The Hunt

Several strings of footprints stretched along a narrow, snow-covered path leading up to the top of the world. Enormous white mountains pierced the serene azure sky, like ancient titans sworn to protect the land from the corrupted civilization. Here the glorious nature which gave birth to Marx and Lenin showed its true might. This was the Earth of yore, untouched by the capitalist filth.

High and higher the footprints lead, into a small cave hidden in the very core of the Himalayas mountains. They continued deep into the cave, where a tunnel twisted and winded through endless stone. Finally, the pathway opened into a heavenly valley, happy to be isolated from the outside world. The footprints made their way downwards, following a small group of men. Slowly, the snow disappeared.

The tiny group travelled through a village full of marvellous far-eastern architecture, past glittering waterfalls and gardens resembling a tiny paradise each, towards a tall temple of jade and precious metals. There most the men stayed, and only two entered the ornamental gates surrounded by six finely crafted statues of Buddha.

In a long nephrite hall with no furniture but a plethora of engravings, they sat down in front of an old monk. Slowly, he stopped humming the mantra of meditation and opened his wise and compassionate eyes. The two men removed their hoods, revealing the respected and self-confident face of the Great and Glorious Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the scarred, sombre face of his feared bodyguard, Ivan Gorovits.

"Welcome to my humble abode, comrades," the monk greeted them.

"Blessed be Lenin, who guided us here and shielded us from the rockslides, avalanches and the smart missiles of our enemies! And blessed be you, the most honoured elder of Shangri-La, ancient lore keeper of Shambala, great governor of Tralla-La, O wisest of the wise in Xanadu! I came here with an offering of an alliance between your people and the people of the Soviet Union!" declared the First Among Bolsheviks in a strong and resonant voice, the same voice that had shown the true and right way to the lost masses of the proletariat for many years now.

"Ah, so our anguish is not unfamiliar to you. For two millennia we had lived in utmost joy, embracing the wise words of Tripitaka and Das Kapital, until the fateful yesteryear. A wicked capitalist named Emmanuel Goldstein found our valley, forced his way inside, and tried to seduce us with his lies about private property, huge profit and untold riches brought by capitalism. We now presume he had a malevolent plan to buy our valley and turn it into a theme park for western tourists, but we managed to drive the man out. Capitalism be cursed forever!"

 

A terrible cloud of unprecedented anger descended upon the brow of the old monk. "Yet we are not truly rid of this terrible cancer. We face the accursed abundance, never-ending innovation, unstoppable progress, social decadence and independence, and worst of all, selfish freedom of capitalism. The seed was sown and threatens to bring us to self-destruction unless we act quickly! As the president of the local Communist Party, I was forced to take drastic measures to prevent a civil war in our beloved, backwater valley. We will be thrilled and thankful to join the Soviet Union in exchange for your help."

The Most Beloved Lord and Master of CCCP nodded with deep sorrow. "We know all too well about the trappings of the sly capitalists. The Great Soviet Union, our beloved homeland, was defiled by Goldstein just eighteen months ago. Its happy collective farms were abolished and our people driven to poverty, unemployment and despair. Dark influence of the Enemy is spreading like plague across our lands! We must strike back, we must strike together, we must strike hard! The seed of dissent will not grow if we squash it and all of its ilk in an exemplary bloodshed. I humbly offer to lead the troops of Shangri-La against the foul imperialists, destroying their way of life and driving them out of their vile, resplendent dens."

"Yes," Ivan ventured. "Leader need good men to kill bad capitalists who chase him away from CCCP! Ivan good man and cossacks good men but cannot restore Leader alone. Soviet Union need more people than twelve."

The Illustrious and Irked Leader shushed Ivan and turned back to the old monk. "As I was saying, we need to work together and act quickly to shatter the very spirit of the bourgeoisie!"

"Indeed," the monk replied, reflecting and ruminating. "We ought to work together. However, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I must be assured that you are a worthy ally. First, I shall test your wisdom. Tell me, how many Zen Buddhists does it take to change a light bulb?"

The Wise and Brilliant Leader smiled. "All of them and none, of course, for such is the nature of Zen."

