Here's a game in development which you may be interested in, as it is kind of a rogue-like. You can play the Alpha for free, and the beta if you pre-order the game for about $10.00 U.S. I've played both the alpha and the beta and I think the game has a lot of promise. The website is here.
I've played the alpha, the last version was 1.14 or1.15. While it was a funny little game playable in short bursts, I don't feel like paying for the enhanced version so I won't buy it.
The alpha was a really good and unique game. I intend to buy the new one at some point, but I don't really like the art style.
The concept is original but I still find the game very repetitive both in the original free version and the new beta. I respect the game's goats though.
Yep, them goats are killers. it's not complete, and yes, it is a bit repetitive, plus there's some stuff that has yet to be implemented. Also, I'm not sure if its because I use Firefox, but a few things don't seem to work correctly in the beta. I'll try playing it again this evening using IE, to see if that makes a difference. In any case, it's a fun change of pace, and definitely not a typical rogue-like. I personally don't have a real problem with the graphics, but better is better.
I had a couple of different problems.: The Unity engine crashed on me. Also, I had a problem when I clicked on the Explorers guild, plus I can't seem to progress (I'm supposed to find different artifacts in different dungeons, but I always seem to find the same one). And it doesn't actually record which dungeons I've completed (you have to do 3 different ones at first, but it seems I can't get beyond those three).
I was eventually able to progress but the interface was not actually displaying which dungeons I had completed. The difficulty does seem to ramp up a bit -- the first three dungeons were real simple, but I actually lost my first time through one of the later ones. It's definitely a game I'll be spending some time with, at least for now.
I adored the Alpha version - played that one to death. I bought the beta for $10 almost a year ago - and I think it's not as good. They are trying to put a sharper UI and overall user-experience on the thing... but it loses a lot of the magic. If you like it, I highly recommend the Alpha, which is still free.
A lot of what has been added for the Beta is certainly unnecessary and doesn't add much to the experience. I think the goal is to add a kind of story to the game, which so many gamers and game-designers seem to feel is desirable. I personally think that an abstract game with no story is far preferable to any game with a non-compelling story (which seems to be the case here. So I totally agree with you. Furthermore, a lot of the best game mechanics (deities, for example) seem to be hidden (maybe it was done that way in order to introduce them much more slowly), but I think that was a bad idea. The core game mechanics, themselves are what makes this game shine, and those are certainly highly observable in the alpha.
Yeah, that alpha is, IMHO, what it's supposed to be: a puzzle game dressed up like a roguelike, with very little getting in the way of you and some really tough decisions about how to win.
I spent so much time with the alpha I prepurchased the final version as soon as it as available. It's one of my most played games over the last couple years actually. I was not very fond of the very early beta builds, but they've updated the game every friday for quite a long time now and they've added quite a bit more content to the game but they're still quite a bit away from being done. The UI just got reworked again a month or so ago, and they're still trying to figure out a style, but once the game is actually finished I think it will be more than worth the money.
