Dungeon Ho! 1.02 - new Roguelike for Android

[skarsten]

Dungeon Ho! version 1.02 has been released.  New in this version;

VERSION 1.02

* Flattened monster distribution curve - more monsters on earlier levels, less monsters on later
* Golems now guard quest-item chests, as well as other chests at random
* Moved (Eq.) flag to front of item label on Inventory dialog
* Mobs that detect other mobs but don't hate any of them will wander rather than just stand there
* Automap zoom added & fixed automap scaling bug
* Dungeon name/level appears on automap
* Fixed AI bug that kept mobs from using ranged attacks

I've also reduced the price to $1.99. 

***

Sandalfoot Games

"Dungeon Ho!" now available for Android devices

New Roguelike allows players to tap their way to victory

San Jose, CA (March 26, 2013) - Sandalfoot Games has just released version 1.0 of its first title, "Dungeon Ho!", a new kind of Roguelike that stays true to its roots while offering a number of features that makes it easy to learn, but hard to master... and is specifically optimized to take advantage of the Android platform and its features.

While many Roguelikes are notable for their ASCII graphics and laundry list of command options, "Dungeon Ho!" offers an intuitive, context-driven tap interface designed to appeal to users of mobile devices and full graphical display.  And, while many Roguelikes are also notable for their punishing learning curve, "Dungeon Ho!" offers differing levels of challenge in the form of multiple difficulty settings and a straightforward playstyle.  New players to the genre will be able to simply dive in and play, while veterans will appreciate the variety of options available in terms of character classes and differing monster types, while trying to push their scores ever higher by completing secondary bounties in addition to the main quest.

"It may look simple on the surface, but there's a lot going on under the hood in terms of randomly-generated content," says Steve Karstensen, Sandalfoot's founder and lead developer.  "And for a first release, there's a rather impressive list of systems in place; you can cast spells, craft, summon and charm pets, and find a wide variety of different items to use.  As far as future releases go, the game engine is pretty flexible.  Players can look forward to periodic content updates that'll definitely shake things up a bit, and the game supports a wide variety of devices so everyone can get in on the action."

"Dungeon Ho!" is available on Google Play for $2.99 USD (full version) or free (LITE version, with a reduced number of character classes and difficulty levels).

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sandalfoot.android.dungeonho
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sandalfoot.android.dungeonho_lite

About Sandalfoot Games:

Sandalfoot Games was founded in 2012 by veteran game developer Steve Karstensen, who has worked for Playdom, Namco Bandai, Kabam, and Viacom/MTV Games.  "Dungeon Ho!" is Sandalfoot's first title, with upgrades/additional content and other apps in the works for release in 2013 and beyond.

[Eben]

First Impression: Quite fun, very roguelike, hard to read on a phone, but still playable.

Bought the full version, definitely worth it.

-Eben

[skarsten]

Appreciate it.    A few people have commented on the text issue, so I'm going to try and address it in the next update.

[Eben]

Here's my phone specs: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/HTC-Rezound_id5799

There's two problems with the text, in the informational and starting areas there's not a lot of contrast with the background, and it's stylistic enough it's hard to read. Additionally having it cut off horizontally in the inventory is a pain some times.

Also it would be nice to be able to tap on the map in the general direction you wanted to travel, those arrow keys are a bit close together when repeatedly tapping just to cruise down a corridor.

[skarsten]

Good to know.  I intend to add a brightness slider and text color selector to the Options screen over the next few days.  That should alleviate most of the complaints.

Also, tap-to-move is on the list along with true A* pathfinding.  I had considered it originally, but left it out because I wanted to have people be able to tap in the window to de-select monsters rather than tapping them again.  I can probably find a good compromise.

[Eben]

Ah, well I should mention so far I've only played a warrior so I hadn't run into the need to tap in the window for anything... Some resizing / repositioning of the arrows might work better in that case.

Regarding crafting and weight: it would be nice if broken down materials didn't weigh much, it feels very restrictive to not be able to carry around a lot of materials due to weight issues.

[skarsten]

I've been pondering that... currently, one "quantity" equals one pound, with items converting their weight into poundage to determine how much you get out of breaking something down.  It's not a big deal for most classes because their crafted items don't weigh much.  Warriors and artificers, on the other hand...

It strikes me as not-making-sense that you would be able to make a 200lb golem out of 10 pounds of wood, but artificers currently struggle to carry that much stuff until level 10 or so.

Also, materials have different weights.  Stone and obsidian are heavy.  Bone and wood are fairly light. (IIRC)

I think the solution might be to simply reduce the weights of some of the heavier crafted items, so that you don't need to carry around a lot of materials.  I tried to keep item weights consistent with their real-world counterparts, but it does seem like it's very easy to get loaded down.

[skarsten]

Bump.  Version 1.02 has been released with a player-requested feature and some bug fixes.  I've also reduced the price.