Wait... am I getting it right that you guys just want to ignore the voxel based engine and try to do a blocky version of Skyrim?

There's absolutely nothing about using a voxel engine that necessitates building (or digging for) things as a central part of game play.

This one, but add the mostly-dark ground tile to the space above the hanging grass, to show it's the ceiling.

F0GX was a rarity at the time – a Nintendo franchise game that didn't hold your hand. It has a steep learning curve (often in the form of an actual curve in the track) and some really difficult levels, but it is winnable.

I loved building my own ship too, one that suits my style of racing (which admittedly doesn't suit every level).

I'm not 100% sure I know what you're asking for because it seems so straightforward... A table. All elements listed across the top and again down the left side. Where an element's column intersects another element's row, put the reaction.

werewolves transmit their curse (this feels quite unbalanced at the moment as this isn't much of a disadvantage to being a werewolf)

Couldn't being a werewolf come with loss of control? That's the traditional downside of the curse.

Firefox 8.0.1 on OS X 10.6.8:

It loaded and stayed around 35-40 FPS, though when I started scrolling around it dropped and stayed at 25 FPS.

Dolphin Broswer HD on Samsung Galaxy S II:

Stayed 7-9 FPS after loading.

Inventory management and item use could be handled by an overlay window. Stepping on a tile with an item would bring it up automatically too -- pick up, drop, use. This will also let you try holding multiple items without having to worry about taking away space from the map or worry about controls, as the item window has its own.

I didn't mean to start anything...

But it's nice to see I'm not crazy -- and there's nothing wrong with my eyes, ahem

I agree that it would look better if the fog were smoother/ the same resolution as the map, but I can't offer any suggestions to overcome the technical problems there. Or... no fog of war?

Domination

Well I just wasn't sure if I wanted to compare it to Roguelikes, because in most peoples minds that automatically sets a bias in their mind and that would be the only reason for the term rogue.

Outside the game design industry I don't think the term/reference is that well known, honestly.

Everything in the game is a cave story rip off, to be fair. Actually, I just forgot that Raziel invented brown scarves.

...Actually I just didn't want to use a red one I'm sorry.

That's a scarf? I thought he had zombie decay going on with his face. The pink bits of flesh hanging off... the bloody eye socket...

You need to get either your eyes or your head checked. Not sure which.

What are the pink things supposed to be? Why is his eye red?

But I'm having a bit of a problem. I think the guard (on the right) should have some sort of weapon.

When I try giving him a spear, which feels like a suitable weapon for a guard, the sprite loses a lot of readability, in my opinion. Since the guard's armor is gray, giving him a metal (ie gray) spearhead makes things tricky. Any advice? You can see my attempts here:

   

I think they may get better after animating them, but I don't know for sure. Any tips?

Put the weapon to the side of the sprite? At that size I'm not sure how readable any weapon will be.

I think "Microgue" is fine.

Just curious: if you couldn't include the word "rogue", what would you call it?

Everything in the game is a cave story rip off, to be fair. Actually, I just forgot that Raziel invented brown scarves.

...Actually I just didn't want to use a red one I'm sorry.

That's a scarf? I thought he had zombie decay going on with his face. The pink bits of flesh hanging off... the bloody eye socket...

Variation is wonderful, but if the player is told to pick between a melee punchcannon monk or a backline healer, we're back to the restrictions. Why not pick Monk from the class list and then be capable of playing either way – punch the crap out of something in one battle, and fall back to cast healing runes in the next? (And why can't the Monk dual-wield swords, or pick locks, or raise the dead? There's lots of room for overlapping abilities, odd combinations, etc.)

Sounds like you'd be better off just abandoning the concept of classes altogether and letting players create their own character builds.

Would that be so bad? This is rhetorical. It wouldn't be bad at all.

If the OP doesn't like military classes (and that's what warrior/archer/mage/etc are), then choose a different organisational umbrella, like professional classes (butcher/blacksmith/serf/librarian/etc)

eg,
butcher - specialises in blades and anatomy.
blacksmith - specialises in hammers and fire.
serf - versatile with good endurance.

This is exactly the sort of thinking I was agitating for

And it's not that I don't like military classes – Mages are military? – these games do tend to revolve around killing lots of stuff with a variety of weapons and other attacks, so naturally weapons play a prominent role in character selection. There's a whole thread about non-combat RPGs going on at the moment. Library-based RPG? Hmm...

If you know all possible moves and the overall structure the level has to take, you can come up with a PG system to produce it. In theory, you can also make a system to test it (even if just by trying random things) until the goal is reached, then keep/reject the level accordingly.