Found Magic is a 2021 Seven Day Roguelike Challenge entry by Ed Kolis. It is inspired by the Nintendo DS game Lost Magic. In Lost Magic, you played as a wizard who could cast spells by drawing runes on the DS' touchscreen. Since this is a PC game and not a mobile game, that mechanic has been replaced by typing magic words.
In Found Magic, you'll need to delve deep into a dark, dangerous dungeon, as is traditional in classic roguelikes. There is an evil wizard named Zobleg. Yes, very original name there. 😛 You will need to build up an arsenal of magic spells and use them to defeat Zobleg. Once you defeat him (her? it? them?!), you will have a limited amount of time to exit the dungeon! Be warned that monsters will be strengthened at this time; it won't be a walk in the park!
There are six magical elements in the game: fire, earth, air, water, light, and darkness. Elements are made of essences, and the more essences you have, the more attuned you are to that element. You start with attunement to two elements; you can gain essences for the rest by defeating monsters of those elements.
Each element is associated with a spell. You can cast a spell if you have enough essences of the appropriate element. The same applies to monsters!
Each spell has a magic word, but that word is different each time you play, so your muscle memory might not be all that helpful... To cast a spell, hold the left ctrl key and press the direction you want to cast it. In place of a direction, you can also press the key to pass your turn (period, comma, or numpad 5) to cast at yourself. This is useful for the healing spell!
Once you have targeted the spell, you then need to type the magic word, and finally press enter to release the spell. All the magic words you know will be listed when you've targeted your spell. Type it as quickly and accurately as possible, then press enter! KAZAM! 😁 If you type the word accurately, the spell will be stronger, but if you type it more quickly, the spell will cost less mana.
In addition to spells, elemental essences also boost your stats! Each element has a different effect. The more essences you collect, the stronger the effect gets! The effects of your boosts are displayed on the spellcasting screen. Boosts don't apply to monsters.
If you're able to find and defeat Zobleg, you will have a certain amount of time to flee the dungeon. If you are able to do so, you win the game! If not... well, good luck! You'll take damage over time and it won't be easy!
If your hitpoints ever reach zero, it's game over - simple as that!
You can modify the monsters that appear in the game - yeah, if one's too hard to beat, you can nerf it! Or if the game is too easy, you can make all the monsters tougher. Or just add your favorite geeky references so you can fight Khan Noonien Singh instead of Zobleg! 🖖
To do so, edit the MonsterTypes.json file in the Data folder. Be warned that there's not much error checking in the monster loading code, so make frequent backups in case you break something! Monsters will tend to appear mainly around the dungeon depth equal to their difficulty level. But there's always a chance for out of depth monsters! Be careful!