Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Well done! The game seems stable and seems complete but importantly missing some in-game explanation text with game play different from your standard roguelike. The aesthetics are clear with good use of colour although the chess pieces suggest how the pieces would move which isn't the case. Maybe some other iconography would be more appropriate. Once I figured out the mechanics the game was quite fun and worth my time to play. I think the innovation shown brings something new to try out. The scope is within the realms of the 7DRL but lacks much need explanation text or, ideally, a tutorial. While it's an interesting puzzle game worth iterating on, it's not a roguelike and scores poorly in that category.
  

• Rogue 2048 is a blend between chess and 2048. At each turn, you can move one of your pieces. If you move two identical pieces on the same spot, they merge to make a stronger unit. If you hit strong units with weaker units, they die, if you hit weak units with stronger units, they loose hit points. At each turn, you decide for the movement of all your units, which is a bit unsettling at first, but matches the 2048 theme. Now one may wonder where the roguelike theme kicks in.

  The game takes place on a board with special blocks such as walls and exits. You can win a level by killing all ennemies or placing your units on exit tiles. The game contains two non-generated dungeons which alternate (or I was not able to reach any other level). There doesn't seem to be any ending and the interface is minimalist. Is the goal to create a king? a whole army?

  Graphics come from the game of chess but except for unit value, there is no particular use of the rules of chess. Maybe a different graphical theme would increase the roguelikeness. For now it feels more like 2048 with a twist than a roguelike with a 2048 theme.

  Yet, I like the idea of controlling multiple units with a single move. It reminds me of the mime characters in necrodancer (they move the opposite of your moves). This mechanic should definitely be explored further. Merging monsters is seen in multiple roguelikes but it often is not to the benefit of the player ;) The fact that you can only merge identical pieces is very 2048y but I think removing this constraint could open a plenty of potential interesting merges.

  In term of content, I would have loved to see different capabilities depending on who you merge. For example, a wizard with an archer could give you an arcane marksman.

  As for completeness, I encountered a few bugs where no unit would move and no interaction was possible. The game also didn't work with wine on linux.

  Making a game that innovates in the roguelike genre is a risky adventure. I think this one has a lot of potential and even though it feels like it needs a bit of polish, it could become a nice piece of entertainment.