Reviews

Inner Life

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

4 3 4

Fun

3 3 4

Innovation

4 4 4

Scope

4 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

IMO, one of the best games this year! PSA to anyone who plays: If an enemy enters you, you haven't eaten them, theyre raiding your food! I think you generally don't want to have enemies enter you. EDIT: Also, you can kill an enemy by stealing all their food. Completeness: 4. Very complete! Several terrain types, lots of polish (there are even chairs and a table in your inner self) and several enemies, even one that moves twice as fast. Aesthetics: 4. Beautiful sprites and animations. Fun: 3. It was fun! It also felt like something was missing, perhaps combat. At times I felt like enemies would just keep coming at me relentlessly and I had no way to repel them except for repeated bashes. EDIT: Heard that I could kill enemies by raiding their food. Tried it out and it worked! Innovation: 4. Having the enemies be dungeons is a wonderful twist! Scope: 4, it's a very large game, with several abilities, tilesets, and enemies. i was particularly impressed on the bash ability's chain reactions through the environment. Roguelike: 4, it just doesn't feel like a roguelike to me without combat and items. EDIT: Now that I know how to fight enemies, bumping from 3 to 4. Wow this is a wacky cool innovation on hunger and combat. Completeness - Everything polished, the features work, I did have a stack size error crash at one out of ten games, but we can overlook an occasional rare bug. Aesthetics - Simple but functional, gets the job done and doesn't get in the way. Lots of info and extra flavor in the mouseovers. Fun - This is definitely lots of fun once you figure out the mechanics. Thumbs up! Innovation - One of the most unique mechanics I've seen in a roguelike. Scope - This is the perfect scope for a 7DRL, not too small but not overambitious either. Roguelikeness - Turn based, grid based, permadeath, good enough for me.

Quinta essentia

Completeness

3 3 4

Aesthetics

3 3 4

Fun

4 3 3

Innovation

4 4 4

Scope

4 3 4

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Very nice job for a 7DRL! You play an alchemist trying to save his dying wife with just the right ingredient. It generates a new overworld island to explore each time, covered with collectable ingredients, each with a number of randomly assigned effects. There are also monsters and animals (not all hostile!) from which to harvest yet more ingredients. The in-depth multipage help menu system with its sample screenshots is a great boon, otherwise it would be quite to difficult figure out the intricacies of what's going on here. In short, there are numerous alchemical processes by which to mix, remove, add, or otherwise mutate the various properties of an ingredient. So many possibilities! The tools required to apply these processes are scattered across the island. This is a good game, suffering only from a bit of quality of life issue in the UI that otherwise slow down the play experience. In a game where much of the key content is randomly generated on each playthrough, quick and easy access to information is vital. A drag-drop UI would be perfect as well, though it's understandable that's outside the bounds of what a 7DRL can normally provide. I enjoyed discovering the ingredients and figuring out which ones are needed for each situation over the course of a run. I wish that instead of having to carry around all the equipment that I could find and pick up a piece of equipment and then have that process become available in a crafting menu. The gameplay aspect of taking simple ingredients and combining/processing them to create powerful potions was fun and fits well with the witcher theme. Wow. What an effort. It has depth, difficulty settings, difficulty, thought. You really did an excellent job here. The alchemy system is inspired, and feels remarkably like a board gamey puzzle which works into the game rather than being a mini game or separate to the game. My only critique is that I struggled with the no-keypad controls, and would have really appreciated mouse support, or vi keys. Took me about 2 hours to beat. First hour was on medium, then dropped to Easy.

ExpelledRL

Completeness

3 4 3

Aesthetics

3 4 4

Fun

4 4 3

Innovation

3 3 4

Scope

3 4 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Wonderful little game! I love the overall feel of it. The possession mechanic is super fun. Very few bugs (spells don't take time to cast, and don't cost any mana) which made the game a bit easy, but I had a wonderful time playing it. Excellent, well done! The game feels very polished and balanced. The aesthetics are very clear especially when you can possess again. I definitely would have missed out if I hadn't play this fun game. We've seen this mechanic in other roguelikes but it's still a neat, innovative twist on the usual mechanics. I was completely surprised by the amount of content considering it's a jam, especially the different abilities of some of the monsters. This is definitely a roguelike and I hope you advertise it so more people can play it. Some assorted thoughts on this great entry: The interface is clean and very easy to pick up, with very few keys to worry about and a nice succinct tutorial screen. The central mechanic of possessing people is great. I think playing as various different monsters is kind of every rogueliker's dream come true, and it's done in a good way here by giving various different interesting abilities to the different monsters. One cool property of the possession gameplay is that it avoids the whole hit point regen discussion: it's okay that your hit points never recover, because you can just dump this body for a new one anyway. Taking that a step further, it can even be a good idea to let your intended future body beat you within an inch of your life, so that you can kill your old self easily after switching. Cool stuff. It's cool that enemies start to run away when they're losing a fight. It can end up being a bit of busywork to chase them down to the end of a hallway, but then again, you don't have to kill them (or often fight them in the first place), since there are no experience points or loot from enemies. The "level feelings" are a nice touch. The possession cooldown is a bit half-baked in that you can usually just wiggle back and forth in place to get rid of it, no matter how long it is. I think either it needs be based on something besides the passage of time, or there needs to be something putting pressure on the player to not waste time. I'd often "hear combat in the distance" and would often encounter enemies who were missing a lot of hit points, which gave a cool feeling of the dungeon being alive around me. It's fun to have to do stuff like possess a fire elemental to traverse a river of lava. I think the balance could use a little work in that most of the game doesn't exactly feel like I'm being challenged or having to use much strategy; it's a pretty straightforward continuous series of jumping from one enemy to another until I find the stairs (and usually end up dying because of going on autopilot and not paying attention at the wrong moment).

Hack Attack

Completeness

4 3 4

Aesthetics

4 4 4

Fun

4 3 4

Innovation

3 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Well done everyone, the game feels polished and balanced. The aesthetics are cute and the enemy movements animatedly telegraphed. I would have missed out if I hadn't played this. The editor is a clever twist on the usual mechanics but my only minor issue was figuring out how to use the editor until an enemy eventually dropped an action. The game's pixel art looks fantastic. The "jumping" animations and movement/attack patterns are inspired by Crypt of the Necrodancer. The core mechanic of creating combo moves is interesting and creates some neat strategies later on. Combat is deterministic and each enemy type has a unique feature to work around. Has all the qualities of a true roguelike. The game feels very polished and bug-free, but hints at features that may not have made it into the game. All the characters appear to play the same and are only a different sprite. There is no score or perceivable goal. There is no indication of floor/depth. The UI's ZXC panel hides important information on an already-limited screen. Really great music but gets repetitive over the course of a game. Aesthetically one of the better entries. Hack Attack immediately grabs the players' attention with a jaunty chiptune loop and a choice of four bouncy geeks to play. The character choice is cosmetic and the music never, ever ends, but game is pretty fun and quite technically solid, a well-scoped 7DRL that even features unique attack sounds for all the actors to complement the nice graphics. It all creates an excellent atmosphere to fish in the player. The gameplay model is strikingly fair. No healing but, provided you are paying attention and carefully plan your moves, it's unlikely you will take any damage (though this gets increasingly hard to do the further down you go). This makes the choices very meaningful. But its unique gimmick, the building of macros of three moves, didn't really fish me in. I had a hard time finding times in which it would be applicable, and I sort of feel like it could use a bit more variation than "move" and "attack." Overall, a very solid experience for the time in which it was created, which makes it a pretty good 7DRL in my assessment. Completeness - 4 (No music toggle that I could find, in-game help display, or persistence. However, other than that it's a pretty complete project.) Aethetics - 4 (Better than average, no mind blowing animations but excellently stylized assets that features interpolated movement on bouncy sprites. Even if it does get repetitive, that music is pretty good!) Fun - 4 (Very solid and fair, gives the player reason to think. The macro building that replaces the progression didn't really fish me in, but the predictability of the varied enemies makes strategies naturally intuitive and play out well. Later levels are a bit overkill in difficulty.) Innovative - 3 (The hacking is a neat twist, but maybe not a great replacement for proper RPG mechanics.) Scope - 3 (Very well scoped for a 7DRL, includes a good mix of enemies and whatnot. Granted, this was a team effort.) Roguelike - 4 (Procedural maps, and the tactical interplay between actor and enemy was identical to what I expect in a roguelike game. But the lack of a proper inventory, items, and RPG mechanics is a little less roguelike than would entail a 5.)

Summoner's Handbook

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

4 4 4

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

3 3 4

Scope

3 4 4

Roguelikeness

3 3 3

Fun game, it's been a while since I've played a "tower defense" style game :) I played this quite a bit and I think it is more of a defense game than a roguelike, but it's a nice twist on that genre, and an expansion on that idea could become something really interesting. Most of the proc gen seemed to be on the floor layout, which seems to be some randomized pre-fab areas since I saw the same rooms across different runs. Great aesthetics, very polished, very "complete" feel here. Multiplayer seems like an interesting touch although I didn't get to test that part of the game. Really impressed with this. I was only able to play the single player mode, but I still had a lot of fun, and managed to get a win with Necromancy. It's really pretty to look at, and the UI is well thought out – you can jump straight in and intuit how everything works. Some tool tips for the items would be nice, even if you have to use them once to identify them. I liked that better gear is automatically equipped. The battlefield is large enough that it becomes quite hard to recoup gold in between waves, but I'm guessing that was an intentional decision. Super polished and solid game. I think combining roguelike elements with a tower defense game has a lot of potential. I was only able to play the single player version, so take this review with a grain of salt. In terms of general usability this was very easy for me to pick up and I understand. The graphics were great, and the screen shake and hitflash gave it a very satisfying, arcadey feel. A skip dialog button in the beginning of single player would have been nice, but that is a very small gripe. I do wish there was a little more variety in the defensive units, or at least synergies between them. I found the optimal strategy was to build the most expensive units I could afford, and then play far enough up that I would have time to collect gold between waves. I think having a few more types of units at each tier would add a lot more strategic depth to the game. However I recognize this is a 7DRL and more content (especially with sprites) is not always feasible. This a fantastic effort, and the inclusion of online multiplayer is always impressive as well.

