An anti-roguelike made for the UChicago 2025 Winter Game Jam! In this game you play as an adventurer, recently returned from your travels. Explore your home, return to any friends or partners awaiting you, and kiss and hug absolutely everything.

Use the arrow keys to move and select a direction for an action, Z to kiss and X to hug

For this project, I wanted to test whether the essence of a roguelike is found in its systems and presentation, or it's gameplay loop and themes. Besides my adherence to a classic low bit style, I also abided by a fundamental roguelike rule: everything works under the same set of principles. Ordinarily that's things like looking, attacking, and moving, but for this game I decided to go with kissing and hugging. Everything in this game can be kissed and hugged, and all interactions take place under that framework. There is no risk of death, and although there is randomness, there is no risk of losing your world seed.

This exercise made me examine a question I'd always had: is life really the ultimate roguelike? Sure, by definition your "playthrough" is over when you die. The simulation is deeper than we can understand, and there are plenty of meaningful choices and randomness. However, I realized after making a game that mimics a happy life that in many ways, it is the exact opposite of a roguelike. Those are defined by breaking systems, experimenting with often reckless abandon, and a disregard for any particular weapon, potion, or creature that comes your way. By contrast, real life cannot be broken, and there is no exploit for happiness. Instead, you must approach life the same way I encourage people to approach this game: with a slow attention to detail, and a willingness to find joy in tedium.

In some ways, this is what roguelikes are about. When you finally learn the systems, descend to the deepest level, and have a character that you've cared enough to learn the name of, you can feel as strongly attached to them as you do to your own life. Then you start to watch your step, examine the world carefully, and take note of the things around you every chance you get. Maybe the lesson here is that life isn't the best roguelike, but roguelikes can sometimes teach us the way to live a good life. Hopefully I've been able to capture some of that spirit in my game. Thank you for playing. 

Credits:

Made in Godot

Some of the tile assets: The Roguelike 1-Bit by Backterria

The pixel art editor I used to make the rest of the assets I needed: Pixelorama by Orama Interactive, OverloadedOrama

Godot Dialogue Manager Plugin: https://github.com/nathanhoad/godot_dialogue_manager

Font: Joystix Monospace https://www.1001fonts.com/joystix-font.html

The @ symbol is a modified version of the @ sign from this font: https://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/2240527/31khz-futuristic1412

Music:

• Title Music - Juno by Mr. Smith
• Exterior Music - Da Fixx by Mr. Smith
• Interior Music - My lazy Day by LowLevA

All music is free for personal and commercial use under CC BY and obtained from https://freemusicarchive.org/

Special thanks to my girlfriend for inspiration

Game by JumpedToDeathByBeef