"Great answer and greater still the man who spoke it," the monk nodded.

On some unseen signal, a novice monk appeared along with a white cow. The old monk gave the Leader a sharp look: "Now tell me, does this cow share the truth of Buddha, or does she yet strive to embrace the wholeness of Marxism and Leninism?"

The Best Leader That Ever Lived replied: "Yes!"

"Moo," the cow said, pleased.

"Correct," the old monk bowed in a polite acknowledgement of the superior intellect of the Leader. "Last but not least, I must ask you to describe the sure sign of a CCCP kolkhoz being founded in the middle of the deep Siberian taiga."

"The sound of trees falling in the forest."

"Praise Buddha and Marx! Russian communists are indeed as wise as I was told!" the monk cried out in ecstatic joy.

"Great, then signing a pact is but a formality now, right?" the Leader enquired. "How many masters of ancient and powerful martial arts can you lend us? How many occultists and sorcerers, espers and psykers? Maybe even some conventional weapons? Tanks and troops, a nuclear bomb or two?"

"Not that fast, my esteemed comrade. Enlightenment surely is the most important trait of a man and a communist, but it alone won't win a war. Strength of body is needed, too. I can give you as many troops as your heart desires, once I am sure they will serve side by side with the best of Russian bogatyrs. As per tradition, you ought to succeed in a difficult and dangerous quest before the alliance becomes reality."

The Incredibly Intrepid and Impatient Leader almost started to protest, but the monk continued: "A frightful monster raided our village recently, coming through an extradimensional portal that opened right in this very temple. The casualties suffered were low, nothing that couldn't be compensated for, but on its escape from our defenders, the creature took with itself our most priced possession of all, a life-sized copy of Lenin's mummy. Slay the beast and bring back the mummy of our beloved Father of the Revolution, then we shall know the true strength of your communist conviction and the capitalistic oppression will crumble before our united might!"

The Most Gloomy Leader sighs: "Well, okay then. Can you at least tell me what kind of a monster are we looking for?"

"Most definitely, yes. None have truly seen the beast for it attacked on a moonless night, but we have scrutinized the sacred scrolls and tomes of forbidden knowledge, until we found a passage we believe pertains to this horrific anti-communist thief."

 

The old monk intoneed in a dark voice: "On tienoo äkkiä niin hiljainen ja musta ja mörkö niin kuin vuori tuijottaa, ja jäinen maa on täynnä kammotusta, kun kuustakin pois värit putoaa."

There was a stretch as silence, broken only once the Notably Frustrated Leader asked in a voice that betrayed none of his inner thoughts: "And that's all? Really?"

"Indeed," the monk replied. "Do you believe yourself up to this task, O Most Monumental Master of the Only True and Righteous Philosophy?"

The Resigned yet Resolute Leader whispered something briefly to Ivan. Ivan opened his backpack, taking out the hereditary weapons of his family: an AK-47 covered in notches, one per slain capitalist; his grandfather's collection of grenades and his gas mask; the bulletproof vest his grandmother wore during the Great October Socialist Revolution; a hammer and sickle given to his father by Lenin himself; and finally a massive scimitar of old Russian steel, used by generations of his forefathers. Then he strode to the door: "Ivan go prepare cossacks."

In a minute, the rest of the group that stayed waiting outside of the temple was marshalled, all hardy cossacks of the Tried but Triumphant Leader's personal squad.

"Follow me," the old monk said and all followed him through wide halls of jade, then steep stairs of granite, then narrow tunnels of gneiss, then rickety ladder of pine wood, then dim passageways of caked dust. There in a chamber forgotten for many a millennium, a bluish glowing portal yawned in the mid-air.

The old monk spoke up: "Be careful, brave warriors, for the road you will tread on is violent and may well lead to your death. May the spirit of Lenin guide you to victory!"

But on the faces of the small squad nothing but eager determination could be seen, as behoves a true Soviet comrade. Facing the portal, they all gripped their trusty kalashnikovs.

"For father Lenin, for the Party and for our Great and Glorious Leader!" Ivan exclaimed and the cossacks joined him in a thunderous battle cry. Then one by one, they stepped into the luminous rift. The last to go was Ivan, a wide grin on his heroic face: "Ivan ready to hunt."

