Currently, all consumables (spells, potions, etc) get refilled on every Dungeon level start, and on every Retry. Potions and Spells get refilled at Magic Fountains. If you find a case where they get refilled beyond that, let me know and I can try to fix it :)
Are they not the same? O_o They face each other in a horizontal row. There may be more than 1 pair of lovers in the map in higher levels, though!
edit: omg I never noticed but they are equidistant from the edge! woah DragonSweeper keeps revealing more to me hahaha. I wonder if I should change mine to match or if the flexibility adds another element of "search" for the pair
Still not sure what causes it, but the potion bug seems to happen easily (tested with cheat runs so I could do it quickly, though the first time I saw it was a cheats disabled Ritualist run). Conveniently, it happened on the first potion use each time.
Interesting, thanks for the videos! This helps a lot. I wonder if using the stamina potion in-between is part of the issue - in any case I can start debugging this a bit more directly now! Thanks :)
1. HP boosting items (such as the Sacrificial Whip) cannot boost your HP past 30. This makes Floor 5 unbeatable if you have the sacrificial whip (Dragon has 31 power, no items reduce dragon power, rain of fire does not work on dragons).
2. Killing the Firelord seems to only weaken Undiscovered Fireflies. Fireflies that have been revealed keep their stronger form:
3. Here's a tough one: Consumables that reduce damage taken or increase xp (such as stoneshield, stamina, or holy light). Have a chance of their effects becoming permanent - persisting not only after they would normally reset, but through floors and after game overs. It's not easy to consistently reproduce. It seems to happen more often if using a recharged potion/spell, but that's probably just because using them for a second/third time has a means you have more chances for it to trigger:
Once a consumable's effect becomes permanent, additional uses of the same type of consumable also become permanent.
4 (possible bug): The Shop seems to never produce some items after certain floors (not sure if it's related to how many items you have. Just know that post Floor 3, I rerolled over 100 times and didn't see certain items, including the spellbook and Rain of Fire).
5. Hardcore achievements seem to trigger even if you have retried the floor (noticed on a ritualist run, I assume it affects all classes though)
Also, some suggestions: Could consumables be sorted in your inventory? It'd be convenient for finding specific potions or when you want to stack their effects (like with the stamina potion).
Related, is there any chance we could get art distinguishing between "filled" and "consumed" potions? Right now you have to click on each one to see if it's useable, and that can be a bit of a pain and/or make you miss that you forgot to use one of your health potions, etc
Any chance of combining coins into a single stack of like coins and/or not showing them in the inventory? Copper coins especially take up a lot of space, and it's not like they have a persistent passive effect.
Finally, could you consider removing the business card's "extra xp per level" debuff? Thanks to Minotaurs and Gargoyles no longer being considered humanoid, it's pretty close to the pickaxe in utility (and worse than the pickaxe on Floor 1, even without the xp debuff).
1. This seems to be a visual bug since I only provided 30 hearts/gems. I've added 10 more in 0.93 to help with this. I might revisit again later to make the UI more flexible to allow any amount.
2. I found this bug when making Blood Moon! Also fixed in 0.93!
3. If you ever get this to occur again and have more information I would really appreciate it! I believe it might have to do with retrying after using potions, but I thought I had fixed that in the past...
4. That one is interesting.. I do have logic that prevents items from being shown if you have "Max" amount of them. Most passives are Max of 1 but there's nothing stopping it by floor. I'll look into it
5. Fixed in 0.93! Thanks for the report :)
As for your suggestions for QOL in the inventory -- all are valid. I'll spend some time giving the inventory some love in the near future.
And as for Business Card... I'll consider it... I do think it's the best item in the game even with that debuff. What about removing it, but making Humanoids +1 damage or -1xp? I just worry without a negative offset it becomes 1000% the best item in the game!
If you got any other balance/content ideas, let me know!
Yesterday I found out I can actually play this on my phone as well. Neat!
One thing: when you open the menu to place a number on a cell at the bottom of the screen, part of the menu goes outside the screen. A minor inconvenience, but still. Saw this a couple of patches ago, maybe your already fixed this, I'm sorry if that's the case.
Hey welcome back! Yeah, this should run just fine on mobile devices. I do eventually plan on making an android port for google play, but maybe once I hit 1.0! I confined the menu to screen bounds but I don't have many mobile devices to test with so perhaps some phones get wonky!
Is this open-source? (I mean if you figured out how to do what dragonsweeper did on your own that's very neat, but still not original, and I want to learn this too)
I started this project by simply replicating the base game logic of DragonSweeper, but I've definitely iterated on a lot of the concepts and added my own spin to the core gameplay. At this point I believe it's diverged quite a lot to be its own thing :)
1. Rain of Fire does not seem to refresh when using a Magic/Faerie Fountain (tested with cheats enabled so I could run multiple tests quickly - not sure if that affected it).
2. (Presumed Bug) Uncovering a NON-tired faerie when there are no empty tiles for the faerie to flee to prevents the faerie from spawning a fountain. (Unsure if it gives its XP reward).
3. The Ritualist's description still claims they start with the "Ritual Kris" even though the Ritual Kris was replaced with the Sacrificial Whip a few builds back.
A couple suggestions
1. Could we get a few extra non-number icons to apply via the flag menu? Maybe different color flags or question marks? It'd be nice to be able to mark some tiles where you're not sure of the contents but want to remind yourself of something (e.g. if I kill a minotaur, but haven't found its chest, it'd be nice to mark the tiles that were adjacent to it so I could focus on them later, and it would be nice to mark a couple of tiles when I know a mine is in one of them so I know to be cautious).
