KeeperRL (now at Alpha 23!) Semi-$

[getter77]

Alpha 13

KeeperRL alpha13 is released. This update features mostly non-gameplay changes. Graphics have received a lof of polish, there are now basic animations. The game is optimized better and has fewer bugs. Check the video below and the changelist for details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCjUM-qygBg

The free and paid versions are available from Itch.io. As usual, the free version is the same as the full release, minus graphics and music. If you've already bought the game before, you can download the new version from your personal itch.io link.

Changelist:

    Smooth movement and attack animations.
    More gold on the map.
    Major optimizations and improved FPS.
    New intro with a custom soundtrack.
    Dialog for changing game speed.
    Another dragon and cyclops villains, attacking based on dungeon population size.
    Doppleganger absorbtion details displayed in keeper mode.
    UI improvements.
    Prettier ground tiles.
    Fullscreen support.
    More tooltips.
    Highlight the tile after the 'fetch items' order.
    Highlight prioritized tasks.
    Pretty tile highlights for digging and tree cutting.
    Nicer arrow sprites.
    Removed kraken minion.

[getter77]

Steam Early Access 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/329970

[getter77]

Alpha 14 

KeeperRL alpha14 is out. It features quite a few improvements and new features, most notably online sharing of retired dungeons. Check the changelist below for details. This update is directed to those that didn't access the game through Steam. The Steam version was being updated gradually and is now identical to Alpha 14.

The free and paid versions are available from Itch.io. You can also buy the game on Steam. As usual, the free version is the same as the full release, minus graphics and music. If you've already bought the game before, you can download the new version from your personal itch.io link.

    Sharing retired dungeons and highscores online.
    Added autosaves.
    New inventory and equipment UI.
    More gold in villages.
    Minion salaries reduced by 1/3.
    3 new 'night' music tracks.
    More underground terrain is revealed when digging.
    Creatures no longer walk into fire and try to avoid it.
    Undead no longer walk into sunlight.
    A lot more tooltips.
    Stopped imps from running into undiscovered areas to dig.
    Fixed LOTS of crashes and bugs.

[getter77]

Alpha 15   

Gameplay changes:
Introduced max population limit, which starts at 10 and can be increased by building various rooms.
Minion payouts are removed.
Added throne, which increases max population by 10, and increases enemy hostility.
Pigsty room that increases population limit by 4.
Statues that increase population limit by 1.
Real-time 'go-to' order for teams. Replaces guardposts.
'Forbid zone' order.
Enemies may now cancel an attack when they suffer a big loss.
Creatures now wake up if there is combat nearby.
Allow locking items in minion equipment so that they don't switch them automatically.
Wolf teams are now explicitly visible.
Changed level gaining formula to more steep (bigger gain for killing a creature of higher level).
Morale returns to neutral with time.
Doors in enemy buildings now have to be destroyed.
Village dwellers go to sleep at night.
Imps now build beds for minions.
Imps are not able to use equipment anymore.
Villages revenge item theft.
Allow canceling the 'fetch items' order.
Peseants now work in fields.
AI can use scroll and spell of deception.
More extended attack options: wild and swift attacks.
Donkey.

UI changes:
New minion management UI.
Item pick up menu improved.
Add an option to choose how many items of a stack are picked up or dropped.
Fast team selecting via ctrl+mouse click.
Dedicated button for leaving control mode.
Spell and morale icons.
Added renaming minions.
Added banishing minions.
Allow changing the resolution in full-screen mode.
Add an option to run the game in single-threaded mode.
Rendering optimizations.

Bug fixes:
Fixed pathfinding slowdowns in narrow corridors.
Fixed the 'eyeball removal' glitch.
Fixed thrown item messages.
Fixed prompt for equiping too heavy weapons.
Fixed prisoner spawning crash.
Fixed illusion messages and appearance.
Fixed arrow and thrown object displaying in zoomed-out view.
Fixed bugs in immigration, and bed building.
Fixed lots of crashes.

