Info about KeeperRL:

Official game description:
A retro roguelike dungeon simulator
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KeeperRL combines classic dungeon simulator gameplay with roguelike and RPG elements. As an evil keeper you will dig out and construct a dungeon and recruit malicious minions to help do your bidding. You’ll train and equip them and take up the fight with the forces of good around you.  
Engage in combat and take direct control of your minions and in true roguelike fashion fight tactical battles in a simultaneous turn-based manner. When you make a move, your enemies also move. 
Dungeon management
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Dig deep into the mountain and establish a great dungeon to fit the needs of you and your minions. Ensure there’s sleeping quarters, training rooms and crafting stations and decorations. Make sure your dungeon is defensible against invaders using traps, guard areas and choke points. 
Multiple playable factions  
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Master up to 10 unique factions and their respective keepers. Play as a Dark Wizard mastering the art of black magic, a Necromancer forging an army of undead or play as a Goblin King, leading a horde of greenskins on a quest to find the lost goblin matrons. Your choice of faction will impact gameplay and the style of your dungeon.
Roguelike
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The world is procedurally generated and simulated on a very detailed level. Creatures use equipment and consumable items. There are dozens of special items, spells, attributes and special attacks. Cut off the heads and limbs and blind or poison your enemies in combat and if you’re not careful your enemies can do the same to you. If your Keeper dies it’s game over and you’ll have to start over again so consider your tactics carefully.  
Quickly get your dungeon going and go on your first raid, but the game continues to reveal more depth the longer you play and manage to stay alive. 
Explore and expand
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Explore the world around you through a large world map with dangerous locations to raid and pillage for loot and infamy as other factions might attempt to raid your dungeon if you fail to defeat them.
You’ll also explore the mountain you’ve built your dungeon in as you can come across precious resources, treasures or dangerous perils above and below you.
Multiple Floors
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Expand your dungeon and dig tunnels and rooms in both vertical directions as KeeperRL supports many Z-levels. 
Online map sharing and mods
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Download dungeons made by other players from Steam Workshop, and places them on your world map as enemies. See how others design their fortresses, fight with their minions, and steal their loot! After winning the game, you'll have the option to share your dungeon online as well.  
Or browse and download any number of the great mods available for the game through Steam Workshop.

Release date: 29 Feb, 2024

Categories: Roguelike, Management Simulation, Base Building, Turn-based Combat, Unit Management, Procedural Generation, Mod Support, Exploration


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Overall Enjoyment & Replayability (weight 0.97): The game is widely praised for being fun, engaging, and highly addictive, offering many hours of entertainment and encouraging repeated playthroughs due to its varied outcomes and scenarios.
- Great Value for Price (weight 0.97): Many reviewers feel the game offers tremendous value for its price, providing hours of entertainment and replayability. It's considered a worthwhile purchase even when not on sale.
- Satisfying Dungeon Building & Raids (weight 0.26): The core gameplay loop of building and managing an evil dungeon, training minions, and leading armies to raid settlements is highly satisfying. Players enjoy the strategic depth of expanding their lair and conquering the world.
- Accessible Genre Blend (weight 0.24): Players appreciate the game's successful fusion of Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, and roguelike elements, noting its streamlined and more accessible approach compared to more complex titles like Dwarf Fortress. It offers a unique take on the genre.
- Active Development & Content (weight 0.16): Reviewers frequently commend the developer's dedication, hard work, and consistent updates, even as a solo developer. This ongoing support and addition of new content are highly appreciated and build anticipation for the game's future.
- Unique Dark Fantasy Aesthetic (weight 0.16): The game's distinct retro, tile-based graphics and dark fantasy setting are highly praised for creating an immersive and charming atmosphere. This unique visual style complements the intricate mechanics.
- Robust Modding Support (weight 0.14): The game boasts a large and active modding community, with many mods available that significantly expand content and gameplay. Reviewers find the game relatively easy to mod, enhancing its longevity.
- Diverse Factions & Playstyles (weight 0.1): The game offers a variety of playable factions and game modes, each providing a unique twist on gameplay and different starting characters. This contributes significantly to replayability and varied strategic experiences.
- Evolves Dungeon Keeper Formula (weight 0.1): The game is seen as a successful evolution of the classic Dungeon Keeper concept, introducing new and well-thought-out mechanics that add depth and potential to the dungeon management genre.
- Strategic Combat Depth (weight 0.09): Combat, while seemingly simple, offers significant nuance and flexibility, allowing players to employ various strategies to overcome stronger opponents. The variety of creatures also adds to the tactical options.
- Deep Strategic Gameplay (weight 0.07): The game requires careful planning and attention to detail, offering many intricacies that unfold as players progress. This strategic depth ensures that each playthrough presents new challenges and learning opportunities.
- Steam Deck Compatibility (weight 0.04): The game is noted for playing well on the Steam Deck, making it a convenient option for portable gaming.