2. You've mentioned that items have different rarities, but as far as I can tell, there's nothing telling a player what rarity an item is (save for finding it in a chest of a specified rarity). This makes it really hard to gauge the usefulness of the dice/topaz amulet, among other things. Could you add something indicating rarity (maybe different color item backgrounds?
1) Fixed in 0.83 actually! :) 2) Yeah that's correct, she doesn't currently spawn if there is no empty space. I think it's fair to say she should just spawn at her current spot...I can try that out. 3) Whoops, yeah it's a name change. It used to look like a dagger and now it's a whip haha. I'll change that.
As for suggestions: 1) Yeah that's a good idea. I can add a few entries. 2) Good point! Right now rarity is a design lever that isn't really surfaced beyond Amulet. I can definitely add something to help distinguish them in the shop/inventory.
I do like a longer DS, but i kinda feel those extra designs are kinda "lazy" or "game breaking". i found the exprience less enjoyable after gaining some upgrades, comparing with just play another round of DS.
I don't have a solution for this, and I have been thinking about how to add longevity and replayablity to DS but I don't have a better answer than you.
Dungeonsweeper is easier than Dragonsweeper. If you just want something more like a "longer version of Dragonsweeper" maybe you could try turning off items in the settings? (If you want a greater challenge, you can turn it off in the settings only after you've started a game as the Ritualist?)
Hey thanks for trying the game out. I understand the sentiment; DragonSweeper's design is quite tight and doesn't have much design space in its base formula in that regard. I don't know if I would call my expansion "lazy" but by adding additional design vectors to expand the space (enemy types, map size, items), I agree that I "loosened" what made DragonSweeper great in the hopes that it can provide a similar but differentiated experience
A lot of items do break the core conceit of the game -- I admit a lot of them were me just trying stuff out. The nice part is I can balance them but since there's so many, I often like to think of it as letting you choose your difficulty to some degree
Sorry "Lazy" might be too strong of a word, but I think you got my idea.
On a second thought I think this is still more related to tension: In the origin Dragon Sweeper player almost never felt too safe until the lich is killed. But here some upgrades makes the game, especially the very early phase of a session feels "too safe".
That's fair -- the game is intrinsically easier than DragonSweeper, especially the first level. I made a shorter experience and limited the spawns so that players can experience the shop. DungeonSweeper's 2nd level was originally the only level, where I 1-for-1 matched DragonSweeper... but a clone isn't cool -- I wanted to do more. Perhaps the game is too easy overall - I can always balance the, map size, enemies, $ generation, items, etc. If you have any specific feedback I'd love to hear it
I stumbled on something I think you meant to disable before uploading the latest build. I'm going to be vague, since I don't want to help other people seek it out, but I think this picture should make it pretty clear what I'm talking about.
By the way, I have confirmed it's accessible on all floors, not just the 5th.
Also, "bug" report: The Balrog gives 0xp after being killed xP
Floor 5 is certainly a marathon. Has a nice epic feel to it. If you do allow extended runs, just doing it over and over again with an ever strengthening dragon would prove a nice challenge.
Of course, it's so big it didn't entirely fit on my phone screen, prompting me to mess around until I figured out how to pan the floor, and while I was messing around I found that little secret xD
... speaking of which, that secret's always been there? You mean I could've cheesed the Ascetic achievements instead of doing them the hard fair way? Woe is me. /jk
I noticed you added a way to get money directly from the secret god menu btw. Having that and the "reroll" that makes the shop sell all items is certainly going to make it easier for me to test items when I update my guide.
EDIT: Also, am I imagining it, or did you make it harder to accidentally stumble on the god menu? Feels like now I have try to access it a few times before it actually opens, but once it opens once I can toggle it at will.
Hah yeah you could have used it to cheese achievements. I made it a bit tougher but still left it in for that exact reason - let power users do their thing. I was going to eventually make it more accessible and remove achievement tracking when using it in a run, but I've done other things instead haha.
This was a test to see if dungeons that need to scroll could work - my main issue is that there isn't enough items to allow for more than 4 shops before you feasibly have most of them by the end of a continuous run. I could add steps in-between, dragon = 17->20->25->30->40->50, etc, but I think I would need a lot more items so the shop doesn't become all potions :)
Also, I think with increased size there is more room to play with the layout (making more "corners") and potentially group spawns like the Gorgon. Right now I'm thinking of a Snake Charmer + Snakes that spawn in a diagonal. Thematically sounds neat, mechanically the placement is new, but it means more beast which will make Meat Grinder even better lol
i got too much money as the merchant i think and bugged the money! at the shop it said i had -15 dollars.
also, i noticed something. if you drink a potion, like a -4 damage from melee enemies until your next melee kill, all enemies on the board will take the hp penalty visibly. However, the penalty won't visibly go away until you've collected the experience.
more simply: drink -4 potion. two skeletons go from 3hp to 0 hp. you click one skeleton. free kill. the other skeleton still shows as 0 hp now, even though if you click him you'll die. it only visually updates when you click the killed body for the xp. maybe make the potions visually update upon killing rather than collecting?
sorry for all the bug report spam. i enjoy the game.
LOL what? how much money did you get?! Maybe there's a bug in how I revoke money when you die but that's funny. Maybe Business Card is too strong still...
Edit: I think I found the bug. I can have it fixed in the next patch :) hint... pickaxe and business card both have the bug ;)
I just saw your edit, dude I should be thanking you for putting so much time into the game and finding these things! I definitely appreciate it! I'll try to fix this too :)
As of right now, the Love Potion seems to permanently reduce all Lovers' powers (as opposed to just the next one you fight). While this does make it extremely strong and leads to some hilarious situations, it should probably be fixed.
