Necropolis (browser game)
Encyclopedia
Necropolis is a browser game
implemented in Adobe Flash
. It was released in October 2008 and is the first game by game designer and programmer
Gregory Weir
. It was sponsored by Spanish gaming portal MiniJuegos.com.
The game presents the action from a top-down perspective. Players explore 25 procedurally-generated levels, looking on each level for treasure, a lever to unlock the stairs to the next level, and then the stairs themselves. At the same time the player tries to avoid harmful spike and steam traps. Players are asked to manage three statistics: Dodge, representing their ability to avoid damage from traps; Detect, representing their ability to discern hidden traps; and Disable, representing their ability to disarm traps to proceed past them. Players also collect health tonics, which can be consumed to restore life energy, and disposable tools, which can be used to disarm traps, as well as a range of equipment which can be used to boost some or all of the three statistics. Gold can also be found, which serves no purpose during the game but acts as a scoring mechanism.
Necropolis bears many similarities to roguelike
games, being essentially an exploration of a procedurally-generated dungeon. Its distinctive features are its pensive looping music and its dark, shadow-filled presentation.
featured it in a "Link Dump Friday" after the release and popularity of The Majesty of Colors, and felt its most noteworthy qualities were its female protagonist and its creator, Gregory Weir.
Browser game
A browser game is a computer game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be created and run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer...
implemented in Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
. It was released in October 2008 and is the first game by game designer and programmer
Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
Gregory Weir
Gregory Weir
Gregory Weir is an American game designer and writer. He is known for creating short Flash games. He currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.-Early life and education:...
. It was sponsored by Spanish gaming portal MiniJuegos.com.
Gameplay
User play as "Ms. Lilian Trevithick, lady adventurer and radical steam technician, who has come to the infamous Necropolis of Ao in search of adventure".The game presents the action from a top-down perspective. Players explore 25 procedurally-generated levels, looking on each level for treasure, a lever to unlock the stairs to the next level, and then the stairs themselves. At the same time the player tries to avoid harmful spike and steam traps. Players are asked to manage three statistics: Dodge, representing their ability to avoid damage from traps; Detect, representing their ability to discern hidden traps; and Disable, representing their ability to disarm traps to proceed past them. Players also collect health tonics, which can be consumed to restore life energy, and disposable tools, which can be used to disarm traps, as well as a range of equipment which can be used to boost some or all of the three statistics. Gold can also be found, which serves no purpose during the game but acts as a scoring mechanism.
Necropolis bears many similarities to roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
games, being essentially an exploration of a procedurally-generated dungeon. Its distinctive features are its pensive looping music and its dark, shadow-filled presentation.
Reception
Necropolis received little critical attention. Jay Is GamesJay Is Games
Jay Is Games is a game review website that features daily updates and links to casual games, browser games and flash games of wide interest to casual gamers...
featured it in a "Link Dump Friday" after the release and popularity of The Majesty of Colors, and felt its most noteworthy qualities were its female protagonist and its creator, Gregory Weir.