1RL

Completeness

4 3 4

Aesthetics

4 4 4

Fun

4 3 3

Innovation

3 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

I had a lot of fun with this one. Aesthetically pleasing map color. Having bugs be a number corresponding with their health was a nice touch. The use of colors on items and bugs made synergies and strengths/weaknesses easy to identify at a glance -- a great touch for the UI. Tying the inventory into monster generation and time into health created some interesting dynamics. The story/theme was great too. Definitely has all the qualities of a true roguelike. One of my favorites of the tourney so far! A 7DRL about making 7DRLs! All enemies and equipment are themed around different aspects of game creation, and the final boss is a core element of the experience ;) You wander levels gathering 'features' and then fight off bugs as you develop those features. Overall a fun and engaging theme, but the large levels make it cumbersome to play. The mechanics are also quite obscure at times, with little description to hint at what the different game elements actually do. Interface is really nice and polished - hard to believe this is the creator's first game! Very cool concept with mechanics that make sense within the context of the game. The meta elements and humor were funny, and a nice break from typical fantasy dungeons. This game really captured the feel of a roguelike: constantly assessing your build while trying to balance your own greed with the hunger clock. In terms of useability everything was incredibly solid. All of the map and UI elements were very clear, and the on-click tooltips helped me wrap my head around the game. One minor gripe about the game is that most of the gameplay revolves around long term planning (getting features and weapons that match/complement each other) and I feel like the moment to moment gameplay can feel like autopilot at times. However I recognize that this long-arc planning feeds into the theme of the game, so it does not bother me as much as it would with other games.

Ars Moriendi

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

3 4 4

Fun

3 3 3

Innovation

3 3 3

Scope

3 3 4

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Ars Moriendi is a nicely scaled roguelike – the maps are a small, digestible size, your health is tracked as a small integer, there are usually only a handful of enemies per level. This small scale does more than simply make for quick playthroughs, it really supports many of the other mechanics in the game. The smallness of the map means that monsters are a hazard that are hard to avoid, and also that you don’t feel bad when you bypass parts of the map when you find the stairs early. Also, because the game has a meta goal of finding 20 different ways to die, the small scale of the dungeon doesn’t punish multiple, exploratory playthroughs. I found this meta goal really effective at taking the sting out of what would have been otherwise frustrating deaths…the first time I encountered and got slammed by a Dragon in an otherwise impassable hallway really was made more fun by seeing a Congratulations! pop up afterward. The visuals don’t deviate from the modern roguelike formula, but they are legible and communicate clear gamestates. I think some minor visual variation between floors could have been nice (rather than just variation in enemies/traps), but that’s not a huge critique. I also would have personally appreciated the ability to make the visuals larger…not for legibility’s sake, it would have just been fun to have bigger, chunkier graphics. Mechanically, I found myself wanting there to be just one weapon item for you to find, to make attacking orcs and trolls more possible, but I understand why the author didn’t introduce that complexity to the mix -- instead really leaning on the throwing mechanic. I think this project tidily accomplished the author’s goals. It would be cool to think through such a meta-death-seeking roguelike that pushed the mechanics further out of the norm…perhaps becoming a ghost on death and continuing until you could find a new body, or using death to solve puzzles rather than tick off achievements. But that's just speculation in response to a nice, playable, complete roguelike. Well done! The game feels complete and well polished. The aesthetics are good with descriptive text and easily readable game play (except % food, isn't explained). I had fun reviewing the game and its definitely worth someone's time to try it out. The focus on counting the types of deaths is a neat twist on the usual mechanics while not fundamentally a new innovation. The scope is what I'd expect from a 7DRL but I would like to see more variety. Definitely fits the description of a roguelike. Ars Moriendi is a roguelike in which you have to explore the ways and powers of death itself. There are 20 ways to die with a trophy list and your stats. Death can come at any corner and there are some silly moments that will make you smile. The game is set in a small 5-level generated dungeon containing traps, monsters, and items to help you in your progression. The game implements hunger, so pack on food early. The looks and mechanics are reminiscent of a classic roguelike with an ascii dungeon, fov, turn-taking, vi keys, an all that's needed. It is a very good implementation of a coffee-break game given the size of the dungeon (< 5 minute to reach the last level). But death is also very quick to come. Easy enemies are 1 hit, and harder get to 2 or 3 hits. Ennemies like trolls and dragons are challenging and you need to bring extra gear to tackle them. I really like the dead simple interface (no pun intended) which indicates without any textual descriptions your HP, inventory and the dungeon level in which you are. I also like the animations for throwing and hitting something. The game suffers from occasional bugs, such as the weird wall lighting and you might get surprised by ennemies you couldn't see until it's too late. Nevertheless, the game is well in scope, and a finished piece of roguelike with polish and many features. The ways to die are diverse and finding them is fun, but I am not sure how this innovation changes the genre. I feel like I just played a normal roguelike until I had no other opportunity than dying.

Lord Of The Mall (Lord Of Them All!)

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

4 4 4

Fun

3 3 3

Innovation

4 4 3

Scope

4 3 3

Roguelikeness

3 3 3

The dual realm mechanics are fantastic. Would love to play this in a more traditional turn based style also! The shifting landscape is a cool mechanic. I really like how dead skeletons become phone zombies. The movement speed feels a bit slow, though I understand it's intentional. Lord of the Mall is a real-time mall crawler in which the world is constantly in a state of flux between the mall and a dingy dungeon. In the mall your fellow shoppers are no threat to you, but in the dungeon they turn into axe-wielding gremlins. This mechanic is really cool and beautifully realised, but I didn't find that it added much tactical depth to the gameplay. There's no levelling system so you can just slowly make your way to the exit and avoid having to get involved in any combat.

Octarine

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

4 4 3

Fun

4 4 3

Innovation

4 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 3

Wizards and spellcasting! Octarine is based around charging up to three different wands at once with a variety of abilities, gained by standing on a rune with an empty wand. And there are runes *everywhere*. Figuring out all the spell effects and interactions is fun, and monochromatic tiles really suite the gameplay. One color per wand or element. In terms of what to improve, there doesn't seem to be much, although it might be better to have the entire left strip of the UI have a black background, to include all 8 of the current wand's uses rather than just blacking out the background above the top ones. Also a persistent way to see at a glance what three wands are currently held, rather than have to cycle through them all. Something like having the rune icon in the UI, as well as the number of charges remaining, if possible. Depends on what might fit. Oh yeah, also a way to exit out of the attack action if you've already activated your wand but change your mind, like just pressing 'z' again to return to normal movement. Love this one, a really good example of a tightly focused and fun 7DRL. Completeness: Looks like complete game. I didn't encounter bugs, and this entry seems very polished. Some elements of game mechanics are to exploit, though. Aesthetics: Nice tiles, fluid animations (but a bit to slow for my taste, at least for unskippable ones), straightforward controls and rules. Fun: Octarine is another proof that best 7DRLs are these with one simple, catching mechanics, and whole game is built around it. This game is about zapping wands. Just it. And it works. Combat is very simple, but there is variety of rods to use - green tangles enemies, white heals both caster and monster, etc. It makes experimenting engaging, especially at first. But even after few runs, Octarine remains fun game. Innovation: Playing as caster without melee attack at all, recharging mechanics - nice things, but sadly - not enough to score "4". Scope: Reasonable for 7DRL. Roguelikeness: + Solid controls, solid gameplay, excellent use of magic mechanics to give a new twist to combat. I love how it wasn't just "different elements give different damage", it actually had different effects. It took me a little to get used to having to remember to keep track of the number of attacks I had left, but it was a great way of forcing people to use whatever spells were around. Absolutely loved it.

Pocket Dimensions RL

Completeness

3 3 4

Aesthetics

3 3 4

Fun

3 3 4

Innovation

4 4 4

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

I really like this entry. I played half a dozen times, never making it past level 4 or 5, but having a good experience each attempt. The central mechanic, of having individual rooms that overlap in space and are dynamically connected by mobile door objects, is just a lot of fun to play with. Not only that, but the designs of the different spaces -- from their names to their colors to their layouts to their features -- are all really satisfying. It seems that’s where the author spent a good chunk of time, and the result is great. My love for the portal mechanic aside, I will say that this entry feels like it wanted about 20% more game. That is, there’s armor and injuries…but no clear readout of your health, or of the damage various enemies do. There’s a mostly developed temperature system, with hot and cold items, that seems to lack one or two more applications to be really great. Finally, wands are alluded to in the instructions but I never found one…which left my only interaction with monsters to be shoving and running. There is a strategic pleasure to this for a while, but on later playthroughs, as I made it to lower levels, I was desperate for, say, a sword. All in all, this feels like it could be the very satisfying foundation for a very cool roguelike with just a little more programming work. That, or, this portal mechanic is going to make a killer feature in the author’s next game. The pacing is slow, the early dungeon levels are less interesting once you've revisited them multiple times. I made it pretty far but I wasn't able to finish the game. It would have been easier to review if the dungeon was more compressed. You can't examine the rooms behind a portal, and portals will sometimes orient in weird directions like both ends landing on the north walls facing south. It's also hard to place a portal in a specific direction in a narrow corridor. Opening a portal to the duck dimension was very memorable moment. So many assorted thoughts about this awesome game. Here's a selection of them in no particular order: The aesthetic is beautiful traditional ASCII all the way and I love seeing that. The portal concept is cool and implemented well. There's a part of me that's of two minds about it, because it sometimes just made things confusing in a not necessarily fun way and I'd sometimes end up going through a slightly tedious process of just hoarding regions in one place to try to make sense of the map. But the very fact that this game involves such a thing as "hoarding regions" makes all this a net win for me. I like that you can only push enemies - it gives a good sort of balance in which you can handle one enemy at a time fairly well but still find enemies to be a real danger. It does get a little tedious repeatedly pushing enemies away until they move the correct number of squares. It's cool that there are enemies like the giant snail that are heavier and so get pushed zero or one tiles instead of one or two. (And they move slowly, so you end up using the strategy of outrunning them rather than pushing them.) It was really cool to be able to lure a swarm of enemies into a cold room and let them all freeze to death. It's awesome how a cold or hot room is effectively a weapon that you can carry around for this purpose. The randomly generated character names are cool and frequently hilarious. (Constassccassara, Beatasha...) Ditto the region names. In my first game, I started in "The Bad Hall" - quite an inauspicious start. The existence of the various different biomes is cool, and they're pretty well differentiated, with different sorts of plants/terrain, different kinds of shapes, etc. Even things like creeping vines, which keep growing - just a lot of cool attention to detail where you might not expect it. I'm ashamed to say that in my hour of play I didn't manage to finish the game. In my best run, I got as far as level 6 before burning to death. I suspect there's still plenty that I have yet to see (that run was the first one in which I saw someone shoot me with a projectile, for instance), so I'll definitely be returning to this game when I have more time. I don't want to spoil it in case anyone reads this before playing, but there's a certain pair of enemies that's hilarious.

