Kickstarter has churned out plenty of dungeon crawlers over the last few years. I've previewed some good and some bad, but very few that tried anything original or exciting. Don't be fooled by Rogue Wizard's generic, forgettable title — it combines randomly generated dungeon crawls with town-building in a unique and fun way.

Kill, loot, repeat is the basic formula behind dungeon-crawling in Rogue Wizards, but it has plenty of tricks to keep things fresh. Dungeons take place on a grid and battles are turn-based: you move/attack and then each visible foe takes its turn. In the demo, I could whack an enemy with my weapon or wield devastating magic — the highlight of combat.

Flinging fireballs, rooting enemies in place, opening one-hit-kill voids, freezing, and creating an earthquake in a small area were all usable in the demo. Magic spells added a strategic aspect to the combat, and I felt I could approach battles in different ways. Against a large group, I could use earthquake or slow them down with an icy freeze; for single targets, I might risk a low-accuracy one-hit-kill portal; and locking an enemy in vines followed by a fireball was consistently useful. There's no mana bar, so instead, each magic is treated like an item: casting it reduces the count by one and you can restock it by buying it at the store or finding it on defeated enemies.

Dungeons are randomly generated, as are the enemies and chests that fill them. You pick up quests in the tavern and then set out to conquer whatever dungeon your target is located in. All three quests in the demo came down to killing a boss monster, so hopefully a little more variety will be included in the finished game. There was plenty of loot to find though, so fans of Diablo-style epic looting will be pleased. I did acquire experience, but couldn't actually level up in the demo. There wasn't any sort of stat-building or skill trees in the game yet, but this would create greater character variety if included in the eventual release.

Since the demo was quite short, I only had a glimpse at the town-building and its management. I was able to purchase and build both an item shop and armoury, which sold the usual items you'd expect: potions, weapons, armour and so on. By spending additional gold, I could upgrade them, which brought in new and improved inventory. Judging from screenshots, the small area for building in the demo becomes much larger as the game progresses, and dozens of other structures will be available.

Visually, the game is excellent. The colour palette is vivid and inviting, and I was immediately pulled in to Rogue Wizard's world. Enemy design is filled with creepy skeletons, unsettling hooded mages and crumbling golems. I anticipate that some will be recoloured and reused in the full game, but the variety was solid during the demo. The main character sports a detailed design that reflects more of a knight wizard than a rogue. Equipping new weapons and shields changed his appearance, but his clothing always remained the same visually.

Rogue Wizards is still in Pre-Alpha, but I was blown away by what I experienced: if this is a preliminary build, I can't wait to see the finished product. Until I was met with a "Thanks for playing Rogue Wizards," I'd forgotten I was only playing a demo and not a full, already published title. I'm excited to see how the game will be expanded on and what will eventually be available. Rogue Wizard's is a game worth keeping your eye on. You can find its Kickstarter page here.