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I'm currently making a game a week, this is my 5th week.
You can play it with your keyboard or with a touchscreen. Feel free to play it directly on my drive if the scaling / embedding in gamejolt not work properly https://googledrive.com/host/0BwL4fDXcFzMoVjhSV3p2YVg0aGs/null_Cipher.html
null Cipher can best be described as a roguelike puzzle game, because it takes a little from both genres.
It's very minimalistic and focused on one single mechanic: You can not move in a direction when the same letter appears in any other direction. If you stand on the "h" in "aha" you are trapped.
Exploring this mechanic in 1 and 2-dimensional space a lot intresting things began to emerge. I added a way to "disarm" traps, by implementing a skill that involved overriding single letters the player was standing on with limited charges depending on your score.
But that only works outside the trap, because intrinsicly overriding the "a" in "aha" will make it safe, but overriding the "h" if you already are trapped won't change anything.
This made the game feel a lot like a roguelike. I did my best to make it as fair as possible, but as you get deeper and deeper into it if just begins to feel more and more like exploring a dungeon full of deadly traps and not a word game.
I hope I can share a bit of what I found with you guys.
#puzzle
