Fear of View

I made a "Broughlike", a restricted roguelike inspired by the games of Michael Brough. Instead of killing monsters, you try to not see them.

You can play over ssh:

ssh fov@thegonz.net
password: fov

Here's a screenshot (using ANSI escapes):

Life: 1/5  Score: 0/25~  Level: 1:3


·──·──·──·──·──·  Inventory:
│       ?  "   │  1 = Flash
·        ·──   ·  2
x ?    m │ !   │  3
·        ·     ·  4
│ ?  ~    m    │  5
·              ·  6
│            m │  7
·        ·──·  ·  8
│      [0;10;m     @ │
·──·──·──·──·v─·
mmmmpc---------------------------------
│││││││││--------------------
Upgrades:  ^: mc   >: m│   v: ││   <: │s

For now at least, this is a Gemini exclusive -- I'm not advertising it by any other means. There's a shared highscore board if you play on the server, and I'd be happy to see familiar names there! The game autosaves each turn, so you can quit at any time and continue by sshing back in. If you prefer to play locally, you can try to compile the Haskell source.

Hints

You're meant to be able to work out how to play by playing, and there's now even a little tutorial aiming to teach the rudiments -- but in case you'd prefer to read, here are the basic rules.

• Move with cursor keys or wasd or hjkl. You can not wait a turn.
• Walls block vision. Blue background indicates what you can't see. What you can't see can't hurt you, or even exist.
• You will see monsters and walls wherever you look. Both will hurt you if you walk into them.
• Stairs to the next level (<^v>) will be in the last place you look for them. Same with items.
• There are 5 items per level. For the first 4, the position determines the kind of item. The 5th is always a gem.
• Most items go in your inventory, and can be used by pressing the number of the inventory slot and then a direction. Further items:
• !: Potion, heals 2
• ~: Score, collect these to win.
• %: Junk, scavenge through it for useful equipment.
• *: Gem, collect this to add a permanent power to the map, activated with '0' while on its square. The effect depends on the location.
• Each round consists of three levels. Health and powers are reset after each round.
• Two lines at the bottom indicate the mix of monsters and walls which you'll see on the level. The bottom line indicates how the level's difficulty will increase for the next round, depending on which direction you leave the level.
• The game is hard. You will die. Good luck!

Design ruminations

In the unlikely case that you're interested: