7 Days in Purgatory

Here is our first 7DRL project. We consider it a success, even though its not 100% of what we designed.  We are two devs using libtcod and Python, along with our custom engine. The engine provided lighting, subcell drawing, subcell particle effects, custom fonts, and our widget system. All gameplay related code was created within the 7 day time limit.

Quick post mortem on the experience:

GrishdaFish Today at 10:37 AM

[10:38 AM]so would you consider this a success? 

[10:38 AM]this project? 

[10:38 AM]for 7 days 

noobspanker Today at 10:38 AM

In many ways yes

[10:39 AM]Sure I have grievances with the way process played out. But as far as the game itself and the result of my work I'm definitely satisfied 

[10:39 AM]Had we worked together more I think wed have even more done 

[10:39 AM]Bit we divided to conquer and that felt like a bad idea 

[10:40 AM]In hindsight anyway 

[10:40 AM]We did a great job at planning. The implementation of our specs came together really fast, there was very little bug chasing and shit

As far as developing anything in a team this went OK. Could have gone much much worse, but we can also learn from our faults

And here is a quick description on how to play:

Earn sp by killing monsters

Use it to summon and upgrade minions Gather loot from corpses Spend loot to craft potions to assist minions Murder everything.

WASD to move around. Right click for context menus (try clicking on yourself, your minions and enemies) Left click on targets to throw potions.

Kill all summoners to move to the next level. Avoid all damage. Manage minions

So, we decided we liked this game and the concept behind it so we poured some more time into the game and pushed it closer to the original design. A non comprehensive list of changes:

Major UI overhaul. Original design was too minimalistic, and too dependant on right clicking. Relevant info is now prominently displayed.

Hot keys for almost every action. The gameplay was far too clunky without hotkeys for everything

Significant balance and difficulty tweaking, nearly dialed in to where we like it.

Improved monster and minion AI to be more intelligent and stay closer to the player

Fixed tons of bugs involving minion skills.

Added additional monster types

Improved terrain generation. Lava rivers and pools

Significantly improved lighting and lighting effects.

Better particle effects

Monster barks, player status barks

Download links will follow soon, there are a few more finishing touches we're applying to the game!

Below is a few gifs of gameplay showing most of the changes in action: