I'm late to the game, but I'm going to attempt this challenge.

I made a small tile set for it. I also had a few versions of the main character before I settled on something very basic. The first version, I was going to use an asset I got through Humble Bumble, but it didn't fit right. So I tried to modify him enough to make him fit what I wanted, and that didn't work out too well. So I tried making my own from scratch (the bald guy on the right), but that didn't seem to fit very well either and might have taken a long time to create the assets. I even tried making a simple smiley face that would change color and expression based on its health.

The version I settled on was pretty basic, but I think still fits well into my vision. I can always improve on it later. So I cranked out most of the animations I'll need.

I also made some rat graphics to be the first enemy.

My plan is to mostly make my game a lot like the ASCII Rogue I spent a lot of my young years playing.

I also had an idea floating around in my head for years about a health system a little different than the usual. It's not an entirely original idea, but I really want to try it out to see if it will work out as a fun game mechanic. The system is geared around injuries and how those injuries affect the body. Loss of blood affects strength, energy, speed, eventually consciousness, and other things. So a cut has more long term issues than the initial damage. It also heals over time. I'm not trying to make it realistic, I just want to provide more consequences and ways to die than the usual hit points depleted, ran out of food and die instantly. I don't know, I hope it works out.

I had made a few prototypes in js, the last one was very complex. But for this I decided to boil the concept down it's the most basic elements for testing out the concept.

So I made this prototype:

http://devpirates.com/Proto/BasicInjuries/Injury.html

It's a lot more basic than my previous prototypes. There are only a few entry points and once it's in place it shouldn't be much work to utilize. One addition I made over all the other prototypes, is that I added in food and water so that the player can die from starvation like in the Rogue game I used to play. I'm making my game in UE4, so now I need to convert it to work inside that. Which is another reason for me to create a simplified version of it, to make it easier to move over. I plan to add toggles to the game to turn off food and/or water needs for the difficulty setting.

So now, in less than a month, I need to port the prototype health system, program the items, weapons, armor, and enemies, then create the dungeon generation system. It sounds so easy when I put it like that...