickly and recovery items are rare in the early game. Would be nice to see some of mid-game features pull forward a bit.

Innovation

1 Warhammer is fun, but the thing is still all derivative, and the interface is standard competent modern coffeebreak RL, and the game content is just chopping up mobs. 1 Classic turn by turn roguelike. Nothing new here 1 - Nothing particularly new, using a Warhammer skin is neat though

Scope

2 Good on feature-completeness, but the campaign scenario is pretty basic. 3 pretty much everything you expect as game mechanisms. Lacks some setting and story, but hell, this is 7DRL 2 - On par for a 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

3 Very much one. 3 purebred 3 - All the standard RL features are present, procedural generation, permadeath, inventory management, allies and turn-based movement

It's a WH40K themed game where you play an orc (aren't those 'Orks' in the verse) and chop up some mobs in a swamp. Most of those seem to be other orcs instead of the space marines or space elves I figured the space orcs spent more time chopping up. It's easy to get killed, either by being swarmed or by bleeding to death. There is also an arena campaign, but that seemed a bit bugged. The orc character shows up as "space marine" in the status panel there, and one game I just got a bunch of empty levels until the game crashed when I tried going down on Arena 9. Only had a Windows binary, no source. Got it to work by running `winetricks vcrun2008` and then using Wine. A complete turn by turn roguelike with inventory, equipment, ranged weapons and a lot of monsters. Even features an Arena mode. Quite extensive for a 7DRL. I've had world generation issues starting at level 4 with some empty levels. This game feels a bit like a Warhammer themed brogue variant. It plays well and has a decent amount of content for a 7DRL. Combat is pretty lethal early on and managing allies can be a bit fiddling and time consuming. I'd be interesting to see this game expanded in the ally combat dimension, where you could have dozens of orks under your control.

Revenge on a Toy Factory

Completeness

1 - Has some critical bugs and feels unpolished (I was unable to use the remote view for example) 3 everything is here 2 - Disconnected levels sometimes, help command doesn't work (a big deal when there's no key command documentation anywhere!) Mostly stable.

Aesthetics

2 - Standard ASCII look, commands a bit obscure 1 you can't really be hot when you're a true console game, can you? 2 - Fairly standard fair, with plain but functional looks. Key commands really need to be more thoroughly listed *somewhere* though.

Fun

1 - Baring the fact of frequent crashes, there's the premise of a mission based game, but I was unable to get to a point where interesting missions showed up. 2 like : a lot of game mechanisms. don't like : the cops ! 2 - Deterministic 1 HP combat is nice, and the conveyor belts + crushers are very fun to work with. Unfortunately there's no depth to the weapon/toy crafting.

Innovation

2 - Conveyor belts, remote view (though I was unable to see it working) Combining things didnt really seem to work that well (was unable to know what I was combining, always got weaponized toys no matter). Running spends your stamina which doubles as your health 2 first time I see conveyor belts in a roguelike. also first time I'm a toy 3 - Turn-based conveyor belts with crushers on the end! Really great fun, and works excellently. Can't help but also be impressed by the cross-level dual display too, though it doesn't impact a great deal on gameplay.

Scope

2 - He aimed for a nice goal. 3 a complete game 2 - Not a long game, so it doesn't outstay its welcome.

Roguelikeness

3 - Turn based, inventory, postmortem. 3 innovative roguelike 3 - Turn-based, procedural, permadeath.

Not very complete, has some interesting features (see innovation) yet not a fun game. A pure console roguelike with advanced gameplay (objectives, devices like conveyor belts) At its heart there's a lot of fun here. The theme is nice enough, but the real fun is in the conveyors. It's nice to see dungeon elements that aren't static, can be a threat, and can also be used in battle tactics. The whole thing feels incomplete overall - a few bugs here and there, and some features don't seem fully realised - but that doesn't stop its unique features shining through.

phage

Completeness

2 - I have found no bugs. But it is not polished: for example, the game is named "Example" when you lose, and you get T-Engine's title screen which is completely irrelevant to Phage (which I find annoying and AFAIK can be avoided in T-Engine). 3 no special issue 2 - You can stumble on some lua errors if you know where (not) to click.

Aesthetics

1 - Phage itself provides simple ASCII characters, which are mixed with T-Engine's graphics. I don't like it due to inconsistence. 2 looks as good as an ascii T-Engine 4 game 1 - Inability to play only with keyboard is absolutely abhorrent! In result one has to switch between mouse and keyboard because walking with mouse by one tile at time is very tiring.

Fun

1 - I think the general idea of consuming enemies for new powers is very nice. But it is not yet well developed in this game. Moreover, you can win simply by standing in one place (as long as there are no enemies, but if there are, you can usually easily kill them). I would suggest waiting for a new version where it will be more developed. 3 morphing is fun ! 3 - Great stuff! I wish the time limit was quadrupled so I could see what the phage could evolve into.

Innovation

2 - The idea of gaining powers from the corpses of your enemies appears in other roguelikes (in major hacklikes you can eat them for intrinsics, and in Xenocide you can use the genomes to improve own body; even in equipment based roguelikes we have a form of this, since you can use the equipment of your enemies for yourself). I could still give a high Innovation score if it would be well developed, but unfortunately, I don't think it is so. I have given a "2", but it is quite weak IMO. 2 everything is a talent is a nice idea 3 - You are what you eat (in this case defeat) is common trope in roguelikes but has never been done so well.

Scope

2 - Has movement, attacking, enemies and several "talents". I think it is enough for a "2". But the winning condition is not meaningful. 2 just a 500 turn deathmatch, really 2 - User interface could use somemore work.

Roguelikeness

2 - Lack of complexity, unclear challenge. 3 innovative roguelike 3 - Lack of items somewhat harms this but not enough to make it a 2.

A T-Engine game based on the idea of consuming the bodies of your fallen enemies to gain new powers. It is playable, but it is not a challenge (you can win by simply walking around one place for 500 turns; and it seems that the talents that can be achieved from defeating other monsters are not yet interesting enough). I think that it is a good start, and it could become a very fun game in the future. But this would require lots of work... *** WARNING, SPOILER *** You have to survive 500 turns, chased by a hord of… things. You can steal their power when you kill them. Lazy as I am, I simply waited 500 turns on starting cell and won :D But if you really play the game, it's quite fun You are defined by your abilities which fall into three groups: offense, defense and senses. You have to defeat locals in order to absorb their talents so you can augment yourself and become a superior creature. Select the best abilities from defeated creatures to become stronger. Maintain balance of abilities for greates chances of survival.

Locks

Completeness

2 Pretty good, but lacks a bit polish in vital stuff l