Sisyphus: The Horselike

Sisyphus: The Horselike is a reinterpretation of the myth of Sisyphus with deep roguelike strategy, deck-building elements, and a hoofed protagonist. This is a a menus based game: you don't directly control Horsyphus, you just try to make sure his climb goes well, and then watch him go.

• Pray to the Gods which condemned you to obtain powerful magical Sigils and to ask for good Weather during your climb.

• Think about Horsyphus' Philosophy and build a deck of Event Cards that play off it. Your choices determine what happens every few meters of your climb, because a horse's character is his destiny. 

• Buy legendary items of equipment from Greek myth and history to outfit Horsyphus for the Climb.

• Risk it all by committing Blasphemy to gain a powerful temporary buff to take you to the next part of your climb...with terrible consequences if you fail. 

• Alter the terrain of the Underworld itself through the Terrain Tiles system.

  

  You have to go through six levels to reach the peak, through various parts of the Greek underworld (Tartarus, Asphodel and Elysium). You have a certain amount of Climb Attempts to go from one area to the other. If you fail an Attempt, you go back to the start of the level. If you run out of Attempts, you fall back all the way to the bottom. You gain your Attempts back when reaching a new level. 

  

  This idea sprung fully formed out of my head, like Athena from Zeus' noggin, on the morning after a really weird dream caused by playing Uma Musume, watching Bojack Horseman, and catching a few clips from a certain bald streamer the night before. Masocore (or "Foddian", or whatever other term is used for them) games generally rely on physical difficulty. On making it hard to press the right buttons at the right time. I thought a masocore roguelike, requiring not good execution but good strategy and risk management, would be kind of interesting, and I set out to make a small prototype. It quickly ballooned out of proportion, and many many hours of work later...here it is.