EcoGnomix

EcoGnomix is a turn-based roguelite game mixed with some light city-building elements to handle the unlocks. Honestly, the city-building plays a minor part, and the roguelite is the main focus. The presentation is simplistic, and overall could be better, but the style is cohesive enough to work as is. The music is a bit above the graphics, although it's not anything you'd listen to outside the game. The objective is to delve into a cave, doing your best to balance the gathering of resources with your efforts to keep your food reserves high enough to complete the descent (food goes down each turn thanks to famished bats). You must spend at least one turn in each room, although if you can keep a positive food balance you might want to stay and gather more of the limited resources (necessary to hire more gnomes, and to upgrade them). Go deep enough in a cave, and you'll find the boss, but not before meeting several intermediate rooms. You can pick your path, and you'll strategize about the best route often. Each room has its assortment of creatures, traps and layouts, so careful placement of your gnomes is necessary to make it out with what you need. Defeat the main boss, and you complete that run. Go spend some of the resources in your city to unlock more items, gnomes and skills. Defeat a boss 3 times (each subsequent run increasing in difficulty and length) and you complete that biome, unlocking the next. Defeat all 3 bosses fully, and you win the game. Each time you delve deeper in the cave, your food consumption increases, so managing food is the highest priority. It's fun to calculate the best plan possible to make it out of a room robbing it blind and avoiding damage to your gnomes, but it can be frustrating as well, when things don't work out. The game can be challenging, but if you get the rules, you'll succeed. Overall, it's a bit simple, but it's an enjoyable adventure. The humour can also be a point in its favour, if you like it. Worth a playthrough.