This is where Wouter van den Wollenberg went wrong:
I initially started with a complex text-based game based on D&D rules, but I quickly abandoned it
Really? You're promoting a game developed by a quitter*? For shame, Rayhawk! Let's consult the Nethack database for the term "quitter" and see how Nethack feels about this:
Maltar: [...] I remembered a little saying I learned my first day at the academy.
Natalie: Yeah, yeah, I know. Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Maltar: What? No! Winners never quit and quitters should be cast into the flaming pit of death.
[ Snow Day, directed by Chris Koch, written by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi ]So I decided to make a hack 'n slash game using letters as monsters, but make it a real time game instead. I also removed some of the more complex mechanisms from NetHack such as fountains (including the wishes), pit traps and the need for sustenance. Getting rid of the bitmaps freed me of the task of creating my own which was boring (not to mention that I tended to suck at it)
So, he removed complex mechanisms because he sucks at it. And he's a filthy quitter. Not to mention that making it real time takes away from the entire essence of Nethack. This is not a nethack variant. It's a game that takes the idea of displaying monsters as letters (which would more accurately be described as a Roguelike feature rather than uniquely Nethack) while bastardizing the very essence of what makes Nethack, Nethack.
The result is Triangle Wizard, named after the main character who is (the only person not to be represented by a letter) represented by a triangle
Blasphemy. @ or GTFO!
I'm stealing your soda. I need something to wash this bad taste of
FAIL out of my mouth!