[getter77]

Alpha 16 

Cemetery with an underground crypt where you can find some super powerful undead minions.

'Mine Town' dungeon with friendly dark elves or gnomes that will happily do some business with you.

Friendly villages where you can recruit minions for money.

Ransoms: some enemies will demand gold for not attacking.

Buying items from shops in friendly villages.

Multiple highscore tables.

Minotaur, hydra, giant spider and giant ant villains.

Procedural sokoban level.

Much more detailed information on enemies, including what triggered enemy attacks.

Giving items to allied creatures (performed by AI as well).

Filling up tunnels.

Whipping order to keep your minion happy.

Elementalist villain and his summons.
A whole new 'classic' soundtrack for adventure mode.
The witchman.
Some killed heroes spawn ghosts.
Kobold caves.
Driads and tree spirit villages (tree spirits are now much rarer to randomly appear when cutting forest).
Enemy village types are chosen as a random subset of all enemy types.
Automatons.
Execution and torture are working again.
Traps are allowed on bridge.
Retired maps are sorted by the number of adventurer attempts. Number of killed adventurers is displayed.
WASD scrolling as option (in this mode building shortcuts are replaced with alt+letter).
Option to zoom in UI for users with large resolution displays.
Free scrolling in control mode (scrolling back requires double right-click).
Fixed movement animation of creatures thrown by spells.
Bugfixes.
Optimizations.

[getter77]

Alpha 17

KeeperRL alpha17 is released! This update improves graphics and UI, and introduces sound effects! There are also minor gameplay changes and numerous bugfixes and improvements. See below for changelog.

I'd also like to announce that, for personal reasons, the development of the game will be stalled in December and January. After that it will resume as normal. (so there's no reason to worry about its future!)

The free and paid versions are available from Itch.io. You can also buy the game on Steam. As usual, the free version is the same as the full release, minus graphics and music. If you've already bought the game before, you can download the new version from your personal itch.io link.

    40 sound effects!
    Minion menu overhaul.
    Team UI overhaul.
    Changes in building UI.
    Legendary minions are pre-generated and have custom sprites. There are 16 currently, but more may come.
    Sprites are no longer re-scaled to 1.5x. The two zoom levels are now 1x and 2x.
    Smooth scrolling with keyboard.
    Prettier creature and square highlighting.
    Fixed warnings about walking into fire, sunlight, forbidden zones, etc.
    Fixed imp task assignment bugs.
    Fixed number of armed members of human village.
    Notification on villains icon when new villain is discovered.
    Unarmed damage value is displayed when creature is unarmed.
    Map extends beyond playable area, to make map border look nicer.
    Game closes immediately with Alt+F4 or when window is closed with mouse.
    Clicking on enemy in minions tab scrolls the map to the enemy.
    A lot of UI fixes optimizations.
    Some sprites are redone and prettier.
    Fixed many crashes.

[getter77]

Alpha 18

The “campaign” update is finally out! For those of you who haven’t followed the development, campaign is a new game mode that takes place in an overworld, divided into a grid of smaller maps. The player builds his or her base on one single map throughout the whole game, but can travel to other maps to attack villains. Those villains may also include retired dungeons made by other players. Thus we now have Keeper vs Keeper battles! Games have gotten longer this way, and have much more replay value. The classic “single map” mode is still included, although it will be subject to changes in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j402fYUtWcw

Unfortunately, due to a bug in an external library, sound effects are still disabled on Mac, sorry.

Campaign mode, including Keeper vs Keeper battles!
Added geology tech, now used to uncover ores.
Added command to switch team leader.
Menu to choose new team leader when current one is killed.
New attack trigger to finish off the player after a lost battle.
Added a task for Keeper to sit on throne (and generate mana).
Flying creatures can no longer fly over Sokoban holes.
Made doors lockable when outside of buildings tab.
Keeper’s full title is displayed in combat messages.
Tasks window has a scrollbar.
Made hint about [new team] button more clear.
Minimap UI gets a border.
Fixed crash when trying to whip a pig.
Fixed UI crash involving dropping multiple items.
Fixed UI crash involving all team members getting killed.
Fixed UI crash caused by uninitialized variable.
Fixed message bug about praying to a web instead of breaking free.
KeeperRL is ported to the Visual Studio C++ compiler, which means better error reporting and possible Steamworks integration.