Possible Bugs, Probably intentional: XP required to level never increases past 30 on level ups, and max HP never increases past 23 on level ups. (e.g. if a player requires 30 xp to level up and does so, they will fully heal and possibly gain 1 max HP (if an odd level, and max HP is below 23) but will still require 30 xp to reach the next level; if a player has 23 max HP and levels up, they will fully heal, but max HP will never increase). Here's a merchant that reached this stage on Floor 3 and again on Floor 4.
You are correct again! There is currently a cap at 21 HP but I don't see why I can't increase it. To be honest, the original XP table was made when there was only 1 level so I just need to revisit the curve and add more to the top end. You are definitely at the cutting edge! :)
For anyone who's new/interested, I have put together an item guide for the game. I may update this later to be a more general guide, or may not update it as new builds come out (it was a lot of work), but hopefully some of you will find it useful.
Wow!! I am amazed at the detail in this doc! I'm going through it as feedback and may want to issue some changes based on your thoughts (I agree with a lot). There's a few bugs here too which I can look into as well!
Noticed some strange behavior when using Mass Teleport on floor 4. Some moved monsters turned into white squares/tiles with their power listed on the white square. At least some hidden ("?") tiles stayed in place (such as the cyclops').
Unrelated, but something that would be nice to have is "endless" floors below the 4th. No achievements for them, just there to continue runs/for bragging rights. Probably easiest to generate them like a 4th floor but have the dragon increase in power each additional floor (possibly by more than 2) and/or apply a stacking sacrificial whip effect each additional floor.
It would be nice to be able to continue a good run to see how far you could take one.
add a floor clearing bonus! unless those coins were the floor clearing bonus and i didnt realize. also if you end up extending the runs, make the demon become 0 whenever the whole board in its entirety except the demon is cleared. it would be satisfying and makes sense.
if you want him to remain a "undefeatable foe" for some lore reason you could make the space be empty when you click him and you get no xp to show he escaped.
Yeah, the coins are the "perfect" floor clearing bonus right now. I do think it's a little lack-luster, but it does help your run with more $ to spend on items.
Just a small thing, but marking a 15 (for fire lord) seems impossible? Also marking low squares makes a part of the options off screen, maybe make the options go up when trying to mark those?
It seems that after the recent updates, the pickaxe no longer works. (Confirmed on first two floors, using the miner). Could you take a look into it when you have the time?
Also, a random idea. Right now, once you have the "annihilator" achievement there's no benefit to completely clearing a floor. Would it be possible to add a little cash bonus or bonus item (maybe by having an item chest spawn) for when a floor's been completely cleared?
Seems like you are right about the Pickaxe. I'll make a note to address that for the next patch, thanks for the report!
Getting something in the run for being an "annihilator" is a good suggestion. Cash would make the most immediate sense right now. I'll also look into adding that.
Thanks for a quick turn around. Unfortunately, it seems a new bug slipped in with 4.1. Namely, if clicking on a tile would reveal a scroll, the scroll now gets auto-used. E.g., if you click on a heal chest, it doesn't put a heal spell on the tile, it auto-uses one (a problem since heal and item chests seem indistinguishable), ditto for collecting xp from a defeated lover, hitting an unrevealed tile that has a heal scroll, or killing slime wizards, liches, or pipers.
It's not such a big deal for the auto-reveal/disarm spells, but auto-using heal spells results in a lot of overhealing and removes the ability to strategize when to use heals, making the game a lot harder.
Though Dragonsweeper is more refined, I'm actually having more fun playing this game.
There is one major quality of life improvement I'd like though, as of right now, it seems to be impossible to mark tiles on mobile. This doesn't break the game, but it is annoying.
...Also, is it even possible to get the Advanced/Master Annihilator achievements? I haven't been able to find a way to kill the Balrog, so there's no way to totally clear floors 3 and 4, unless I'm missing something.
It would also be nice if there were a few more rewards for achievements. Maybe say, having certain achievements give some money and unlock a shop prior you could use prior to the first floor?
I'll see what I can do for mobile marking. Maybe I can try touch-hold to open the context menu.
Yeah you are right I think annihilator achievements aren't filtering out balrog properly, I'll address that soon. Thanks for pointing that out.
As for more rewards I was considering locking items in the shop pool behind achievements too. Or go the rogue lite route instead and have power increases like "gain +$5 more" or "shops now have sales". Not sure im yet. If you get anymore ideas let me know :)
Interesting concept, I really like it! There's only a minor change I would add: having to click on the bottom left image to level up serves little purpose and distracts the player from the game. I think automatic levelling would improve the experience. In case of any spare HPs before levelling, I would simply add them as temporary HP to the next level. It would also be cool If the player could store healing items, this way the player can see the number underneath the item without consuming it straight away.
Thanks for playing! Auto-leveling is something I can explore. Giving temporary over-health is already in the game, technically, but automatically doing so might change the dynamics since it means you could "up trade" earlier than anticipated. Leveling from 7->8 with 2 overhealth would mean you could immediately kill the Lich on level 8. While this gives more potential plays, I do wonder if it is too strong! Perhaps this can be a new class item :)
You are right about the overheal, after playing for a little more I understand what you're saying and you are totally right. I was thinking about autoleveling only when you're HPs are 0, but that would also not be 100% ok since the player could decide to consume a full life restore instead, even if in some cases is suboptimal. Another idea I was thinking about is "character unlock". For example, the player can pick the bard from the get go. What if the character is locked until you defeat him during game? This way you create curiosity in the player when he checks out all available characters and sees that some are locked away. This will make them want to explore and replay the game over and over in order to unlock everthing, and each character will allow them to add a different flavour to the experience. Like it's done in Vampire Survivor: it's the same game, but each character gives you a new experience and makes you want to replay the game over and over
Yep! That's what I have planned next actually. We're thinking on the same wavelength haha. My current plan is to have Adventurer be the only class, then you unlock the rest by doing achievements (currently inactive button). That way you have some goals to work towards.