Common complaints:
- Cumbersome UI/UX (weight 0.76): The game's user interface and overall user experience are frequently criticized as clunky, unpolished, and tedious. Players find the controls cumbersome, especially on certain platforms, and micromanagement tasks are often dull due to poor UI design.
- Lacks Depth & Content (weight 0.73): Players frequently report that the game feels shallow, repetitive, and unfinished, lacking sufficient content and meaningful mechanics to sustain long-term engagement. Many expected more depth in gameplay, base building, and overall progression, leading to a sense of boredom after a few hours.
- Limited Base Building (weight 0.69): The base and dungeon building mechanics are described as bare-bones, unmemorable, and lacking depth compared to similar colony simulation games. Players desire more tile variety, personalization options, and the ability to create larger or multi-level dungeons.
- Poor Minion AI & Balance (weight 0.24): Minions suffer from significant AI issues, often acting unintelligently, wasting abilities, or requiring excessive hand-holding. Additionally, there are balance and progression problems, such as minions becoming overpowered or underpowered, and a lack of variety in their traits and personalities.
- Clunky, Unbalanced Combat (weight 0.23): The combat system is frequently described as clunky, unbalanced, and simplistic, often boiling down to basic number comparisons. Players report issues with poor controls, tedious micromanagement during battles, and a general lack of polish in combat mechanics.
- Inconsistent Difficulty Curve (weight 0.12): Players report an inconsistent and sometimes brutal difficulty curve, with a steep learning curve initially, followed by periods where the game becomes too easy or too hard. The mid-game is often cited as particularly challenging, while the early game loop can be tedious after a loss.
- Fails Genre Expectations (weight 0.09): The game is frequently compared to titles like Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper but is seen as failing to capture their depth, spirit, or complex systems. Players expected a more intricate experience, leading to disappointment when the game falls short of these genre benchmarks.
- Poor In-Game Explanations (weight 0.09): The game is criticized for its lack of clear in-game explanations and tutorials, making it difficult for players to understand mechanics and progress without external resources. Many basic concepts are unclear, leading to confusion and frustration.
- Imbalanced Base Defense (weight 0.09): There is a significant imbalance between attacking and defending bases, with attacking being far more rewarding. Base defenses and traps are often ineffective, and there's little incentive to build large bases, as attacking enemies is often easier than defending against them.
- Needs Major Updates (weight 0.09): Players express a strong desire for significant future updates, including reworks of core game mechanics, more enemy variety, and general content additions. Some reviewers feel the game needs a 'new game' level of update rather than minor patches.
- Lacks Localization & Customization (weight 0.08): The game is criticized for its lack of translation into various languages and the absence of a translation modding API. Additionally, players note a general lack of customization options, including basic difficulty and world-generation settings, compared to other games.
- Restrictive Tech Tree (weight 0.08): The technology tree is criticized for being unexpansive, unclear about its branches, and acting as a bottleneck to progression. Players find the strict point system limiting, often forcing restarts due to uninformed choices and hindering sandbox gameplay.
- Performance & Framerate Issues (weight 0.06): Players report issues with inconsistent frame rates, especially when zoomed out, and complain that the 'very fast game speed' option is slower than expected. These technical problems detract from the overall gameplay experience.
- Slow Leveling, Poor Rewards (weight 0.06): The leveling system is criticized for being slow, with pitiful rewards that often don't justify the time investment. Players can also get 'stuck' due to large jumps in enemy levels, making progression feel unrewarding.

Gameplay feedback:
- Dungeon Keeper/Dwarf Fortress Hybrid (weight 0.69): The game is a unique blend of dungeon management (like Dungeon Keeper) and base-building/colony simulation (like Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld), offering a more accessible experience than its inspirations. Players build and defend their evil dungeon, manage minions, research technologies, and engage in both real-time management and turn-based combat.
- Dual Modes & Flexible Control (weight 0.25): The game offers distinct modes: a real-time dungeon management/strategic mode and a roguelike adventure mode with turn-based combat. Players can flexibly switch between controlling a single leader with AI support or taking full manual control of their units for tactical engagements.
- Deep Mechanics, Faction Variety (weight 0.21): The game features extensive depth across its various systems, including combat, recruiting, building, and traps. This complexity is further enhanced by multiple playable factions, each offering unique mechanics and playstyles, ensuring diverse gameplay experiences.
- Build & Command Armies (weight 0.16): A core aspect involves building and training diverse armies of creatures. Players can then send these forces to raid and conquer overworld settlements and enemy dungeons, providing resources and advancing their objectives.
- Steep Learning Curve, High Replayability (weight 0.15): The game has a significant learning curve, requiring multiple runs to grasp its mechanics and strategies. However, its randomly generated maps and unlockable scenarios contribute to high replayability, encouraging players to learn from mistakes and adapt.
- Strong Modding Support (weight 0.11): The game boasts robust modding capabilities, actively supported by the developer and a friendly, growing community. This allows players to create and share custom content, significantly extending the game's longevity and variety.
- Keeper Progression & Customization (weight 0.11): Players control a "Keeper" character who levels up, unlocking new technologies and abilities. There are various Keeper types to choose from, each with unique attributes, and the Keeper's permadeath is a central game mechanic.
- Permadeath Core Mechanic (weight 0.09): A defining feature of the game is permadeath for the main character (Keeper). If the Keeper dies, the game ends, requiring players to restart from the beginning, emphasizing strategic decision-making and risk management.
- Procedural World & Resources (weight 0.08): The game features procedurally generated worlds and dungeon levels, enhancing replayability. Players must explore these dynamic environments to discover new locations and gather essential resources like mana and minerals.
- Necromancer Faction Mechanics (weight 0.07): The Necromancer faction offers a unique playstyle centered around managing corpses as a primary resource. This allows for a theoretically unlimited army size but requires careful planning due to troop attrition and limited corpse availability.
- Multi-Level Dungeon Building (weight 0.07): A key building feature is the ability to construct dungeons across multiple Z-levels, both above and below ground. This allows for complex layouts, access to different resources, and the capture of various minions.
- Dark Fantasy Theme (weight 0.06): The game embraces a dark fantasy theme, allowing players to embody evil roles such as an evil wizard or dark knight. This includes options to worship demons, corrupt parishes, and bind angels to their service.
- Raiding & Prisoner System (weight 0.06): Players can engage in aggressive raiding of neighboring settlements and enemy strongholds. This includes the ability to capture, torture, and subdue various creatures and even enemy Keepers, adding a layer of strategic interaction.
- Research System Progression (weight 0.06): The research system is crucial for progression, with points earned per level or by destroying other factions. Research typically unlocks specific items or technologies, directly influencing dungeon development.
- Wizard Faction Mechanics (weight 0.06): The Wizard playstyle is described as broad and generalist, allowing for diverse recruitment and construction options. Wizard players can utilize prisons to enslave enemies for workforce or rely on imp workers, with ultimate units unlocked through demonology.
- Retro Pixel Art Style (weight 0.05): The game features a distinct retro pixel graphics style, including an ASCII-like exploration mode. This aesthetic contributes to its overall visual identity.
- Sandbox vs. Linear Progression (weight 0.05): There's a mixed sentiment regarding the game's structure, with some seeing it as a sandbox world to explore, driven by dynamic interactions, while others perceive a more linear progression.