[getter77]

Alpha 19! 

KeeperRL Alpha19 has finally arrived! This update, among many small features and fixes, allows adventurers to play in the campaign. This makes the adventure mode much more attractive, as you can now visit allies, buy from shops and level up on smaller enemies before tackling the dangerous guys.

Changelog:

Added adventurer campaign mode.
Fixed management of autosave files so that there is a always a file to recover from.
Switched from SFML rendering and audio library to SDL2, OpenGL, and OpenAL.
Decreased RAM usage by about 50% by reusing objects for identical map tiles.
Optimized the rendering logic to get about a 50% increase in framerate in the early game.
Moved back from Visual Studio to MinGW compiler to avoid some technical issues with the former.
Added message boards that can be built by Keepers and function as primitive chat rooms.
Added small random settlements: human and elven villages, dwarf and kobold caves.
Added forest animals: deer, foxes and boars to maps.
Added different body materials, which affect combat and types of dropped corpses.
Enabled passing through doors of friendly settlements.
Added opt-in collecting of game statistics.
Added question marks and town names to minimap.
Added a message for when a minion learns a new spell.
Made the game work on a single thread to avoid some technical issues.
Changed the ratios of hills and forest in level generation so that trees are found more easily.
Made the keeper always be spawned next to a mountain.
Fixed conquering of cemetery level.
Fixed crash when creature is insta-killed by a spell.
Removed Sokoban from the single map mode to avoid level generation issues.
Fixed crashes when exiting the game.
Fixed crash involving the power spell animation.
Fixed scrolling in the minion window.
Fixed various issues that prevented winning, retiring, and playing as adventurer in single map mode.
Prevented the giant spider from getting entangled in her own webs.
Fixed a minion spell learning bug.
Fixed item pricing and shopkeeper bugs.
Fixed ambush bug that caused the player to be invisible forever.
Fixed message refreshing that caused some confusion when the game ended.
Fixed various issues in music playback.
Fixed switching tabs in creature control mode.

[getter77]

Alpha 20.1

Gameplay

    Added 4th geology tech tier for 1200 mana, which doubles the total amount of available resources.
    The number of minerals dropped by digging out ore tiles has doubled, the number of veins halved for respective geology tiers. (effectively this change is neutral, except that less digging is necessary).
    Digging out individual ore tiles takes a bit longer.
    Decreased the number of orc shamans attracted by each library tile.
    New menu for pillaging conquered enemies without having to personally retrieve the items.
    Enemies are highlighted purple to prevent confusion when fighting other Keeper forces. This can be turned off via a setting in real-time and control mode.
    Pretty custom mouse cursor.

Fixes

    Major optimizations of dungeon logic, which should keep the framerate from dropping in the late game.
    Optimization of handling huge (>5000) piles of items.
    Fixed game locking up in the building menu.
    Fixed world generation crash.
    Improved crash reporting, which should make fixing crashes much easier.
    Fixed door locking crash.
    Fixed single map world generation crash.
    Fixed knights and other AI rushing to enter buildings.
    Fixed crash caused by destroying the walls in elementalist tower.
    Prevented walls and mountains from being destroyed by blast and word of power spells. (it’s a good feature, but needs to be implemented as a feature and not a bug
    Fixed single map retirement crash caused by subtle save file corruption by dead shopkeepers.
    Fixed animation crash caused by player-controlled creature being displaced by a spell before it made a single move.
    Fixed a crash involving “Bring item” and “Apply item” tasks.
    Fixed trap arming issues after the arming task is cancelled.


