GlyphCrawl

GlyphCrawl is a 1-bit roguelike where you move and fight by typing. Explore a new daily dungeon, collect letters, unlock skills, defeat monsters, and grow stronger every day.

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Inspiration

The main concept of the game is, ofcourse, inspired by Rogue. The split screen layout is inspired by handheld console like gameboy and nintendo DS. Battle mechanism from Pokemon is also largely influenced the game.

What it does

GlyphCrawl is a 1-bit, monochrome roguelike where words are your path to survival.

In this minimalist dungeon crawler, movement isn’t done with arrow keys — you move by typing the letters shown on adjacent tiles. Each keystroke guides you deeper into a procedurally generated dungeon, with a brand-new layout released daily. Your objective is simple: find the exit. Surviving long enough to reach it is another story.

Along the way, you’ll encounter monsters. Combat is skill-based and word-driven — you cast abilities by typing the names of the skills you’ve learned. Each skill has its own unique appearance, movement pattern, and effects, creating dynamic and strategic battles.

As you explore, you collect letters from tiles you traverse. After each run, these letters can be used to unlock new skills, expanding your arsenal for future attempts. Rare skills can also drop from defeated monsters, rewarding daring encounters.

Successfully conquering the dungeon grants you 5 upgrade points to increase your Strength and Mana, making you stronger for the next daily challenge.

Every run is a test of reflexes, vocabulary, and strategy. Every day is a new crawl.

How we built it

The game is built using Gamemaker, Devvit and Kiro. Steering, skills and Gamemaker MCP were used to expedite the development process. Sprites are edited through Gamemaker's image editor.

Challenges we ran into

Learning GameMaker – New engine, learning GML, events, and game architecture while building. Time constraints – Limited time for design, balancing, iteration, and polish. No local backend environment – Harder to test daily generation, progression, and debug API issues quickly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm really proud of the aesthetic of the game and how the game idea slowly turn into reality.

What we learned

Game development using Gamemaker

What's next for GlyphCrawl

  • expand more skills and monsters
  • boss fight
  • virtual keyboard customization (keycaps)
  • puzzle in dungeon
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