The game is balanced pretty well, which on the one hand is great because it means you tested it pretty well, and the game functions "as is" without anything being added. On the other hand it's hard to add new content, if one wanted to, without disrupting the game balance.
You have equippable items, it could be interesting to let the player find new equippable items in chests. Or swap an already equipped item. Finding a new item might completely change how the player interacts with the dungeon, making an impassable passage feasable. Or, one time use items, like an item that allows you to destroy a single bomb, or an item that reveals a single tile, or an item that reduces an non-dragon enemy damage/exp, etc... A common encounter in mine sweeper is the unavoidable 50/50 mine choice, the one-time use items could fix that.
Another Idea. You could also explore levels with different shapes, moving out from the traditional rectacle, making it look like a proper doungeon with halls and corridors and secret rooms (maybe behind cracked walls?). Hell, you can even make the level be so big the player has to scroll with its mouse to move from side to side.
You're providing the player a list of monsters and the amount of each monster in the dungeon, which is hreat. I think, it would be useful to also know how many there are currently left. For example, If i know there's a 5 monster, but I also know i've killed all slimes, it has to be the piper. I would add such list of "alive monsters/initial amount" in the side of the screen at all times, for the player to check whenever he wants
I just added one-time use items, actually! You can buy a health potion that you use from your inventory, but I am looking to add a lot more. Adding an item-chest is a good idea!! Perhaps each level of the dungeon could upgrade the chest too so you can get more out of it. I lament that the shop occurs after you win a dungeon because you might not even get to play with the extra items. Adding a chest to discover could whet the appetite for it!
Different shaped dungeon layouts is also on my todo list -- I want to also add biomes so that maybe the monster variety could change with the map/biome. I can see a monster that only lives in dead-ends, or only appears in certain biomes.
Upgrading the chest seams a great idea and would allow the player to specialize its gameplay towards what he likes the most. One could specialize in rats while playing the piper class by buying all rats related upgrades. The same goes for chests, the player strategy could circle around the concept of upgrading chests and finding them as soon as possible via tarot cards and the such.
You are right about the shop. There's no hint to it and most player might not even experience it, which is a shame. Chests could give the player an anticipation for what's to come, thus motivating the player and keep them engaged, but I feel like this is not enough. A possible Idea, enter the gungeon approach: you let the player know beforehand that more items can be unlocked via the shop or after each game spending some kind of acquired currency. This way you build curiosity in them. So, initially, chests provide only a small catalogue of possible drops, but after reaching the shop you can not only buy an item, but that item might spawn from a chest in later levels/games. This is more of a roguelite approach, while your game is more roguelike oriented, so it might not be the direction you want to take.
The different biomes idea sounds interesting. This gives me another idea. You know when in games there are entities that not only damage the player but other enemies as well? Like carnivorous plants that eat whatever comes close to them? It makes you feel like you are part of something bigger. It might be that it is actually beneficial to keep an enemy alive for some time (eg. you have a poisonous fly enemy 3, and a carivorous plant 5. While the carnivorous plant is alive, nearby poisonous fly enemies have their exp/life reduced by 2) Enemies interact with each other in an antagonistic way. Food for toughts
I feel like you're in my head, hah. I do have some items about enemies that interact with other enemies in mind. I did the first one last night (in the latest upload) with the Gorgon. She spawns surrounded by bricks, she is 25 power, which is impossible to kill. When all surrounding bricks are destroyed she gets reduced to 0. But I like the idea of other interactions like you described. I can see "aura" effects on enemies, both positive and negative. I want to add more enemies in the next big update so shoot over any ideas you have like that! :)
Hey thanks for playing! Good comments, will try to address this stuff in a future update. As for the Demon Bane power, it currently reduces the HP required from 7 to 3 for the first demon encountered. If you have ideas for new powers and enemies, open to listen :)
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
the final dungeon was crazy, cleared the whole thing except one demon king guy
Dunno if it's a bug but sometimes my spells refill automatically, I don't know what triggers this (edit: apart from the fountain)
Currently, all consumables (spells, potions, etc) get refilled on every Dungeon level start, and on every Retry.
Potions and Spells get refilled at Magic Fountains.
If you find a case where they get refilled beyond that, let me know and I can try to fix it :)
Bug Report: Rain of fire seems to kill the user on use (I presume it's randomly making you fight three monsters instead of just insta-killing them)
LOL you are so right. I always test with God Mode on so I didn't catch this. Whoops! I'll fix soon :)
Edit: Fixed in v0.96!
It looks like your Lovers don't behave exactly like the ones in Dragonsweeper! (I expected them to be placed symmetrically horizontal on the board)
Are they not the same? O_o They face each other in a horizontal row. There may be more than 1 pair of lovers in the map in higher levels, though!
edit: omg I never noticed but they are equidistant from the edge! woah DragonSweeper keeps revealing more to me hahaha. I wonder if I should change mine to match or if the flexibility adds another element of "search" for the pair
Still not sure what causes it, but the potion bug seems to happen easily (tested with cheat runs so I could do it quickly, though the first time I saw it was a cheats disabled Ritualist run). Conveniently, it happened on the first potion use each time.
Interesting, thanks for the videos! This helps a lot. I wonder if using the stamina potion in-between is part of the issue - in any case I can start debugging this a bit more directly now! Thanks :)
Edit: Fixed in v0.95 :D
Found a few bugs:
1. HP boosting items (such as the Sacrificial Whip) cannot boost your HP past 30. This makes Floor 5 unbeatable if you have the sacrificial whip (Dragon has 31 power, no items reduce dragon power, rain of fire does not work on dragons).
