Necromonster

Necromonster is a A 2D topdown RPG with a twist --

    It's a game about a kingdom experiencing dark times. Monsters are attacking people in the kingdom and no one knows why, or can stop the attacks. Everyone looks to the court wizard to explain things, but being little more than a complete fraud, he can't. As things in the kingdom get progressively worse, tensions build in the kingdom and the court wizard is banished for being unable to locate the source of the problem. He wanders the the land until he comes across a crumbling stone tower. With night approaching fast, he decides to hide away for the night in the tower. Inside he finds a magic wand that allows him put a piece of his soul into one of the monsters that wanders in the night. Using this soul fragment, he can control the weak-minded monsters. He might not be strong enough to venture into their dungeons, but they are. Having no better place to stay, he decides to stay in the tower and try to earn his role in the kingdom back by defeating the source of the monsters.

    The main game mechanic is that you control a monster who goes into dungeons that are crawling with other monsters to get loot and help you become stronger. There are 2 xp bars, the fast filling monster bar, and slow filling wizard bar. The monster levels like you'd expect, but when it dies, it's a permadeath. The wizard goes on to summon more monsters, who bring back loot from dungeons that make him stronger. Instead of getting classic pre-made weapons and armor in dungeons, you get materials for creating new weapons, tools, and armor. These materials can then be used to create new items at a blacksmith. Tools will also be enchantable to give them interesting, unique, and special effects.

The current game source code and progress can be found here.