LambdaRogue: The Book of Stars

Mankind's Redemption ...

... is hidden in the depths of a dungeon. So say the old legends, and so spoke the priestess.

Now you're standing here, all alone, with nothing but your weapon, a small backpack and your skills, facing some of your greatest fears. For hours, you've been hunted through constantly changing dungeons and caves … chased by wild animals, by preachers of a sinister cult, and by abhorrent spawns of the evil goddess Eris.

Finally you get some rest, regaining your psychic powers and pondering to return to the Temple. But the safe havens of mankind are far away, the journey back to the Temple would last longer than the way before you. So you decide to go on, deeper and deeper, always searching for traces of the Book.

The only book that matters these days. The Book that will set mankind free. The Book of Stars.

»Per Libris Ad Astra«, spoke the priestess to you: »To the Stars, Through Books« However, this way is a dangerous way, a path through neverending darkness.

And the evil goddess Eris is already lurking for you ...

Features

• Decide your own and mankind's fate – will you find the way to redemption, or will you betray mankind?
• Dive into the dark and surreal atmosphere of mankind's last resort – explore everchanging random-generated dungeons and caves, filled with a unique set of strange enemies and hidden treasure.
• Enjoy an epic story, covering centuries – collect traces of history and travel through time.
• Ascend to the highest ranks of your profession – from Enchanter to Battle Mage, from Archer to Ranger, and lots more.
• Don't bother with memorizing dozens of keys – simply enjoy your game, with the ease of LambdaRogue's intuitive interface.
• Two different graphical tileset (20x40 pixel art and 40x80 "old" tileset), plus true console ASCII mode (for 80x25 terminal windows)

Versions and Platforms

Lambdarogue is available for Windows and Linux. This is version 1.6.4 of the game.

Historic Remark

I created LambdaRogue between 2006 and 2012 and originally released it on the former Google Code website. This is a re-release of my game, currently identical to the 1.6.4 version that was available on Google Code. You may want to read the included changelog.txt just out of curiosity on how the game evolved over the years.

The Linux binary in the itch.io download was re-compiled in 2018 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (see install instructions for Linux version).

If there is enough interest, I may continue work on the game, but if not, itch.io is at least a proper place for archiving this game, on which I worked for many years.

Tipps for New Players

LambdaRogue is a very "classic" roguelike insofar it has simple pixel-art (and you can even run it in a true text console mode, by changing the related option), and is controlled via the keyboard.

I suggest to use "quickstart" in the main menu and then use "coffeebreak mode", to get into the game, to skip any story events and textual interruptions.

When the game has started, open the help pages by pressing "?" on your keyboard. Then at least read about the game's goal and have a look at the keybindings (which you can reconfigure).

Later, you may also want to try "story mode".