Tower of Babel

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

3 3 4

Fun

4 3 3

Innovation

3 4 4

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Tower of Babel is a very slickly-done roguelike in a very traditional sense: @ symbol working through mostly square rooms connected by hallways (some exceptions) bump-attacking into ascii-character monsters with various stats while picking up gear of various random types and effects. The main twist is that you are "connecting" to a radically different alternate world version of such a roguelike every time you play. The most obvious way this manifests is that every action is mapped to a new key. This dictates that the first 100 turns or so of each playthrough are spent fumbling back and forth as you try each key, either making notes about what key does what, or re-mapping them, or both. Initially, I found this a nice balance of charming and frustrating. It took me my fifth playthrough to actually just map the movement keys without getting mauled by passing enemies or pressing the Commit Suicide button the game sadistically includes. Once I got that run on its feet I had a very fun experience with many classic roguelike moments. I got a lucky early drop of a powerful spell rune. I cheered at the discovery of a good weapon. I decided in a panic to flee from a room with a dozen monsters, sprinting for the stairs. And I blessed my luck as I discovered a wandering elephant moments before starving, throwing my last acid vial at it and eating its corpse. I even died (on level 5 of 7) in a classically avoidable roguelike way, misreading one enemy for another, panicking, and then casting a healing spell that, because I was low on mana, drained my health below 0 before it could bring me back to full. So my takeaway is that the roguelike bones under this are, while very traditional, extremely solid. And to be clear, the author has made several novel tweaks to the rogue formula (particularly with inventory management) that are clever accommodations of the every-key-is-random mechanic. However, my final thought is that the initial experience of mapping the keys from scratch isn’t particularly fun after you’ve succeeded at it once. After my death on level 5, I was eager to try again, to explore more of the dungeon…but despaired at going through the awkward key-mapping again. The author allows that you can turn this part off in the .cfg file…but that feels like betraying the game. My (very speculative) suggestion would be, what if there were more than 26 commands available in the game, and what if on spawning, you not only randomized which key did what, but also which 26 of the 36 possible actions your character was armed with this time? That would make the initial discovery period not just an exercise in key-mapping, but a discovery about what kind of "load out" your character had this time... This game is hilarious. The current controls have a very Vi keys bias, I was able to get used to it with a custom movement layout but it would have been nice to have been able to use the keypad. I would have liked to have the ability to alias the keypad keys to the letter keys at least, or maybe also include the numbers row. Completeness: Seems like complete game. I didn't play much, to be honest (more about it in "fun" section), but I didn't find any major bugs. Game freezes for some time after calling F-commands (at first call, usually). Aesthetics: Classic, but very clean graphics, pleasant font, nice use of text scrolling. Immersive UI. Fun: It's really hard to judge. The very point of Tower of Babel is "obfuscation". Everything is randomized, even controls. While "remapping" keys is nice concept, I don't think it's implemented well. There is lots of keys, including one for suicide attempt. If player will spawn in room with others enemies, it's hard to survive long enough to learn how to move and defend self. And even later, when key controls are remapped to sane scheme, I didn't have much imperative to play - I was just tired, because remapping was a fight, a hard one. In general, I can't tell that Tower of Babel is fun game to play. But interesting one? Yes, definitely. Darren Gray wrote that [playing ToB] feels like to be a non roguelike player encountering roguelikes. I can't agree - it's much tougher experience ;) Innovation: As usualy, Jeff Lait makes something new. I don't know any other game that uses random generation at that scale. Here, everything is alien: stats (what Ky means?!), keyboard controls, monsters... Scope: It's simple and relatively small game, but it has lots of variety. I played ToB 6 times, and every time, another dungeon generator was in use. Roguelikeness: Yup yup yup.

BEARRL

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

4 4 3

Fun

4 4 3

Innovation

4 3 3

Scope

4 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 3 3

This is a really terrific gem of an entry! Despite taking a few deaths to figure out, the gameplay was solid and a really innovative entry to the roguelike category. The sound and music were on point, and the overall pico art style was fantastic. My kids and I enjoyed this one. The difficulty is quite punishing, especially as you hit Autumn towards the next Winter hibernation period, but it does sorta "make sense". It's also possible that I just had a few bad streaks of randomized food drops.. Nice work! This is an absolute gem of a game. Some thoughts in no particular order: The concept of the game (being a bear and living your bear life) is so charming and executed so well that I found it downright inspiring. The general gameplay is a simple concept (literally just finding enough food to survive from moment to moment) that's somehow been made incredibly addictive. There are a bunch of interesting little mechanics like waiting for berries to grow in number before you eat them, or taking the gamble of whether to go for that big juicy fish when you know it might swim away and leave you doomed. All this adds up to make the game so much fun that it was even a hit with my girlfriend, who does not play games and certainly not 7DRLs. I love the little opening jingle - it's this not-very-musical sequence of beeps that perfectly evokes that retro game feeling. The art is gorgeous. It's great throughout, but I was especially struck by the winter, when the snow starts piling up unevenly across the landscape. I'm a sucker for sort of naturey landscapes, changing seasons and things like that; this game pulls it off beautifully, especially for a PICO-8 title. The lumberjacks are a masterstroke of design. When I saw my first humans, it wasn't immediately clear to me why I should eat them, other than the obvious fun of it, since they give no nutrition. It becomes apparent later: by deforesting your habitat, they pose a long-term threat to your survival when you find yourself needing those trees for food. Beautifully thought out. The hunters are cool too - it's fun and scary to have to avoid and/or sneak up and eat them, and they add a real sense of tension to the later seasons. I loved the urgency of that final rush through the snow back to the bear cave to hibernate. I'm not sure I can consider this game a full-fledged roguelike. It's got some of the features of the genre, with turn-based movement on a randomly generated tile map, but ultimately I feel like it's best categorized as kind of an arcade game. That did not take away from my enjoyment one bit. Fantastic entry. I'm glad for this opportunity to be a bear in a roguelike format. Very clear interface, clear and vibrant game screen, and I killed many humans for chopping down trees. Good survival twist on the roguelike mechanics.

Forward

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

4 4 4

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

3 4 3

Scope

4 3 3

Roguelikeness

3 3 3

Oh, my... This one is good, for real. Not sure if it can be called true roguelike, but damn... It's addictive. Sometimes random is a bit unfair , but still it manages to scratch that itch of "one more time, I know I can do it, I'll get lucky!". The only complain is that I found additional characters somewhat lacking. They do not have unique traits. As a result, if you played long enough with the first character, other characters are kind of do not bring anything new to the table. But that's minor. We are talking about 7drl after all. And for a 7drl is damn impressive! I could bring up a bit of nitpicking, but don't want to. Good game. What a fun to play experience. The game feels complete and polished with different areas to explore and a punishing final level (which might be a bit too hard, I haven't beaten it yet). The aesthetics are cohesive and the UI really simple to understand and the game play as simple as a card game can get. I would have really missed out on this fun title had I not played it. The scope is what I've come to expect from a 7DRL. While not a classic roguelike the game is definitely a roguelike-like! I really had a ball with this and I hope you polish it up even more and publish it. Well polished, balanced and visually great. It's quite light on the roguelike department but doesn't stray too far from it. The balance seems spot on, but the decision making is pretty easy to make most of the time which is the only thing I would love to see improved on, especially since it's just very solid in every other aspect.