2. Killing the Firelord seems to only weaken Undiscovered Fireflies. Fireflies that have been revealed keep their stronger form:
3. Here's a tough one: Consumables that reduce damage taken or increase xp (such as stoneshield, stamina, or holy light). Have a chance of their effects becoming permanent - persisting not only after they would normally reset, but through floors and after game overs. It's not easy to consistently reproduce. It seems to happen more often if using a recharged potion/spell, but that's probably just because using them for a second/third time has a means you have more chances for it to trigger:
Once a consumable's effect becomes permanent, additional uses of the same type of consumable also become permanent.
4 (possible bug): The Shop seems to never produce some items after certain floors (not sure if it's related to how many items you have. Just know that post Floor 3, I rerolled over 100 times and didn't see certain items, including the spellbook and Rain of Fire).
5. Hardcore achievements seem to trigger even if you have retried the floor (noticed on a ritualist run, I assume it affects all classes though)
Also, some suggestions: Could consumables be sorted in your inventory? It'd be convenient for finding specific potions or when you want to stack their effects (like with the stamina potion).
Related, is there any chance we could get art distinguishing between "filled" and "consumed" potions? Right now you have to click on each one to see if it's useable, and that can be a bit of a pain and/or make you miss that you forgot to use one of your health potions, etc
Any chance of combining coins into a single stack of like coins and/or not showing them in the inventory? Copper coins especially take up a lot of space, and it's not like they have a persistent passive effect.
Finally, could you consider removing the business card's "extra xp per level" debuff? Thanks to Minotaurs and Gargoyles no longer being considered humanoid, it's pretty close to the pickaxe in utility (and worse than the pickaxe on Floor 1, even without the xp debuff).
Wow, thanks for the detailed post!
1. This seems to be a visual bug since I only provided 30 hearts/gems. I've added 10 more in 0.93 to help with this. I might revisit again later to make the UI more flexible to allow any amount.
2. I found this bug when making Blood Moon! Also fixed in 0.93!
3. If you ever get this to occur again and have more information I would really appreciate it! I believe it might have to do with retrying after using potions, but I thought I had fixed that in the past...
4. That one is interesting.. I do have logic that prevents items from being shown if you have "Max" amount of them. Most passives are Max of 1 but there's nothing stopping it by floor. I'll look into it
5. Fixed in 0.93! Thanks for the report :)
As for your suggestions for QOL in the inventory -- all are valid. I'll spend some time giving the inventory some love in the near future.
And as for Business Card... I'll consider it... I do think it's the best item in the game even with that debuff. What about removing it, but making Humanoids +1 damage or -1xp? I just worry without a negative offset it becomes 1000% the best item in the game!
If you got any other balance/content ideas, let me know!
Thanks again for playing!!!!!
Yesterday I found out I can actually play this on my phone as well. Neat!
One thing: when you open the menu to place a number on a cell at the bottom of the screen, part of the menu goes outside the screen. A minor inconvenience, but still. Saw this a couple of patches ago, maybe your already fixed this, I'm sorry if that's the case.
Hey welcome back! Yeah, this should run just fine on mobile devices. I do eventually plan on making an android port for google play, but maybe once I hit 1.0! I confined the menu to screen bounds but I don't have many mobile devices to test with so perhaps some phones get wonky!
Is this open-source? (I mean if you figured out how to do what dragonsweeper did on your own that's very neat, but still not original, and I want to learn this too)
DragonSweeper is not open source, unfortunately!
I started this project by simply replicating the base game logic of DragonSweeper, but I've definitely iterated on a lot of the concepts and added my own spin to the core gameplay. At this point I believe it's diverged quite a lot to be its own thing :)
A couple of quick bug reports:
1. Rain of Fire does not seem to refresh when using a Magic/Faerie Fountain (tested with cheats enabled so I could run multiple tests quickly - not sure if that affected it).
2. (Presumed Bug) Uncovering a NON-tired faerie when there are no empty tiles for the faerie to flee to prevents the faerie from spawning a fountain. (Unsure if it gives its XP reward).
3. The Ritualist's description still claims they start with the "Ritual Kris" even though the Ritual Kris was replaced with the Sacrificial Whip a few builds back.
A couple suggestions
1. Could we get a few extra non-number icons to apply via the flag menu? Maybe different color flags or question marks? It'd be nice to be able to mark some tiles where you're not sure of the contents but want to remind yourself of something (e.g. if I kill a minotaur, but haven't found its chest, it'd be nice to mark the tiles that were adjacent to it so I could focus on them later, and it would be nice to mark a couple of tiles when I know a mine is in one of them so I know to be cautious).
2. You've mentioned that items have different rarities, but as far as I can tell, there's nothing telling a player what rarity an item is (save for finding it in a chest of a specified rarity). This makes it really hard to gauge the usefulness of the dice/topaz amulet, among other things. Could you add something indicating rarity (maybe different color item backgrounds?
Thanks for the reports!
1) Fixed in 0.83 actually! :)
2) Yeah that's correct, she doesn't currently spawn if there is no empty space. I think it's fair to say she should just spawn at her current spot...I can try that out.
3) Whoops, yeah it's a name change. It used to look like a dagger and now it's a whip haha. I'll change that.
As for suggestions:
1) Yeah that's a good idea. I can add a few entries.
2) Good point! Right now rarity is a design lever that isn't really surfaced beyond Amulet. I can definitely add something to help distinguish them in the shop/inventory.
I do like a longer DS, but i kinda feel those extra designs are kinda "lazy" or "game breaking". i found the exprience less enjoyable after gaining some upgrades, comparing with just play another round of DS.
I don't have a solution for this, and I have been thinking about how to add longevity and replayablity to DS but I don't have a better answer than you.
