Play Salvage Crew.

The original intent of this game was to be a version of xcom with no randomness to the combat encounters. I had also been planning to make something that was as interesting as nightmare cooperative (which I did for 7drl last year). I think that while it isn’t quite as good as that, it does hit a few interesting moments. My favorite bits of this game are the storyline, which is delivered in about 10 sentences, and all the great work that netgrind and Sal Farina & Austin Redwoood.

Additional thanks to Ian Snyder and Alan Hazelden for their feedback during the development process. I made some major changes to the to the game design that I probably wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for them. My week on this game was largely down to wrestling with graphics and menus, and had about 2 days of solid game design in it even once I got all the graphic stuff sorted. I am starting to realize why ASCII art is one of the core tenants of roguelike design. Basically it means that you can add things as fast as you can think of them, and don’t have to worry much about what it looks like.

Some other games that I really enjoyed from this years 7drl: SEVEN CELL - Ian made this in about 6 hours, and it is amazing. Such a perfect random puzzler Dead Blinger - a great 1HP roguelike that has the classic elements as well. Read down for more about why ascii is great. Dumuzid - the design in this is so wobbly, but I love it. Garbage In / Garbage Out - a cross between roborally and glitch tank. Awesome.