After a while, the old monk looked at the Daring and Dashing Leader, who was still standing next to him: "You... won't go?"

"No, of course not. Now, don't take it the wrong way, but it might be a while and I don't particularly fancy sitting here in the cold temple halls the whole time. Do you have a pub or something around here? I could use a bottle of vodka. Or two."

IVAN: Aslona Release

It's been a while since I mentioned starting the work on a new quest line featuring the civil war in Aslona, but we finally finished and tested everything. Explore five new locations, meet new NPCs, fight new monsters, and enjoy various other new bits and bobs.

Download the release here.
 

Meeting Harvan Black-cloak, the rebel leader, ...

...and Efra Peredivall, the lord regent of Aslona.

Changes:

• Add Aslona!
• Add many new sound effects.
• Add some new monsters, items, artifacts, materials and crafting recipes.
• Change structure of quests. Petrus now takes the encrypted scroll and gives you some alone time. If you chat with him again, you will receive the GC quest, or you can find other people to chat for other quests.
• Add new ROOM_OWNED_AREA type for generic owned rooms. Uses code similar to the Cathedral or Decos' house.
• Hotness can now be used to define materials that deal fire damage on contact, just like Acidicity for acidic materials.
• Use GitHub app for LGTM.
• Cats can be tamed with fishes.
• Orcs have black blood.
• Lobh-se is a bit more fun.
• Make amulets easily recognizable by color.
• Land mines can now be sometimes defused if you levitate over and pick them up.
• Willpower now protects against some hostile magic.
• Add autopick regex.
• Add an option to show info about gods, displaying their last reaction to prayer.
• Better 'F1' command in menus.
• Some items now have descriptions.
• Better help for crafting actions.
• New help for config options.
• Add options to start with no pet and to use health descriptions.
• Add alternate door traps.
• Prevent very dumb creatures from using wands.
• You cannot unequip locked chastity belt.
• Update README and add MANUAL.
• A wise player can look at an enemy for a rough estimation of their health.
• Add day/night cycle to all above-ground locations.
• Enable weather effects for more above-ground locations.
• Let monsters also benefit from Detecting status effect.
• Coffins now generate with grave goods and do something when you steal from them.
• Hammers are good with the undead.
• Some monsters now have different diets.

Fixes:

• Decos no longer lets you steal from him.
• You can no longer leave the Black Market through walls.
• Slightly nerf Black Market.
• Display Willpower in wizard mode secrets.
• Running in wilderness now correctly takes stamina.
• Fix some quest messages not being saved as already displayed.
• Reveal gas traps when you step on them.
• Fix several places where panic immunity or disease immunity was not respected.
• Fix several crafting bugs, hopefully preventing crashes.
• Fix Terra not offering priestly services after you killed Lobh-se.
• Spill more water over a burning player when they pray to Silva, so there's a better chance to be extinguished.
• Prevent long strings in config options from overflowing when displayed.
• Prevent building features in owned rooms.
• Explosive liquids can no longer be used to douse flames.
• Wands of webbing were not causing hostility.
• Fix horns of fear causing panic without checking the panic resistance of the victim.
• Remove redundant messages from auto map notes.
• Fix sitting on fountains and drinking from non-water fountains.
• Fix AI not using equipped zappable items.
• Make taming/possessing more powerful creatures scale correctly.
• Fix a bug where boots were not correctly considered for kicking effects.
• Fix teleport lock from non-equipment sources never timing out.
• Assorted minor fixes and balancing.

Aslona:

• A new main quest will see you trying to bring peace back to the kingdom of Aslona, currently in the middle of a civil war.
• Add five new locations.
• Player can now have a ship to sail the oceans of worldmap. This also means that they can now bring pets that would normally be unable to cross the ocean with them.
• Moving over the ocean is slightly slower than on dry land.

 

Itsy bitsy golden spider.

  

Dwarven Wars

A bit of backstory for IVAN, or "Why are there tunnels with minefields and monsters everywhere? And what about the kamikaze dwarves in the Cathedral?"
 

