Rolldown is a short, run based puzzle game that has roguelike elements in it, but is all about how you roll your die. You will want to ensure your turn is being planned ahead, and that you are always on a good side, otherwise you will find yourself in a tricky situation.
You start off in a small room, with a chest and a tutorial guy. You will meet up with this guy every single time you do a new run. The chest seems to be randomly generated with an item to help you on your run; a potion for more lives, a shield that allows you to not get hit for two turns and recharges, a wand that kills the nearest enemy in one hit, etc. These items are really useful on your journey, and many of them recharge, so you will need to use them to your advantage.
Once you are ready to move into the game, you need to roll your die onto a number higher than the enemies’ number of eyes, and then crush them. Your enemy in this case is the tutorial guy. Then, the real game begins. On each of the levels, you can see little boxes appear on the screen, where enemies will come. Rolldown wants you to make your way over to these enemies and crush them, but if you stand still next to them, you will find they will attack you.
Moving around can be dangerous in Rolldown, as you need to always be aware of what number you are turning into and the movement pattern of enemies. Rats move more than one space at a time, for example, where as ghosts can go through various items left on the screen. You will need to be aware of who will be by you, and when, so that you are always higher than them and ready to attack. On the floor around your die you can see what number you’d become if you roll there, which does help, but a lot of these moves will require careful planning.
Dying in Rolldown will happen, and the tutorial guy will say how well he feels you did. Then, you can grab another chest and get back in! If you make it far enough, you can even find chests within the game, giving you additional powers and items to help you further. It’s an interesting combination of the puzzle and rogue-like genre, and something completely unique to other games that I have seen.
You can play Rolldown for free, in your browser.