It’s been a while.

There is stuff happening with Geas, but not as much as I would like, as per usual. Just like last time I posted, things have been crazy busy but now they look like maybe they’re getting better. Just like last time. So we’ll see. Anyway, this post is not about Geas.

It’s about Hyacinth.

Hyacinth is an in-your-browser, old-school styled rogue-like. More-or-less. It has a much less punishing interface, and has some severe balancing issues. True to its roots, it’s also still in development and somewhat unfinished. HOWEVER. In the spirit of “actually doing things” I decided to get it to a playable state rather than forever tweak twiddly bits that I’d like to add.

The game arose out of a need for me to learn Flex, last summer. It did that job and then lay dormant when things got busy, and I kept wishing I had the time to get back to it. A few months ago I finally got back to it, worked on it for a bit, and got busy again. In the last couple days I cleared up the worst outstanding bugs and now I am releasing it. Along the way, I got help, inspiration, and direction from my incalculably valuable colleagues, Gavin and Jesse, and far more playtesting than I could have hoped for from my lovely girlfriend tulokyn.

I’d greatly appreciate it if you could all give it a try. Just in case you miss all of the signs, “H” brings up help. Hopefully you’ll figure things out from there.

And for those of you who usually shy away from rogue-likes because you happen to use a notebook with no keypad: we thought of you. You can use a 9-key “keypad” consisting of QWE, ASD, and ZXC. (The middle key, of course, is rest.) This, of course, throws a wrench in that experienced rogue-likers should take note of: drop is R, not D.

Hyacinth