Story

Something is wrong on the Isle of the Avatar, the land grows corrupted. The corruption is thickest near the Great Stygian Abyss. It has been centuries since the Avatar rescued a maiden from its depths. Now the Barron of the land has put out a call to find the one who lives the Eight Virtues of the Avatar.  Who will be brave enough to adventure through the Stygian Abyss and discover the source of its corruption.

Instructions

You start at the entrance to the Abyss where you are safe and can familiarize yourself with the controls.  You can find around you a light source, a weapon, and a bedroll, and some food. Each as important as the other. Light sources will burn out over time making traveling the depths of the abyss harder. Use the weapons you find to defend yourself. Bash, Slash, and Stab at your enemies as you make your through the abyss. 

From your inventory [ Z ] use food to satiate your hunger and the bedroll to rest and regain your energy. You will recover health if you are fed while you rest. You will drain energy faster if starving or overburdened. Use [ X ] with an item selected in your inventory screen to drop it.  If you are exhausted you are more likely to miss your attacks against enemies. 

Use Look Mode with [ V ] to Look at yourself by clicking on yourself with the mouse. The game log will display information about your current state.  User [ V ] again to exit Look Mode

You will come across Ankh Shrines on your adventure, stop at them and meditate to increase you skills. 

If you get lost you can open a map with [ P ].  You can close any screen with the same button you used to open it.

Defeat the Corruptor at the heart of the volcano on the 8th level of the Stygian Abyss to beat the game.  Good Luck =D

Open the menu from inside the game with F1 or ? to get to the help instructions, restart the game, or change settings.

[Items]

Look around the Abyss and you will find items. Grabbing any item will equip it, replacing the already equipped item with the new item. Armor includes light, medium, and heavy. Each tier increases protection without any detriment. Be sure to always pick up better armor when you find it. 

Weapons include blades, axes, and bludgeons. Use your intuition when choosing a weapon and attack type. For example War Hammers have devastating bashing attacks, but have no stab or slash damage. Use your intuition when choosing an attack on a creature. The Reaper is made of solid living wood, bashing won't be as effective as slashing and chopping. A Dark Knight in full plate will shrug off slashes.

[Magic]

You entered the Abyss with your rune bag and the right combination to cast a little light to help in your adventure. Search the depths of the Abyss for more powerful runes. Throughout the abyss you will find notes and hints about more powerful spells you can cast.  The deeper you go the more powerful runes you will find.

To cast a spell open your Rune Bag with [ b ] and use the mouse to select runes or type the first letter of the Rune on your keyboard to put them on the Rune Shelf. Press the [CAST] button or [Enter] when you have a valid Rune combination to cast its spell. To quick cast a spell from your Runes Shelf use [ n ]. You can have up to three active spell effects.  On the right side of your Runes chart is the list of spells and rune combinations for this Abyss.

[Movement and Camera]

The controls are more like a third person mouse look game than your traditional grid roguelike.  

Movement and combat is still turn based and aligned to the grid but direction is important and you must "walk forward" with your character.  You can aim the direction of your character with the mouse and press [ W ] to move forward and [ S ] for backward.  [ A ] and [ D ] strafe like a regular mouse look game.  If you want full keyboard control [ Q ] and [ E ] will snapturn left and right.  You can wait a turn with [ X ]. 

You must be "looking" at an enemy to attack them. You can bump attack by walking into the enemy, or you can control your attack type with [ J, L] to slash, [ I ] to bash, [ K ] to stab, and [ M ] to shoot / reload your missile weapon.  You can use [ U ] and [ P ] to snapturn to near targets.  

Use [ F ] or [Left Click] near an item to pick it up or while looking at a Shrine to meditate and level up your skills.

[7DRL 2023 Notes]

Down to the last hour I got a magic system in!  The intention was to have the player learn the spell runes through the world by finding notes with the rune combinations but there wasn't enough time.  So, the new rune combinations are printed beside the runes chart in the rune bag screen.

> Post Submission update, March 16

The 3 pixel wide font was proving to be a bit of an accessibility problem.  I've changed the font to one that is much easier to read. There is no gameplay impact but it should make it more open to players.  There is a screenshot of the original font being used in the menu screen if you would like to compare the old font to the new.

> Post Submission update, March 25

I have been able to attempt some full runs of the game that I wasn't able to during the jam since I was developing new features right up till 30 minutes before my deadline :s

Anyway, I found a couple horrible crashes and soft locks that happen only later in the progression so this update is strictly to remove those crashes and some more accessibility issues with the user interface.

[Default Keys]

Walk forward with [ w ]
Walk backward with [ s ]
Walk/strafe left with [ a ]
Walk/strafe right with [ d ]
Quick turn left [ q ]
Quick turn right [ e ]
Wait a turn with [ x ]
Pickup items with [ f ]
Bash with [ i ]
Slash with [ j, l ]
Stab with [ k ]
Shoot & Reload with [ m ]
Quick cast spell with [ n ]
Open Inventory Window with [ z ]
 - Drop selected item while in inventory [ x ]
 - Look At selected item while in inventory [ v ]
Open Character Sheet with [ c ]
Open Map with [ p ]
Start Look/View with [ v ]
Open Menu [ F1, ? ]
Zoom [ Mousewheel / Scroll ]
Exit open screens [ Tab ]

[Acknowledgements]

Art:

https://www.oryxdesignlab.com/home Tiny Dungeon and Tiny Galaxy

Engine:

https://www.babylonjs.com/ BabylonJS

https://ibgoge.itch.io/cobblestone-grime-arena-of-might Codebase based on the improved 2022 7DRL entry. De-VR'd

Inspiration:

https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Ultima_Underworld:_The_Stygian_Abyss Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss