HyperRogue is so ... Hyperbolic

Following up on the last post about old "roguelike" games, I looked at a few of the entries to the 7-Day Roguelike Dungeon Challenge, and here's one that went in a completely unexpected direction ... HyperRogue has your PC running around on a hyperbolic world.  You're essentially in the middle of what looks like a hex grid, but on a hyperbolic space, the paths double again and again as they near the edge, so as you walk in any direction, more hexes unfold in ways that hurt the brain.  I can't imagine trying to find my way back to a previous location.  It's not technically hexagons, either, the space expands by including heptagons in just the right places, and each of those brings in a new branch of tiles.

There is an extensive Tour/Tutorial where you hint Enter to get to the next slide, and it turns out there's a massive world here divided into about 40 regions, each with unique tiles and mobs.  There is an explanation of hyperbolic geometry, and how the number of spaces increase exponentially as they get further away ... there are 257 spaces just 6 blocks from you, all crammed into that little ring two rings from the infinite edge of the screen.

You can right-click any space to see what's there and how to defeat it if it's a mob.  In one of the two game modes, it will warn you "The creature will kill you on this location," but it somehow won't kill you on the next hex over?  I see: if it bumps into you, you die, but if you lure it to an adjacent space and bump it, you defeat it -- well, that's true for the very simplest mobs in the game.  I figured I would run around until I got killed, but in fact, one of the mobs creates crystal or stone "blocks" when it dies so I ended up completely boxed in.

There are a lot of different creatures here, with various strategies to beat them.  Some are friendly or at least neutral, other can be beaten only by moving away from them, for others you move around them or trick them into a space they can't get out of.

In one region (Camelot), you try to get to the center of a huge circle (The Round Table) to get the grail.  But of course, a circle isn't so simple when it's hyperbolic and keep bending in from the edges to bring more mobs down on you.

There are roadways that twist along and join all the regions together.  So if you're getting swarmed in one region, try to find an opening to a new region, or just stay on the twisting (but actually straight) roadways and just poke your head into each region until it gets too crazy, and head back to the road.

The more bonus items you pick up in a region, the more mobs spawn to stop you.

When the game ends, you get a score and can try again.  That's the only thing vaguely "roguelike" about this game.  Exploring and dying.  I assume it would keep your high scores but I couldn't find them.




There's a lot more going on here than I originally thought.  I will do some more exploring ...
As a long-time programmer, I have no idea how he is rendering this world, or how it could even be stored in computer memory.

This game is available on Steam for $9.99, so it went from an entry in a developer challenge to a somewhat "retail" game.  It also comes bundled with another game from the same developer called Hydra Slayer for $11.

I'm afraid I didn't make a note of which year of the challenge the game came from , and I can't find it now, though there's a HyperRogue II in 2012 that goes to a defunct Google Groups page.  Ah, there are some blurbs on the Steam page:

- Nominated Project of the Month July 2014 by Linux Game Awards

- Second place in the Seven Day Roguelike Challenge 2012 (note: the game is much developed since then)

- Indie Ocean's Top 10 Roguelikes Ever! (So Far) - September 2014

So yes, it has been in development since the 2012 challenge.  Wow.

 

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