Dungeonsweeper is easier than Dragonsweeper. If you just want something more like a "longer version of Dragonsweeper" maybe you could try turning off items in the settings? (If you want a greater challenge, you can turn it off in the settings only after you've started a game as the Ritualist?)
Hey thanks for trying the game out. I understand the sentiment; DragonSweeper's design is quite tight and doesn't have much design space in its base formula in that regard. I don't know if I would call my expansion "lazy" but by adding additional design vectors to expand the space (enemy types, map size, items), I agree that I "loosened" what made DragonSweeper great in the hopes that it can provide a similar but differentiated experience
A lot of items do break the core conceit of the game -- I admit a lot of them were me just trying stuff out. The nice part is I can balance them but since there's so many, I often like to think of it as letting you choose your difficulty to some degree
Sorry "Lazy" might be too strong of a word, but I think you got my idea.
On a second thought I think this is still more related to tension: In the origin Dragon Sweeper player almost never felt too safe until the lich is killed. But here some upgrades makes the game, especially the very early phase of a session feels "too safe".
That's fair -- the game is intrinsically easier than DragonSweeper, especially the first level. I made a shorter experience and limited the spawns so that players can experience the shop. DungeonSweeper's 2nd level was originally the only level, where I 1-for-1 matched DragonSweeper... but a clone isn't cool -- I wanted to do more. Perhaps the game is too easy overall - I can always balance the, map size, enemies, $ generation, items, etc. If you have any specific feedback I'd love to hear it
Dragonsweeper is such a good game that I'll play this dogshit just for more Dragonsweeper
That is indeed the point; welcome :)
I stumbled on something I think you meant to disable before uploading the latest build. I'm going to be vague, since I don't want to help other people seek it out, but I think this picture should make it pretty clear what I'm talking about.
By the way, I have confirmed it's accessible on all floors, not just the 5th.
Also, "bug" report: The Balrog gives 0xp after being killed xP
Hahahahaha ;) it's always been accessible up until now but perhaps I should remove it
Also, Balrog is 0xp because it messes up with my xp calculations for determining overall difficulty in a level XD
Edit: What do you think about level 5? Is it too large? :P
Floor 5 is certainly a marathon. Has a nice epic feel to it. If you do allow extended runs, just doing it over and over again with an ever strengthening dragon would prove a nice challenge.
Of course, it's so big it didn't entirely fit on my phone screen, prompting me to mess around until I figured out how to pan the floor, and while I was messing around I found that little secret xD
... speaking of which, that secret's always been there? You mean I could've cheesed the Ascetic achievements instead of doing them the
hardfair way? Woe is me. /jkI noticed you added a way to get money directly from the secret god menu btw. Having that and the "reroll" that makes the shop sell all items is certainly going to make it easier for me to test items when I update my guide.
EDIT: Also, am I imagining it, or did you make it harder to accidentally stumble on the god menu? Feels like now I have try to access it a few times before it actually opens, but once it opens once I can toggle it at will.
Hah yeah you could have used it to cheese achievements. I made it a bit tougher but still left it in for that exact reason - let power users do their thing. I was going to eventually make it more accessible and remove achievement tracking when using it in a run, but I've done other things instead haha.
This was a test to see if dungeons that need to scroll could work - my main issue is that there isn't enough items to allow for more than 4 shops before you feasibly have most of them by the end of a continuous run. I could add steps in-between, dragon = 17->20->25->30->40->50, etc, but I think I would need a lot more items so the shop doesn't become all potions :)
Also, I think with increased size there is more room to play with the layout (making more "corners") and potentially group spawns like the Gorgon. Right now I'm thinking of a Snake Charmer + Snakes that spawn in a diagonal. Thematically sounds neat, mechanically the placement is new, but it means more beast which will make Meat Grinder even better lol
i got too much money as the merchant i think and bugged the money! at the shop it said i had -15 dollars.
also, i noticed something. if you drink a potion, like a -4 damage from melee enemies until your next melee kill, all enemies on the board will take the hp penalty visibly. However, the penalty won't visibly go away until you've collected the experience.
more simply: drink -4 potion. two skeletons go from 3hp to 0 hp. you click one skeleton. free kill. the other skeleton still shows as 0 hp now, even though if you click him you'll die. it only visually updates when you click the killed body for the xp. maybe make the potions visually update upon killing rather than collecting?
sorry for all the bug report spam. i enjoy the game.
LOL what? how much money did you get?! Maybe there's a bug in how I revoke money when you die but that's funny. Maybe Business Card is too strong still...
Edit: I think I found the bug. I can have it fixed in the next patch :) hint... pickaxe and business card both have the bug ;)
I just saw your edit, dude I should be thanking you for putting so much time into the game and finding these things! I definitely appreciate it! I'll try to fix this too :)
Edit: Fixed !!
As of right now, the Love Potion seems to permanently reduce all Lovers' powers (as opposed to just the next one you fight). While this does make it extremely strong and leads to some hilarious situations, it should probably be fixed.
Haha that's funny! Yeah I'll fix that up soon lol
Edit: Fixed!
BUG REPORT:
if you stack two green potions, when the effect wears off, the enemy doesn't return to normal hp, they default to their hp +4.
example:
rats have 1 hp/1damage
demon knight has 7 hp/7damage
use green potion, -4.
rats have 0hp/0dmg
demon knight has 3hp/3dmg
use another green potion, -4 (total of -8)
rats have 0
demon knight has 0
kill a melee enemy, removing the potions effect.
NOW, rats have 5hp/5dmg
demon knight has 11hp/11dmg
for the rest of the game.
please fix. thank you!
Thanks for the report! I'll have it fixed soon :)
Edit: Should be fixed in v0.71!