Get Well Soon

Completeness

3 4 4

Aesthetics

4 4 3

Fun

3 3 4

Innovation

3 3 4

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

I think that the visuals of Get Well Soon, while subtle, are some of its strongest points. I am a real sucker for ascii-plus-shading (a technique I always associate with brogue) and that is well done here. Additionally, the change in tile sets and map generation as you get deeper in the dungeon is just enough to feel different and interesting, without being distracting. I also think the visual design of noting enemies’ directions, health, and projectiles is well done and communicates clearly. I think the grid size might be a touch small, and the initial vision range a touch short, the maps a bit too large, but those are tweaks to details on a very solid base. Really, this whole game hinges on the card-based system and there are, I think, successes and challenges with it. On the positive end, the cards are all well implemented and clearly explained. Blink blinks you. Smash smashes enemies. Block makes a wall, etc. And the mechanisms for getting more cards or removing bad ones (at random shrines) feels good. However, there are some fundamental parts of the card system that are either imbalanced or under-developed. The biggest issue I see is that movement costs the same energy that cards do. Given the size of the map, then, it was a frequent occurrence that I would have to walk down a long hall, and doing so would run me entirely out of energy, discarding my hand. In addition, the relationship between spent, wasted, and burned is pretty fiddly while also not having much effect on gameplay. That complexity might be skipped in favor of coming up with a more functional mechanic for how and when your hand exhausts or replenishes. There is another game in this year’s jam that uses a similar card mechanic (Battle Weary) that I believe indicates one way this game could be revised: have the player start with a far more “bread and butter” deck of cards – simple attacks and simple healing, and let the teleporting and trap generation and zapping be the cards you unlock at shrines. And finally, I would consider whether adding an incentive for killing enemies might change the rhythm of gameplay. As it currently stands, with energy costs and few effective attack cards, I often found it the best strategy to just run around, kiting enemies, looking for the stairs. If enemies dropped health or cards on defeat, it would really ramp up the risk-reward in the game. Beautiful to look at with great lighting. I love the nice 3/4 perspective effect on the walls made using extended characters. The gameplay is quite good, with situations that require careful play to navigate. Interesting decisions have to be made in regards to card usage, and even some of the so called 'cursed cards' can become useful at times. This is a fine entry and the author(s) should be very proud of their work! Very impressive! A clever twist, executed in a comprehensible and balanced way. It felt really good to learn the systems and tricks.

Incanto

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

4 4 3

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

4 4 3

Scope

4 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 3 3

A great mix of roguelike and word puzzles, loved it. Controls work well, and the gameplay is intuitive (with help from the few lines of description). Lots of strategy involved here despite few rules overall, perfect for 7DRL. Well... The idea is moderately fun in theory. But to make an implementation actually fun, some additional tuning is definitely required. Straightforward implementation feels too unfair. You can end up with no syllables with enemy next to you. You can go to the next level and find several enemies adjacent tiles. Ghost can span on tile next to the one you make your move and attack you immediately. And there are purely technical problems when some internal position of the character is not in sync with the visual position. And the game seriously lack in variety to be called a true roguelike.

Spell Wheel

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

3 4 4

Fun

3 4 4

Innovation

3 4 3

Scope

3 3 4

Roguelikeness

3 3 3

Fun little game. It is a bit difficult to understand the system, but once you do it is quite fun. The only problem is that it is difficult at start, but once you build a powerful combo it keeps rolling, probably, indefinitely. All these spell combos, while cool and all, most of the time are used not in a meaningful way, but rather as the only option. As a result, from tactical point of view, it's not as diverse as it might seem at first. The game is ok sized for 7drl. Actual gameplay is more like puzzle and less like roguelike. This is a fantastic entry. The central mechanic is exactly what you want from a 7DRL: beautifully simple with all kinds of interesting emergent properties. The game is balanced well enough to be challenging but quite beatable, and the scoring mechanic is a clever way to get the best of both worlds by letting players see the whole thing but still keeping it highly replayable. It's tight and polished, and the graphics are gorgeous to boot. The only criticism I have is that it wasn't terribly clear at first just how the spell wheel worked, and it took a few playthroughs before the concept finally clicked. That's mostly down to me being dense, but I think it could also have been aided by some more in-game cues. But that's a very minor gripe for an amazing game. Not a ton to say about this one, because it speaks for itself - it's a game that's supremely easy to pick up and complex enough to spend many hours on. Amazing work. Really impressive effort here, Jere. I'm really glad I got to play your effort. I feel like I may have struggled more if I hadn't have played some of Brough's efforts in the past - namely, 868-Hack. It made it notably clearer what was going on with picking up powers, and I can imagine a new player might struggle with that. But - you clearly wear Brough's influence on your sleeve, and have a good understanding of what makes his games work. I was impressed by the depth of the spell system and the (slightly deranged) variety of monsters. I still struggled with a bit of clarity about exactly how it worked, but I was able to do better by the end of my playthrough than at the start. I think the difficulty was good, but it crept up on you. Generally, I felt most deaths were my fault. This game is a highlight of this years competition. Thank you.

No'hanz

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

4 4 3

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

3 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Completeness - 4 Very polished and everything is where it should be. No expectations missed. Aesthetics - 4 simple but pleasant design. Clear information and feedback. Fun - 3 The lack of clarity on what the traps do, and why, is what holds the fun back for me, and prevented me from engaging in the game. However, the basic approach is well put together and enjoyable enough. Innovative: -3 The only interactions outside of bump attacks are triggering static traps, forcing you to think about how to use them. However, it is not clear when the trap will effect you, or why it doesn't. Scope - 3 Reasonable variety of monsters and traps, though functionally quite similar. Roguelike - 4 Feels very much like a classic roguelike, but as you might remember it, with lots of the niceties that add to the genre. One of the best I've played! The game feels complete and polished, the aesthetics are amazing with different types of vegetation and blood splatters, clearly marked traps and the simplest of control schemes. I had a lot of fun discovering what the different traps did and figuring out how to exit the level with maximum health and hunger levels. The game is innovative with the a neat twist on the usual mechanics. The scope of the project is what I've come to expect from a 7DRL and as for it's roguelikeness it's spot on. Well done! Neat concept to build a game around. Enjoyed the grass/trampling mechanic. Sound effects were a nice touch. Interesting to strategize around monsters draining your stats, raising stats with traps, some positive traps only affecting everyone other than whatever sets it off... Game felt rather complete although I haven't made it to the end yet. True roguelike in mechanics and gameplay. Really deserves a farlook command.

Pinball Dungeon

Completeness

3 3 4

Aesthetics

3 3 4

Fun

3 3 4

Innovation

3 4 4

Scope

3 3 4

Roguelikeness

3 4 4

This is a fun entry into the "X as a roguelike" genre. It's not super polished, but it's a very well fleshed out prototype. The billiards-style interaction has been explored a lot here: there are 5 classes, each with minor but important differences. It has item identification, and wands are fired using the same controls as moving. It was well explained and easy to pick up. Each game lasts 5-ish levels. I won 2 times (Figher, Rogue) and died once (Barbarian). The map generator seems to be mostly based on prefabs, and maps don't have loops. The field of view system looks cool, but I found it frustrating a lot of the time. I think I would have liked some levels to have more open space, and zoom me out so I could plan more complex moves. The biggest areas I see for improvement as a 7DRL are aesthetics (so much black!), environmental stuff, and a longer FOV radius. I rated this entry straight threes: not outstanding in any specific category, but overall good work on the whole thing. I almost bumped up to a 4 in Fun, but I found it too easy, and the decisions I was making weren't very complicated. Playing "optimally" felt a little tedious once I learned the mechanic. I think this is a very successful 7drl entry. The author identified a single novel mechanic, explored the design space around it, and created a nice, consistent progression of levels in which to explore it. There is an interesting variety of enemies, the random wands are nicely implemented, and the different character classes are well differentiated. The graphics and general aesthetics get the job done and are clear to read. A few more bits of information would have helped, mousing over enemies could give info on their strength/movement for instance, or displaying a current score. Also, while I love the moments of 3-D perspective as you move past vertical walls (I always think of that visual effect as belonging to Teleglitch), the general palette of greys and sharp, white, serifed letters left me a little cold. Choosing a chunkier, weighty font could go a long way in changing the visual feel of the game. I really liked the scope of the game, it’s the perfect length for a 7drl, and the randomization of the different levels (while still having certain features at certain floors) felt very solid. With all these positives, I have to say that, personally, I didn’t actually have that much FUN with the mechanics. I think this is more to do with my personal preferences than with the success of the game itself. I just didn't like bouncing around all that much. Because of this, I found myself, while playing, often just rushing past enemies toward the exit. I wonder if adding a mechanic other than just raising one’s score could incentivize attacking enemies. Maybe they have a chance of dropping potions/wands on death, rather than having those items spawn randomly on the ground? If so, taking on early enemies would make you stronger against later ones. All in all, a nice solid entry! What a great merging of genres, pinball and roguelike... Wonderful job on this, with unidentified wands that have all kinds of relevant abilities, and multiple classes each with their own abilities, and interesting enemies... I did encounter one bug: On dying to the Pinball Wizard the first time I met him, the game froze so I didn't get to see my score. But overall it was a very smooth and enjoyable experience!

Rogue Robs Trains

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

3 3 4

Fun

4 3 3

Innovation

4 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

A fun, tense and fast-moving roguelike. The differences in weapon behavior really require adjusting your tactics. Very nicely done. Finished with a high score of 842. Weapons don't have many trade-offs, so there's an objective best load-out. The inspect tool was not very useful since it couldn't tell me what weapons were being wielded by enemies and couldn't tell me the stats of guns before picking them up, it was also hard to tell what range enemies were at. The difficulty options were really nice to have available. I think this game looks clean and plays clean. The shooting mechanics remind me of the ground gives way, but having a loading time for some rifles was a nice touch. This was a fun one.

