TraumaRL

A 7DRL survival shooter · wake up in the trauma centre of a space station where something has gone terribly wrong

Date of birth2014 7DRL 2014, released 16 March 2014 (v1.0 commit 17 March, 7drl-v1.1 on 22 March); this build flend/roguelike traumarl @ d429380

Creatorflend (Tom Ford) art by ShroomArts

LanguageC# .NET with libtcod

PlatformWindows tiles in a libtcod window

Lineage

TraumaRL is the third of flend’s 7DRLs in one C# code base (the repository’s first commit, “Minimal skeleton for RogueBase project”, is from 3 January 2009): DDRogue (7DRL 2009) → FlatlineRL (7DRL 2013, v1.0 on 17 March 2013) → TraumaRL (7DRL 2014). RogueBasin calls it “the direct successor to FlatlineRL” that “continues the plot from that game”, and names DoomRL (shooting) and System Shock (adventure structure) as inspirations. Each game is a branch of flend/roguelike; the source tree still carries the fantasy monsters and items of DDRogue and FlatlineRL’s readme.

See the family tree.

Credits

flend	Tom Ford: design and code (flend/roguelike)
Art	ShroomArts (ShroomArts blog post)
Libraries	libtcod by jice, libtcod-net by Chris et al. (acknowledged in the readme)
Web port	This site: .NET WebAssembly, windows, menus, saves (memmaker/traumaRL)

Licence: code GPL v3; “the graphics … are proprietary and may not be used in other projects without my permission” (README).

Trivia

The upstream README warns: “These are code-jam games so don't expect the code to be very pretty :)”. (flend/roguelike README)
The same repository also holds PrincessRL on its own branch. (README)
The 7DRLs of 2014 were the topic of Roguelike Radio episode 87; TraumaRL is in the video “Top 5 Seven-Day Roguelikes 2014”.
Work continued after the challenge: a pathing-to-items feature branch was merged in May 2014 and the last merge is from February 2015. (git history)
In the RogueTemple 7DRL 2014 evaluation it averaged 2.83/5 (Completeness, Fun, Innovation, Scope and Roguelikeness 3; Aesthetics 2). The judges liked the story and the sci-fi setting, but found the colours and glyphs hard to read. (RogueTemple 7DRL 2014)
After release, flend fixed maps where the escape pods could be reached only through a wall. Every level is now checked before play: each item and feature must be reachable from an elevator, or the level is generated again. (RogueTemple forum thread)

What's unique

Graph-generated plot: levels and quests come from graphs, so objectives and key items move each play but the main quest is guaranteed solvable (RogueBasin).
A branching station: 10 interlinked levels in a tree whose shape changes each game; you go back and forth between them with key cards.
Story in logs: the plot is read from logs and clues found on the station, continuing FlatlineRL’s story.
Shooter, not dungeon crawler: guns, grenades, shields and wetware implants instead of swords and spells.

Code dive

Language: C#, about 91,900 lines in 393 .cs files under RogueBasin/ (including the shared engine and leftovers of the earlier games).
Generation: templated room maps (TemplatedMapBuilder) joined by a level-link graph with locks and clues; GraphViz output behind a config switch (displayGraphs).
This port: .NET 10 browser-wasm; a shim renderer hands panes (map, status, messages, inventory) to the page, a command menu on Enter, one save slot with resume. Source: memmaker/traumaRL (our changes).

Stats

Thing	Count	Notable ones
Creatures	74 classes	station foes: Camera, Alert bot, Patrol Bot, Swarmer, UltraSwarmer, Juggernaut, Warrior Cyborg, Heavy turret, Rolling Bomb, Explosive Barrel, The Captain; plus DDRogue’s fantasy bestiary still in the code (black unicorn, necromancer, pixie, “poor defenceless friend”)
Items	73 classes	Pistol, Shotgun, Heavy Laser, Vibroblade, Frag, Stun and Sound grenades, wetware (Aim, Bio, Boost, Shield, Stealth), Nano Repair, Tactical Overlay; fantasy leftovers like the GodSword and the Knockout Dress

Manual

We found no manual: the 7DRL release has none beyond the in-game help (?) and the intro, and the RogueBasin page describes the game. Our help page collects the keys, the intro and tips.

Getting started

Open the game and read the intro.
Move with the arrow keys or vi keys; f fires, x examines, i lists the inventory.
Pick up weapons and wetware; read logs for the plot and for where key cards are.
Take the elevators between levels; locked doors need their card, found on another level.
Enter lists every command; help.html has keys, saving and credits.

Help

We found no written walkthrough. Video: DFuxa Explores – 7DRL 2014 TraumaRL Part 1. Rules of thumb from RogueBasin and the code:

Alert bots “sound the alert” (their code, AlertBot.cs): shoot them first.
Objectives move each game; the logs and clues tell you where the next card is.
Expect to backtrack: an item from one level can be needed on another.
More: RogueBasin, the Temple of the Roguelike 7DRL 2014 evaluation, the forum thread.

Cheats

Upstream has a debug mode (debug=true in config.txt: debug keys such as K to open all locks and on-screen debug info). Our build ships debug=false; the page URL ?rviplocks enables only the lock-opening key and a Debug menu entry. No wizard mode.

Save scumming: Export save / Import save on the game page.