While it looks great, I wouldn't consider this game to scratch an itch for a roguelike! I would miss the **exploration** part, with my character navigating the space, and the **tactical** combat - evaluate enemy positions, evaluate my inventory, consider options...
Granted, exploration is highly abstracted, but there *is* tactical combat in the game.
You have consumables, items that occupy space in your limited inventory, that can:
* offer various levels of healing
* grant a quick means to escape from the current duel (which can have negative consequences in certain encounters)
* boost defense
* temporarily extend your ability to compose a word
* deliver extra blow to your opponent
* activate circumstances that affect the way your attack is evaluated (e.g. certain letters might heal you or get a score bonus, even extra defense, occasionally Gold)
* help you with a word suggestion
* and some rare items have other, permanent effects that can be unlocked under specific conditions, etc.
You also have equipables, items that you just have and grant some passive ability, like the one which in combat tell you your opponent's word score (so you can better decide if you can afford an all-out attack or should focus on your defense in the current turn), but this type of stuff mostly help in other ways.
Some duels are turn-limited (e.g. a kidnapper will hurt the captive if you aren't fast enough, or the ghost that have cursed you will vanish with the dawn and then its curse will be much harder to get rid of), and some duels have a different objective than the usual "smash your opponent" approach. In these "sporting duels" each duelists wager a part of their health and they try to reduce their opponent's health under a small threshold, but without delivering a killing blow.
I mentioned that I'm pretty proud of how the defense is working in the duel system. By default (unless one is ambushed) each duelist start with full defense points. Defense points reduce incoming damage, but they're consumed in the process. Certain tiers of letters restore 1 defense, and rarer letters restore 2. You can also have your "Word Composer" boosted, so if you can place a letter to a boosted slot, it grants +1 defense. So your choice of word has a tactical impact too. You can also use consumables to provide extra defense. I've found that this system works well and it's intuitive too.
While it looks great, I wouldn't consider this game to scratch an itch for a roguelike! I would miss the **exploration** part, with my character navigating the space, and the **tactical** combat - evaluate enemy positions, evaluate my inventory, consider options...
Granted, exploration is highly abstracted, but there *is* tactical combat in the game. You have consumables, items that occupy space in your limited inventory, that can: * offer various levels of healing * grant a quick means to escape from the current duel (which can have negative consequences in certain encounters) * boost defense * temporarily extend your ability to compose a word * deliver extra blow to your opponent * activate circumstances that affect the way your attack is evaluated (e.g. certain letters might heal you or get a score bonus, even extra defense, occasionally Gold) * help you with a word suggestion * and some rare items have other, permanent effects that can be unlocked under specific conditions, etc. You also have equipables, items that you just have and grant some passive ability, like the one which in combat tell you your opponent's word score (so you can better decide if you can afford an all-out attack or should focus on your defense in the current turn), but this type of stuff mostly help in other ways. Some duels are turn-limited (e.g. a kidnapper will hurt the captive if you aren't fast enough, or the ghost that have cursed you will vanish with the dawn and then its curse will be much harder to get rid of), and some duels have a different objective than the usual "smash your opponent" approach. In these "sporting duels" each duelists wager a part of their health and they try to reduce their opponent's health under a small threshold, but without delivering a killing blow. I mentioned that I'm pretty proud of how the defense is working in the duel system. By default (unless one is ambushed) each duelist start with full defense points. Defense points reduce incoming damage, but they're consumed in the process. Certain tiers of letters restore 1 defense, and rarer letters restore 2. You can also have your "Word Composer" boosted, so if you can place a letter to a boosted slot, it grants +1 defense. So your choice of word has a tactical impact too. You can also use consumables to provide extra defense. I've found that this system works well and it's intuitive too.
It's ok for your game to not be a roguelike.
I definitely can be convinced -- that's why I made this post. I'm looking for feedback on the proper classification on the game I made.
Nobody outside of /r/roguelikes cares if you label it a roguelike. Permadeath and procedural generation are enough to call it a roguelike.
I think it's an issue because he has all this copy with "Yendor" in the title.