Wait For It

Completeness

3 3 3

Aesthetics

4 4 3

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

4 3 3

Scope

4 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 3

An excellent game! Completeness: 3. Definitely feels feature complete. I couldn't progress any further than the third level, because the game always crashed, on both windows and mac. Aesthetics: 4. Graphics are beautiful, the sprites feel consistent in theme. This is one of the few games whose sprites I actually enjoy. Fun: 3. This game definitely had its moments. I love the twins that can only be killed within the same turn, that's absolute brilliance, and really makes you use the time stop ability. The fact that you could only gain experience by killing multiple enemies also added a wonderful layer of strategy to the game, and makes normally mundane situations into strategic ones. I feel conflicted about how movement uses up energy though. Specifically, simply walking would drain your energy, so you must alternate between walking and resting, which really felt like a chore, more than a fun mechanic. I felt like I was constantly pushing against this particular mechanic. It did have its benefits (namely making it so you can't as easily escape enemies), and I wonder if there's another way to achieve those without the chore of waiting so often. Innovation: 4. The enemies were amazing. You can only kill the twins in the same turn, you have to stop time to kill the reflector, and you can only gain experience by killing multiple enemies in the same turn. More roguelikes should do something like this! Scope: 4. All the above, plus bullets that travel, plus hexagonal tiling, means to me that this is a large scope. Roguelike: 4. Meets all my criteria for roguelikes! Wait For It is a lot of fun. It looks and sounds great, and there is a nice variety of enemy types, each with uniquely fiendish ways of screwing you over. Many of them have attacks that require you to respond with strategic positioning while balancing your energy stocks. As a result it's rather difficult, and doesn't leave much room for error. It would have been interesting to have some kind of blink or warp skill to make up for how hard it is to successfully retreat from an encounter. Levelling up is vitally important for gaining the skills and stats you'll need to progress, but experience can only be gained by destroying multiple enemies on the same turn, which introduces a nice risk/reward element. The game have quite interesting premise and settings, but unfortunately not as fun to play as at seems at first. There are two problems with the combat system. First - second ability, time pause, is way too powerful. And become more powerful with levels, as it increases amount of turns you can spend in paused state. More costly abilities are quite powerful, but they leave you without energy after use, and as a result defenseless. Second problem is the way energy is accumulated. The fact that it is spent on move forces you to alternate move and wait to keep energy at max to ensure you are ready for an enemy encounter. Twist with XP is interesting. Bosses are somewhat creative, but relatively easy. The game looks quite nice, but very important visuals depends on settings of the engine and controls could be better. There is no way to scroll the map (which makes players with lower resolution at disadvantage) and there is no minimap. Abilities cannot be activated with mouse, so while mouse controls are supported, it cannot be played with mouse only. Unfortunately there are many technical and other problems with the game. Serious memory leak in7drl windows version, problems with UI on window resize, unpassable levels. And I couldn't call it a true roguelike. Character development is extremely linear without any variations and as a result gameplay is very samey on each run since level generator produces levels without any noticable features.

Black Board Bold

Completeness

4 3 3

Aesthetics

3 4 4

Fun

3 3 4

Innovation

3 3 3

Scope

3 3 4

Roguelikeness

4 3 4

Roguelike inspired by Metal Gear Solid (which I have never actually played, unfortunately). I did get a win in this game, although I was caught 16 times along the way. The game felt reasonable complete, polished, very few noticeable bugs, and relatively balanced although every map will not be winnable (though most are). The dialog screens are great, colors are nice (especially with themed levels), guard vision is easy to distinguish, symbols to denote guard actions are clear, controls are symbol and intuitive. Combat is not traditional, the game is actually mostly stealth oriented with "sneak-attack" mechanics to subdue enemies. Scope feels reasonable for a 7DRL. The game is fun and worth playing at least once but may not offer much replayability to most roguelike players. At start - big plus for intro! I suggest everyone to read it all, as it explains game mechanics nicely, in interesting way. I like visual aspect much - simple animations are immersive, colours and map symbols are aesthetic. Boy, this game starts to be hard early. Enemies FOV is long and wide, and their movement is not predictible, it seems. And it's the problem - on the one hand, game encourages planning, but actual gameplay is more about improvisation. Additionally, Player can move in 4 directions, alerted enemies - in 8. Not every piece of mechanics is clear. Player may be detected even if should not (maybe fov algorithm is not symmetrical, or creates artifacts?). It seems that player standing in front of alerted enemy can jump behind him, leaving soldier confused. But sometimes, trying to perform this action, I'm getting killed. These issues are big problems for stealth-based roguelike. Game lets replay levels upon death, so I can't say it's true permadeath, but it's almost necessary - finally, I reached level 8, but since 4th floor, I had to use replay features a lot... PS: bug to fix: enemies can block on stairs I'm coming in as someone who hates stealth games, but I actually enjoyed this. Solid style, great references to Metal Gear (especially that intro), guards felt well made and I had fun attempting to sneak attack guards and sometimes failing abysmally.

B-Line 7DRL

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

4 3 3

Fun

4 4 4

Innovation

3 3 3

Scope

3 2 3

Roguelikeness

4 3 3

All around, pretty excellent :) Completeness - Ran well, I didn't come across any bugs Aesthetics - nice visuals, especially the void. Controls were a bit confusing at first with the energy system and turn planning. It would be nice to have shift+arrow keys and shift+e to auto execute as well. It would also be nice to have some sort of stronger visual indication when you receive damage or are at low health. Fun - Found myself liking this more than I expected. I've never really played any battle royale games, but I thought this combo worked out well. Innovation/Roguelikess - interesting genre blending, but still felt pretty traditional. Scope - nice amount of game here Challenging, but fun. Ranged combat is handled well. The energy system adds to gameplay. Maze layout can interact with the storm to inject more late-game randomness than is desirable. B-Line is a Battle Royal roguelike. There's everything you've come to expect from the genre – a couple hundred competitors, scattered weapons and gear, and an ever shrinking ring of death that forces everyone into the center. The energy system is cool – you can queue a series of actions to execute if you have the energy to do so. This means you can do stuff like peek around a corner and retreat, outflank a foe, and grab and use a medkit. There's a lot going on and at first I found it a little overwhelming, but the instructions are good and everything is clearly represented. My one major gripe is that it's really hard to tell when you're being shot at – some animations would go a long way to addressing that.

Frozen Axe

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

4 4 4

Fun

3 3 4

Innovation

2 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

3 3 3

Great game! I feel it's rather complete and balanced and I enjoyed discovering the different enemy types. The aesthetics are cute and UI and controls intuitive. It was well worth my time playing this. I didn't feel the limitation of the direction you and enemies can attack is very innovative and I wonder if there'd be any difference in enjoyment if characters could attack in all directions. By contrast the ability to walk on lava compared to enemies made controlling the reach around the map more interesting. The scope of the game is within what I'd expect from a 7DRL entry. The game is a roguelike-like, as a fun puzzle but missing more classical elements. Completeness: Frozen Axe seems be complete game. There are bugs, but nothing serious (rarely monsters moves into lava on their own). It could use more polish as well (starting screen is blurred, don't see a point to have both C and E keys binded to the same action). However, overall impression is very positive. Aesthetics: Controls are straightforward, tiles are stylish, font readable, there are simple animations, even. The problems are minor: starting screen is blurry, and this-one-sound-of-combat is unnecessary... Fun: Game is fun to play - rules are simple, horizontal-only attacks is nice twist. Positioning is important part of Frozen Axe and provides some tactical depth. Unfortunately, it's gets old fast - clashes starts to be hard very fast, to the point that makes win impossible ( mostly due to starting position ). Innovation: Horizontal-only combat on 2d grid is nice twist. Scope: Core of Frozen Axe is minimal, but on the other hand there is variety of enemies and big pool of traits / abilities to choose from. Roguelikeness: More arena brawler than a roguelike. Very well done! It's evocative of Enyo and Hoplite. Charming art and a satisfying mouthfeel.

H

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

4 3 4

Fun

3 3 3

Innovation

3 3 4

Scope

3 3 2

Roguelikeness

4 4 2

A good-looking puzzle roguelike that looks nice despite only having two colors, and controls even better. The rules are intuitive, gradually introducing new challenges into a world where the goal is to push enemies off the edge or into holes while avoiding the same fate yourself. Not all of the rules behind enemy behaviors are obvious at first, but they're not too hard to learn and figuring them out could be considered part of the challenge. Getting to the challenging and fun parts doesn't take long, in any case. Not much to improve on this one! Although I couldn't really make head or tale of the game over screen. I like the design and controls were intuitive and explained well by the first level, the only thing I would add here is to show that the space bar restarts on the game over screen. The small level sizes and simple controls made it easy to do many fast runs with little downtime in between. I really liked the mechanic of pushing enemies off the sides/into holes instead of direct attacks. Overall I enjoyed this 7drl and was happy to have it in my review queue. Aesthetically bold. Gameplay is unique and fresh. Lack of player progression limits the game to all tactics, no strategy.

Skyrogue (7DRL 2019)

Completeness

4 4 4

Aesthetics

4 3 4

Fun

4 3 4

Innovation

3 3 2

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

2 3 4

Sky Rogue is an impressive and impressively polished 7-day game. The pixel art is beautiful, with both a consistent style and color palette and lots of smart touches to communicate game state to the player. There is even charming 8-bit style music (rare for 7drl entries). The graphics are all the more impressive given that this is a Pico-8 game; in particular, the scrolling parallaxed clouds give the whole thing a great feeling. The gameplay is tight, simple, and fun, and the author has done a great job of creating what I would call puzzle-game-progression from level to level, introducing you to new mechanics one bit at a time before complicating them. As the author alludes to in their instructions text they DID make level 2 too hard, and I worry that many players might never see the later levels. (FWIW, letting the horizontal obstruction to the right of the second guard obstruct vision would be, I think, the least invasive way to make it easier). I also liked the interplay between having and not having Blinkstone. Without it, this game plays very deterministically, with some puzzles requiring you to time out things to single steps. With Blinkstone, the game is a little looser, and puzzles often have multiple solutions, with Blinkstone functioning as a panic button if you miscalculate. Frankly, I think the author could, by adding more levels and mechanics, develop this into a VERY fun longer game. Finally, I must observe that the game is not really what I would consider a roguelike. This game is basically a mini-Monaco, done in Pico-8 (which I mean as a strong compliment). It would be possible to use these mechanics to make something more rogue-like, adopting an Invisible Inc. style of random level progression, but the challenge of procedurally generating such a stealth map would be considerable. So, it makes sense that the author didn’t take that on for this jam. Nonetheless, a fun game all around. This game is solid. As a minor nitpick, I had a hard time judging the distance of blinks. It's easy enough to tell where tiles next to you or guards are, but hard to tell what's exactly 5 blocks away with this tileset. Very nice-looking and fun to play, music can get a bit repetitive. Gets really difficult quickly, so I wasn't able to complete the game yet. Will stay in my regular rotation of games tho.

