Expedition by Slashie
Download (RGRD, YouTube)

Expedition is not a casual game, it’s as vast as the world. That’s because in Expedition you are going to start a colony in the new world, setting sail from Spain. Slashie is no spring chick when it comes to roguelikes, so it should be no surprise that this 7DRL is way vaster than its peers.

Where Expedition fails is in a lack of documentation, making it hard to get started. Fortunately Slashie is continuing development of the game, so hopefully that will be remedied soon. The way I got started was to play it once, then watch the grainy low-res YouTube video Slashie provided, then try again. (By the way Slashie, Viddler is really the way to go for this sort of thing.) In the meanwhile let me read to you from the readme that should have been included with Expedition, edited slighty from a short blurb slashie made on rec.game.roguelike.development:

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Expedition
The New World
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Made by Slash for the 2009 7DRL Challenge

Stock up your expedition in your town and travel to the new world.

HOW TO PLAY
You start out in Spain with a ship, a skeleton crew, and some cash. Since cash won’t be much good in the new world be sure to stop by the shops in Spain to buy everything you’ll need in the new world. What you take with you will determine your success when you arrive so spend carefully. Then board your ship and begin the long journey to the new world. But don’t expect a warm welcome when you arrive.

COMMANDS
Directional Keys or Number Pad: Move Expedition around, bump enemies to engage on melee
c: Create Equipment Cach?: Allows you to store equipment temporary
b: Build a town: Requires 200 wood and 100 people.
r: Rain arrows: Attack an enemy expedition with a volley of deadly projectiles

Landing: To leave your ship, approach land and bump into it. A menu will popup, allowing you to transfer equipment from your ship to the expedition.

Ship Storage: You can return to the ship to transfer equipment from and to the expedition, as well as if you want to board it again.

Food: Food will drop steadly every day, you can get food by buying it on Spain or obtain it from dead enemy expeditions.

Set sail for adventure in a new world!

At this point there should probably be some spoilery hints to finding the new world and a list of what there is to buy in Spain. Maybe a word or two on how you win. Feel free to steal that and include it in future releases.

Expedition is good. It’s ambitious and, as far as I can tell, succeeded in it’s ambition. A home run for Slashie.

Download (YouTube)

Read more reviews from the 2009 7DRL challenge