Gameplay changes:

    Steel resource, furnace and steel products.
    Free floor and furniture placement.
    Manual scheduling of production.
    Steel and traps production scheduled automatically as needed.
    Training room upgrades.
    New formulas for creature experience gains from training and combat.
    Manual ordering of doppelganger absorbtion.
    Merged all crafting tasks, minions automatically choose what to work on.
    New skills that influence workshop productivity and mana production.
    Most furniture blocks movement.
    More iron and stone generated on map, more wood dropped by trees.
    Iron working tech more costly.
    New trigger that causes major enemies to increase their attacks after 7k turns.
    Wall reinforcing.
    Fixed mana bonus for exterminating a tribe, instead of killing individual creatures.
    Storage reimplemented as zones. Can designate anywhere.
    Persistent version of the fetch items order.
    The keeper is spawned away from map edges.
    New tile efficiency formula.
    Pre-generated sokoban levels (a lot) for faster world generation.
    Whipping and torture reimplemented as minion activity.

UI changes:

    New dialog for commands in control mode.
    New dialog for creature experience level details.
    Setting minion tasks by drag and dropping on the map.
    Clicking on workshop or library tiles opens control window.
    Simple animations for when minions are working.
    Button group hotkey cycles through all sub-buttons.
    Improved rendering of some highlights.
    Improved throwing animation.

Bug fixes

    Fixed white screen of death that prevented some players from launching the game.
    Fixed dark elf recruitment, and made them respect their cave boundaries.
    Fixed legendary humanoid limbs.
    Fixed tile claiming.
    Fixed movement glitches on some maps.
    Fixed poison gas effects.
    Game won’t crash anymore in case of audio issues. Will mute audio instead.
    Imp AI reacts better to being blocked when fetching items.
    Fixed team UI issues.
    Fixed boulder movement and animation glitches.
    Fixed how minion’s morale is used for their working efficiency.
    Added diagnostics for various unknown crashes.

[getter77]

Alpha 21

KeeperRL Alpha21 is finally here! This update features a new immigration system, which allows the player to accept or reject incoming minions. There is also a new campaign mode aimed to make the game more competitive. Last, but not least, there are female keepers and adventurers!

Gameplay changes
New immigration system and UI, which lets the player accept or reject minions, and unifies immigration, recruitment, breeding, and imp spawning.
New campaign game mode with fixed keeper position and villains.
In games where the player has won, highscores are only based on the number of turns.
Old campaign mode renamed to “free play”. Highscores disabled for this mode.
The “your evilness” trigger replaced by one based on the number of conquered villains.
Added kraken enemy on keeper’s base map.
Removed some attack triggers from retired keepers to make them less aggressive.
Invisible friendly creatures are visible in creature control mode.
Only humanoids are allowed to be whipped.
Non-humanoids are not allowed to open chests and coffins.
“Escape” spell won’t teleport creature to an inaccessible area.
Minerals won’t spawn next to dug out tiles.

UI changes
Female keepers and adventurers! Gender currently has no effect on gameplay.
Single map mode is available through the campaign setup window.
Smooth scrolling through lists. Fixed various scrolling issues.
New UI for firing ranged weapons using the mouse.
Added team go-to order by drag and dropping team from the minion menu onto the map.
Display a guard post sprite when minion is dropped onto the map to go somewhere.
Added “drop everything” command in creature control mode.
Added tooltips with item descriptions to workshop UI.
New interface for paying in shops both for individual items and in bulk.
Added information on item weight in creature control mode.
Fixed various glitches involving tooltips.
Lesser villains are highlighted yellow on campaign map.
Allowed rectangle selection when claiming tiles.
Won’t draw selection rectangle when active order or building doesn’t allow it.
Tweaked some inconsistent room names in the UI.
Some player messages have a higher priority color. Changed “critically wounded” status to “bleeding”.