PAWNBARIAN

Completeness

4 3 4

Aesthetics

4 3 4

Fun

4 2 4

Innovation

4 2 4

Scope

3 3 4

Roguelikeness

3 2 3

Pawnbarian is a great example of choosing the exact right amount of game to make for a 7drl. The author chose a single mechanic, presented it with a streamlined progression of simple levels, and then added a lot of very effective polish. The combination of the graphics and color palette, along with the nice, subtle movements of cards and icons makes this feel very finished. And the scale of the visuals, as big, chunky cards and icons really stands out from the typical density of roguelike entries – and make this feel like it would be at home on a phone or tablet. In addition, I find the interface of playing the cards, with the overlaid direction wheels to be surprising and surprisingly effective. The author has chosen what I feel is a pretty permissive or forgiving version of the mechanic to implement. That is, players are not forced to use the cards they draw, players are given a generous 4 card hand, players are not punished if they run through their deck. I think this makes it wonderfully accessible as a proof of concept for the central mechanic, though, my personal inclination might have been to add at least one harsher element, to make the progression through the levels a little trickier. There are some quality of life changes I could see making for clarity. Knowing which attack squares are coming from which enemies would help, particularly when facing off against the boss. Also, I wonder what an interface would look like where you drag a card from your hand and onto the square you are moving to…I did once or twice mis-move when using a Knight card. And to pick at something rather inconsequential, I found the “ninja” enemy to be a bit incongruous with the other enemy types. A great project, a fun time to play through, and a nice example of what can be accomplished in 7 days. Nice looking puzzle game. Love this. There's some amount of busywork involved, just burning illegal pawn moves until the cards are right to do a safe attack, but that's just a matter of balance.

Reflector RL

Completeness

3 4 3

Aesthetics

4 4 3

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

4 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

3 4 3

Well done! This game has a lot of moving parts and feels complete although it is missing some much needed balance and an occasional bugs means the stairs go missing. The aesthetics are typical of a roguelike and the UI is clear and helpful as you try to place reflectors and splitters to zap your enemies. I'm glad I played this fun entry although I could only occasionally get to the second level. The enemies just move too quickly and the players primary weapon recharges, I feel, 1 turn too long. The game is innovative and definitely brings something new to jam and the scope is what I'd expect for 7DRL. It's limited movement and lack of other features you'd expect from a roguelike make this game a roguelike-like. Really liked this game and it's fun setting up chains of mirrors to hit enemies. There's a nice variety of guns and effects and I liked how different enemies have different behaviors. One thing I didn't like is that I almost never leave the entrance until the level is cleared, so weapon recharge packs and teleport pads tend not to be very useful. Reflector RL is a hectic laser blaster. You can deploy mirrors and splitters to double your beam and get it around corners. Cool as that may sound, in reality I found myself kiting everything into a long corridor and blasting straight ahead. It's a challenge to beat, and sometimes feels a little unfair (you can spawn surrounded by mobs, and bombs can interrupt your teleport move), but I had fun with it.

Ellipsis

Completeness

3 4 3

Aesthetics

3 3 3

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

3 4 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 3

The game does a good job of showing off its main concept, but it's missing flair. Super fun game. Not a very exciting color palette or look, but it's nice to have tiles instead of ASCII. I like how puzzly it is, and it's a roguelike at its core with no frills. I played the 1.3 post-jam release which includes bug fixes, animations, and full screen mode (this was considered while rating the Completeness score. I did manage to win the game after a few attempts. This game really forces you to think ahead. It is possibly more of a puzzle game than a roguelike, but the structure and plot is heavily inspired by the classic roguelike, and being put in situations where you have to stop and think moves ahead on your turn is very much at the core of the roguelike genre. The aesthetics are nice, the game reveals threatened tiles for you, the controls are simple and easy to use. The text could be a little larger but once you learn the difference between a goblin and a wraith then there isn't much to read anyways. There is no traditional combat, you beat your enemies by outsmarting them to move onto their tile. The game has an end and the scope is up to expectations with the 7DRL challenge. The game is worth playing, some players may quit early if they don't feel like learning the game (which takes a few deaths since there isn't much explanation of the "rules"), but offers replayability for those who like more puzzle-oriented games.

Banisher

Completeness

3 3 3

Aesthetics

4 4 4

Fun

2 3 3

Innovation

2 3 4

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Cool game! A bit too easy, there doesn't seem to be any need for the potions, because the banish ability is basically free (it has a cooldown, but it's easy to wait that out). The terrain is absolutely gorgeous ! It really stood out. The layouts are something between caverns and dungeons. The theme of the game was really good too, I like the idea of banishment being the man form of combat. Lots of potential here! In Banisher your main power is to banish demons, but with the interesting twist that your powerful banishing power increases in cooldown with every use. You thus have to be picky about just when to use it, and although enemies are easy to vanquish you end up running away and being stealthy to conserve power. It's very pretty, with clear ASCII in a nice colour palette and a simple but well made UI. Unfortunately it's very much on the easy side, with banishes quick to cool down, no hunger clock to make one case about the cooldown, and a glut of items that let you ignore the mechanic anyway. Well done! I really liked this entry and thought it was a pretty creative idea! The use of rot.js was a great pick to get the concept across within the constraints / timeline. From the looks of it, you made some smart choices in your design. I liked the banishment / cooldown concept, as well as the potion ideas. One immidiate suggestion would be to look into your input handling. The browser window scrollbar was being moved as I moved up / down and the screen was shifting left / right as I did. It's a well known issue for HTML5 games, so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take much to hunt down (if desired of course). Apart from that, I encourage you to add / tweak this entry! Well done, and thanks a lot for participating in the 7DRL. Hope you had a great time!

Critical Keep

Completeness

4 3 3

Aesthetics

3 3 3

Fun

4 3 3

Innovation

3 3 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

A game where the RNG is there to be manipulated to your whims. At any time you can swap the attack dice rolls with enemies, letting you give yourself all the criticals. There's some tactical depth in this too as you choose different weapons to fit the dice rolls you give yourself, and swaps misses around to different enemies to prevent damage. This is super fun and a lovely twist on normal roguelike mechanics. The game is technically quite easy if you're careful, though ranged enemies make being careful quite difficult, as they can easily get several hits in before you properly register them. The biggest fault with the game is the UI, as it's super fiddly to constantly be swapping items, swapping stats, and juggling the tiny inventory space with the glut of item drops. Well executed core RL gameplay paired with a mechanic that allows you to pick the best rng outcome from all parties in view for the next turn of combat. The map and UI are standard RL fare, but tile selection and use of color and space elevate the visuals above the typical tutorial implementation. Emphasizing the theme, rng misses and critical hits are color coded on the map and in the UI. The mechanic itself is clever, but putting your thumb on the scale comes without a cost and quickly becomes perfunctory. Items and enemies though, come in enough flavors to provide variety and the difficulty is balanced. The game is challenging, but not overly difficult. A well executed and polished basic RL with an intriguing twist. In the end, this twist doesn't add much, but it gives every appearance of being a rich vein for future development. Neat idea! Feels good to turn the tables on RNG for once. Despite that twist there's still a decent challenge there. UI is clean and it's easy to understand how everything works.

Double Blind

Completeness

4 3 3

Aesthetics

4 3 3

Fun

3 3 3

Innovation

4 4 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 3 3

The idea of an asymmetric information roguelike is a really unique concept. I also like the 1-bit aesthetics, though I'm not sure of the difference between a seeing door and a blind door. Also the comprehensive instructions were really nice. 1P mode feel pretty easy, since a lot of the time, you can remember where the guards are and just throw a knife at that position, but it definitely gets more interesting when you're not sure where the guards are. Still, some of the tricks don't seem very useful against the AI, since it only attacks in melee. Didn't get a chance to try 2P with someone else, but the controls feel rather cramped, especially compared to the 1P controls. Good effort gruebite. I particularly appreciated having the tutorial. You've done a really good job, and tried something rather cool and interesting. I wasn't expecting that the memory elements would jam with me well, but still - I succeeded. You handled the limited amounts of input afforded to you on a PICO8 well, and put a surprising amount of moves into the game. It is worth noting that I still had some real issues with understanding how the Sense tricks returned information - despite reading your documentation and working through the tutorial. I also had limited use of many of the tricks; throwing knives, flashbangs and lighting candles were my main method of playing. I also would have appreciated using a different color on the enemies, because it was difficult to distinguish them from the level itself. Well done on completing the challenge. Love the idea, love the look, but dammit it's so hard to play.

