Innkeeper's Basement

+ brings to mind Desktop Dungeons, but with the twist that uncovering new tiles makes the enemies damage you while damaging them is a free action + coming up with viable builds from the (sizeable and very varied!) class and race roster is fun + big number of cards to choose from as well +/- feels more like card-collector game than a puzzle compared to Desktop Dungeons +/- runs are short (maybe about 30 mins for longer ones) +/- forces you to constantly switch your class/race setup to unlock [i]anything[/i] and progress +/- in time you get a lot of freedom to ban cards, which can appear, which is cool, but at the same time it kind of pushes you into doing a lot of micromanagement before every run, since every character you want to try out prefers different cards. Banning 20-30 cards out of 150 each time can get tiresome if you want to min-max. And even then you have no guarantee that you will get what you want. Maybe a similar system during interwoven into every run work better +/- the game doesn't seem to have a clear end goal and instead it's more free-form - it pushes you to try out various builds and the reason to so is to unlock even more stuff to try out. The same applies to new dungeons - finishing a new dungeon isn't that hard if you are free to choose whichever build you want. Unlocking a new dungeon is generally far more difficult, since it forces you to play in some specific way - randomness of encounters, especially the boss fight - there are ways to mitigate this, but you can just get unlucky and discover the dungeon boss too soon. If you are not fully prepared to deal with that at that very moment then you are simply dead - at some point the progression slows down a lot and you are left with only the difficult unlocks that the game hints you at (or, even if it shouldn't be difficult, it seems difficult for the specific player). I imagine enjoying it more if there were more ways of unlocking than a single challenge for each - has this unrefined quality of an early access game

TLDR: just want a gameplay video? its below the review. Innkeeper's basement at its core is a deck creating roguelike where each run you improve your deck by eliminating cards from appearing in the next run and improving your playstyle by unlocking new races (elf for example) and classes (mage for example). It bases its exploration off of a minesweeper styled guessing game of where enemies are. I'll go in to detail of how this works below. [b]What Separates this from all the other roguelike deck builders?[/b] Mainly the feature coming to mind that makes the distinction is two things: 1) The card elimination system and 2) The minesweeper styled exploration. [b]Card Elimination System[/b] The Card Elimination System works by giving you a certain number of wisdom points for the next run; this number improves with more runs or cards revealed. You naturally start with no cards revealed so you cannot eliminate any initially. After my first run I had 8 wisdom points so I could 'Ban' cards from appearing in the next run I did. Don't like a card choice? BAN IT. Simple as that. Its a pretty wonderful system to help you craft a specific stylized deck to min-max to your heart's content. You cannot eliminate cards however if the amount for that rarity (odds of occurring) are below 5 cards. [b]How Combat Works[/b] Combat is broken down in to fairly easy to understand components. 1) Exploring any new tiles is considered a turn. 2) You regenerate your health/stamina/etc resources after a turn has passed. Same with card draw. 3) When you explore a new tile an enemy is on it immediately attacks you. It will also attack if you do anything that "ends" a turn such as revealing a new tile or using the campfire/altar. 4) Once the enemy is revealed you may use all of your resources to attack it with impunity. It will not retaliate what-so-ever until you end a turn. Need to use all resources and 18 cards? sure can. That is the basics of the combat for the game. [b]You mentioned an unlock system, explain more[/b] Meta progression is based off of how many cards you can ban, how many runs you complete for consumables for the next run, and 'challenges' to complete. The challenges are such things as needing 10 magic attack in order to unlock the elf race, or being an elf and drinking 3 brews to unlock a dwarf. A class unlock example is poisoning an enemy by a certain value to unlock the venomancer class. Each race and class augments your stats and starting perks/card choices for the next run. Its a way to add a fair amount of depth to the typical deck-only format we see a lot these days. If you like choices then you won't be starved for them. [b]What would you consider the game's weak point?[/b] Simply put the unlock mechanism will take time to grind out. You have to do certain things a certain way to unlock stuff. Beat one run to unlock this, then the next run do X to unlock Y. You cannot unlock everything in a few runs so there is a time sink involved. That is kind of the basis of roguelikes though to invest time to unlock the cooler stuff; but for impatient people grinding to unlock other things may not be their cup of tea and makes the game slightly less accessible if you're impatient. I find this acceptable, but not everybody has a nothing-schedule like I do and its the only thing I could think of that could be considered a negative point for the game. [b]Final Conclusion[/b] Yea, I like it. in the video below I beat the first area so you can see a boss kill. Its fun and has depth to it so if you love experimenting with different builds and min-maxing then this is the roguelike for you. They did a patch that includes a tutorial after I made this video, literally a day's difference! hah; some small changes may be present from video to current game. https://youtu.be/H4o_0TlRCLw

At the moment heavily luck based. Needs a lot of polishing and balancing...

