Pixel Dungeon (now at v1.7.3)

[watabou]

Watabou, this game is brilliant. Keep doing what you're doing.

Thank you!

One, that a player can (at least sometimes) see doors opening/closing even after they're left line of sight. Playing zoomed out could give a player too much info about how many monsters are wandering, and where.

You are right, a player can see doors changing their "open/closed" state. This is a side effect of my... er... optimization processes . I'll fix it sooner or later.

Two, door closing seems to be triggered by something walking out of the door's square, meaning doors can be left open if something dies in them and nobody else walks through. That's not necessarily a bug, but it might not be expected.

This is not a bug. When a mob dies in a doorway, this door stays open until somebody closes it. Also doors should stay open even if somebody walks through if there is an item in a doorway, I'll implement it later.

The feature I'd love is a list of potions/scrolls I've already identified. Coming back to a game after a break of a few hours, and not being sure if I've already found that potion of fire is a little nervewracking.

Yes, I need to add this feature. The main problem here is where to squeeze in a button for opening this this list .

The ability to change the size of the UI buttons might be useful though - they get pretty tiny on a phone in landscape, and I miss them sometimes even in portrait mode. Maybe the ability to toggle UI button size between regular/large in the settings menu?

Actually you shouldn't be able to switch to landscape on a phone, that's why there is no "orientation switcher" for devices with a small screen.

[Nymphaea]

Just make doors always appear closed if you can't see them, no need to remember the last state you saw

For squeezing buttons, why not take any options that aren't necessary on the main screen and make a menu? Just open up the menu and pick inventory, stats, known items, etc from that

[watabou]

Pixel Dungeon 0.3 released! This update brings 5 new cave levels, monsters and items. What else? Here is the list of changes from Google Play:

• Added: New attack button (for melee combat)
• Added: Ankh - a powerful artefact, that allows you to bring a fallen hero back to life
• Changed: Potions of Strength and Scrolls of Enhancement now can be spawned in Laboratory and Library respectively
• Changed: Second search at the same place always succeeds
• Changed: Regrowth sets “rooted” debuff on targets in its area of effect
• Fixed: a lot of bugs

and more…

[Paul Jeffries]

Heh.  I just 'completed' this last night - and now you're telling me I have to go and do it again?  Oh well, I'm sure I'll live... 

Here are some comments, although these are all based on the old version so feel free to disregard any that no longer apply.

The good:
- I think this is probably the best android roguelike (that I've played!).
- The graphics are great
- The gameplay is mostly pretty good (with the exceptions noted below) and it manages to capture that 'just one more try...' feel that all good roguelikes have.
- The water, keys and puzzle rooms work well to make the dungeons interesting to navigate.
- The bosses are nice, and I think they strike the right balance between having predictable behaviour but not being just 'puzzles' that you can solve the same way each time.
- Some of the item descriptions are pretty funny.
- Mystery Meat is a great idea.
- It's just like a pocket version of Brogue!

The bad:
- It's just like a pocket version of Brogue!  To the extent that it often feels a little like just a by-the-numbers rip-off of it, and worse it seems like some things are in there just because they are in Brogue, but without much thought about how they work in this game.  I'm hoping that as it develops more things will be added in that give the game its own distinct personality.
- It feels very unbalanced, mainly because it is so dependant on what equipment it gives you.  The time I won it, I don't think I was really playing any better than all the other times, it was just because I managed to pick up a decent weapon and armour on the first level and the game then became trivially easy, with me able to one-shot-kill most enemies.  Most games I've played I either end up with nothing other than my starting equipment or warhammers and plate mail that I can't possibly use because I'm not strong enough, and then there's pretty much nothing I can do to avoid being snipped in half as soon as crabs turn up.  This is one of the things that worked in Brogue but doesn't really work here, mostly because Brogue is a lot more generous with the amount of goodies it gives you in the early levels, so you're pretty much guaranteed to find something you can use.  Brogue also strictly rations things like strength potions and enchantment scrolls, wheras it doesn't seem like this game does that except for food.
- Related to the above, it would be nice if there was a shop a bit earlier, perhaps on level 3.
- Searching is bullshit.  I've spent six turns searching somewhere where I was pretty sure there was a door and then had it pop into existence when I decided to move away.  Searching needs to be a lot more reliable.  It's also not made clear what its effective range is.
- I also found it quite difficult to avoid pressing the wrong tile and moving around an enemy rather than hitting them (and getting a whack around the head for my trouble).  In the end I just got used to constantly zooming in when in combat and zooming out when exploring, which was annoying but to be fair I can't think of any easy solution to this problem.

On the whole though it's a great game and I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

[mrrstark]

Good update on 0.3, i quite like the little "button tabs" you used for melee.
You could expand that idea by using it for picking up items too, since you already have tabs for AN item you're standing on, you could make it such that you get a tab for EACH item you're standing on and clicking that tab tries to pick up that item. A situation I hit a lot is that I'm standing on an item, bag's full, need to drop an item, but then the item dropped becomes the top of the stack and to get the item I want underneath i have to re-pick up the dropped item, move to another square, drop, etc. If you could interact with the item tabs, I could just click the one I want to pick up from the stack im standing on.

