Kerkerkruip

Kerkerkruip is a short-form roguelike in the interactive fiction medium, featuring meaningful tactical and strategic depth, innovative game play, zero grinding, and a sword & sorcery setting that does not rehash tired clichés.

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How It Begins

When you claimed that you were tough enough to take on Malygris single-handedly, everyone knew you had been drinking much more than was good for you. And the prince is not one to let an opportunity pass. Before you could so much as protest, his court mage opened a portal and you were shoved through. Predictably, the portal immediately disappeared. You doubt they're going to open it up again -- but at least you can try to make good on your boast and kill Malygris, the Wizard of Kerkerkruip!

Notable Features

- This game is a hybrid of interactive fiction and a roguelike game.

- When the player begins a new game, the engine procedurally generates a random dungeon with a random list of enemies, weapons, and items.

- The game is heavily focused on a combat system that is based on the author's own Inform 7 library extension called ATTACK. The player can attack, parry, dodge, or concentrate. The decision of which action to take on any turn supports one of the author's principle design goals, that "success in combat should be the result of smart and daring tactical decisions, not just a matter of luck."

- The commands undo and save are unavailable to the player. If the player quits a game or terminates the interpreter program in the middle of the game and then reloads Kerkerkruip at a later time, the game can be continued where the player left off. However, once the player character is killed, the only way to continue is to begin a new game. This is permanent death, another defining characteristic of roguelike games.

Trivia and Comments

- "Kerkerkruip" is Dutch and translates into English literally as "dungeon crawl." However, the author notes, this is "crawl" the verb, not "crawl" the noun.

- In the tradition of most roguelikes, Kerkerkruip is a work in progress and the author plans to release many subsequent versions with new and upgraded features.