Friday, April 12, 2019

Episode 153: 7DRLs 2019

Discussion of the results of the 2019 Seven Day Roguelike Challenge, with Darren Grey, ToneAndre Odendaal, Patrick Davison and Lachlan Kingsford (www.nerdygentleman.com).

You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.



Synopsis & Useful Links
  • 7DRLs 2019 - full list of entries
  • Reviews of all 2019 7DRLs (click on average score to see review text)
  • Thread of 7DRL videos
  • Trends discussed - more browser games, Pico-8 engine games, many graphical games (though oft of unreliable quality), card games. Less traditional ASCII, less mobile compared with previous years.
  • Bodyswapping games - Inner Life (go inside enemies, enemies go inside you), ExpelledRL (possession mechanics)
  • Topology / geometry focused games - portals in Pocket Dimensions, portal-esque mechanics in Ellipsis (by Patrick), pentagonal tiles + time manipulation in Incendian Falls, rotate the whole dungeon in Peryton
  • Princess Pri - isometric game with really interesting level generation
  • Andre's Escape with the Ring of Erdna, made in Unity using the RogueSharp library, where you start at the bottom of the dungeon and have to escape to the surface
  • Blind friendly games - Battle Weary (designed for easier use with screen readers), SonarRL (audio only, though very lacking in content)
  • Quinta Essentia - really great game with procedural alchemy
  • Tower of Babel - roguelike by Jeff Lait with randomised controls and highly randomised content
  • Ars Moriendi - game where all achievements are linked to types of death
  • No'hanz - manipulate traps in clever to achieve different gameplay objectives
  • Spell Wheel - tightly designed small level 'Broughlike'
  • [hexagon] (actually named ⬢) - simple but nice tactical game on a hex grid
  • Spellforger - design your own custom spells by assembling runes (and the challenge in making this type of game well)
  • GeomanceRL - spellcasting based on mana tile distribution in the dungeon
  • Incanto - Scrabble-esque system for creating spells
  • 1RL - 7DRL about making a 7DRL, themed around game creation with time as health
  • BEARRL - play as a Bear, gathering food
  • Card games - Forward (card dealing with rogue theme), Get Well Soon (deckbuilding with roguelike dungeon features)
  • summertime! - trippy cute game with horror elements and house cleaning
  • Inner Life - one of the big highlights of the year, with very unique mechanics of possession and being possessed
  • I of the Storm - fight with Street Fighter-esque chains of moves
  • 2 player games - Double Blind (get a glimpse of the level and then try to navigate based on memory), Summoner's Handbook (tower defence game)
  • Pinball Dungeon - propel your character around the dungeon in contiguous space, damaging enemies you bump into
  • Rollcave - Increasing momentum in different directions each turn
  • SkiRL - Get faster each turn, have to consider momentum
  • Rogue Robs Trains - Wild west themed roguelike, shooting enemies on a train with a cool ASCII animated background
  • Hack Attack - Interesting combo-based combat with different enemy types
  • Hathwell - Wield a sword that takes up a separate tile, you have to swing the sword into enemies
  • Run to the Stairs - Racing-based roguelike
  • Ironscape - Procedurally created monsters, lots of beautiful otherworldly flavour
  • The House - Hand-drawn style graphics, deterministic combat
  • Wait For It - (Darren's game) Waiting turns charges up abilities, player can pause time and only gets experience when killing multiple enemies on the same turn
  • Plus probably lots of other highlights we've missed beyond these 38 discussed!
  • Upcoming Seven Day Broughlike jam 2-9 June, for making games in the style of Michael Brough

3 comments:

  1. Thank you guys for providing this fantastic show! I discovered Roguelike Radio in December 2019 and just can't stop listening to your exhilarating discussions. I always hear you when I cycle to work and I consumed more then 50 episodes in just a few month. Roguelike Radio inspired me to take part in this years 7DRL challenge. My goal was that my game would get mentioned in your show and now I am very happy to see RunToTheStairs listed here.
    I played a lot of the other entries and found out that the quality is quite high this year. One of my favorites is "Pocket Dimensions RL" which I think was mentioned by Darren but did not get discussed. It really deserves a closer look since it provides FOV-calculation through freely placeable portals.

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    1. Run to the Stairs is a fun one. I didn't expect much from such a simple concept but it works well.

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