IVAN
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iron bone glass
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ASCII illustration
The body is part of the inventory.
2001: surviving early public releases.
By The IVAN team; later the Attnam community.
Iter Vehemens ad Necem, usually shortened to IVAN, had public releases by 2001. Its title is commonly rendered as a violent journey to death, which is a fair description of the game’s temperament.
IVAN gives materials and body parts unusual importance. A creature is not just a pool of hit points with an attack attached. The things it is made from, and the parts it can still use, participate in the same unruly world as its equipment. Injury can change the practical problem of survival in immediate, inconvenient ways.
The effect is often grotesque and sometimes funny. The machinery is serious enough to produce consequences, but it does not promise the player a dignified story.
The surviving project is a community continuation maintained through Attnam. Its repository is explicit about that relationship. IVAN belongs to the experimental side of traditional roguelikes: a game willing to give a system too much room, then let the player discover what happens.
Sources
IVAN repository: body parts, materials and continuation