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PM:theRL has a weird name. And a weird plot. But pretty soon after you start playing it, you figure out what is going on.

Look familiar?

Needless to say, PM the RL is a roguelike version of a certain classic arcade game. It is short and to the point. I actually had a lot of fun playing this game. It is pretty nerve-wracking to not be able to see the enemy ghosts at all times. You never know when you are going to turn a corner and run into one of them. Then again, the turn-based nature of roguelikes makes avoiding the ghosts somewhat easier. It’s also pretty excruciating in that often you can KNOW beforehand that you are screwed: e.g. if you are trapped in a corridor with two ghosts and can see that one of them will get to you in less than the number of steps you need to take to get to a side-corridor.

But that is the kind of excruciating that is fun! (Roguelikes might be the only genre where this is an acceptable statement.)

I also like that the author included the right-to-left-side level teleport as in the original game; that was a nice touch.

OR IS IT???

PM:theRL is an experimental take on a classic game. In this case, the experiment is a success. Short, fun, and mildly terrifying.

Dwarftown is the 2011 7DRL entry by hmp.

The game is a fairly traditional dungeon diver roguelike. Except without any actual diving. Instead, progress is made by progressing further and further into the more difficult areas of the world. You start out in a peaceful wood, with bears and squirrels running about and not bothering you. Eventually you will find the rat caves (rats, bats) and from there Dwarftown (goblins, ogres) and the Dwarftown Market (mimics!).

Don’t poke the bear.

Like many entrants in this year’s 7DRL challenge, Dwarftown uses the libtcod library. However, just using the library does not mean that a game automatically looks good. Dwarftown has a ton of polish in this regard. The colors are nicely done, and the lighting is both nice to look at and tactical. For example, when you first get to the rat caves it is hard to see what is going on and rats kept sneaking up on me. Your character starts with a torch (there are also torches to find in the dungeon) that can be lit. Once lit, the dungeon becomes much more manageable, but only until your lighting lasts!

Dynamic lighting. Also glowing fungus!

Dwarftown itself especially makes good use of the dynamic lighting engine.

The gameplay in Dwarftown feels solid. The monsters seem to take an appropriate amount of bashing to kill, and I was not surprised to be killed by the various things that killed me. (e.g. I would not expect to do well against a level 5 Ogre with my meager 1d6 sword)

The game itself is smooth and had no lag or errant pixels or anything on my windows XP machine. I know from experience that designing a scrolling map is a pain in the ass. Coupled with tons of bears and squirrels running around each step I expected some sort of slow down, but never saw any. Kudos to hmp for creating such a fine experience.

I never did make it out of Dwarftown alive, but I did find lots of cool stuff in the abandoned markets. (Just watch out for mimics).

“O” shit, indeed.

Dwarftown is a simple but polished classic roguelike. Certainly an awesome achievement for a 7DRL. Go play it for yourself!