Letter Hunt

Letter Hunt is a Seven Day Roguelike written by Jeff Lait. The original idea came from a discussion at the end of the 2005 7DRL challenge with Antoine, the author of Guild.

You can get the most recent version here.

This provides a windows and linux executable versions along with the source for those brave enough to try and build it from scratch. It also provides a linux curses version for those allergic to graphics. It also provides a mac curses version for those running OSX.

The features of Letter Hunt are:

• Spell words by capturing your foes in the correct order to earn points and powerups.
• Fifty-two letters to capture, many with their own personalities or unique abilities.
• Power-up based character advancement. Rather than gaining experience or levels, you just gain powerups that can wear off. Advancement is not permament.
• Open-ended game - there is no final boss or win condition. Your goal is to get as many points as possible before attrition or increasingly difficult enemies take you down.
• Extremely tactical combat. There is no randomness in combat. You always hit and always do full damage. This means that careful placement is the difference between success and failure.
• Turn based action, as is normal for a roguelike.
• User editable wordlist: The list of valid words is a plain text file that can be added to or replaced. Creature frequency is calculated from letter frequency in the wordlist file.

If you are looking for a more traditional roguelike, I can't help but recommend POWDER.

Have fun!

Version History

A 7DRL is supposed to be completely done at the end of the seven days. However, this should not mean one does not make small fixes.

Bug fix Release
October 24th, 2006

Various niggly bugs fixed, including the crash on walk. This version can be found here.

7DRL release
March 4th, 2006

The original 7DRL version can be found here.

It seems I can't code for seven days without adding some bugs.

• Using the 'w'alk mode on a map that is loaded from a saved game will cause a crash. 'w'alk mode will work fine on all new maps you enter, but the maps you had already visited before saving you cannot 'w'alk on.

SDL Conformance Notice

Licensing the Simple DirectMedia Layer library

The Simple DirectMedia Layer library is currently available under the
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2 or newer. This
license allows you to link with the library in such a way that users
can modify the library and have your application use the new version. 

The GNU LGPL license can be found online at:
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lgpl.html 

To comply with this license, you must give prominent notice that you
use the Simple DirectMedia Layer library, and that it is included
under the terms of the LGPL license. You must include a copy of the
LGPL license. You must also do one of the following: 

1. Include the source code for the version of SDL that you link with,
as well as the full source or object code to your application so that
the user can relink your application, or 

2. Include a written offer, valid for at least three years, to provide
the materials listed in option 1, charging no more than the cost of
providing this distribution, or 

3. Make the materials listed in option 1 available from the same place
that your application is available. 

The most common way to comply with the license is to dynamically link
with SDL, and then include the SDL source code and appropriate notices
with your application. 

Embedded Use: Personally, I don't have a problem with anybody
statically linking SDL for use with embedded environments that don't
already have an open development environment. (i.e. the users can't
relink programs anyway) However, this does technically violate the
LGPL, so be cautioned.