Beneath the Throne of the Goblin Queen

Beneath the Throne of the Goblin Queen

by Team SVAROG (Stefan Isailovic, Miroslav Gavrilov)

Brave sojourner, be what we couldn't be. Tame the hate that killed us.
Find out what it is that is locked away beneath the Throne of the Goblin Queen.
Carry our burden, oh soft magic, demanding magic, harsh truths galore.

A roguelike entry for the 7DRL 2025 challenge.

Instructions

Arrow keys to move, hold shift to be in jumping mode. Jumping uses stamina, but allows for narrow escapes. Press I to open inventory, escape for back. Bump to attack. Click to look at.

The magic in this game is soft: there are no active abilities that you use -- instead, the GLYPHS do as their nature tells them. Is your health low? The [HEAL] glyph heals. Bad roll? The [LUCK] glyph rerolls. Using the magic of glyphs is automatic and it increases TENSION.

GLYPHs can be collected at ALTARs. Enough tension around them and RIFTS will open from the underworld, portals sending in powerful beings to capture you and take your power. The same energy, however, paints the way forward: it satiates the altars, allowing you to take the power and go on to greater depths.

At every stage after the first (the [ENDURE] glyph was prepared for you), there will be two altars in the level, and a choice of powers to take. Some are more obvious than others.

Attribution

Pixel Art Serif Font by reffpixels, with minor changes to fit the game's needs (added glyphs for portals, and some minor pixel-art like tables, etc.). This font is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The font files are binarized and distributed only as a part of the game. Thank you for the wonderful serif font!

Post-jam Updates

There are currently 7 of the originally designed 12 major GLYPH powers in the game, and this change influenced many factors. While the game's core is present, without all 12, some systems fall short (collecting stuff, casting essences, consuming herbs to alleviate tension) which are present don't have a good footing. Version 1.1 will be looking to fix that and bring in 5 more GLYPHS and their associated herbs, minerals, and spawns. 

A potential version 1.2 might be in the cards much later in the year and bring in 12 minor GLYPHS: powers accessible through mechanics that were cut from 1.0 (such as potions), only [TIME] will tell.