Bugfixes
Fixed a common compatibility issue with Intel Express and similar video cards due to lack of support of non-power-of-two texture sizes.
Fixed capturing of prisoners.
Fixed torturing of prisoners.
Fixed an issue with loading save files on some Linux systems.
Fixed a common crash caused by duplicate item ids due to a bug in RNG seeding.
Re-implemented minion equipment tracking, which fixes various issues and removes lag.
Fixed save file erasing so that an autosave and normal save can’t exist at the same time.
Fixed updating of creature effects and resistances when equipment is taken off.
Fixed hiding command.
Fixed furniture removal from claimed squares.
Fixed various issues with dungeon retirement.
Fixed visibility updating glitches in both real-time and turn-based modes.
Fixed various issues and crashes in the throwing UI in creature control mode.
Fixed issues with some characters in the message board text.
Fixed map scrolling glitch in creature control mode.
Fixed some glitches involving rectangle selection in real-time mode.
Prevented overflowing keyboard queue and game lock-up by holding space.
Fixed issues with clicking on minions on the map.
Fixed crash involving a creature getting killed right after traveling to another map.
Fixed a crash involving bandits not able to find gold (usually caused by a player using cheats).

Other
Changed format of highscores file to binary.
Added versioning to highscores, so they can be cleared after major gameplay changes.
The “UI zoom” setting is not available at lower resolutions to prevent crashes.
Replaced “no fullscreen” option in Steam launcher with “clear settings”.

[getter77]

Alpha 22

Gameplay changes:
Dedicated tutorial mode that teaches the game’s basic features and controls.
Saving and loading times, as well as save files sizes, decreased 2-3 times.
Portals are available as a building, instead of a spell. They don’t time out.
All resource values, except mana, are deflated 5 times. (everything costs less, you extract less).
Team members are woken up and untied when given a “go-to” order.
Creatures will not give healing items to wounded friends who already have means of healing themselves.
Ownership of an item by a minion is assumed when player equips the item in control mode.

UI changes:
Added setting to disable vertical sync, which may solve some framerate issues.
New, nicer research menu.
Added descriptions to keeper-adventurer menu.
Changed highlighting of various buttons and tab icons.
Clicking on controlled creature skips turn.
Added a simple movement animation of creatures when destroying objects, digging, and cutting trees.
Window “close” button is highlighted.
Swapped storage colors. Equipment is now blue, resources green.

Bug fixes:
Fixed UI crash when changing minion’s task.
Fix drowning of flying creatures that enter deep water that is in forbidden zone.
Fixed mouse navigation to enemies that are far away when in control mode.
Fixed crash in item pick up menu.
Made message boards work even if statistics gathering is not enabled in the settings.
Fixed movement animation glitch when using mouse and being interrupted by enemy.
Fix UI crashes involving workshops and minion equipment menu.
Fixed tooltips in workshop menu.
Fix scrolling inventory in control mode.
Fixed game speed dialog glitch.
Removed useless “execution” task.

[getter77]

Alpha 23 

It’s my pleasure to announce that KeeperRL Alpha23 is ready. It took four months to finish and because it consists almost entirely of gameplay changes, it’s a very, very juicy release!

The new features can be divided into three major groups. The first one redefines progression in the game, making it more dependent on conquest. Mana is no longer generated in the library, but is instead awarded for conquering enemies. A lot of construction and item prices were rebalanced to accommodate this change. You can optionally turn on mana generation in the library in the ‘free play’ mode, for those who will miss the old system.

The second set of changes involves combat and training. Combat has been made more deterministic and slower, and creature attributes were changed to empower spellcasting characters. There are also health-bars!
A major addition to combat is the ‘full control’ mode, in which you control every minion in the team. This redefines the combat experience in KeeperRL in a major way, making it much more tactical and fun.

The last big addition is the ‘endless mode’, where you are tasked with defending your dungeon from incoming enemy waves for as long as possible. This is a game mode for players who don’t necessarily enjoy venturing out and exploring the world. Conquest is optional. The highscores for this mode will be based on how many turns you were able to survive.

