Berlin Interpretation 1992

It's 1992. A German PC gaming magazine, Dungeon Weekly, is hosting a worldwide tournament. The challenge: complete a series of strange dungeon-crawling “games” they send you. Each one feels familiar, but never quite the same.

Every dungeon is a mutated version of a game, the genre that is coming to be known as "rogue-likes" in the USENET circles... but core elements of these games appear, disappear, and recombine: sometimes the gameplay is close to what you would expect, sometimes the rules are bent in unexpected ways. You’ll have to adapt, survive, while carrying your character’s progress from one challenge to the next, if you want to win the challenge's grand prize: A 486DX2 gaming computer.

However, unknown to the players, the tournament is part of a massive experiment run by a mysterious Berlin institute studying what truly makes a roguelike fun. As players around the world compete, their adventures become data points in an evolving theory of game design.

But something about the tournament feels… off.

Features

• Meta-roguelike structure – Each tournament is a high-stakes run where failure is permanent, and every round enables or disables different roguelike design principles with your hero continues across multiple dungeon runs. 
•  A strange experiment – Participate in a global study on the nature of fun in roguelike games. Every enemy is a unique type of dungeon – Face a wide variety of randomized roguelike games.

Updated versions

The web playable version is a slightly improved version over the original 7DRL submission; if you would prefer to play the original version, please download it from the list below.

Following is the list of changes for this improved versions:

Version 0.2 [7DRL++]

• Recover HP on level completed
  • This one is critical to make the game playable, unless you are a god..
    
• Tweak placement of player and enemies in ASCII mode
• Tweak Game options windows layout
• Prevent changing or using game options unavailable on 7DRL scope

Version 0.3

• Fix critical progression level throwing players forward two levels on each round
  • This one is critical to make the game winnable, unless you are a god..
• Keep a separate state for training mode to prevent it affecting tournament game mode.
• Use all music tracks for training mode, victory variations, and defeat.
• Add Reboot option to menu to start again.
• Fix qualitative depth descriptions
• Show "You have new email" alert
• Fix: placing player behind the level in graphics mode
• Use proper walls and floors in ASCII mode

Version 0.4

• Gameplay Improvements
  • Allow diagonal movement using Shift
  • Allow passing turn if on turn based
  • Prevent spending action points when bumping walls in fluid turn based.
  • Place more monsters per room
  • Spawn enemies randomly in addition to initial population
• Fixes
  • Fix issue with hard to get into corridors in fluid mode for both enemies and player.
    
  • Make enemy visible if can see player
  • Prevent enemies from stepping on each other in grid based mode
  • Spend turn when attacking in non-grid mode.
  • Improve enemy action point consumption and pathfinding 
  • In Turn based fluid mode, only enemies close to the player should act.
• Audio
  • Play audio when attacking in non-grid based
  • Play SFX on new level
• Visual Improvements
• Remove menu button from windows
• Scroll to top when reading new email

Version 0.5 - full info at the devlog

Credits

• Sound Effects: QuietGecko
• Music: Dinti
• UI Programming: Santiago Zapata
• Dungeon Game Programming: Camilo Ramirez, Santiago Zapata
• Design: Santiago Zapata