Through (Now at v2.3)

[getter77]

http://www.indiedb.com/games/through

Through is an RPG with a focus on tactical combat and resource management. It is heavily inspired by other Roguelikes. However, Through carries some key differences. There is a large focus on accessibility and ease of use as well as simplicity and transparent design (for instance, your character only has a Strength and Intelligence stat). If you're looking for a deep RPG system thats easy to pick-up and play but difficult to master, give Through a shot. Open Source Art Credits: Oryx: Characters, tilesets | Atuun: Menu Music | Aaron P: Floor 1-5 music | Craig Stern: Floor 6-10 music | cheapshot: Floor 11-15 music | Ails: Icons and Items art

[getter77]

v2.0

It's been over a year, but I finally finished the new version of Through! I completely rewrote the game in the Unity engine, so now it's got a web version as well that hopefully Mac and Linux players will be able to enjoy.

A lot has changed since the last version of Through, but the core vision has stayed the same. This is a simple and approachable graphical roguelike that contains lots of a depth, rewards careful play, and gets quite difficult (especially on the highest difficulty). Some of the items have been removed. Nearly all of the items have changed. All the enemies have been rebalanced to provide a more tactical combat experience where the player will be taking on waves of enemies at once rather than individuals.

If you've never played the game, now is a great time to jump in. I have added simple in-game tutorial messages (that are easy to turn off for experienced players) to get you up and running in no time. Veteran players will find the game has substantially changed from when they last played it, but I think all the changes are for the better.

Please tell me what you think and tell me any bugs you find either in the comments or message me here, or email me at willswannack@gmail.com.

It is very fantastic to see this make it back as many had written it off as an abandoned rewrite!  

[Essegi]

Agreed, i was expecting it, i suddenly saw it and i was happy!:D
This one has one of the best interfaces i've seen in any roguelike and it's simplicity makes its tacticity very combat-bound...
This release seems featuring someting more, that's good since imho it was maybe too simpe still being good.

[getter77]

v2.1

Through v2.1 adds two new features: Altars and Ghosts.

Altars are new special blocks that emit an aura that affects all squares around them. Trick your opponents into fighting in negative auras and keep them out of the positive ones. It adds a nice tactical element allowing smart players to turn the tides in their favor. Altars do not show up in Beginner difficulty. You'll start seeing them a few floors into Tough difficulty and right out the gate in Insane.

The next new feature is Ghosts. Ghosts are a new enemy that begin appearing when you spend a lot of time on a single floor. They can't take damage or be killed, so you will want to get off the floor before they start appearing. This feature replaces the hunger clock so you no longer have to worry about eating. Ghosts are intended to encourage players to think about when they can safely rest and when they have to keep pushing on.

-BUG FIX: Arrows depleted on bow now causes player to attack instead of freezing the game
-FEATURE: Ghost system added
-FEATURE: Hunger system removed
-FEATURE: Altars spawning system added
-CONTENT: Added altar of healing
-CONTENT: Added altar of pain
-CONTENT: Added altar of strength
-CONTENT: Added altar of weakness
-POLISH: Long fade in on game start
-POLISH: Short fade in on floor transition
-POLISH: Added particle effect for strength effect

[Essegi]

v2.2 for Windows and for Mac

2.2 brings elite monsters, elite items, and a few new classes, as well as a series of balance changes and bug fixes.

[getter77]

v2.3

There were two main goals with patch 2.3: Get the difficulty a bit spikier and to make playing a caster require a bit more tactical challenge.

I addressed the first goal with a Vaults. Vaults are rooms hidden behind doors on most floors. Each one is either a monster or treasure vault. Monster vaults contain a challenging encounter with an elite monster and his cronies. Treasure vaults contain a bunch of items, including an elite. The number of treasures vs. monster vaults evens out enough to allow some intense difficulty spikes without bringing the game into unfair territory. But you will have to play on your toes a bit more.

I tackled the next goal in a bunch of ways. The first and most obvious is a whole gamut of new enemies. 4 in total. Each one tailored towards making life more difficult for ranged characters. For instance, the Spirit pulls characters towards him. The Other teleports adjacent to characters. The Illithid will disable your character. Each of these enemies provides a distinct challenge to melee characters as well. But they’re tailored to get mage players into the tactical positioning strategic level of the game as well. Next, I added Magic Resistance. This requires a separation of all  damage types into either magical or physical damage. Physical damage works like it always has: it’s reduced on hit by the damaged characters defense value. Magical damage is no longer reduced by defense (so those stoneskin postions won’t help you with Demonologists and Flaming Skulls anymore). Instead, characters can get Magic Resist which gives the character a chance to completely nullify incoming magic damage.
 
There’s now three types of shields in the game to compensate for this defense change. Steel shields have the highest defense, but provide no magic resistance; emerald shields provide lots of magic resistance but no defense; onyx shields sit somewhere in between, with a small amount of defense and magic resistance. All shields also require a lot of strength to equip. This means high strength melee focused characters will have a great source of magic resistance, but casters will have a lot of trouble defending from magic attacks.
 
Many of the enemies old and new now have magic resistance as well. This will make the casters job of figuring out who to take out first considerably more complicated. The goal is for this to add tactical tension to playing a caster throughout the game.
 
Detailed Changelist:
-Lots of UI tweening polish
-Rewrote item spawning system to be more easily extensible
-Rewrote damage system to support Physical and Magical damage distinction
-Added Emerald Shield, a shield focused on magic resist
-Added Onyx Shield, a shield balanced between magic resist and defense
-Renamed Shield to Steel Shield, rebalanced to focus on defense.
-Made Elite enemies substantially harder
-Rebalanced a few enemies to have magic resist, making them more threatening to intelligence focused characters
-Flaming Skull idle anim polished
-All status effects now have mouse over descriptions
-Fixed fire trip and altar of pain bug that caused the game to randomly stop playing.
-Added Monster Vaults
-Added Treasure Vaults
-New enemy: spirit (+elite)
-New enemy: spider (+elite)
-New enemy: other (+elite)
-New enemy: illithid (+elite)
-Added stupidify effect
-Reduced normal item placement to compensate for extra items from treasure rooms, encouraging players to take the risk of entering vaults.
-Removed the ability to alchemize elite items into new elite items. Alchemy does not produce elite items anymore (except in extremely rare circumstances).
-Changed mouse input to allow holding mouse button while enemies are near but cancel generated paths, making input a little more lenient when near enemies.

Nice to see the solid changelogs still rolling onward on this.