Performance notes:
- Poor CPU/Framerate Performance (weight 0.07): The game exhibits general performance issues, particularly with framerate drops, especially when zoomed out or playing as a human keeper. These issues are linked to poor CPU utilization and multithreading problems, sometimes making single-core processing more efficient.
- Slow Load/Save Times (weight 0.03): Players experience significant delays during initial world generation and frequent, lengthy autosaves. These processes can be disruptive and impact the overall flow of gameplay, indicating bottlenecks in loading and saving mechanisms.
- Good Platform Optimization (weight 0.03): The game is well-optimized for specific platforms like Steam Deck and MacOS, providing a smooth and enjoyable experience on these systems. This suggests good cross-platform compatibility and dedicated optimization efforts.
- General Game Stability (weight 0.03): The game is generally stable, with software functioning reliably, no reported crashes, or corrupted save files, and commands are followed as expected. While occasional bugs can arise, the core experience is robust and dependable.
- Low Battery Consumption (weight 0.03): The game is reported to be not very demanding on battery life, which is beneficial for portable gaming devices. However, there is conflicting feedback within the same cluster suggesting the game is 'quite heavy,' which could imply high resource usage.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended Game (weight 0.52): Many reviewers strongly recommend the game, often highlighting its value for fans of specific genres like roguelikes, colony management, or Dungeon Keeper/Dwarf Fortress. They frequently state it's worth its price and encourage players to try it.
- Accessible Genre Alternative (weight 0.12): The game is highly recommended for fans of Dungeon Keeper, RimWorld, and Dwarf Fortress, offering a more approachable or "arcade-ish" roguelike and management experience. It provides strategic depth and base-building elements without the steep learning curve of more complex titles.
- Not Solid Base-Builder (weight 0.06): Some reviewers do not recommend the game, specifically noting that it might not satisfy players looking for a robust or "solid" base-building experience. This suggests a potential mismatch between player expectations and game features.
- Support Indie Dev/Potential (weight 0.04): Several reviewers express a desire to support the indie developer and believe in the game's future potential. They are willing to purchase the game, even at full price, to encourage continued development and preservation of the "gem."
- Recommend Buying on Sale (weight 0.03): Some reviewers suggest purchasing the game primarily when it is on sale. This indicates that while they see value in the game, its full price might be a deterrent for some.
- Advise Waiting to Purchase (weight 0.03): A few reviewers recommend waiting before purchasing the game. This sentiment often implies that the game is still in early development or needs further improvements to reach its full potential.
- Recommend Classical Faction (weight 0.02): One reviewer specifically recommends starting with the Classical faction. This suggests it might be a good entry point or a particularly enjoyable option for new players.
- Recommend Using Mods (weight 0.02): One reviewer strongly recommends using mods, suggesting that the base game might be lacking or that mods significantly enhance the experience. Without mods, they imply the game might not be worth the time.
- Suggests Gnomoria Alternative (weight 0.02): One reviewer suggests trying Gnomoria as an alternative. This implies that for some players, Gnomoria might offer a more satisfying experience in the genre.
- Humorous Positive Endorsement (weight 0.02): Some reviews express extreme enjoyment through humorous and hyperbolic statements, indicating a very positive overall experience. These comments are not specific feedback but convey strong satisfaction.

