10 Second Roguelike by BadgerPriest

[raw]
made by BadgerPriest for LD27 (COMPO)
"Darkness has descended on Atalaria. A mighty Time Dragon has taken residence in the dungeon beneath the city and has warped the fabric of spacetime, causing the city's inhabitants to age at an accelerated rate.

You have been chosen to venture into the dungeon and face the dragon there. You will surely fail, but perhaps one of your descendants will succeed."

Who says that roguelikes all have to be slow-paced and strategic? For this entry, I've decided to mess with genre conventions with a roguelike that only gives each character 10 seconds of life. But fear not! Every time you die, you can get back where you left off with a new random character, a la Rogue Legacy. Can you fight your way to the bottom of the dungeon and defeat the dragon?

I recommend using Chrome for the smoothest possible experience, but any modern browser should work.

Just for fun, I also made a Game Jam version of this game, which adds an infinite mode (with progressively higher difficulty) and lets you continue playing after completing the story, as well as featuring randomly generated character art (created by Jimmy Hack aka Humphihzly). Ignore the Game Jam version for rating purposes, but check it out if you're interested.

Tools used: Google Chrome, Sublime Text 2, BFXR, LMMS, Pinta

Libraries used: ROT.js, Underscore, jQuery, Faker.js

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.51 174
Audio 3.23 184
Fun 3.37 219
Graphics 2.82 589
Humor 2.57 389
Innovation 3.13 439
Mood 3.35 166
Theme 3.52 226

Feedback

HeroesGrave
26. Aug 2013 · 06:40 UTC
One of the best games I've rated so far.
anserran
26. Aug 2013 · 06:44 UTC
Cool style for the dungeon representation. Kind of addictive. I got stuck in the 3rd level, though...
Brassawiking
26. Aug 2013 · 06:46 UTC
Love the music! It made the pace really nice and arcade-y. Extremly well executed. I saw a bug though, where your vision suddenly disappeared. Anyhow, well done and good work!
FakeHair
26. Aug 2013 · 06:47 UTC
Didn't know you could just hold the arrow keys to move. I think I got carpal tunnel from mashing the keys. Really cool game! Reminds me of Rogue Legacy with the descendant system. I just wish that Damage varied a little bit more, and that there were items for you to get to boost base stats.
coreym1988
26. Aug 2013 · 06:50 UTC
Great music! Though it got annoying hearing "Ten Second Roguelike" every new life. Overall, really fun game.
🎤 BadgerPriest
26. Aug 2013 · 06:57 UTC
Brassawiking: Actually, that bit wasn't a bug. You encountered the dreadful grue, which cloaks the dungeon level in darkness until you defeat it.
celeron55
26. Aug 2013 · 08:16 UTC
Movement is nasty with having to choose whether to tap fast or wait for the initial key repeat delay.

However, this is a cool idea, the graphics are surprisingly nice, the audio fits well and overally it feels like you really have to run for your life. It kind of feels like Quake or something.

With the movement fixed and some higher level strategy added, this could be really addicting.
tylorlilley
26. Aug 2013 · 21:00 UTC
This game handles very well and is very well programmed. I think the idea sounds a lot cooler than it actually is in execution, however... the audio and the walking down the same long hallways time and time again get rather annoying after awhile. Good game in any case!
ratalaika
26. Aug 2013 · 22:05 UTC
Really cool!! I like it a lot, nice work!
flyingbear
27. Aug 2013 · 01:33 UTC
I slayed a ton of aardvarks!
matthewvermaak
27. Aug 2013 · 01:34 UTC
I enjoy a good Rogue-like. This one play with the conventions, but still captures some fun elements. Nicely done.
borden
27. Aug 2013 · 01:38 UTC
This is awesome!

