runner

You enter the data-vault. A single memory stick lies on the floor; amulet.dat. You shove it into your bag and race for the elevator in front of you. The lights turn red, and you see a HUNTER bot emerge behind you; lasers scanning the room. You dive into the elevator, hoping you can find your way back through the sub-basement of the mega-corp tower before it catches up with you.

runner is a non-combat, movement-oriented roguelike. You have your prize already, you just need to get out with it alive. You can't fight any of your enemies, but you can avoid them with skillful use of your more-than-human movement abilities to run along walls, jump over enemies, and burrow out of a dead end. You'll win if you can manage to stay ahead of the pursuing HUNTER bot through three levels.

Controls

•  Use either numpad (789/456/123) or keyboard (qwe/asd/zxc) for basic 8-way directional movement. Spacebar "waits" in keyboard mode; both 's' and 'x' move down.
• Activate "special moves" using the non-numpad number keys (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
  • You "select" a special move by choosing its number. Then, valid destinations using that move are shown on the map. Enter a symbol (number or letter, it defaults to what you used most recently) of a valid destination and you'll move there.
  • You can exit "special move mode" by hitting escape or any normal 8-way movement key. 
  • Special moves go on cooldown after use. When they're on cooldown they turn red. If they are close to coming off cooldown, you'll see them turn less red. Cooldowns vary between the moves. 
• "Wait" with (NUM5 or SPACEBAR). It has three purposes:
  • Pass a turn, letting bots move.
  • Open/close any adjacent doors, activate any buttons.
  • Activate a "pulse" -- showing you the distance to the hunter.

Objective

1. Activate the three buttons on each level by "waiting" next to them one time, then make your way to the exit.
2. Exit three levels without running out of health and you win!

Tips

• Use your special abilities as often as you can. 
  • Actively create situations to use them, especially the long-distance moves like (3), (4), and (5). 
• Move (4) Running Jump has an important constraint; you need 3 spaces "open" in front of you with enemy vision to use it. If you use it and there's vision on any of the "charge up" spaces, you'll get shot and the move will be interrupted.
• Hold on to "(6) burrow" for a get-out-of-jail-free card. It has a very long cooldown, and you will probably only be able to use it once per level.
• Don't be afraid of taking damage sometimes. I've never seen a completed run with no health loss. If you manage it, let me know!
  • When you take damage, the enemy that attacked you will be stunned for a few turns. 
• You take damage when you actively move into a cell that has enemy vision. If they move into range of you AFTER you move, you will not take damage. But it may be hard to plot a move out of their vision next turn.
• Don't forget move (3) Jump off wall; it is criminally underused by most players. You need to have a wall BEHIND you, and then you can jump up to 4 spaces straight away from the wall. 
• Beware [REDACTED] on L-1; you will have to develop some new techniques to beat that floor.
• (I forgot to take out the map explorer; if you hit 'm' on the title screen you'll see it generate infinite numbers of difficulty-1 levels. Click any key to generate a new one. There's no way out of this mode, you have to refresh the page to go back.)

More discussion of tips and strategy and discussion of elements of the design in this complete run recorded below. I also recorded daily thoughts during the game jam. Would you believe the Hunter wasn't in the original design doc? Read more about that in the dev logs. 

Inspirations

• Cogmind for so many reasons! The feeling of zooming away from combat with a flying build was part of the inspiration for runner. But also level generation, animation style, setting, and much more.
• Into the Breach, for the idea of predictable enemies that telegraph what they will do.
• Invisible Inc., for the idea of mainly working around enemies to get things done.

Thanks to folks who play-tested and contributed ideas and advice along the way: Jay, Bailey, Brian, renton, AikonCWD, and Jon. Thanks also to my family for helping me find the space this week to sink all this time into this dream I had to make a game in a week!

Official #7drl version here. Changelog since v1.0:

1. Moves are more flexible; you can do shorter wall runs, shorter wall jumps, and shorter running jumps if there is not space available for the "maximum" length versions.
2. "Enemy Jump" is more flexible. You can be either 3 or 2 spaces away from the enemy and it will work; you will jump as many spaces OVER the enemy as you are FROM the enemy when you use it.
3. If you select a different special move while a move is already selected, it will switch immediately to that move. Previously, it would deselect the first move only.
4. Exits are highlighted in the FOW more clearly.
5. You can bump into doors and buttons to open them. Old habits die hard!
6. 'S' has been remapped to DOWN, and SPACEBAR added as a PAUSE button. More old habits dying hard!
7. Tutorial now encourage you to "take a hit" from an enemy so players learn how that works, demonstrates diagonal movement, and introduces buttons before the hunter.
8. Added full screen mode.
9. Miscellaneous small bug fixes.

All these changes are from friends, family, and the Roguelikes discord! Thanks for playing and sharing your feedback and ideas.