Very fun and addicting. Most of my thoughts have been covered, but 2 things:
1. I may have missed it, but there doesn't seem to be a way to sell to the merchant. It'd be nice to be able to unload unneeded gear for some extra gold.
2. It might just be bad luck, but it seems like 4 out of 5 chests give me darts. Nice to get sometimes on melee characters, but for magic types these were useless and all all classes i got way more then needed.
Great game, but there are issues.
Of course a rogue-like is supposed to be challenging, and you've done a great job of doing that. But the challenge should come from the gameplay, not bad mechanics and balance issues. I develop table-top gaming systems, so I have a few suggests for how to make your great game an amazing game.
Better balance. I'm not the first to comment and probably won't be the last, but the rogue and warrior classes are basically useless compared to the mages with their unlimited ranged attacks. Perhaps give them a crafting skill tied to the Ranged ability. Spend energy to craft darts for the rogue and javelins for the warrior. Rogue could make like five arrows and warrior makes maybe two or three javelins. Since we're spending energy all the time, I think that's a fair trade off to give the non-mages more access to ranged attacks.
Food. No matter how powerful we get our characters, once the food runs out the game is essentially over. Since there's no reliable way to obtain more food and the merchant doesn't restock his wares, there should be some way to obtain food. Maybe a "Hunting" skill that you can activate like the Sneaking skill, and while it's active it greatly increases the chances of monsters dropping meat.
There needs to be a sell option with the merchant. I like how when you pick up more than one of the same item, it gives that item a +1, but ultimately you pretty much stick with one or two weapons. Yes, they all have different uses, but we should have the choice of whether or not we want to make use of those options. Plenty of times I just wish I had been able to buy more meat but instead I'm carrying enough boots, gloves, and spears to stock the clearance rack at at Renaissance Faire. Also, the merchant should sell keys.
Rings. The weapons stack and improve on each other when you pick up multiple of the same type, so how come rings don't do that? It would be perfectly fine to NOT make the rings stack if we could equip more than one on each hand. Last I checked, I have five fingers on each hand and I could fit a ring on all of them if I really wanted to.
Those are my ideas. I really enjoyed your game but ultimately it became more frustrating than challenging due to the various issues I mentioned above. If you are able to address those issues and make improvements, I'd gladly come back and waste an entire weekend wearing out my left mouse button.
This is an excellent roguelike. I am a snob when it comes to roguelikes, and I say this is a good game. I like how you can customize your character development. Being able to acquire books for the other classes is nice, as are the various altars.
I like the nods to Gauntlet with the monster generators and the teleport tiles.
My favorite class so far is the Necromancer as it suits my play style: DOT and poison gas traps.
Food is few and far between, so I end up buying it mostly at shops. My one complaint is a distinct lack of food! Maybe I've just been unlucky during the times I played.
In spite of that I still rate this as a 5 star game. Thank you for making this game. You made my Sunday afternoon a pleasant one!
My first favorite in a long time, difficult but not mind numbingly so, still haven't beat it but I seem to get a but farther every time, I wanted to suggest a few things, maybe hidden doors or rooms openable with fire or a bomb, IE the cracked or vine walls, and a rogue ability to make finding them easier. To other players, I found the necromancer to be really fun to play and I've been running it obsessively, a good tactic early on is to hit and run letting the poison do its work and saving your life spike for ranged/dangerous enemies, Also note as it says in the description it stacks, so hit a turret with two of them and usually it will be down to around 10 health and you will be back at full just from standing behind a wall for a moment,I also wanted to suggest a luck alter, worship and it makes more chests/gold generate every few levels, anyway, as I said amazing game, thanks again for making it!
I adore this game. The challenge and strategy are perfectly balanced so that while it's not easy, it's extremely fun. You're very good at this and I can't wait to see whatever you put your skills toward next.