  
Dwarves were never numerous, but once upon a time, they were the greatest of all races. There used to be three mighty dwarven city-states: the Hammer, the Crown and the Anvil.

Hammer-dwarves of Kharad-durr were artificers and sorcerers known for forging objects imbued with incredible magics, from golems to enchanted weaponry. The black iron walls of their fortress-city were never breached, and military supremacy of the Hammer was unquestionable ever since the death of Xinroch. All of their arts are now lost.

Crown-dwarves of Khaz-zadm were artisans and merchants, their underground city sitting on rich mines and sprawling trade tunnels. They mined for gemstones and precious metals, then worked them into wonderful jewels and sold them for exorbitant prices. The wealth of the Crown was legendary, overshadowing even the hoards of ancient dragons. All of their treasuries are now looted.
 
Anvil-dwarves of Kharaz-arad were alchemists and scholars, their progress in the natural sciences rapid and unstoppable. Their mountain halls of concrete and steel had automated heating, lighting and ventilation, their medicinal knowledge ensured long and healthy life, and their libraries overflowed with wisdom. All of the survivors are now hiding from the world.

Dwarven golem

 
As it often is with mighty nations, their objective prominence and subjective superiority caused rivalry, envy and friction, until they came to war.

The initial struggles occurred between the Hammer and the Anvil, with the Crown adding metaphorical fuel to the flames on the scarce few pre-war diplomatic meetings, hoping to make good profit from trading with both sides once the fighting starts. Had everything gone according to their plans, they would act as a balancing force between the other two dwarven nations, making big money while the combatants exhausted themselves into insignificance. But no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.

Hammer-dwarves had an upper hand from the very the beginning, blitzkrieging through the outer defenses and fortifications of Kharaz-arad with ease. Their golems tore apart the forts stone from stone as easily as they tore the defenders limb from limb. The Anvil recouped with dangerous alchemical concoctions and guerrilla warfare.

The golems might have been strong and barely stopped by walls, but the Anvil filled the underground with minefields and the golems crippled themselves. The soldiers of the Hammer wielded deadly weapons, so the Anvil never confronted them face to face. They were protected by enchanted armour, but what use are enchantments when the person wearing it is covered head to toe in napalm? They fought bravely, but even bravery breaks when the encampment is pumped full of mustard gas.

Slowly and with great difficulties, the Anvil pushed back against the Hammer, and the Crown-dwarves observed their progress with satisfaction, as both sides were steadily running out of resources and would soon be forced to seek outside help. They greatly underestimated the wounded militaristic pride of Kharad-durr.

The Hammer, humiliated and desperate for reclaiming their dominance, turned to whatever magic they could use. They started experimenting with necromancy, eventually placing soulsteel phylacteries of dead warriors into new golem-tech bodies, to combine the strength of the golems with the intelligence and ingenuity of the greatest dwarven heroes. These wraith-golems led armies of disposable zombies and skeletons raised right from the battlefield, unafraid of fire and immune to gas, overwhelming the minefields by sheer numbers.

And yet the Hammer-dwarves had another great breakthrough around that time - they managed to trap a spell in an implement that could then discharge the spell without the need for a mage. The first magic wands were mass produced and transformed the battlefields into death zones of flying elemental bolts and curses. They crushed the Anvil-dwarves.

Wraith-golem

 
The Crown finally entered the war at that time, terrified by the Hammer's new found powers of mass destruction enough that they firmly sided with the Anvil. A coordinated offensive of mercenary armies paid from the treasures of Khaz-zadm along with surgical strikes of the Anvil's brainwashed terrorists ready to give their lives to destroy strategically important structures forced the Hammer into retreat, cut them from supplies and prevented any further magical research.

The troops of the Hammer were routed and scattered, their hillocks and strongholds conquered. With the enemy literally before their gates, the sovereign of Kharad-durr gave order to enact their last defense - a great magical ritual that took the life of most dwarven necromancers, but raised all dead around the city as an uncontrolled undead horde, and continued to raise them again and again. The battle of Kharad-durr was long, arduous and full of unsung sacrifices, but the alliance won and the Hammer-dwarves were destroyed.

