@Play: NAQBU

‘@Play‘ is a frequently-appearing column which discusses the history, present, and future of the roguelike dungeon exploring genre. The opening to NAQBU, a free web game, certainly makes all the right references. Its name first shows up as MORIA, and its similarities to Robert Alan Koeneke’s early roguelike are obvious. If you sit at its title screen, it also shouts out to the makers of Rogue, Hack, Larn, NetHack, Omega, Angband and ADOM. I feel like this game was made for me directly: I’ve played all of them. I promised creator Luke Steuber that I’d write an essay with my opinions on Naqbu, and I’m not one to write something big without getting as much mileage out of it as I can, so here they are: The town level; unlike Moria, each building is labeled Your job is to descend into The Dungeon and beat the boss monster down there, as @-signs have done since time immemorial, which for the purposes of roguelikes is 1980. I would tell you what it’s called, but a lot of the monsters and…