DBRL- The Desert Bus Roguelike

Note for inquisitive players in 2019 (and Graham if this makes W+P): The 1.2 version of the game is the definitive edition, and contains all the features of 1.0 and 1.1 in addition to two additional clearly-deliniated features added post-jam. The 1.1 version is included only for historical reasons as it was the last version uploaded during the jam itself.

Welcome to DBRL: The Desert Bus Roguelike! The aim of the game, as in regular Desert Bus, is to travel from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada and back again.

There are 2072 screens and it takes at least 14 seconds to cross a screen. Consequently it will take at least 8 real time hours to achieve a single point (assuming perfect inputs, which is hard because the bus still veers to the right). Enjoy that authentic Desert Bus experience!

Here are the things that are procedurally generated in the game:

• The scenery you will see at the side of the road.
• What Tucson and Las Vegas look like at either end
• Where along the road the bus stops appear on the fixed screens they are specified to appear on

Here are the things that are not procedurally generated in the game:

• Anything that would meaningfully affect the gameplay experience in any way.

Desert Bus features that are implemented in roguelike mockery form here:

• Everything.
• Seriously, if you're prepared to wait for them, we even got the bug splat and the borked day/night cycle in here, and both those and the bus stops happen on turn numbers equivalent to their timestamps in the real game (again, assuming perfect input).

The controls are as follows:

• Arrow keys or All 8 radial Numpad keys or QWEADZXC: Movement
• Numpad 5 or Space or S: Wait
• , or J: Arm Horn. Advancing a turn by moving, waiting or opening the doors will then sound the horn.
• . or K: Open Doors (available only when adjacent to a bus stop)

Things you should try: Sounding the horn, crashing and holding the wait key to wait for the tow truck, donating to the Desert Bus For Hope charity fundraiser at desertbus.org.
Things you could try: Getting to the first bus stop on screen 6, stopping there and opening and closing the doors.
Things you shouldn't try: Getting a point, continuing to subject yourself to this awful experience.