The toll that the Dwarven Wars took even on the victorious nations was enormous. Kharaz-arad was diminished, their city ruined beyond repair and much of their knowledge lost. Goblins and, after the death of Vol-Khan, even orcs saw their weakness and acted upon it, never giving the Anvil-dwarves the respite needed to recover their losses. Over the following centuries, they grew distant from the world, bitter and isolationist. It is said that only recently did they allow two foreigners, human brothers from the land of Bazzaria, to enter Kharaz-arad and learn their secret techniques of torture and brainwashing.

Even Khaz-zadm, despite their short involvement in the war, was decimated. Their coffers were running low, their mines were undermined and trade routes filled with masterless golems or worse. It was then that the last duchess of Khaz-zadm, Moonrise Stealing Dark, was approached by the high priest Petrus with an offer of charitable help. She should have known better. The mines below their city held the richest deposits of valpurian ore on the whole continent, and the high priest was well known for his avarice. His assistance turned into an invasion, and Khaz-zadm burned. Only a dark and gloomy cave remains of this dwarven fortress-city today, and the few surviving Crown-dwarves remember nothing from their past, serving Valpurus with fanatical, suicidal zeal.

Other consequences and lasting signs of the War are still present, too. Forgotten minefields, lost kamikaze dwarves who never learnt that their war is long over, necromantic radiation randomly raising undead in many places, cursed items and strange weapons stashed in long abandoned ruins and secret rooms. Folk tales and bardic songs also claim that even though the Hammer-dwarves were slaughtered and their city caved-in, the immortal lich-king of Kharad-durr survives and waits for the glorious day when his army of undead awakens again and the Hammer returns to glory.
 

One is for sure, though. No matter the heights of progress and power that the dwarves once reached, they will be remembered for the Dwarven Wars that drove them to the very verge of extinction. How the mighty have fallen indeed.

IVAN: Release 0.57

New IVAN release is out! Get it here.
 

Changes:

• Add Black Market, an end-game shop to spend all your excess gold in.
• Add game lore and fiction to the Doc folder.
• Magic helmets spawn with random material.
• Switch some helmets from full to normal helmet.
• Keys very rarely break when used.
• NPCs will sometimes talk to you on their own.

Fixes:

• Clean up code.
• New "expansive terrain" can help prevent blocking important entrances.
• Improve item search algorithm.
• Fix ring detection to work same as scrolls.
• Enable wishes for empty containers, make empty cans and empty bottles wishable.
• No rotated pictures for equipments and newly-spawned items.
• Do not aggressively upgrade dependencies for mac build.
• Mirrored items cannot be dismantled into permanent lump of material.
• Stop weapon swap from auto-stealing items in shops.
• Possibly fixed the window context glitch in Windows.

IVAN: New Dungeons

Here is a sneak peak on what I'm currently working on for IVAN.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)
  

If you ever survived to the late game with a purse
full of gold and nothing to spend it on, this new area
should be a godsend for you. Black Market will have enough
goods to stump and shopaholic, at very (un)reasonable prices.

The old king is dead, long live the very young king.
You will be able to explore the royal castle of Aslona and
take up a quest to save the kingdom from a civil war.

You may try to talk to the emissary of Aslona, who is
already present in the current version of the game
in the grand hall of the Cathedral of Attnam.

IVAN: Release 0.56

This release mostly fixes bugs and balance issues that got reported to us. Download it here.

 

 

Changes:

• New banana-and-pick-axe icon on Mac and Windows.
• Remove Google groups e-mail address.

Fixes:

• Windows build done using mxe, which should fix issues on Windows 7.
• Fix first person messages.
• Simplify command descriptions.
• Fix path search for SDL2.
• Fix artifacts being spawned through polypiling.
• Try to fix stat growth while polymorphed.
• Fix crafting recipes.

IVAN: Atavus Day Release

Atavus, the god of charity and munificence, brings you the gift of a new release of IVAN. Download it here.