I love the little memorial after beating the dragon.
Erkberg
27. Aug 2013 · 01:39 UTC
Really liked it, nice roguelike!
eskivor
27. Aug 2013 · 01:46 UTC
very addictive
triforcespark
27. Aug 2013 · 01:52 UTC
Good idea, but I think you can die frequently and not suffer the consequences.
Fervir
27. Aug 2013 · 02:14 UTC
Really cool.
I really liked the music.
doonay21
27. Aug 2013 · 10:23 UTC
Good work!
LiamJPeters
27. Aug 2013 · 10:26 UTC
One of the most innovative games I've rated yet. The "10 Second roguelike" audio is pretty badass! Very cool idea overall!
Sithdown
27. Aug 2013 · 10:51 UTC
I really like this! Addictive.
Diogo Muller
27. Aug 2013 · 13:09 UTC
Creative idea, fun game. I love roguelikes, so that's certainly a plus. :)
flamecow
27. Aug 2013 · 15:28 UTC
Wow, this is awesome.
Tifu
27. Aug 2013 · 20:32 UTC
A LOT of people died to kill that dragon... who would have thought Trees were so aggressive!? Good job! :D
Will Edwards
28. Aug 2013 · 06:27 UTC
Oh wow, absolutely lovely :) I even rate it highly for graphics and it ascii :)
Reaperguy
28. Aug 2013 · 14:07 UTC
Very nice, reminded me of the old ASCII rougelikes...
rfgpfeiffer
29. Aug 2013 · 14:47 UTC
Very obvious interpretation of the theme, but SO VERY FUN!
zeh
29. Aug 2013 · 16:01 UTC
Great little idea. Interesting twist on roguelikes. Well done!
kristof
30. Aug 2013 · 10:21 UTC
Awesome! Its a bit sad, that you only have 10 seconds with one character, but I guess thats the theme. Very cool music!
Sinuath
30. Aug 2013 · 10:33 UTC
Didn't really dig the 10 second life span, but i get what you were going for and all in all it was an awesome game!
Jason
30. Aug 2013 · 14:31 UTC
Nice little game. I agree with one of the previous posts, the 10 second life span is a bit limiting. Its hard to even take in the game before its over.
Metatheos
30. Aug 2013 · 14:47 UTC
I think it has quite a few things going for it and I enjoyed it for the most part. I like the blend of turn-based decisions with the real-time-countdown. I don't think your choice on being strict with the definition of a roguelike in regard to the graphics was a good idea (especially after you even dropped permadeath). Having to read text in the corner of the screen to find out what's going on doesn't work too well in your game. This way it is I missed any tactical stuff you might have added and just ran around killing things until I found the exit (which would get old for me quite fast if the game didn't have the perfect length for this). What worked really well was how the last floor conveyed that it was special and the dragon was well identifiable as a boss.
dekart
30. Aug 2013 · 16:11 UTC
I like this game :) Didn't try post-compo version yet, but surely will do after saving my vote.
anjack
01. Sep 2013 · 01:16 UTC
It feels like a complete game. Very well done!
graytest
01. Sep 2013 · 10:33 UTC
Fun idea and good execution!
Jupiter_Hadley
02. Sep 2013 · 22:26 UTC
Really cool little game. I liked it loads. I featured it in my LD27 compilation video series, if you'd like to check it out :), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1OMEshCeQ0
zconnelly13
03. Sep 2013 · 15:28 UTC
Loved it. Very addictive. We all know what it's a rip off of though, haha, so I'd like to see a little more innovation. But overall fantastic :)
Alexander
05. Sep 2013 · 01:01 UTC
This was great, one of my favorites in the LD. I love how many candy box-likes there are this time around!
grayhaze
06. Sep 2013 · 12:05 UTC
The theme limits the enjoyability of this somewhat, as I ended up in a dungeon layout that took almost 10 seconds to reach the same point each time, with no alternative routes to make a shortcut with later turns. I like the idea though and have a soft spot for roguelikes.
manuq
06. Sep 2013 · 14:56 UTC
Oh wow! The music and the voice really puts the player in mood. Excellent ascii dungeon!
🎤 BadgerPriest
06. Sep 2013 · 21:33 UTC
@grayhaze: Oh, one small tip - if you're stuck on a dungeon level where the end seems too far away, go for characters with high Speed. Your Speed stat slows down time for you, enabling you to cross more of the dungeon before you die of old age (I should probably have explained this mechanic in the game).
zanval
07. Sep 2013 · 21:26 UTC
I made it to the dragons lair! But the game became too slow in that room. holding an arrow key caused me to "skip" 20 turns and be dead.

I love the idea and when I started playing I had tons of fun!

I have two problems with this game though:
- Seconds vs Turns. Especially with the movement (hold a key or smash it 50 times), its realyl annoying that the game is in turns but the time in seconds doesnt match it at all.

- The EXP. In the dragons cave I was too low level.
In the ideal playthrough, you will play a hero until he levels and then wait for the timer to hit zero.
If you die, you waste all the exp you earned.
Very frustrating, as the button hold VS smash problem cost me several levels.

Overall a great game
Antidote
08. Sep 2013 · 17:16 UTC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-mi8pj54dA - My first impression on the game ^^
motty
11. Sep 2013 · 00:49 UTC
Love this. Brilliant. Absolutely stand-out Good Stuff. Thank you.
Urfoex
15. Sep 2013 · 11:03 UTC
Nice one.
First roguelike I could beat ^^
GeorgeBroussard
16. Sep 2013 · 05:05 UTC
I can't express how good the music was, especially the beat after you die and restart. It kept me going. Killed the dragon.
Cryovat
17. Sep 2013 · 00:09 UTC
I slayed the dragon. Got a good laugh out of the concept and the game play was fun.

As for the music and sound. Woah. That was amazing. It sounds like something out of a commercial title. Excellent work. :)