News

Amber Halls developer's next roguelike Power Grounds will be heading to iOS on April 10th

Spoilt for spells

Amber Halls developer's next roguelike Power Grounds will be heading to iOS on April 10th
|
iOS
| Power Grounds

Axaxaxas Games's next take on the roguelike genre is already in the works.

Its name? Power Grounds.

That's quick work considering the studio only released Amber Halls, its mixture of roguelike and Sokoban, earlier this month.

Power Grounds allows for more player experimentation than Amber Halls, though. Axaxaxas's Diego Cathalifaud is hoping this will result in a better-balanced game experience.

Mix it up

"[Amber Halls] was received with mixed reviews because it was extremely hard," Cathalifaud tells us.

"My next game, Power Grounds, should be a lot more accessible and also a lot more strategic.

"It was originally made for the 7DRL challenge, and it was very well received by the roguelike community. The game is about developing a strategy as you progress through the levels."

Having played Power Grounds a little myself, I can certainly confirm that it is more accessible than its predecessor.

You play a wizard whom you have to move across as many rooms as possible. As you'd expect, these rooms are full of enemies, all with different melee and ranged attacks for you to take into consideration when moving.

Power Grounds

On the floor, there are coloured tiles. These enable you to cast the spells to which they correspond. To be able to use these spells, though, you first have to collect them.

There are a lot of spells here, including offensive ones like fire and freezing. Others are more defensive, like warping and speed (move two tiles each turn).

The result is a game that requires you to actively mix spells to gain the advantage. It's still hard, but having more room to play with your strategies can lead to easier routes.

If you're a roguelike fan, you'll want to pick up Power Grounds on iOS from April 10th. Promise.

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.