Freeware Garden: Roguelight
Roguelike, Gameboylike, we like
Seems to me that many readers enjoyed the demanding action of hets, so here's another tough action-platformer. Roguelight, like everything else in this world, is sort of a rogue-like-like too. In a way. It definitely takes place in 25 levels of procedurally generated dungeons, anyway.
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As you may have noticed, this is a heavily-pixelated affair which utilizes a mere four colours to create its lovely subterranean worlds. Yes, it looks almost like a GameBoy game, which makes perfect sense as Roguelight was created for the latest GameBoy Jam that aimed to capture the ageing handheld's aesthetics. Hence also the tinny music and the simple jump, shoot and move controls.
It was also the highest-rated game of said jam, which does sound pretty fair to me.
Roguelight isa great, beautiful and demanding game, that allows you to play as a sensibly-dressed woman descending a dark network of dungeons with only her bow and a limited supply of flaming arrows to help her. With every subsequent level getting progressively darker and thicker with enemies and traps, wisely managing your limited resources is a skill you must add to your platforming abilities if you want to avoid blindingly stumbling around the dark.
Each time you loose an arrow it will illuminate the area it lands on or, well, should your aim be true, kill an enemy. Or maybe light one of the many hanging lamps. In a brilliantly thought out design move, you can also hold the shoot button to keep your arrow nocked, essentially turning it into a torch and thus fully justifying the game's title.
Upon your unavoidable first death, you'll also discover both another smart mechanic and the purpose of those coins you've been collecting, as you'll be transported to an obviously supernatural shop where moneys can be spent to upgrade you abilities and gain extra health and ammo before starting another doomed exhibition.
Roguelight is available to download for Windows on itch.io and GameJolt. Oh, and here's me tipping my feathered hat to Alexey Nikodimov for reminding me of this lovely, lovely game.