 
Changes:

• Added Freedom for Tweraif victory.
• Added crafting.
• Considerably reworked Lobh-se.
• Added new shields, amulet, wand and artifacts.
• Added several new materials.
• Buffed regeneration. It now both regrows limbs and speeds up restoration of HP.
• Stamina cost reworked. It will decrease more slowly, balancing powerful artificial limbs.
• Mana attribute decreases cooldown of magical items.
• Scroll of body switch is once again unwishable.
• Decreased frequency of magical equipment.
• Improved stethoscope display.
• Tweak the effects of prayers.
• You may only become the champion of either Valpurus or Mortifer.
• Increase effects of Wisdom on prayers.
• You can now attempt to steal from shops.
• Move saves, bones and config to user directory.
• Add LGTM code quality badges.

Fixes:

• Backtrace.
• Broken vials are no longer fixed into bottles.
• Fix wizard mode autoplay mode.
• Fix heap-use-after-free in go::Handle().
• Harden bitmap::Fill().
• Fix first person being used in crafting messages.
• Fix dialogue of Terra.

Ho ho ho! Merry Atavus Day!

IVAN: Freedom for Tweraif

There will be a new victory in the next release of IVAN. Right now, you can bring revolution to your home village, slaying the imperialists so that freedom can return to Tweraif. But is it really worth it when the Attnamese navy will easily retake the liberated yet helpless village once the winter ends?

Well, there will be a way to ensure that Tweraif remains unconquered. Try talking to Kaethos.

Terra, the elder priestess of Silva

It's a giant spider!!!

IVAN: Release 0.54

Finally, the testing is done and all the features are (reasonably) complete. Iter Vehemens ad Necem is now at release 0.54 and you can download it here.

That angel was my friend until a nymph seduced her.

Changes:

• New OS X binary!
• Nearly 400 new materials added.
• More interesting TX final level.
• Improved look mode by using showItemsUnder.
• Limit golem spawns to GC and TX.
• Fluid rework - you can now sip only a part of a bottle's contents rather than always drink it all.
• New animations!
• Mini-map notes through engravings.
• Mouse support!
• Mouse hover over silhouette equipment will show a detailed descriptive message on log.
• Hotkey for quick weapon switching.
• Improved lights!
• Text font options added.
• Optional xBRZScale now used to stretch the full dungeon, silhouette, inventory items and NPCs on lists.
• FrameSkip optional functionality for slow machines (or heavy CPU load as in "play while you work").
• You can now optionally review after death events/items/msgs using Ivan3D mode.
• Optionally always centre on player after exiting LookZoom mode.
• Optionally show full dungeon name with roman level numbers.
• Grouped config options in categories.
• Custom stack list length (items, drop, throw etc.).
• Several new monsters added, including five new uniques.
• Monster AI now knows how to zap wands at you!
• Show items at player position, side by side.

Fixes:

• Fix load game in wizard mode.
• Fix some crashes on iOS.
• Fix many crashes that may happen on death.
• Fix memory leaks of message system and sound system.
• Chests that spawn with broken locks are automatically unlocked.
• Anvils and forges will no longer block your path.
• Fix memory overflow in commandsystem::ShowMap().
• Fix duplicated player after crash.
• Lower resolution to better fit scaled window.
• Warn about severe injury from mustard gas while resting.
• Many minor fixes.
• Mainly when toggling full screen mode on linux, it will now wait until you release the key to apply.
• Imprisoned necromancer can cast spells.
• Elianise will no longer steal from you.
• All the ambassadors will stay in the Cathedral and not wander around.
• Nerf mind worm damage a bit.
• Fix unlocking hexagonal and octagonal locks on chests.
• Fix unicorns neighs.

For developers:

• Add define.dat validator for script files.
• Use chrono for rng seed instead of random_device.
• Commands console.

You can always join us on the forums with any questions you may have.

Enjoy!

Me and my clones, talking to the high priest Petrus
right after I tamed his female slaves.

IVAN: An Introduction

I'm backdating this to make it the first IVAN post, because IVAN deserves an explanatory first post.

Ouch.