Two minor bugs and one thing that I don't think is a bug, but am reporting just in case:
The bugs: Green slimes don't appear in the library when present, or rather, they appear and as counted as blue slimes, and the dragon always shows as having 11 power in the library, even on deeper floors.
Possible Bugs, Probably intentional: XP required to level never increases past 30 on level ups, and max HP never increases past 23 on level ups. (e.g. if a player requires 30 xp to level up and does so, they will fully heal and possibly gain 1 max HP (if an odd level, and max HP is below 23) but will still require 30 xp to reach the next level; if a player has 23 max HP and levels up, they will fully heal, but max HP will never increase). Here's a merchant that reached this stage on Floor 3 and again on Floor 4.
You are correct again! There is currently a cap at 21 HP but I don't see why I can't increase it. To be honest, the original XP table was made when there was only 1 level so I just need to revisit the curve and add more to the top end. You are definitely at the cutting edge! :)
Edit: Should be fixed in v0.71!
For anyone who's new/interested, I have put together an item guide for the game. I may update this later to be a more general guide, or may not update it as new builds come out (it was a lot of work), but hopefully some of you will find it useful.
Wow!! I am amazed at the detail in this doc! I'm going through it as feedback and may want to issue some changes based on your thoughts (I agree with a lot). There's a few bugs here too which I can look into as well!
you should find an easier way to access potions. maybe an "actives" inventory, sorted by type of potion/spell, and a "passives" inventory.
Yeah that's interesting. It can get annoying finding what you can interact with for sure.
Noticed some strange behavior when using Mass Teleport on floor 4. Some moved monsters turned into white squares/tiles with their power listed on the white square. At least some hidden ("?") tiles stayed in place (such as the cyclops').
Unrelated, but something that would be nice to have is "endless" floors below the 4th. No achievements for them, just there to continue runs/for bragging rights. Probably easiest to generate them like a 4th floor but have the dragon increase in power each additional floor (possibly by more than 2) and/or apply a stacking sacrificial whip effect each additional floor.
It would be nice to be able to continue a good run to see how far you could take one.
Thanks for the bug report! It's definitely an oddity with obscuring logic. I'll have it fixed in the next patch.
Wow, I can't believe there are people out there beating the game! That's awesome!!!
I'll ponder on the infinite mode, maybe I can add even more levels with no more achievements so you don't feel pressured to reach them.
Edit: Fixed! Thanks again for the report
add a floor clearing bonus! unless those coins were the floor clearing bonus and i didnt realize. also if you end up extending the runs, make the demon become 0 whenever the whole board in its entirety except the demon is cleared. it would be satisfying and makes sense.
if you want him to remain a "undefeatable foe" for some lore reason you could make the space be empty when you click him and you get no xp to show he escaped.
Yeah, the coins are the "perfect" floor clearing bonus right now. I do think it's a little lack-luster, but it does help your run with more $ to spend on items.
Just a small thing, but marking a 15 (for fire lord) seems impossible? Also marking low squares makes a part of the options off screen, maybe make the options go up when trying to mark those?
Hey thanks for playing!
Yeah, you're absolutely right, I'll add a 15 mark to the menu in the next patch. I'll also look at keeping the menu onscreen too!
Edit: this has been addressed in v0.6!
It seems that after the recent updates, the pickaxe no longer works. (Confirmed on first two floors, using the miner). Could you take a look into it when you have the time?
Also, a random idea. Right now, once you have the "annihilator" achievement there's no benefit to completely clearing a floor. Would it be possible to add a little cash bonus or bonus item (maybe by having an item chest spawn) for when a floor's been completely cleared?
Hey, thanks for playing!
Seems like you are right about the Pickaxe. I'll make a note to address that for the next patch, thanks for the report!
Getting something in the run for being an "annihilator" is a good suggestion. Cash would make the most immediate sense right now. I'll also look into adding that.
Thanks for a quick turn around. Unfortunately, it seems a new bug slipped in with 4.1. Namely, if clicking on a tile would reveal a scroll, the scroll now gets auto-used. E.g., if you click on a heal chest, it doesn't put a heal spell on the tile, it auto-uses one (a problem since heal and item chests seem indistinguishable), ditto for collecting xp from a defeated lover, hitting an unrevealed tile that has a heal scroll, or killing slime wizards, liches, or pipers.
It's not such a big deal for the auto-reveal/disarm spells, but auto-using heal spells results in a lot of overhealing and removes the ability to strategize when to use heals, making the game a lot harder.
I just quietly pushed a fix for that too in 0.411
Thanks for that!
Anytime! Thanks for finding stuff!!!
Cooll game, I like it.
Though Dragonsweeper is more refined, I'm actually having more fun playing this game.
There is one major quality of life improvement I'd like though, as of right now, it seems to be impossible to mark tiles on mobile. This doesn't break the game, but it is annoying.
...Also, is it even possible to get the Advanced/Master Annihilator achievements? I haven't been able to find a way to kill the Balrog, so there's no way to totally clear floors 3 and 4, unless I'm missing something.
It would also be nice if there were a few more rewards for achievements. Maybe say, having certain achievements give some money and unlock a shop prior you could use prior to the first floor?
Wow that's a huge compliment, thanks!
I'll see what I can do for mobile marking. Maybe I can try touch-hold to open the context menu.
Yeah you are right I think annihilator achievements aren't filtering out balrog properly, I'll address that soon. Thanks for pointing that out.
As for more rewards I was considering locking items in the shop pool behind achievements too. Or go the rogue lite route instead and have power increases like "gain +$5 more" or "shops now have sales". Not sure im yet. If you get anymore ideas let me know :)
I've added Mobile support for tile context. Tap-and-hold to bring it up! And fixed Annihilator achievements. Cheers!
i liked it a lot! please replace the art as soon as possible
Thanks for playing! I'll try my best to replace as much of the art as I can!
