I made a roguelike - Into the Darkness

[TJS]

The gameplay is based around playing cards to battle enemies, that once used return to the pack to be replaced by new ones. This means each battle is different than the last and by combining cards you can form new strategies.

It was done in seven days for the 7DRL competition and can be played online in a browser here:

http://tjs.itch.io/into-the-darkness

If anyone could give it a go and let me know what they think it would be ace.

[Nick]

That's fun. The only problem I found was that the card descriptions go off the edge of the frame.

[TJS]

That's fun. The only problem I found was that the card descriptions go off the edge of the frame.

Cool thanks for playing, any ideas for improving it at all?

I've made the game window a bit narrower now so hopefully this problem is fixed (although it depends how far off the screen it was going).

[HallucinationMushroom]

Hey quick question... Am I looking for stairs down to the next level, or do I need to kill everything on the level to advance. Only played a little so far but am having fun. I like the concept of cards... that's a pretty neat idea! Also, is it possible to have multiple copies of one card in your hand at a time? I've yet to see it in my 3, or 4 games.

[TJS]

Hey quick question... Am I looking for stairs down to the next level, or do I need to kill everything on the level to advance. Only played a little so far but am having fun. I like the concept of cards... that's a pretty neat idea! Also, is it possible to have multiple copies of one card in your hand at a time? I've yet to see it in my 3, or 4 games.

Hey there, no you can go down the stairs as soon as you get to them, although there should be a boss that spawns on them that you probably will have to deal with first.

No you have a pack of different cards (one of each) and when you use one it goes to the back and you get another one dealt out so you can't get the same card in your hand twice (or at least that is how it should work, it was all done in a bit of a hurry).

Anyway glad you're liking the game and if you have any suggestions for ideas or improvements then let me know!

[Nick]

Cool thanks for playing, any ideas for improving it at all?

I've made the game window a bit narrower now so hopefully this problem is fixed (although it depends how far off the screen it was going).

So far (and I've only played a couple of games, carelessly) it seems great. Very inventive idea.

The descriptions are still going off a little, but only the last character now, I think.

[TJS]

So far (and I've only played a couple of games, carelessly) it seems great. Very inventive idea.

The descriptions are still going off a little, but only the last character now, I think.

Hey I've moved the screen over slightly now so that issue should hopefully be completely fixed now.

Thanks for the praise! If the idea has got legs I might flesh it out a bit more and refine some of the mechanics (particularly in dealing with groups of monsters which is a bit weak at the moment).

[wobbly]

Played a couple of games today, was fun. I just looped round the fire king instead of fighting him, I'm not sure if you intended for that to be possible.

[TJS]

Played a couple of games today, was fun. I just looped round the fire king instead of fighting him, I'm not sure if you intended for that to be possible.

Ha yes I thought about that but didn't have time to prevent it. If you can get round him without dying then that is fair enough I think (plus you'll miss out on the extra cards you get from killing him).

Maybe I might get around to make him stay closer to the stairs (although that might introduce some different exploits where you lurk on the edge of his wandering radius).

[HallucinationMushroom]

Fun game! I played a few more rounds today. I killed the level one boss twice.
I used a Reversal/self-sacrifice/poison, then walked backwards 2 steps to kill him. Pretty fun interactions you can create.

How many cards are there in total?

Oh, and I think I found a glitch in the black spaces between Current Cards and Discard Cards/Shuffle cards. If you hover over those spaces you can see what I guess I would call invisible cards. The game displays what they do and you can click them to use them. For example, at the start of the game there is a space between the last card and discard cards that you can hover over. But, you can actually just empty your entire hand then hover over the entire range and see the behavior.

[TJS]

Fun game! I played a few more rounds today. I killed the level one boss twice.
I used a Reversal/self-sacrifice/poison, then walked backwards 2 steps to kill him. Pretty fun interactions you can create.

How many cards are there in total?

Oh, and I think I found a glitch in the black spaces between Current Cards and Discard Cards/Shuffle cards. If you hover over those spaces you can see what I guess I would call invisible cards. The game displays what they do and you can click them to use them. For example, at the start of the game there is a space between the last card and discard cards that you can hover over. But, you can actually just empty your entire hand then hover over the entire range and see the behavior.

Ah good catch thanks, that bug meant the whole game was completely trivial as you could just discard cards to get free health forever. Anyway it should be fixed on the site now (you might have to clear your cache and reload the page first though).

There are 50 different cards to choose from altogether.

[taptap]

Neat. Idea is great. Love how simple, yet complex it is, and feel very underpowered very soon when everyone has 2/1 or 2/2, I start expending more cards than I gain. (Made it to level 2 twice.) Metagame is combinations that kill multiple enemies at once, making it feasible in cards / kill?

Lootable cards in the dungeon would be neat.

Also, a way to read about opponents abilities if you don't yet know them.

[takkaria]

The gameplay is based around playing cards to battle enemies, that once used return to the pack to be replaced by new ones. This means each battle is different than the last and by combining cards you can form new strategies.

Nice, I've been wondering about how to do an MtG inspired roguelike for a while but this is way neater than anything I came up with

[HallucinationMushroom]

Alright, finally got the Hydra with a reversal/joker/flamestrike. Maybe that was overkill, but I got tired of examining all the possible card combinations! Speaking of that, this game takes me some serious time.

Another question, if you please. What does the card, 'maximise' do? "takes maximum of yours and your opponents attack and defense values during a battle". I don't understand what that is trying to tell me.

[taptap]

I now understood I get more cards in later levels. I managed to reach level 3 with over 30 cards this time, died to dark knight paralysis. Although I just walked by the hydra.

Maximise gives you opponent stats when opponent is better in that stat, but only then.

Paralysis for opponents is somewhat overpowered, you never wake up again.