A dank tunnel runs beneath the ocean, connecting the village of New Attnam with the continent. In the lowest level of this passage dwells a massive, carnivorous plant that has claimed dozens of my adventurers. But I was ready for it this time, armed with axe and wand, with my trusty puppy at my side. The battle was fierce, and the beast succeeded in biting off one of my legs which made escape impossible. I fought on until I lost my axe arm as well, and in a panic I blasted the thing with a wand of acid rain. The spell worked and fatally burned the arboreal nightmare, but casting it so close splashed acid on me as well, melting my remaining arm and leg. I laid there on the cold, bloody stone, helpless but pleased with my victory. My puppy decided to celebrate by feasting on the fruit dropped by the dead plant, brushing past me and nudging my torso into a shallow pool of acid. My head quickly dissolved, leaving my companion masterless.

- Review of IVAN

What is IVAN?

It's an abbreviation of Iter Vehemens ad Necem, or Violent Road to Death. It's a graphical roguelike and a really good game. It's the first roguelike I played, the one that hooked me up to the genre, the one that eventually made me learn programming.

As a part of the current dev team, bear in mind that I might be a bit biased when talking about this game. But really, you should drop everything and go play it now. :P

I leave a trail of blood and body parts behind.

And what is so special about IVAN?

Well, it was a graphical roguelike before it was cool. There are probably more tile-based roguelikes than ASCII ones today, but back in 2001 when the first public release of IVAN came out, it was something unusual. It wasn't the first graphical roguelike, but it also does way more than only show you basic, static tiles.

Its graphics serve it well especially together with its other great feature: IVAN has a body part system that allows for localized damage. Remember Monty Python and the Holy Grail? That black knight fight? Exactly.

This kobold attempts to create a new
martial style - twin shield fighting.

After you find a good weapon, you will be able to reduce monsters to helpless torsos by mutilating them frivolously! The game rewards brutality by showing its results in detail. You can track a wounded and panicked monster by its trail of blood. Limbs will go flying, blood will be splattered all around, you will see the missing limbs on your foes. Besides that, you'll face animated monsters and terrain, flames, smoke and weather effects, and even dynamic lighting system that can beautifully mix coloured light.

But never forget that IVAN will be brutal to you, too. The game will happily show you the blood flowing from your veins, or the limbs you are suddenly missing. It's best to have a remedy available in such a case, and remedies there are! You can have your lost limbs stitched back on, regenerate them with potions, or pray to have them replaced with different limbs. Yes, the gods of IVAN can grant you an unconventional boon in the form of a golem-like, artificial limbs made of nearly any material imaginable. Which brings us to another feature: the materials.

Unlike most other roguelikes, IVAN defines only generic item shape and use, and all other stats of an item are determined by its material. There are hundreds of materials, and all combinations are possible. Of course, you will not find a longsword made of bread - but if you wish to, you can use magic to make one. Bread sword might not make the best weapon (unless highly enchanted), but it can be eaten as a cool snack.

Even without such frivolities, you can have equipment made of bronze, iron, meteoric steel, mithril, orichalcum, mahogany, chitin, petrified dragon bones, spider silk, phoenix feather, primordial ice, and so much more. Magic can be used to harden, or completely change the material of your gear. And besides allowing you to upgrade your equipment in a unique way, the material system makes it possible for the game to easily generate lots of different objects for your use and amusement.

So be goofy or inventive - the game gives you tools for it all.

Boss slain!

But there is more. IVAN has significant worldbuilding hidden in the conversations you can have with nearly any creature you will run into. Talk to them and they will tell you stories, jokes, or hints and useful advice.

It has multiple locations and two mutually exclusive main quests you can pick from, along with several sidequests and optional areas and bosses. It has seven different victories, so don't expect to truly finish the game any time soon.

It has a lot of hidden surprises and a (blackish) humour that is very close to my heart. It also has a great community.

In a prison.

Iter Vehemens ad Necem is a very deep, very difficult game, but the brutal difficulty makes it so much more rewarding to actually make progress. It will take you a while before you achieve a victory, and I don't think you'll ever stop finding new things in the game. Especially because we still actively develop it, so there is something new every few months.

Yes, there is a beach in a dungeon.

Oh, and before I forget, there is a dedicated forum for IVAN, a GitHub page with releases, a TV Tropes page, and of course a wiki.

The temple of Xinroch.