Tangledeep released to playable beta

Word reaches me that Tangledeep, a new roguelike from one-man studio Impact Gameworks, has now hit public release (though of course, in the normal roguelike tradition, development will nonetheless continue for some time).

Here’s the premise:

For hundreds of years, people have lived in the safety of underground settlements and villages – where the only route to the surface is “Tangledeep,” a mysterious and ever-changing labyrinth. With memories of the surface world long forgotten, you set out for the labyrinth to discover what lies above. With each floor – full of magical beasts, ancient automatons, bizarre environments and hybrid biomes – the mystery grows ever deeper…

Tangledeep appears to draw some measure of inspiration from Japanese RPGs, with a Final Fantasy 5-style job system, pixel art in the SNES jRPG style, and even the ability to level up equipment by exploring procedurally generated “item dreams” that range from 2 to 6 floors deep, a la the item worlds of Disgaea.

Here’s the trailer:

Following the recent trend toward accessibility in graphical roguelikes, Tangledeep offers a non-permadeath mode. Among the game’s other features, as described by the developers:

• Master deep, tactical turn-based combat across 9 unique jobs. (More to come!)
• Share some of your progress between characters by using the banking system, or planting magic trees and raising monsters in town.
• Take in the scenery – comprised of beautiful 16-bit graphics and carefully handcrafted maps!
• Relax to a beautiful soundtrack composed by award-winning composer Andrew Aversa – joined by Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana) and Grant Kirkhope (GoldenEye 007, Civilization: Beyond Earth).

Tangledeep is currently available in Steam Early Access and on GOG for $14.99 ($13.49 with the 10% launch week discount). Windows, Mac, and Linux.