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Z.E.A.L.O.T.S.
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About the game
Z.E.A.L.O.T.S. is a puzzle roguelike where the creatures are letters, and they all move at once. You are an Adept, shown as a pink letter with a frame around it, climbing a pyramid in order to become a Zealot. Each level is a small room of walls and creatures, and whenever you move in a direction, every creature in the room tries to move the same way, in sync with you.
The rule that matters is what happens when two of them meet an obstacle. The creatures' strength follows the alphabet, so an "e" is stronger than a "b". A weaker creature that runs into a stronger one just bumps. A stronger one hits a weaker one and takes away its protection or its strength, which is the difference between a lower case letter and a capital. And two creatures of the same strength merge into one stronger creature. Your goal is to reach a certain strength, at which point a staircase appears and takes you to the next level of the pyramid, filled with stronger creatures. Careful, because the stairs can be used by any creature, and a merge that grabs another's Essence can also lose yours.
On the floor there are effects that you can use against your enemies, or in your favour: some raise or lower strength, one splits a creature in two weaker ones, one teleports, one is a trapdoor that can drop you to the lower floor or straight to the base, and one hides another effect that you have to discover. The finish is to climb the stairs as a protected Zealot, a capital Z, and achieve the Ascension.
It is made of the browser's monospace font, a blue palette and nothing else: no sound and no pictures.
Playing it here
Click Play. The first room spells out the title and invites you to start; from then on you play with the arrow keys or by swiping on the screen. There are seven levels. The game adapts to the window size and is designed for swipes, so it also suits a phone. Nothing is saved.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| arrow keys | move everybody one step in that direction |
| swipe left, right, up or down | the same, on touch screens |
A few things worth knowing
Think of every move as a move for the whole room. The creature you want to bump into might not be the one that moves first.
Equal letters merge. Two creatures of the same strength become a stronger one, and that is how you climb.
Do not hurry to the stairs. Arrive at the exit with your protection on, as a capital letter, or the climb will not be the Ascension.
Credits and licence
Z.E.A.L.O.T.S. was made by stcucufa for the 2024 7-Day Roguelike Challenge and is released under the MIT licence. The game uses no images, audio or libraries. The licence text is linked from this page.