Being sent back to the beginning each time and having to play through what feels like essentially the same 20ish minutes – if you survive that long – is rather dull and frustrating.

The second level will always include a locked gate and boss, the third level will always include the three color-coded doors and skull, and subsequent levels will follow a set pattern. While it is procedurally generated, unlike games like Rogue Legacy the dungeon iterates with the same premise for each level and minor changes in room arrangement, enemy location and treasure spawning does little to make each experience feel unique or fresh. Some combination of traps, fire, hulking beasts and swarms of enemies inevitably does me in every time. In over 20 attempts, this writer has yet to manage to escape the dungeons. As is to be expected from a game with such an unforgiving core mechanic, TinyKeep is tough. TinyKeep is one of the most recent in a slew of permadeath-featuring rogue-lites. The game has secret items and multiple endings, none of which I’ve been lucky enough to experience. While many games can capitalize on a small set of relatively simple mechanics, TinyKeep falls somewhat short. This trend follows throughout the rest of your escape, exploring different worlds populated by vaguely humanoid enemies of varying toughness, opening colored doors, collecting gold to trade for random buffs and trying not to get crushed, impaled or otherwise relieved of your living duties. You rush away and stumble into an Orc-infested alternate dimension.

The floor is swarmed by skeletons of various flavors, seeking to bash in the heads of anything still breathing. Immediately, the game shifts from somewhat-realistic dungeon escape to high-fantasy adventure. When your escapee finds an occult throne adorned with a skull and foolishly touches it, TinyKeep reveals its true colors. The second level introduce boss characters, and the third the door-unlocking key-collecting puzzles prevalent throughout the rest of the keep. This can be as useful as increased damage against a particular enemy time and as questionably effective as increased jump height. Buff fountains come in two flavors, 15 and 100 gold, and depending on the amount of coin you toss into them grant you a random powerup for the duration of your quest. TinyKeep eases you into the action, with the first level forcing you to collect a sword and shield, introducing the standard human enemies: brutish, club-wielding oafs and archer-guards, the dungeon’s spike and swinging-door traps and buff fountains. Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Set in the very late 5th century, players control a recently-freed prisoner on a quest for freedom. So begins TinyKeep, Phigames’ action-roguelike. Your cellmate who is now missing and has graciously left the iron door open behind her, leaving a note about her escape. You awake in a dungeon cell that’s become all too familiar the cold, hard floor your only friend aside from your cellmate.

Tinykeep buffs