Interesting concept, I really like it!
There's only a minor change I would add: having to click on the bottom left image to level up serves little purpose and distracts the player from the game. I think automatic levelling would improve the experience. In case of any spare HPs before levelling, I would simply add them as temporary HP to the next level. It would also be cool If the player could store healing items, this way the player can see the number underneath the item without consuming it straight away.
Thanks for playing! Auto-leveling is something I can explore. Giving temporary over-health is already in the game, technically, but automatically doing so might change the dynamics since it means you could "up trade" earlier than anticipated. Leveling from 7->8 with 2 overhealth would mean you could immediately kill the Lich on level 8. While this gives more potential plays, I do wonder if it is too strong! Perhaps this can be a new class item :)
You are right about the overheal, after playing for a little more I understand what you're saying and you are totally right. I was thinking about autoleveling only when you're HPs are 0, but that would also not be 100% ok since the player could decide to consume a full life restore instead, even if in some cases is suboptimal. Another idea I was thinking about is "character unlock". For example, the player can pick the bard from the get go. What if the character is locked until you defeat him during game? This way you create curiosity in the player when he checks out all available characters and sees that some are locked away. This will make them want to explore and replay the game over and over in order to unlock everthing, and each character will allow them to add a different flavour to the experience. Like it's done in Vampire Survivor: it's the same game, but each character gives you a new experience and makes you want to replay the game over and over
Yep! That's what I have planned next actually. We're thinking on the same wavelength haha. My current plan is to have Adventurer be the only class, then you unlock the rest by doing achievements (currently inactive button). That way you have some goals to work towards.
The game is balanced pretty well, which on the one hand is great because it means you tested it pretty well, and the game functions "as is" without anything being added. On the other hand it's hard to add new content, if one wanted to, without disrupting the game balance.
You have equippable items, it could be interesting to let the player find new equippable items in chests. Or swap an already equipped item. Finding a new item might completely change how the player interacts with the dungeon, making an impassable passage feasable. Or, one time use items, like an item that allows you to destroy a single bomb, or an item that reveals a single tile, or an item that reduces an non-dragon enemy damage/exp, etc... A common encounter in mine sweeper is the unavoidable 50/50 mine choice, the one-time use items could fix that.
Another Idea. You could also explore levels with different shapes, moving out from the traditional rectacle, making it look like a proper doungeon with halls and corridors and secret rooms (maybe behind cracked walls?). Hell, you can even make the level be so big the player has to scroll with its mouse to move from side to side.
Another thing, then i shut up xD
You're providing the player a list of monsters and the amount of each monster in the dungeon, which is hreat. I think, it would be useful to also know how many there are currently left. For example, If i know there's a 5 monster, but I also know i've killed all slimes, it has to be the piper. I would add such list of "alive monsters/initial amount" in the side of the screen at all times, for the player to check whenever he wants
Good idea!
I just added one-time use items, actually! You can buy a health potion that you use from your inventory, but I am looking to add a lot more. Adding an item-chest is a good idea!! Perhaps each level of the dungeon could upgrade the chest too so you can get more out of it. I lament that the shop occurs after you win a dungeon because you might not even get to play with the extra items. Adding a chest to discover could whet the appetite for it!
Different shaped dungeon layouts is also on my todo list -- I want to also add biomes so that maybe the monster variety could change with the map/biome. I can see a monster that only lives in dead-ends, or only appears in certain biomes.
I saw the health potion, it's a must buy!
Upgrading the chest seams a great idea and would allow the player to specialize its gameplay towards what he likes the most. One could specialize in rats while playing the piper class by buying all rats related upgrades. The same goes for chests, the player strategy could circle around the concept of upgrading chests and finding them as soon as possible via tarot cards and the such.
You are right about the shop. There's no hint to it and most player might not even experience it, which is a shame. Chests could give the player an anticipation for what's to come, thus motivating the player and keep them engaged, but I feel like this is not enough. A possible Idea, enter the gungeon approach: you let the player know beforehand that more items can be unlocked via the shop or after each game spending some kind of acquired currency. This way you build curiosity in them. So, initially, chests provide only a small catalogue of possible drops, but after reaching the shop you can not only buy an item, but that item might spawn from a chest in later levels/games. This is more of a roguelite approach, while your game is more roguelike oriented, so it might not be the direction you want to take.
The different biomes idea sounds interesting. This gives me another idea. You know when in games there are entities that not only damage the player but other enemies as well? Like carnivorous plants that eat whatever comes close to them? It makes you feel like you are part of something bigger. It might be that it is actually beneficial to keep an enemy alive for some time (eg. you have a poisonous fly enemy 3, and a carivorous plant 5. While the carnivorous plant is alive, nearby poisonous fly enemies have their exp/life reduced by 2) Enemies interact with each other in an antagonistic way. Food for toughts
I feel like you're in my head, hah. I do have some items about enemies that interact with other enemies in mind. I did the first one last night (in the latest upload) with the Gorgon. She spawns surrounded by bricks, she is 25 power, which is impossible to kill. When all surrounding bricks are destroyed she gets reduced to 0. But I like the idea of other interactions like you described. I can see "aura" effects on enemies, both positive and negative. I want to add more enemies in the next big update so shoot over any ideas you have like that! :)
addictive game and i spent a few hours playing it.
just a few things to make it even better
Hey thanks for playing! Good comments, will try to address this stuff in a future update. As for the Demon Bane power, it currently reduces the HP required from 7 to 3 for the first demon encountered. If you have ideas for new powers and enemies, open to listen :)