u/DFuxaPlays

roguetemple’s Fortnight 2 had a lot fewer entries then last year, but there were still some good ones submitted. Because there were a lot less of them to go through I was able to quickly knock them out ‘before’ the voting was completed on itch.io. You can see all the videos for these games in my Win 10 - DFuxa Reviews & Plays 2WRL 2026 playlist. You can also see my unofficial judging within My google sheet here.

Only two games really caught my eye from the batch:

Dungeon Juice - This is my top pick for ‘best overall’ entry. Dungeon Juice wasn’t necessarily doing anything too phenomenal, but it was just really polished, and continues to be worked on by PTrefall. It is perhaps a little bit generic, being a derivative game of Brogue, but it is well done.

#&% MATURE CONTENT WARNING %&#

Latex Drones from Sigma 12 - So it might come as a surprise, but this is actually what I consider to be the ‘most innovative’ entry. If you can tolerate the NSFW aspects of it, there are a lot of ideas that could be played with here. I might wait for an update on this one though, the jam version lags bad.

Note that as always, there are other titles to enjoy.

Recently I finished up going through the entrants of 7DRL Challenge 2018, doing a video for each one of those games of old. This also includes incomplete entries that failed the challenge.

Mostly posting this here as there were some games I couldn't play; be it because they had no way of being played on Windows, or the executables didn't seem to work. If you are one of those developers who can't find your game in my playlist, that is likely why. Feel free to message me if you can figure out a fix to make your games playable.

Much like in 2025, I have completed another playlist for the various entries of this the 7DRLs of this year; including both the successful entries and no so much. You can view a list of the rating given from the volunteer jurors here.

I did of course already have some discussion myself on this topic with Darren, Issac, slashie, and vuvko on the Ep. 172 of Roguelike Radio; but notably I and the other participants were mostly talking about the games we had reviewed and played up to that point (and for me I had only played a little under half of them). Since having played all the games I have of course also noted what entries stood out for me the most in my 7DRL Spotlight thread in the Roguelike Steam Group, which can also be viewed from this Google Doc I wrote if you wish (note it is formatted with Steam's Discussion boards in mind).

This year I think I'll do things a little differently in regards to mentioning 7DRLs, specifically I will be mentioning two of the games that not only caught my notice, but also enticed me enough to come back and check them out more thoroughly. Those games are A Polar Night by vidarn and Skyship Raiders by superobot1. You can view the respective extra videos I did here and here.

In regards to A Polar Night, I felt that it was a very refreshing to see a traditional roguelike that was trying to feel different. Unlike with most titles in this genre, this was themed in setting that I could only describe as modern day, but with horrifying outwardly elements at play. It also had an interesting tag system, which governed the behavior of everything in the game. Being wounded in combat had weight to it, although the player had a bit more longevity then the monsters he would fight.

I won't say that the game was perfect. The game can be adequately described as being split into three areas: The Basement, The Mines, and The Alien. Getting last area, it felt like it went by just a little bit too quick, before you would reach the end. The game was also a bit annoying to play as you had to actively hit the spacebar quite a bit while playing when multiple actions were happening (like every hit against an enemy with a sledgehammer). I still quite enjoyed it though.

Then there was a bit of a surprise with Skyship Raiders. Skyship Raiders 'IS' a failed entry from this year, but had I played it prior to that aforementioned Roguelike Radio episode above, I would have easily made mention of it. The title is still being actively developed by its developer, who hinted in an update post that he might continue work on it after he feels it is complete.

I generally liked the scope and feel of the game as it made me feel like I was an 'active' raider. I had to plan out what was worth taking and what i would just ditch and leave behind. There also feels like there is a lot of room to work in for this idea's concept; possibly with dungeons, maybe with quests, or perhaps events and scenarios that could occur. It will be interesting to see what is done here!

It does however feel like a lot more work needs to be done, especially in the areas of balance. Some enemies feel really dangerous to fight, while others aren't as interesting to battle. Past the first couple of island too, the FTL-style hunger clock feels like it lacks pressure. However, the game is certainly fleshed out enough that you can certainly enjoy playing it.

So the above said: what 7DRLs of this year this people find themselves gravitating too? Perhaps as well to the point that they may have gone back to play something that interested them enough to do so.