GeomanceRL

Completeness

3 4 3

Aesthetics

3 4 2

Fun

3 4 3

Innovation

3 4 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 3

I think the basic mechanic at the heart of Geomance has a lot of potential. I also think that many parts of the presentation of this version of the game were very thoughtfully done: the keys are clear and easy, the mechanic is focused, the colors are legible, etc. There were some parts, however, that I felt held me back from having a great time with the game. First, I found the game pretty difficult – I couldn’t find any way to heal damage, which meant that every mistake added up quickly. This was compounded by the fact that with such short line of sight and so many enemies that can move quick or shoot from range, you can very easily take a step or a teleport with no enemies visible and immediately take damage. I also think that the number of the mana tiles was too high. Because many of the numbers are so high, and because you draw from 9 tiles, I rarely had to pay proactive attention to which tiles were where. Instead, I would just cast whichever spell happened to match my position. I think if you made the value of every tile “1” (which would also allow you to change the numbers to simpler shapes) then you could get a better balance of having to plan out which position you want to be in to use which spells. In fact, I could see a version of this where everything was tightened up, levels that were half the size, with you really carefully planning out turns based on puzzling out your path through the tiles. I didn’t make it terribly far in the game – I think level 3 or 4 was my furthest run, but I do wonder how much a sense of progression you would get only having the same 6 spells the whole time. A system that allowed them to vary more (or introduced new colors on later floors) could be a cool way to extend the game. Oh and I love the Jetstream spell. <3 Completeness: Game looks like finished product. I didn't encounter any bug, mechanics is polished. Aesthetics: GeomanceRL uses nice font for drawing map and entities, and developer has nice sense of color. There is even simple movement animation - but it doesn't blend well with map scrolling, to be honest. The only real problem is that in UI instead of spell names there are abbreviations. Not the big deal, since it's easy to figure out how every spell works. Fun: GeomanceRL is great example that it is possible to make good, captiving game based on one, relatively simple mechanics. In GRL player is, well, geomancer. A mage that draws mana from earth. It's the core of the game - every tile has own color and value, and every spell needs different amount of specific "color". Simple enough play fast, and deep enough to make more tactical approach meaningful. Innovation: Mechanics described in previous paragraph is truly innovative. Roguelikeness: True roguelike with innovative mechanics? Why not! Scope: Well, I thought about giving 4 stars here, because I feel that developer chose perfect scope for this jam... But it's still small game, so it wouldn't be that fair. So, "3", but I'm impressed. Excellent concept, let down somewhat by presentation - definitely could benefit from a tileset to improve and clarify visuals better; maybe for a post 7DRL version? I definitely enjoyed mowing down enemies with spells over the usual roguelike melee combat.

Princess Pri and the Infinitely Irritating Castle

Completeness

2 3 4

Aesthetics

3 3 4

Fun

2 4 4

Innovation

3 3 4

Scope

3 3 4

Roguelikeness

3 4 3

Well. Another good in theory idea that turned out to be quite boring and unbalanced. Craft your spellbook out of found spells? Great! Spells have volume in pages and manacost (or cooldown in mob kills). Okay, interesting. But in the biggest book I found (10 pages), I couldn't fit couple interesting spells (5 and 6 pages)... Ended up spamming the most mana/damage efficient spell and it tuned out to be good enough to progress easily. And here comes game breaking bug. After 4-6 levels the game just hangs. I leave the level and instead of inter-level menu I have blank screen. Tried several times, ended up the same. 3d environment and 45 degree isometric view is a bit confusing and need to get used to. But 3d-ness is not REALLY utilized. You can jump up and down, and the best utilization of 3d you can get - spam spells from unreachable for enemies location or throw some enemy down by a push. Attacks from/to enemy lower/higher are the same. Spells can target enemies higher easily. So whole point of 3d is not very clear. It is definitely a feat to make a level generator for 3d, sure, but it must have some distinct purpose. Spellbook crafting was done before, probably in a little different format, in this game there are some interesting tweaks. But since whole spells system is very unbalanced, it is hard to appreciate it. I really liked this entry. It's got a ton of charming personality, a nice aesthetic and some well done classic roguelike gameplay with a couple of interesting twists. Some remarks organized by category: Completeness: 3 It's decently feature-complete and balanced enough to be a fun challenge. There are a lot of different spells with interesting effects. I really appreciated the amount of love that went into various small details - the witty dialogue you get when you interact with an enemy, the different death messages for different enemies, the suitably arcane-sounding randomly generated spellbook names, the way some spellbooks are written in "obnoxious flowery writing" and so take up more space in your spellbook, etc. I sometimes ran into game-ending crashes, which was frustrating but not unexpected with a 7DRL. It was unclear why I couldn't use certain spells sometimes (I never managed to use Superjump) - not sure if that was a bug or a failure on my part to understand how the spell worked. Aesthetics: 3 I love the visual aesthetic of the game and it really caught my eye among the other entries when I first saw it. (It was the game that finally convinced me to install Windows on my Mac so I could play Windows-only 7DRLs.) The 3d dungeon combined with retro-looking sprites is just beautiful. UI-wise, it's great to have a pretty simple set of controls without a lot of keys to memorize - just movement, space to examine, and F1-F6 for the spell slots. On the negative side here, something that was missing for me was the ability to use vi keys (or some other alternative besides the numpad) for diagonal movement. I also found that the view angle sometimes made it hard to quickly read the position of an enemy on the board. Fun: 4 I found the game addictive and kept playing over and over, trying out new strategies. The spellbook mechanic is awesome and leads to some interesting choices, allowing you to switch between spell loadouts but also requiring some careful thought as to which books to write your spells into. The three-dimensional dungeon is used well, allowing you to sometimes elude enemies by climbing walls that they can't pass, etc. An interesting element of the game is the choice between avoiding and killing enemies - there's no inherent reward for killing them, but if you're too cowardly, you'll miss out on chests that you direly need, and many spells also have a cooldown that progresses by killing a number of enemies. It's a fun balancing act trying to navigate levels and collect treasure without getting yourself killed. Innovative: 3 It's a pretty traditional experience for the most part, with the spellbook being the main twist. Scope: 3 I'm impressed with the various different spell effects and, again, with the level of detail that went into various interactions. I might have liked to see a little more variation among levels and enemies. Roguelike: 4 It's quite close to being a traditional roguelike, though the equivalent of inventory management takes an interestingly different form than usual. I fully admit, I'm terrible at isometric at the best of times, but this was actually good to play. The style's solid, the controls are clear, I love the spellbook system management. Props for making a pretty deep system in a week! Absolutely enjoyed it, definitely giving the 1.01 version a go.

Rogue Island

Completeness

4 4 3

Aesthetics

4 3 4

Fun

3 3 2

Innovation

3 3 2

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Enjoyed trying for better hi-scores and finding the text files in the chests. Game looks great and plays fluidly, with the energy system making it about where you move, and the score top right (I think) was based on how quickly the level is finished. Faster play means higher score but more likely to have YASD. A nice little 7DRL, well-scoped! Rogue Island is based around an interesting rest mechanic whereby doing any action other than resting, even walking, draws down the hero's stamina, but attack power is purely dependent on current stamina, so there are items to help with stamina and hit points, lots of them, in fact. That said, the game seems fairly balanced, the main issue being the sheer amount of times it's necessary to pound the 'r' key to keep resting back to full stamina, and also continue doing that intermittently while exploring every inch of the map to kill all enemies before being allowed to the next floor. Hard to play for long stretches! It would help if key hold repeating was allowed, preferably set at a high rate, but it's not, so every bit of stamina requires yet another key press. The font is a little hard to read when used at smaller sizes, just a bit too lo-fi, but there isn't too much text anyway so that wasn't a huge hurdle. It does suit the graphics, though, which are pretty neat. (I did have one instance where what popped out of a chest was hidden behind a tree and I couldn't see what it was, and my inventory slots were full at the time so I couldn't pick it up, but it was probably another consumable I didn't really need anyway.) A traditional RL implementation enhanced with animated pixel art. Items are sparse, but abundant health keeps difficulty balanced. Strategic play is limited by requiring all enemies to be killed before going to the next level. The game leans into an energy mechanic, implementing consumables and showing an actual energy number in the UI. The mechanic adds another expendable resource, but the overall effect on gameplay is minimal. The pixel graphics give the traditional RL formula a clean, bright look. Sprites are animated and the tiling is sophisticated, with multiple layers and psuedo 3d shadows. The recasting of dungeon rooms and corridors to islands and bridges is clever and goes a long way to differentiating the game from a basic tutorial implementation.

The House 2019 7DRL

Completeness

4 3 4

Aesthetics

4 3 4

Fun

3 2 3

Innovation

4 2 2

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 4

Completeness - 4 It might be that the keyboard layout is different for the dev but the diagonals on the numpad were for the opposite direction. Not sure if it is intentional or not but when going back up a floor the previous level has been reset. Everything worked as expected with no unusual results. Aesthetics - 4 Unique setting and the scribbled design is very distinct. There are lots of little touches throughout, like a table and chairs or a statue. Fun - 3 I didn't really understand how the creepy dolls worked but otherwise it was quite fun to explore and see what else the levels had to offer. The lack of randommess was a nice dynamic and allowed for some clear interactions and a lot of up front decision making. Innovative - 4 The dungeon generation was quite the stand out and felt very unique. Whilst the combat was simple it was also done in its own way and that gave the game a definable identity. Scope - 3 Having a help option is very appreciated even if it isn't particularly necessary as the game is quite intuitive. Roguelike - 4 The core elements of a roguelike are all there, but the new polish and style make it feel fresh, even with the otherwise traditional approach. The most notable thing about The House is its hand drawn graphics. And these are very cool. The black and white Victorian house art has a real Edward Gorey vibe which nicely matches with the framing story. I also think that there are some interesting attempts at innovative UI design, for instance the on-character circles denoting stats like HP and ATTACK, however, they were not always successful to me. I often found myself having a hard time tracking my HP because of its small size and position on screen, and the different corner / different shade of grey scheme for differentiating HP from attack from moves was not the easiest to remember. It was very cool to see the hand-drawn tiles work together to make all sorts of different creepy rooms and hallways. I found the gameplay too limited to really suck me in. Rooms are mostly large and empty, monsters encountered are attacked by running into them, and there is no real strategy other than attack or run (and wait to heal). In fact, I think that having “heal over time” with no “food clock” or other time limiting element eliminates a lot of fun tension, because the best strategy becomes – kill one monster, wait for 10 turns, move on. Also, while the art for the rooms is super evocative, I didn’t feel like I encountered meaningful differences between the different levels (I made it to level 3 in my playing…despite the difficulty slider I found it difficult to make it further than that). This sameness made exploration feel less exciting than it could have. The author has made an attempt to wrap the combat and movement around a system of multiple actions – but I was never QUITE sure how this ended up working in practice. Some enemies seemed to display always having 0 moves, other enemies seemed to always have 1 move remaining, even after moving. I think the system was likely working, just that it wasn’t clear to me in what way. I also don’t know if it added the kind of strategic complexity that would have made the combat more fun. My biggest wish for this game is that everything about it would have been smaller, tighter, and presented to the player more slowly. I would have loved a version of this game where the first floor had only 4 rooms, the rooms were half the size as they are now, and the only enemies encountered were bats. Then let the next floor be 5 rooms and introduce the dolls or demons. Dribble the content out, rather than dropping almost all of that in the first rooms. Finally, a note that when I played the numpad keys had reflected verticals – meaning that up went down and down went up. This made it very hard to simply play through the game. The procedural generation with the hand-drawn tiles, and the deterministic combat system were highlights of this game for me. The numpad controls were really awkward for me, there should be an option to invert the diagonals. Good, easy to read UI. Exploring the floors becomes a little repetitive and leaves the player wanting. Gameplay itself is somewhat average but the aesthetics really do it for me.

