New release: Cardinal Quest

I could have sworn I’d posted about Cardinal Quest before, but I can’t seem to find it in the archives. Shame on me! But hey–better late than never, right?

I’m not going to quote the developer’s description here, as it’s really inaccurate (he compares the game to arcade games like Gauntlet and Golden Axe, which I can assure you it bears no resemblance to.)

No, friends: Cardinal Quest is a polished but decidedly lo-fi graphical roguelike with streamlined inventory management (read: your items and equipment largely manage themselves without the need for your constant intervention). Cardinal Quest features permadeath, but it’s deferred–you get a second chance the first time you screw up. Beyond that, it’s a standard turn-based, grid-based dungeon crawl that happens to sport some very satisfying sound design.

See for yourself:

Cardinal Quest has been out in free browser-based form for the better part of a year now, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  There is a $5.00 paid version of the game on Windows, Mac and Linux, now joined by $1.99 mobile versions with yesterday’s simultaneous release of the game on Android and on iOS.