ASCII Dungeon Crawler Finished
How to Play
Goal: To complete as many levels and defeat as many enemies as possible before you are killed. You get a point for each enemy you defeat and each level you complete. You initially play as the “^” symbol in the centre of the screen. Enemies appear as “!” and will follow you and damage you if they get too close. You must collect a key (£) before you can go through the trapdoor (■) into the next level. The game is turn based, so you can take your time to think about your next move.
The player and all enemies can take 3 hits. The number of hits left is shown by the colour of the symbol.
Cyan = 3 hits left.
Yellow = 2 hits left.
Red = 1 hit left.
Controls
I recommend playing this game with WASD and the numeric keypad.
WASD: Moves the player one position in the corresponding direction, as long as there is not a wall in the way. This counts as a movement unless there is a wall.
8, 4, 2, and 6 will rotate the direction of the player in the corresponding direction on the numeric keypad. Rotating counts as a movement, as long as you aren’t already facing in that direction. The direction you are facing will be conveyed through the symbol of the player, pointing in the direction being faced. (“^”, “<”, “v”, and “>” for 8, 4, 2, and 6 corresponding)
5 is to shoot. Shooting will always count as a movement. Shooting fires in a straight line and instantly damages any enemy directly in front of you. Enemies cannot shoot.
Post Mortem
I am very satisfied with the way that this game turned out. I finished it well ahead of time and included every requirement. I also achieved all but two of my desirables, including procedural generation, a key, shooting, enemy AI, rotations, and a scoring system.
The two which I didn’t include were limited vision (which would make the game too hard in my opinion) and a high score system. The game itself is better than how I thought it would be since vision is not limited. This decision allows for the player to plan well ahead before they make their moves, especially if they predict where an enemy will move.
If I was to do this assessment again, I don’t think I would have done anything differently.