The Fairy King has promised the granting of a wish to any mortal who can reach them in their throne room. But none who entered the palace ever came back. Now it's your turn.
The Fairy's Throne is a semi-graphical roguelike of coffeebreak length. It harkens back to the earliest games in the genre by being relatively streamlined, yet still complex enough to be satisfying. There are multiple weapons and armor types, enchantments, foods with special effects, a large inventory to juggle, and more. It also has a user interface more typical of desktop apps, that shouldn't require many explanations.
It takes an hour and some to play a complete game, if you can make it that far.
Download
The game archive (71.5K) contains the game proper, a copy of this page and a player's guide. Source code is available under the open source MIT license.
System requirements
The Fairy's Throne requires a Python runtime. Python comes preinstalled on the Mac and most Linux distributions; Windows users can get it from the python.org website. You'll also need the Tkinter module, which is bundled with most Windows runtimes and preinstalled on the Mac. On Linux you might need to add it yourself: look in your package manager for something called tkinter, python-tk or the like.
Python version 3.3 or newer is preferred, but 2.7 should work as well.
Minimum screen resolution: 1024x768.
How to play
The Fairy's Throne can be played entirely with the GUI controls.
Also, apart from the menu shortcuts, you can use these keys:
? - show this help text;
@ - show the character sheet;
i - show the inventory window;
g - get an item from the floor;
m - cast magical spell;
arrows - move around/attack;
h,j,k,l - same as above;
> - climb to the next floor if on stairs;
< - climb to the previous floor if on stairs;
space - contextual action: get an item or climb stairs, if any;
escape - close charsheet/inventory/help window;
F10 - open game menu;
menu - same as above.
The following keys only work in the inventory window:
w - wield or wear item;
e - eat item;
d - drop item.
You can also click in the viewport to examine a tile's content.
Quick tips
The Fairy's Throne is hard, and not entirely fair, since in roguelikes by nature you need some luck to win. But statistically speaking, if you play your cards right you should have a real chance once you get a decent start.
- Pick your fights, and explore a little. Levels often have alternate paths to the next flight of stairs, and sometimes a weaker creature is guarding a stash of goodies you can use.
- For that matter, stairs are always in opposite corners of a level. It often pays to explore sideways first, but the maze will surprise you.
- Watch the status displays and message log, especially in a fight.
For more details, see the player's guide bundled with the game.
