8PRL – the 8x8 pixel Roguelike Competition

The challenge: create a roguelike that has a total resolution of 8 pixels by 8 pixels, each pixel of which is an RGB LED display.

It's not entirely clear, but I suspect the RGB display implies a total colour depth of 2^3 = 8 colours (red, green and blue set to on or off state).

It may be possible to vary the intensities more: certainly the screen shot suggests this (orange is displayed, which doesn't fall into the above criteria). I’d suggest that you can have a maximum of 28 distinguishable colours in a 'screen based' RGB display, based on what Leon Marrick achieved in Sangband.

For consistency, it’s probably best to refer to them as follows:

D - Dark Gray	w – White	s – Gray	o - Orange
r – Red	g – Green	b – Blue	u - Brown
d – Black	W - Light Gray	v – Violet	y - Yellow
R - Light Red	G - Light Green	B - Light Blue	U - Light Brown
p – Purple	P – Light Purple	t – Teal	m – mud
Y – Light Yellow	i – Dark Pink	T – Light Teal	V – Light Violet
M – Mustard	I – Light Pink	z – Blue Slate	Z – Deep Light Blue

If you’re especially concerned, I can give you a copy of the RGB values that Sangband uses, or you can ask at the original 'challenge' location. Note that this is a maximum number of colours: you’re free to use less for bonus points and to make the game easier to understand.

Note the reference hardware supports a buzzer for a speaker and single life bar across the top consisting of a single colour status LEDs. It has a limited number of controls: a d-pad and two other buttons.

I’ll post my design separately to avoid influencing the discussion further.

May the best pixels win.