Roundguard

Roundguard is a roguelike that takes place inside a play, in which a castle is under attack. The player can choose between three characters, who have different characteristics and abilities. Dungeons are procedurally generated, and every enemy in a dungeon has to be defeated to progress. Clearing a level earns the player a weapon, armor, abilities, and gold, which can be used to make their character stronger.

The player can either equip it, and lose their held item, or sell it for extra gold. Runes can be obtained, which affect the difficulty of a run. A run lasts three acts. Near the end of an act, the player will face a boss.

Roundguard was developed in Unity by the Seattle-based Wonderbelly Games, consisting of Andrea Roberts, Bob Roberts, and Kurt Loidl. They worked with The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild to port the game to Apple platforms and consoles. Andrea stated that it started from a brainstorm. They liked to play with physics, and started writing pages of their ideas.

She remembered saying "Peggle RPG", then the group made the foundations for Roundguard. The original concept was structured like Puzzle Quest and Grindstone, with set challenges throughout a campaign, but transitioned to a roguelike with randomized dungeons. After around three months of work, they brought their first playable prototype to a Seattle show and tell.

Roundguard received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 75% of critics.

Game Informer's Matt Miller wrote that inclusion of roguelike elements made Roundguard "rewarding", and gave it its own identity. Miller felt that it became easy for the choice of class to become "stale" without a larger selection of heroes. He expresses his frustration toward the challenge of making an optimized build.