Gameplay
Endless game mode: no conquest objective, recurring enemy waves, survive as long as possible.
Mana is awarded only for conquest or defeating enemy waves in the ‘endless’ mode. (Except optionally in the ‘free play’ mode, where you can enable mana generation in the library.
‘Crafting’ tech is acquired by default.
Added spell damage and ranged damage attributes.
Added ‘magic missile’ spell which deals damage based on creature’s spell damage attribute.
Removed strength, dexterity, and accuracy attributes.
Removed missed attacks.
Removed backstabbing (while invisible, opponent blind, etc).
Removed minimal strength requirement for some weapons.
Removed projectile items, ranged weapons have infinite ammo.
Added 3 experience types: melee, spell, and ranged.
Melee training in training room, spell in library, ranged in archery range.
Fixed upper limits for each kind of experience for every creature.
Added 3 library tiers: wooden, iron and gold with increasing training limits.
New spells are learned at specific spell experience levels.
Added ‘Heal other’, ‘Summon elemental’ spell.
Available minion tasks based on skills and traits, and not hard-coded.
Imp morale affects their speed. Imps can be whipped.
Bleeding only as an effect of some weapons and after limbs are cut off.
Creature attributes don’t decrease when low on health.
Combat more deterministic and slower.
New formula for gaining experience from combat.
Added vulnerability and resistance effects for each damage type, acquired via rings, potions or intrinsically by some creatures.
Minion statues and throne cost mana, Demon shrines consume gold, portal consume stones, and eyeball consumes wood.
Imps and potions cost gold.
Removed first-aid-kits except for the adventurer.
Vampire lord wakes up hostile!
AI doesn’t panic so easily when wounded.
Only imps can whip
Prisoner execution at a gallows construction.
Full control mode where you control every creature on the team.
Shared visibility between all minions and eyeballs.
Vultures much less common.
Made giant spider webs invisible.
Dragons cast spells.
Tweaked how courage and morale works on panic during combat.
Made AI make better use of circular blast.
Tweaked cost of navigating around friendly creatures in pathfinding.
Fixed handling of simultaneous elf and night visions.
Reimplemented elf and night visions as effects: now available through rings and inherited by doppleganger.
Reimplemented sunlight vulnerability as an effect.
Added magical weapons, which use creature’s spell damage attribute.
Demon Den, Unicorns villains.
AI will try to break choke points by digging or destroying walls.
Added ‘destroy walls’ scroll to some enemies in endless mode.
New demon shrine and throne sprites.
Silver elven bow artifact.
‘Alchemical conversion’ tech which allows changing gold into other resources, and iron into gold.
Artifact potion that regenerates all limbs.
Ants and dwarves can dig through walls when attacking. (but not through reinforced walls)
All enemies dig through any walls if the Keeper is completely cut off.
Health regenerating ring and mushroom, intrinsic regeneration for some creatures.
Potion of telepathy, and melee resistance.
Ring of magic resistance.
Allow naming individual items.
Minion morale is no longer maxed-out when in a team commanded by the Keeper.
Added “satiated” effect that prevents minions from eating and improves morale and defense.
Added “rested” effect that prevents minions from going to sleep and improves morale and defense.
Added rings of wakefulness and satiety.
Keeper is allowed to sleep.
Removed ‘stun ray’ spell.
Decrease production time of steel and steel goods.
Redefined civilians and fighters in enemy villages.
Dogs can no longer be leaders of villages.

Interface
Big optimizations of rendering code.
Added health bars.
All villains visible in the ‘villains’ tab.
Animations for some offensive spells.
Nicer map object hints with more information.
Nicer minimap when fully extended.
Removed tooltips for items on the right side of workshop window.
Optimized splash screen.
Improved item counts display in workshops UI.

Bug fixes
Excluded bogus outdoor tiles from some caves territories.
Fixed crash involving items destroying themselves.
Fixed throne unicode symbol.
Fixed crashes when trying to load some incompatible save files.
Fixed a few retirement crashes.
Fixed messages for dying from fire, silver, acid and poison gas damage.
Fixed deadlock when game window is closed during world generation.
Fixed issues with locating pigs in pigsty.
Fixed various small issues in pathfinding.