The game is extremely underrated and it is one of the biggest surprises ever. I clocked 60+ hours in my first five days with it and unlocked almost 100%. The game is about efficiency and every move could matter to achieve total hegemony. I think the developers have made bad marketing because when you combine a minesweeper concept and 5 dollar price tag the natural expectation is not high. But the minesweeper is a small part of something much larger with around 25 heroes and classes giving tons of combinations with 10+ dungeons to overcome. It has high replayability and plays very quickly. First, you might be frustrated by the difficulty but try not to progress in the missions but to unlock things because some classes are naturally weaker and simply not suitable for certain heroes. I love the fact that you don't need to kill every enemy but build your hero and then do the requirements. The game has a high variety of creatures throwing you all kinds of scenarios making every card super useful in one case to begging to get rid of it in another. Again the game shines in its efficiency and many ways to beat the missions. But every time you uncover a tile some time has been passed meaning that the grid size is limiting your time for progression. If you try to be a procedural killing machine your power = time * strength may come short at the end for the final boss ;). But if you decent too quickly you could be squished as a bug. Don't worry if you make a mistake 30 seconds later you can be on the same run, therefore, treat it as a blitz for experiments that could develop into a puzzling and engaging run. Now I believe it is time to stop reading and buy the game. Meanwhile, I will contact the devs to place more hints and indicators because here and there it is difficult to decipher how to unlock things as it is my main complaint so far. And don't expect storytelling bye.

First of all, I'm not an experienced roguelike or card game player, but I liked the title of the game and the main picture. XD Well, I must say, I'm totally into it at the moment. I remember Minesweeper from my childhood; this game has mechanics similar to that old-school game. :D I like the monsters, the music, the graphics of the cards, the spells, and the descriptions - they're all awesome! There are a lot of bosses with funny options to choose from. I've already played as an adventurer and a mage, both of which were awesome, but I see there are so many options to unlock and plenty of hybrids to build, which is fantastic! :D I'm chilling when I play this, and I truly recommend this game.Game also has a very intuitive and user-friendly UI/UX, so even a person who is new to card games can quickly grasp the rules and mechanics. THATS HUGE PLUS xD o/

POSITIVES - Interesting game that evolves on the desktop dungeons concept, you get your resources back with each tile exploration and monsters attack if they're already revealed but you're free to take as many turns and spend as many resources as you have without moving the turn clock forward. This leads to fun strategic choices in between turns. - Varied cards and classes make the experience quite interesting and lets you theory-craft some interesting builds. - Very promising concept that focuses on interesting combos and builds, the game doesn't hold your hand so you live and die by the combos you can think up on the fly. NEGATIVES - The minesweeper system added very little to the game for me, maps are small and there's often only 1 path forward so regardless of the number shown you end up just exploring everything anyway with little choice as to what goes first. - Balance seems a bit off, you can find the third floor boss on the tile right next to the stairs and just instantly be dead, specially since the bosses at this level can have upwards of 300 hp + minions. Normal cards often deal in the range of sub 10 damage, if you don't have some of the op cards that deal 100+ damage per turn and the correct cards to negate their downsides it can feel quite futile. - The UI still needs work as expected of a very early access game.

So I don't really leave reviews that are longer than an short "I love this game" but that doesn't seem proper here. This game is amazing, a steal at it's price point and just as good as any other card game out there. While I've only played an hour at the time of this writing I'm confident that I will be playing this for awhile partially because they have a really good road map for the future. It kinda sucks that this game has no traction at the moment because it's so damn good.

Nice dungeon crawling card's puzzle that with reminiscences of Desktop Dungeons

Innkeeper's Basement has some interesting mechanics that got me hooked for a few days, but is a mess. The core mechanics are clear and work well, but the game is in desperate need of balance. Most cards are too weak, even the epic and legendary ones. I would buff the majority of them. The developer states in the game description that there are "5000 different character build combinations" and that seems right, but what they do not mention is that most builds lack synergy. Builds are not viable and, on occasions, even worse, they are unwinnable but you will only realise that in the middle of the run. Additionally while you learn to play, it is too easy to pick cards that will ruin your whole run. Many epic and legendary cards have maluses that reduce the chance of being useful for your build, or have wild use conditions. For example, I found cards that deal a great deal of damage, but once you use them your health will be lowered to one hp or other cards that after use will reduce your mana to zero. On many occasions I found myself choosing a common card with some useful basic effect, instead of a riskier epic or legendary card that has the potential to ruin my game. That is not fun. Running out of mana or, even worse, running out of cards, is common in the latest stages of the runs, when you need mana and cards badly... Yes, you have ways to mitigate that, but your ability to customise the deck to your liking is among the worst I have seen... Is too random and most cards are just weak or meaningless. The meta progression is there in the form of a Karma Shop, but is grindy and locked behind weird unlock conditions that you have almost no control over. While I enjoyed the quick runs and the gameplay, I felt that I was not allowed to have fun as, except for the first level, the runs are obnoxiously difficult and you have little control. I realise that a game like this needs RNG and procedural generation, but there are ways to make runs more viable, less punishing and more important, enjoyable. The developer designed great mechanics and created a challenging game that feels fresh, but at the same time they opted to punish the player from multiple directions. The game is poorly balanced, the maluses abound, the bonuses are scarce and not great at all. There are very few cards that you can "build around them" as any decent roguelite card game should have. Despite my criticism, and considering that the game is in early access, I will recommend it, as it has plenty of room to improve. I rate this game a 5.5/10.

well-done with plenty of content and few bugs. 15-30 minute runs +very difficult. and winnable. +high replay. +gameplay variety: card randomization, race and class variety, maps, and unlock goals. +unique hand overflow system. +fast-paced.