Well, the first day of coding went by, and it was a very efficient one :). Although I didn't make anything playable (that's near impossible ^_^) but thanks to Valkyrie, I managed to setup a basic playing environment. I'd like you to download it and take a look around, so you get an idea what Berserk will be about.
The status field (except the health bar and pain indicator) is a placeholder for now, but this is how it might look in the future (including the items).
What should be noted is the Pain system -- when you get hit you might have a pain indicator -- this penalty is given to all rolls -- both defence and attack! -1 is not bad -- -8 means that you'll probably fail all tests! So when in pain, it's better to retreat. No natural healing occurs -- you'll die eventually especialy that the beast spawn increases over time.
Knockback is also implemented -- use it to your advantage.
http://chaosforge.org/files/berserk-day1-bin.zipKeybindings : Arrows move, (PgUp, PgDn, Home, End for diagonal), '.' stays in place. 'Q' exits without warning.
Let's see how many beasts can you kill before you die :D.