Rogue: Secret Shadows
- The game is a pure stealth Roguelike. Stealth is at the very core of its entire design. You can't kill the enemies. Your best chance is to evade the guards. There are spells and items to help you. Your Rogue powers allow you to see their detection views and sense their awareness levels.
- Guards will try to thwart you in different ways. Some will attack at range. Others may use enchantments. And some may even foolishly attempt to steal from you. For they know not what you are.
- You can pick items up by moving over them. Hovering over the items in your inventory will reveal what they are. Clicking on them shows actions you can perform.
- You are given two sets of objectives (contracts) at the start of each mission. You must fulfil one set to succeed. If you are unable to do so, your Guild will eliminate you.
- You may need to find secret rooms to complete your mission. Search dutifully for any means of unveiling them. Remember, it's our business to uncover secrets.
- The Rogue's Guild intend to secretly eliminate unworthy Rogues according to certain parameters. Their intentions are not made clear. Nothing personal, it's just in their nature. The more books you read, the more knowledge of their clandestine plans will be revealed to you. Use this to your advantage and to help you to survive.
- After completing a contract, you must make it to one of the exits to escape.
May the darkness veil you. May riches fill your purse. And may your secrets die with you.
-- The Rogue's Guild motto.
TIPS:
- Did you lose, despite completing all objectives and escaping? Check the revealed secret for clues to why you were eliminated.
- Bleeding and poisoning can be fatal if unattended to.
- The cauldron can be used for brewing potions.
- Items can be crafted at the work bench.
- You can steal from a guard when they're frozen.
- You have to actually read the books to gain their knowledge.
ISSUES:
- The menu screen (accessible through centre-left button) incorrectly says game over mid-game.
- The secret plan is the same every run.
- The secret door isn't so secret.
- I'm preparing a fixed version for release post-jam.
ART:
- Null Tale
MUSIC:
- Makoto Hiramatsu
- Kevin MacLeod
Comments
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Sorry it took so long for me to get around to reviewing this.
To put it shortly, I think Rogue Secret Shadows has a good amount of potential, but probably much potential for it to shine with just 7 days of development. I like the way stealth is handled but the interactions between the player and the environment are understandably pretty limited. With just a handful of simple spells and objectives the game runs out of new things to show the player pretty quick. But like I said, with just a week to work on it it's hard to say that as a real criticism. I like the background song and I think the art is nice, except maybe for the very tiny torches. The shader is a bit strong but I saw that that can be turned off so that's good. But concerning the design, objectives seem like a good way to handle not having direct combat in a roguelike. The secret mission is interesting but it doesn't really make sense logically that your character would be given a mission that they don't know about from the start. If you keep working on the game you'll have to write some lore reason to explain that. Also the mission to lock YOURSELF in a room is a bit odd.
So to finish off this review, all I can really say is that I don't think I can really review it any further since like I said, I don't think the game got the chance to show off its whole potential. Like getting annoyed at a sapling for not bearing fruit. So I'll finish this off with a list of things that might be good to have if you decide to keep going with its development.
In no particular order:
-putting out torches
-hiding in darkness
-disguises -as a guard, rat catcher, bard, etc
-caltrops
-slippery oil/slime
-"distraction" magazines
-hiding in an empty suit of display armor
-flash powder
-bribing mice/ants with food to get them to answer questions/help you find something -depends on how fantasy you want to get
-setting a fire as a distraction
-pickpocketing
-pushing furniture in front of doors to block them temporarily
-non-lethal poisons to sneak into npc's food/beer
-splitting detection between sight and sound and maybe even scent for animal guards
-various illusions to trick the player illusory guards/monster to scare the player away from somewhere?
-missions where you swap something with a fake version -painting, document, gem, whatever
-additional z levels for basements/tunnels/rooftops/etc -could be a lot of work to implement though
Those are mostly just off the top of my head. Take em or leave em. Good luck!
I really appreciate this so much. I've read through and I really like these suggestions. I'm saving them and will see what I can implement. I'm waiting on the official ratings before adding more to and fixing up the game.
In retrospect, I think I over did the scope. Time management is a tough skill.
Feedback like this makes game jams so worth it. Just thank you!
Beautiful art, music, and design!
The random objectives are a really neat innovation!
Great job!
Interesting concepts