Roguelight

Roguelight is a pixel art roguelike that features a wide range of design features in contrast to how small it is. But then again, it’s made by Daniel Linssen and you can always expect a surprising amount of details and excellent gameplay mechanics from his creations.

Roguelight features a very simple design, or so it would seem from an aesthetic point of view. In the game, you play the role of a woman who has to find her way to the lower levels of a dungeon. It’s not specified anywhere that it is a dungeon but for the sake of it being a roguelike, we’ll leave it so.

Initially, it seems easy enough but it gets complicated just after a few second in. Here are the reasons for that. First off, light sources are rare, and since each level is randomly generated, you can’t memorize anything and use that to your advantage. There are more patches of darkness than there are of light and in the shadows you can stumble into enemies or fall and get impaled in spikes.

Roguelight doesn't push a 'one hit, and you die' scenario. Your character might be fragile, but it takes a bit of damage to take her down. More so, she can defend herself quite well using a bow and some arrows.

A nice piece of design is the fact that the arrows double down as both means to kill enemies and as temporary light sources, which is pretty nifty. Notching the arrow makes it glow but it loses brightness in a few seconds, so you have to make the best of it and move fast.

The arrows in Roguelight come in a limited supply. You can’t pick up the ones you use but more can be found scattered across the dungeon. Since this is a roguelike, if you die, you have to start all over again, so you need to make every arrow count.

Each enemy you kill grants you coins which can be used to purchase new perks for your character; those stick with you even after you die. Apart from taking down darkness creepers, you can shoot arrows at lamps to switch them on and make them drop coins.

For its stature, you don’t expect Roguelight to have this much depth and such well thought out gameplay. It’s truly an enjoyable casual roguelike that you can very well take very seriously.