The Unreliable Cartographer
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
If you are playing this as a 7DRL judge, please play the 7DRL source or 7DRL binary to play, at least at first! They represent the true state of what we consider our 7DRL success. (7DRL binaries were built after the 168 hours, but source code used for them was all "frozen" beforehand.)
However, the plus binaries since that time should be considered at the least minor fixes if not outright out-of-7DRL versions, since their sources were out-of-comp. If judges want to play this version as well, I consider it a small mercy, but I certainly don't expect it!
Of course, for anyone playing casually, I recommend using the plus version.
7DRL 2020 entry. This is the 7DRL version.
By KKairos and ElectroManiacal, and any future contributors (c) 2020 to extent permitted by law. Some small source changes (not impacting gameplay/UX of 7DRL version) made by our friend Spectere.
A game about navigating a trap-laden dungeon with an increasingly unreliable map.
We're mostly happy with this.
For more info see downloadable basics.txt or basics-plus.txt files and in-game help.
Comments from all are welcome, as we may decide to make a "special" plus edition later.
Download
Install instructions
Executables:
Windows is the main option, in 32-bit. Itch space is limited, so if someone really needs a 64-bit binary, hit me up in comments or @Kaikairos on Twitter or whatver.
Mac OS X 64-bit is another, thanks to Spectere (plug: https://github.com/Spectere). It's unsigned, unfortunately.
Source: Available wherever you have python to play with or build with.
Run with python 3.8.2 and tcod library installed or build it yourself with the same and appropriate tools.
Comments
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Tried the game, had fun! Some feedback, and winning screenshot below.
Positives:
-I love the uniqueness of the art. It has a feel that I'd describe as cartography even if the word wasn't in the game title already!
-Great job on supporting multiple control mappings; a lot of games only allow numpad, and I struggle with my built-in Mac keyboard :/
-Lol'ed at Gold trap joke
-"Oh no" is awesome
-After a bit of confusion (more on that below), the game became engaging enough that I'd play it for much more than 3 levels
Negatives/confusion:
-I won the game without actually understanding what the unreliability was. I assume that either the unexplored map starts lying to me, or the traps are mismatched? Probably the game needs to be harder to force the player to figure this out precisely; in the current state, I just accurately traversed the map, jumping over all traps, and happily ascended.
-The gold indicator doesn't reset properly - extra digits are left in place, so it looks like I restart with non-zero gold
So I downloaded the game and tried to play it. however, when ever I launch it( either from itch launcher or directly from .exe) it shows and error message saying "Failed to execute script pyi_rth_multiprocessing". I have win 7 64 bit and I downloaded uc plus win32.
I got you fam: https://www.kaikairos.dev/downloads/uc/uc-plus-win64.zip <-- try that one. I'll attempt a fresh win64 build if that doesn't do it. Also I'm on Windows 10, so I'm mildly worried that's messing with something, but I don't see why it would be?
Unfortunately, it didn't work, same error message.
I wanted to try the game, but guess my love for win 7 is wall that's going to get bigger and bigger.
Thanks for your hard work.
No problemo. If python3 runs on your machine, you might be able to run it with the source and tcod installed instead. You can find me on the roguelike Discord or shoot me an email at kkairos at gmail dot com if you're unfamiliar with what that looks like and want some basics on that.
Intriguing. I only just now discovered this and played UC+.
Oh! Thank you for playing! If you decide to go back and see another stair-less floor, a screenshot would be totally 100% appreciated!
It's REALLY hard to make out the stairs from other things right now; one thing we've already done for plus-plus is adjust the stair color so they stand out even when they're dark.
Sorry I didn't say this earlier: 2x zoom is sort of on my wishlist for 2.0. I'll see what I can do.
Oh, okay, cool! That would be excellent 😀