https://inkspinner.itch.io/dimwood

A minimalist roguelike deck builder where the light level changes the effects of your cards, and you can upgrade and build on the cards you find.

The onboarding tutorial for this enigmatic and complex card game is completely inadequate, so I'm going to go into it here as best I can.

At the center of the left-hand side of the screen, you'll see an indicator of the current level of light; the possibilities are Light (filled in), Dim (diagonal lines), or Dark (blank). Depending on the current level of light, every card in your deck will have different effect. On cards, Light is represented by a sun, Dim by a complete circle, and Dark by a dotted-line circle.

Each card has a name (which isn't usually shown), a line at the top that indicates what it does regardless of light level, and three other lines below that that indicate what it does in specific light levels. The line consists of "pips," representing what actions it will take.

These are the most common pips:

• Pushpin (filled-in): One damage is dealt to the opponent. This damage will be deducted first from their Defense (represented by a shield icon) and then to their Health (represented by a heart).
• Trident: Same as Pushpin (filled in) but does three damage.
• Mushroom: I think these do more damage depending on how many you've played. I haven't obtained a card with one, so I'm not sure.
• Up Arrow: The light level will increase from Dark to Dim or from Dim to Light.
• Down Arrow: The light level will decrease from Light to Dim or from Dim to Dark.
• Light/Dim/Dark Symbol: The light level will be set to equal the symbol.
• Shield: You gain one Defense.
• Diamond: You gain one action.
• Card deck: You draw one card.
• Heart: You gain one life.
• Pushpin (not filled in): Like Pushpin (filled-in), but YOU take one damage.

You have a deck of cards that start out in a very basic state. Each turn you'll draw cards at the bottom of your screen; the display will show what the card will do under the current light level, but if you mouse over it will show everything the card can do.

Each turn you have three actions to play cards. Cards are resolved immediately on playing them, so, for instance, you could play a card that makes the light level Dark, then play a card that's at its best in Dark conditions.

At the top of your screen are your opponent's cards. They will always play the three leftmost cards, in sequence, so you know what's coming. There's no way to prevent opponents from playing their cards, but you can try to mitigate their power by messing with the light level or by prioritizing specific kinds of cards.

Occasionally you will have the opportunity to "salvage cards," which remove them permanently from the deck but give you pips to assign. You can place these pips (all of them together) on any card in your deck, adding them to one of the three light level effects. So, for example, you could take a card that has extra effects in the Dark, and add pips to its Dark so it's more powerful ... or you could add pips to its Light to make the card more versatile.

Those are the basics of the card system. Once you get the hang of it the strategic and tactical possibilities become fascinating; you can build trick decks that focus on maintaining a specific light level and making the most of it, defensive decks that make themselves hard to hit and whittle the opponent down, or rush decks that deal as much damage as quickly as possible.

As you obtain and customize cards you become stronger and, eventually, hope to take out all of the creatures in the Dimwood and take on the final boss. (I am nowhere near close to doing so.)

Dimwood is hard to learn and hard to master, but it handsomely rewards study and repeated play. The 1-bit graphics, while sometimes a little hard to interpret, provide an expressionist flavor to an already expressionist game.

Windows or play in browser.