Other player notes:
- Responsive Developer & Updates (weight 0.18): The lone developer is highly active, responsive to the community, and frequently releases updates, including quick bug fixes. There's strong engagement on Discord, allowing players to directly interact and pitch ideas.
- Promising Early Access (weight 0.16): The game is in early access/alpha, described as unrefined but with rich content and charm, receiving regular updates. Despite being rough around the edges, it's seen as a hidden gem with significant potential.
- Dwarf Fortress-like Colony Sim (weight 0.15): The game is frequently compared to Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Rimworld, blending roguelike and dungeon-building elements. It's seen as a "Dwarf Fortress Lite" with similar retro-style graphics and concepts like z-levels.
- Desired Future Features (weight 0.15): Players express a desire for various new features, including persistent worlds, multiple bases, a narrative framework, and quality-of-life improvements like a blueprint system and a more intuitive interface. More content and systems are also requested.
- Active Modding Scene (weight 0.09): The game boasts good modding capabilities and an active, awesome modding community. While some larger mods may be outdated or confusing to manage, many small, minimalist mods enhance gameplay.
- Challenging & Complex (weight 0.06): The game is described as having a steep learning curve and a high challenge level, requiring strategic planning and tactical combat skills. It appeals to players who enjoy difficult experiences.
- Supportive Player Community (weight 0.03): The game boasts an awesome and very helpful player community, particularly within specific groups like KRL. This indicates a positive and supportive environment for players.
- Charity-Based Distribution (weight 0.03): The game can be acquired by making a minimum donation to an animal shelter, rescue, or wildlife charity. This unique distribution model is highlighted by reviewers.
- Endless Gameplay Potential (weight 0.03): The game offers potentially endless gameplay, with length varying significantly based on individual playstyle. This suggests high replayability and long-term engagement.
- Functional AI (weight 0.02): The game's AI is considered fairly good and serves its purpose effectively. This indicates a satisfactory level of intelligence for in-game entities.
- Robust Magic System (weight 0.02): The game's magic system is specifically highlighted as being excellent. This points to a well-implemented and enjoyable magical combat or utility mechanic.
- Strong Game Foundation (weight 0.02): Reviewers note that the fundamental framework for the game is well-established and robust. This suggests a solid base upon which future content and features can be built.
- Wide Player Appeal (weight 0.02): The game appeals to a diverse audience, including fans of roguelikes, base builders, RPGs, and those with a dark sense of humor. This indicates its hybrid nature and broad appeal.
- Relaxed Background Play (weight 0.02): The game is noted as being suitable for running in the background while performing other tasks. This suggests a less demanding or more passive gameplay experience at times.
- Appealing Pixel Art (weight 0.02): The animated pixel art graphics are praised for their quality and charm. This indicates a positive reception of the game's visual style.
- Gameplay Over Graphics (weight 0.02): It's noted that graphics are not the primary focus of the game. This suggests that the game prioritizes gameplay mechanics and depth over high-fidelity visuals.
- Limited Language Support (weight 0.02): A minor regret mentioned is the lack of Chinese language support. However, reviewers note that this does not significantly detract from the overall game experience.
- Functional Top-Down View (weight 0.02): The top-down perspective of the game is considered to work well. This indicates that the chosen camera angle effectively supports gameplay and visual clarity.
- Open Source Project (weight 0.01): The game is open source, which is a notable technical detail. This can imply community involvement in development or transparency.
- Demo Version Available (weight 0.01): A free version of the game (Alpha8) is available, though it lacks music or graphical characters. This provides an accessible way for potential players to try the game.
- Underrated Game (weight 0.01): The game's recognition is noted as not being high, suggesting it is an underrated or lesser-known title despite its qualities.

Emotions:
- satisfaction (weight 0.26): Emotion: satisfaction
- disappointment (weight 0.12): Emotion: disappointment
- enjoyment (weight 0.07): Emotion: enjoyment
- frustration (weight 0.11): Emotion: frustration
- excitement (weight 0.09): Emotion: excitement
- challenge (weight 0.02): Emotion: challenge
- joy (weight 0.05): Emotion: joy
- boredom (weight 0.02): Emotion: boredom
- anger (weight 0.01): Emotion: anger
- mixed feelings (weight 0.01): Emotion: mixed feelings
- amusement (weight 0.01): Emotion: amusement
- anticipation (weight 0.02): Emotion: anticipation
- engagement (weight 0.02): Emotion: engagement
- appreciation (weight 0.05): Emotion: appreciation
- hope (weight 0.01): Emotion: hope
- addiction (weight 0.01): Emotion: addiction}