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Well, this was my first time doing the 7DRL Challenge. In fact, it was my first time making a game. I didn’t plan anything for this in advance, and was actually caught by surprise when I realized it was 7DRL Challenge week, but I decided to go for it. And it seems like it turned out okay.

Chitinous Crooks is a very traditional roguelike in both gameplay and aesthetics. But you have no experience levels or items to help you, just a random set of god-granted abilities. Each dungeon level, you can use up to three of these, and every time you pass a level your health is restored and you gain additional abilities to choose from.

Special thanks goes to rot.js and the tutorial at the Coding Cookies blog.

Good Points

• Fight lobsterfolk and crabfolk in an underwater fortress.
• You can win or lose.
• A variety of special abilities.
• In game help screens.
• I added touchscreen support on the last day. It’s not perfect but it even works on some tablets.

Room for Improvement and Things I Had to Cut for Time

• I wanted some dungeon decorations. Lobsterfolk statues, moulted exoskeletons and other things to give the Sunken Citadel more atmosphere and less boxy-roomness.
• Some nice lofi tile graphics would also have been nice.
• Tweaking difficulty. Sometimes it feels pretty hard but other times it feels too easy. I wonder if I could even that out.
• I’m sure there are bugs I missed. There are always bugs.

(Originally posted here)