Also, Bug: I got to level 15, the boss came into the stairs room to attack me. I ran out, the wall sealed behind me, trapping the boss inside the stairs.. so now I think that game is done until I starve since I can't get at the boss.

[watabou]

Also, Bug: I got to level 15, the boss came into the stairs room to attack me. I ran out, the wall sealed behind me, trapping the boss inside the stairs.. so now I think that game is done until I starve since I can't get at the boss.

Yes, sorry for this bug, I didn't realize that it is possible. It will be fixed in the next update.

[Repliko]

Thanks for the great game. Little to random/not balanced but fun
I think it goes in the right direction.

I think I found a bug?: I've just killed Tengu, got key and then trigger fire trap and got killed. Lucky for me I have Ankh - not so lucky -> after resurrection I lost Tengu's key - so I was stuck and starved to death.

BTW it looks like you made a very good engine for your game. Works like a harm. I think it has some potential to make something bigger with it (bigger dungeons, some plot etc.). Good Luck!

[flithm]

I've been playing this game for about a week now and I think it's got a lot of potential to be the premiere mobile roguelike!

I love the pinch / zoom, art style is great, and I like that it's quick to jump in and out of.

I agree with others that the difficulty is on target, but I would say that the randomness what you get early in the game goes way too far in predicting how long you last.

For me a simple fix would be to make food drops more regular (so you can rest more often), or add the ability to get food from more carcasses.  I really like WazHack's food system (some dead bodies can be looted for food and meat based food spoils over time so you can only stockpile so much).

Right now it's either I run and gun until I find the right items or die.  Or, I rest and run out of food.

Seriously though... great game!  Keep up the good work!

[Paul Jeffries]

Just finished v0.3 - I think I stand by all my previous comments bar the last one - the new 'enemy tab' solves this.  I actually think that the amount of food that you get is the only thing that's balanced just about right at the moment - you have a small amount of leeway but you can't hang about or try and grind - you always feel pushed forwards, which is good.  I would drastically increase natural healing, however - even with a ring of regeneration (or whatever it's called) it still takes ages.  Perhaps have it at a flat rate if it isn't already so that it's relatively more useful in the early game and then as you get deeper you have to rely more on healing potions.

[flithm]

Sure, to me it's the same thing... faster healing or more food.  I was only suggesting it as a potential fix.  I'm sure getting the balance right is tricky and in no way trivial.  I'd say that doing one of the two should help the whole "survival is completely random based on the drops of the first two levels" thing.

But FYI, I like hanging around grinding.  I prefer to explore every room and look for secret rooms, etc.  It's what I'd do if I were exploring a dungeon .  With all those rats around, I'd have plenty of food .

[Septa]

The 'enemy tab' is a great idea, it make the game a lot easier to play.

An other idea for "the problem with Food and regeneration" could be to make the rats ( and only the rats ) drop perishable food ( rat jerky ?). It would make the first levels easier and less random since you could rest more often and when there is no more rat to eat, well you could always eat crab.

[watabou]

I think I found a bug?: I've just killed Tengu, got key and then trigger fire trap and got killed. Lucky for me I have Ankh - not so lucky -> after resurrection I lost Tengu's key - so I was stuck and starved to death.

After resurrection an entire level is reset. In the case of Tengu level you should get a completely new level with a new Tengu, that should drop a new key after its death. At least it's supposed to work this way .

[Balderic]

Hey!

Complited the new 5 levels now. Great work with the update! New attack button was a great idea too with other improvements!
Is it possible that you add 2-3 save slots in the game? Id like to start new game and try few things but my old save will be erased if i do that...
I dont want to loose my great character.


-Balderic

[watabou]

Is it possible that you add 2-3 save slots in the game? Id like to start new game and try few things but my old save will be erased if i do that... I dont want to loose my great character.

At this moment I'm working on a new update (0.3.1), its main feature шы addition of music and sound fx to the game. After that I will start working on character classes, there will be 3 classes and each of them will have a dedicated "save slot". So you will be able to keep 3 characters of defferent classes at the same time, but it will be impossible to play 2 games by Warrior for example.

[Nymphaea]

I'm assuming they will be "Rogue", "Warrior", and "Mage"? Some personal ideas

Rogue: Basically what is in right now, can use everything, but master of none
Warrior: Starts with high strength and better equipment, but can fail at using wands at a high rate, and occasionally fail at using scrolls. Maybe 12 strength, leather armor and a spear?
Mage: Starts with low strength, an offensive wand, and some pre-identified scrolls. Perhaps 8 strength, new low strength mage armor, and a stick/staff for a weapon. And maybe make wands never need recharging for mages.

Just random ideas, use what you want, burn the rest


Oh and, think you can make the stairs not automatically transport you, that you have to tap yourself(or a button) to go down? I've had items drop on stairs, which can be annoying