Cantrip

Completeness

3 3 4

Aesthetics

3 3 4

Fun

3 4 4

Innovation

3 4 3

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

2 3 3

This is a D&D-themed card game. Not a roguelike, but still fun! I haven't played a game before where the cards in your hand are hit points. Other than that, it seems like a decently well balanced two-player deckbuilding card game. I have some minor criticisms and found some bugs, but for a 7DRL I don't think they matter. The animations are pretty slow, so I hope the author puts out another build with some delays removed. I won on my 6th or so playthrough, which means it's pretty well balanced! Cantrip is great. The game is simple – you proceed automatically through progressively more difficult opponents – but its pacing and balance are really great for something made so quickly. I found the presentation of the information to be very clear, and the simple animations of cards sliding from place to place did a great job of letting me know what was happening , of letting me follow the flow of the game. I played the game several times, dying sometimes, succeeding others, always choosing new strategies with the card drafting. There are a lot of games in this year’s 7drl with card-based mechanics, and they can be tricky to get right. I think Cantrip makes two really key innovations: adding an AP system, and using hand size as health. The latter is something that you can see informing the design of so many of the cards. The Rest card, for instance, is powerful, fun to play, and unique to a game where your hand size is health. And using AP the way the game does eliminates the need for mana or energy or any other resource type. These two innovations, combined with a good variety of cards make for a very fun game that doesn’t feel derivative of other card-based games. There are definitely some places that still need polish or development. The AI of the opponents, I found, to make lots of mistakes – playing a Do Damage with Shield cards right before playing Get More Shields, for instance. Though, I’m sure designing an AI for such a game is a challenge. Also, I’m sure the power and frequency of some cards could/should be tweaked. Without going into specifics, the number of 0 AP cards can result in some lightning fast kills currently. Other than that, however, I would just like more of this game. More cards, more enemies, etc. Had a blast with this one. The idea of the cards in your hand also being your health really works well. There may not be much art, but the UI is fluid and does a really good job of making the gameplay intuitive. One area that seemed odd was the inability to see the number of cards remaining in the opponent's deck, as you can your own, although that's a really minor issue. It was fun to come up with new strategies as additional cards were added each round, and picking cards from among the presumably randomized options was a challenge as well. The AI would occasionally make some clearly bad moves, but that might not even be considered a bug since we don't always want perfect opponents! The pacing was spot on. Well done!

RERL

Completeness

4 3 3

Aesthetics

4 3 3

Fun

4 3 2

Innovation

4 3 2

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

4 4 3

All the other games in my review block had been extremely simple and able to be picked up instantly, which made this one a bit of a surprise: As simple as the mechanics really are, and as much effort as the game puts into making them learnable with tooltips and introduction text, there's enough going on that if you're determined as a player to avoid all of those explanations, you in fact will be a bit lost for a while. After I got my bearings, though, I found this a quite carefully thought out small roguelike experience. The difficulty level is on point, in part because of being essentially self-tuning - on your first few runs, the revival mechanic lets you keep making progress while being aware that there's room to do better, and once you're more advanced as a player, the game gives you the choice of hunting monsters for score or trying out different bodies. And if you just want to give the game a fair shake, getting through it without dying makes a good baseline roguelike experience. And then on top of all that there's the Director's Cut option, which actually brings out whole new depths in the game, as suddenly there's much more room to make use of monsters fighting each other, body-hopping in fights, and carefully managing cooldowns. I almost feel like I've been treated to two 7DRLs in one - the mechanics might be largely the same, but the way you engage with them is completely different. The character graphics do a lot to make the game more fun by giving their own little charm to the experience. This being the closest I've ever come to playing a Resident Evil game, I probably missed some references in the bosses' introductions, but I thought they were cool nevertheless. That said, I would probably have avoided a few deaths caused by one Lisa Trevor if I'd had some forewarning about her nature... The only little annoyance that almost made me dock a point off Completeness was the tendency for fights on the second level to take place near the top of the screen, where interface text would get in the way when trying to target abilities. Sharing a tile with an enemy also seems to be a presumably unintentional circumstance that I ended up in several times. Those were small blemishes on what's easily been the best I've personally seen in this year's 7DRL contest, though. Completeness - 3, Aesthetics - 3, Fun - 3, Innovative - 3, Scope - 3, Roguelike - 4 For a 7DRL entry, this was well executed. I'm only vaguely aware of the RE series (gasp), so on the first play through, none of the real quote references "clicked". It was only when I spotted the linked YouTube video to the PS title gameplay in the entry's comments where I understood. Neat idea with the monster vs. S.T.A.R.S, and I thought the idea of a popup of each STAR for the level was a good one. The scrolling text worked fairly well, and the "kill list" helped. The Director's Cut idea was cool. I didn't make it through most of the stream content, but thanks for linking them from the submission page, as well as the dev blog. I definitely encourage you to keep adding to this entry (if you want to of course). Some (minor-totally-optional-peanut-gallery) suggestions any sound / music effect a bit more tinkering with the level so that you need to explore at least 50% before the level Boss shows up a way to return to the previous level. There were a few times I was cornered, so I warped to the next level to escape.. when playing the Director's Cut edition, experiment with creating a "letterbox" view of the game with the top / bottom black bars. Yeah it might not work if you decide to experiment with it, but just throwing it out there. maybe another game mode could be "Commentary" or something where you pull in some voice overs for the levels. I'll stop now. :) Well done! The game feels feature complete but missing some more polish. The controls are mostly intuitive except for exiting the level. I thought I was looking for stairs and only after re-reading the instructions did I figure out you can exit as soon as you've killed the level boss. I didn't have a lot of fun with the title, I think because switching bodies always felt like a worse off option than dying and I could respawn immediately. There didn't feel like a risk of death until I got to the game over screen where it explained my score could be improved by not dying. Fixing this is be your first focus if continuing. The extra character abilities were only a little innovative and switching bodies could have been more so if there other bodies were interesting to inhabit. The scope is what I'd expect from a 7DRL and I can only classify this as a roguelike-like since it's missing roguelike features such as permadeath.

RunToTheStairs

Completeness

4 3 3

Aesthetics

3 3 3

Fun

3 3 4

Innovation

3 3 4

Scope

3 3 3

Roguelikeness

3 3 4

This one is quite original. And addictive. And not as simple as you might thing from the description. The only feature that is IMO absolutely required, but missing is the ability to pan the view around. The game is technically all about finding an optimal path that short enough and have number of collectibles maxed. But you can only rely on the very restricted field of view and pathfinder. I wouldn't mind at the very least have some kind of predicted pathfinder, see where it will path if I'll go there. Right now deviation from the main route is always a gamble. There can be different path from that nook, then you are fine, or it can be dead end and then you are screwed. There were roguelikes without combat, there were roguelikes about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, but in this format, probably not. Let's call it moderately innovative. But I think there could be much more to the game. More upgrades, some way to hinder AI players... As much as the game tries to squeeze into formal rouguelike definition, I think it is too shallow to be called true roguelike. Run to the Stairs is a tidy, small game that adds some nice gamifications around a simple central mechanic. And a quick note up front before discussing the game proper, the author has done a lot around the central game to add to the experience of play: there is a long and interesting description of the mechanics on the game’s page, there are clear information panels in the game itself, and the author has also implemented a sort of bespoke leader board on the itch page, all of which add to the experience. The core mechanic of this game really worked for me – using diagonal movement and player decisions to outsmart pathfinding AI. I also think that it was wise of the author to focus on refining this central premise, rather than trying to add too many bells and whistles. The inclusion of the “fastest” line, the granular calculation of racers’ speed, and the simplicity of the power ups all contribute in a clear way to the central experience of racing. I did find myself wishing for slightly more visual polish. The choice of typeface for the ascii-characters I found particularly sharp and vertical, and the colors could have been chosen with more care. More substantially, because the game hinges so completely on moving across corners, some visual indication of the grid would have helped ease the eyes, rather than having rooms and walls exist as just large contiguous sections of black and grey. Regardless, this game is definitely worth a play. An interesting take on the RL genre, and a well executed one. Little techniques and tricks here and there to get the advantage and good use on the nitro makes it very fun and interesting to play. I would say that it feels overwhelming the more you play by placing the enemy units way ahead and also giving them an increased scaling speed over you that can be really hard to beat. Strategy can take you so far, since you can't see far ahead to calculate better paths and if upgrades worth your position investment. Overall I had a great time playing and it's a concept I would love to see improved on and grow into an actual game.

SlayHack

Completeness

3 4 4

Aesthetics

3 4 4

Fun

3 3 3

Innovation

3 3 2

Scope

3 4 3

Roguelikeness

3 3 3

SlayHack is a Rogue-lite card game. It's plot is similar to one of the popular games in the genre, although the game play is much differen