Dungeonmans: Nicely Kickstarted (now at alpha 1.08b)

[getter77]

http://www.dungeonmans.com/
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=114781779

This a pre-alpha preview of a game in active development! There will be bugs, missing assets, and incomplete features! But there will also be plenty of monsters to crush and loot to be scooped up by the handful.

Back from the grave proper in full majestic XNA fury!      Also a nice heap of dev articles in the run up to this articulating ways at which things have changed and moved forward from the old Alpha 4 of ages past.

[ekolis]

Whenever I think of this game I get it confused with "Thy Dungeonmans", the series of text adventures from homestarrunner...

[guest509]

It's back!!!

Getter you must be turbo pumped man.

[getter77]

It is always a good thing to see what was once a promising project return and primed to meet or exceed that original potential.   

Now, among many others, if only Temple of Vengeance would manage the same....   

[jim]

All I remember from this game is that the "Strength" stat was spelled "Stremf," which was enough for the Jim seal of approval. Excited to check it out again!

EDIT: I've played this for about half an hour and it's fantastic. It's the sort of game that Dungeons of Dredmore should have been - witty, challenging, absurd, hilarious.

EDIT EDIT: Played for much longer. It suffers from TOME4 syndrome - big open world with no sense of urgency. But the game is fun, has character, and is chock full of potential. Looking forward to its continued development.

[getter77]

v1.04a

Crash / Bug Fixes:
* Certain monsters that could crash the game on death won’t anymore.
* Rultaram is employing more equitable boot-bartering practices.
* Crashes from dashing out of the map are fixed.
* Certain scroll buffs that transitioned from inside the dungeon to out won’t cause crashes.
* Fixed occasional crash with bartenders selling dungeon tips.
* Coarse curse crashes corrected. Also “but you don’t want to remove your” messages are correct.

Combat
* Block and Parry have been changed to be less effective against on-level creatures, but more effective against higher level creatures.

Academy Development
* Benefits of upgrading the Academy are explained more fully when the upgrade transpires.
* In addition to supporting future graduates, your current Dungeonmans will receive a reward for upgrading the Academy. The Academy Warchest, near the Headmaster, will have these reward items deposited therein once earned.

Character Creation
* The perks have been changed. Some removed, some rebalanced. The goal is to make the perks more interesting, rather than just a bunch of fiddly changes to stats. Check them out!

Other
* When pressing R to Rest Until Healed, you can press R again to confirm.
* Wandering monsters spawn farther away, and won’t spawn in the room you’re in, even if part of the room is dark or out of sight.
* Made gateways to dungeons and ruins in the overworld more prominent visually.
* Clearer indications of results from Identify and Bolster Armor/Weapon
* Rhombus of Rime now correctly deals frost damage instead of untyped. Gelatinous Cubes look out!

..and then v1.04c!

Crash / Bug Fixes:
* Bolster Weapon/Armor scrolls behave properly again.
* Eat Curse will again eat all curses, even the ones that aren’t as delicious.
* Using F to target creatures shouldn’t result on you targeting yourself in the face, right in the face.

Experience and Leveling
* Monsters of level 3 and higher are worth slightly more XP.
* XP Penalty for monsters of lower level than the hero has been reduced.

Other
* There are three tiers of Bolster Armor scrolls (Bolster, Fortify, Enstremfinize) with increasing levels of bonus power.
* PROTIPS section added during class selection. Did you know you can press F to fire your ranged weapon?
* Unlockable and Coming Soon classes on display during class selection.

[getter77]

v1.05

* More enemy Champions prowl the depths than ever before, and defeating one will provide you with a Proof of Stremf, a trophy that should be redeemed with the Headmaster at the Academy. These trophies will allow the Academy Battlemaster to grant you bonus stat points, as well as build up a permanent bank of points for future graduates to spend! Visit him over in the training pit to learn more!

* Better weapons and armor drop sooner: it’s been a travesty to see all these Level 5 and 6 Dungeonmens dying in gear they picked up in the Scrobold Warrens.

* You can now sell all your non-magical, non-equipped arms and armor in bulk to vendors. Just select the option when talking to them.

* Returning Alchemy and Library items to the Headmaster can result in immediate rewards as well as benefits for future graduates. Remember
to check the Academy Warchest!

[ekolis]

So I see this is on Steam Greenlight. Is it going to become a commercial game once it's out of beta? Don't really want to get myself hooked on a game that I won't be able to continue playing - I'm kinda broke at the moment!

[getter77]

I can't recall the exact notion on that front being planned, or whether it has been even exactly mentioned.  Still, Greenlight is just one way about it---ToME 4 is also on Greenlight, and has a friendly link on the Dungeonmans homepage outright, so perhaps as with ToME 4 there'll be a means for everybody to be content with it whenever that time comes.  I know that broke feeling....my purchasing backlog stretches quite far now indeed....

[getter77]

v1.05b

* Fixes for skills causing crashes for some players outside of the USA.

* Fix for crashes caused in some very high level areas, preventing entrance to dungeons.

* Block has been capped at 50% effectiveness. Block scores over 50% will still be calculated for the purposes of enemies with some amount of Defeat Block.

* Heavy Armor armor value ever so slightly reduced.

* Hero Cloud cost raised to scale with level. Decoymans initial cost lowered but also scales with level.

* The Venomizer attack used by Orc Archers has been nerfed a touch.

* Certain monsters whose attacks were broken and dealing 0 damage have been fixed.

* Crypts have been rebalanced and now have content above level 5. Higher level crypts may prove exceedingly dangerous!

[Legend]

Looks cool.

Unfortunately, I can;'t seem to get it to start. It crashes when I try to start it and I get the vague microsoft error pop up that doesn't give any details.  I have xna 4 and already tried reinstalling it and rebooting the computer, but it doesn't work unfortunately.

Using laptop with win xp sp3.

[XLambda]

Looks cool.

Unfortunately, I can;'t seem to get it to start. It crashes when I try to start it and I get the vague microsoft error pop up that doesn't give any details.  I have xna 4 and already tried reinstalling it and rebooting the computer, but it doesn't work unfortunately.

Using laptop with win xp sp3.

Yup, same here on my win7 laptop.

[dungeonmans]

Hi!

Sorry about these crashes. To have it just fail on startup has become exceedingly rare, though. I've been having difficulty with making sure the game works properly on international systems, this has certainly been a learning experience for me.

If you want to help me out, could you send in a screenshot of the vague microsoft error? Dungeonmans has an error reporter built in but if that's not working either then that's a bigger problem.

I'll be here if you want to reply, or you can send things right to jim@dungeonmans.com.

I'm sorry the game's letting you down, I hope I can make it right!

[dungeonmans]

So I see this is on Steam Greenlight. Is it going to become a commercial game once it's out of beta? Don't really want to get myself hooked on a game that I won't be able to continue playing - I'm kinda broke at the moment!

Hey Ekolis, yes in the long run the goal is for Dungeonmans to be a commercial product. However, the build right now on the site and indie DB is the Summer Preview, which will be updated over the next month or so based on feedback from plays, and even though it won't be updated past the summer, that version will always be free.

[Legend]

As I said, pretty vague. Not sure it will actually be any help, but here it is: