Crypt of the NecroDancer (now at Early Access Update #18) $

[getter77]

http://necrodancer.com/  $14.99  Win/Mac/Linux  Soundtrack also available

Crypt of the NecroDancer is a hardcore roguelike rhythm game. Can you survive this deadly dungeon of dance, slay the NecroDancer, and recapture your still beating heart? Or will you be a slave to the rhythm for all eternity?

    Move on the beat to navigate ever changing dungeons while battling dancing skeletons, zombies, dragons, and more!
    Groove to the game's epic Danny Baranowsky soundtrack, or select songs from your own MP3 collection!
    Play with keyboard, controller, or even a USB dance pad!

[mrmojorisin]

Sorry for the "Necro" bump, lol, but this just came out on  Steam yesterday for $15. Worth every penny, too! It's technically an "Early Access" title, but it is already a quite complete game, just missing the fourth and last area and some unlockable characters, I think.

But fans of rhythm games and roguelikes will find this is a great mix of the two genres. And if you are into BOTH types of games, like I am, this is your dream game!

[getter77]

v0.371

New stuff!:
- Fixed issues some folks were having getting custom music to work on Mac + Linux
- Added a secret “food shop”
- Gave the Bard his own voice!
- Added some anti cheating measures
- Toned down the zone 3 starts to reduce swarming
- made calibration respond to joystick/whatever by default
- made it possible to map 2 keys to the same direction
- made the intro video not look so washed out + compressed
- fixed crashes resulting from running out of time while in an arena
- Fixed issue where watching a replay ‘win' could unlock things for the watcher
- made it so that hitting “LEFT” on the main menu exits the game
- Added script to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Linux, to fix problems on a few distros
- Fixed some issues with custom music directory location on Mac + Linux

[getter77]

v0.372

New stuff!:
- Added “monk” character who dies when he touches gold, but gets one item free from each shop
- Add option to assign a custom music playlist for a given level
- Added option to assign custom music songs for boss battles and lobby
- Added Heart Transplant item
- Made it so the blood shop can charge 1/2 hearts, made some blood costs cheaper
- Made it so Ring of Charisma decreases Blood Shop costs
- Made custom music GUI remember the folder you last navigated to
- Made custom music GUI work with Windows drive letters
- Fixed issue where daily challenge for day X could sometimes be counted for day X+1
- fixed issue that could cause earthquaked wraiths to be visible but not corporeal
- prevent bard deaths from shrine of rhythm and accidental double-moves
- Made it so that the LEFT key only exits from the main menu after gameplay has started at least once (people thought the game was crashing because they were mashing keys while waiting for it to load)

[CaptainKraft]

One of my favorite games of the year. Seriously, if you haven't played it you are missing out. So brilliant.

[getter77]

v0.374   AKA Update #3

Lots of changes!
- Added scroll of need
- Added scroll of enchant weapon
- Added shield scroll and spell
- Added dagger of frost
- Added dagger of phasing
- Fixed Shrine of Risk bug where you could move quickly on the next level to avoid damage
- Fixed issue where setting zone 2 song to the zone 1 song would cause crash
- Fixed zombie facing so they always face the direction they're going to move
- Fixed issue where movement thought you could hit falling enemies, causing a missed beat
- Fixed text that said +5 diamonds no matter how many they got for finishing a zone
- Bounce trap changes: changed bounce traps to take effect immediately, should fix replay/bard inconsistencies and a bunch of other bounce trap related issues.
- Fix for score submit retry system sometimes not working
- Made players flash on minimap
- Fixed bug where replays on page > 1 on leaderboard GUI were unviewable
- Fixed replay desync caused by entering arenas very early on the beat
- Made it so replay desyncs don't cause crashes anymore after dropping down a level
- Made replay filenames use local instead of UTC time and friendlier month value
- Fixed issue where you could attack through shrines
- Fixed issue where you could skip levels in co-op using trapdoors
- Fixed issue where you could get all shop items free in co-op with 1 monk
- Took Yellow Scroll and Ring of Shadows out of Monk’s item pool
- Increased the duration of effect for tempo traps
- Rebalanced some weapon drop probabilities
- Increased the number of bomb drops
- Made bombs destroy coins and items in the blast radius
- Made boots of leaping togglable and made them less rare
- Made it so that if you have a bomb or good shovel you can destroy King Conga’s throne and speed up that boss battle
- Made it so you can attack and aggro the shopkeeper with bombs or a fireball spell
- Made it so that if the shopkeeper takes damage from a dragon, he runs away!
- Reduced shopkeeper health to 9
- Added “empty heart container” and “double empty heart container” items
- Added a chance of heart containers to the secret Food Shop. (Now called the “Health Shop”!)
- Updated Monk scoring: You now get credit for all coins left on the ground when you leave a given level
- Made it so you can steal shop items if you can lure a shopkeeper down a trap door
- Decreased the cost of flails in shops
- Changed the attack DIRECTION of some of the flail attack squares, to make it more broadsword-like. This’ll help prevent situations where you get stuck due to a shield skeleton
- Fixed issue where replays wouldn't get saved if you immediately hit 'R' after dying
- Fixed issue where arenas and transmogrifier could mess up determinism in future levels (because of item pool)

- Tweaked minimap colors (Thanks, Nazenn!)
- Made diamonds not kill Monk
- Fixed bugs so Monk takes damage while using Ring of Courage, while invincible after getting hit, and while on exit stairs
- Fixed bug where heart transplant timer remained on screen if you finished a level while it was active
- Made Death Metal’s summoned skeletons stop dropping gold after a while (in Monk mode) otherwise you can farm it for a high score

[jim]

Very brief threadomancy here to emphasize what's already been said. I avoided this game because rhythm games are generally not my cup of tea. Necrodancer is incredibly fun.

[getter77]

Update #7-#4   

"Haunted by the Shopkeeper's Ghost", "Attack of the Clones", new music from Danny Baranowsky, achievements, a level editor, and more!

Added a level editor! Unlock it by beating zone 3 in normal mode or hardcore mode.
Added a ton of fun achievements!
Added a new music track for when you’re training against enemies and minibosses in the lobby!
Added shopkeeper’s ghost! It’ll appear at some point during the run if you kill the shopkeeper.
Added spooky undead ‘clone' enemies for Aria, Bard, Monk, and Bolt!
Made daggers of phasing and frost each do 3 damage
Removed Teal Scroll (Scroll of Descend) from the game. It makes speedrunning too luck based.
Fixed bug where the beating heart wasn’t always showing up on the Calibration GUI
Made it so unloaded crossbows do the appropriate damage for their material type
Made dagger of frost not melt on hot coals (but fireballs, bombs, etc, still do melt it)
Made hellhounds and fire/ice slimes not destroy trap doors when they fall through them

We hope you enjoy the update! Happy Halloween, everyone!

- Made it so confuse traps invert enemy movements, not randomize them. (Same as happens to the player.)
- Fix for bug where joysticks+controllers would sometimes fail to work in the game and on menus
- Fixed bug where dance pad mode was generating the same level layout every time
- Fixed bug where you could pause the game when falling down trap doors to save time on the speedrun timer
- Fixed bug where Scroll of Need wasn’t giving armor if you had no armor
- Fixed bug where Scroll of Need could take your shovel or weapon and leave you with none
- Made Scroll of Need drop your previous item when getting a new one
- Added new graphics for Bolt!
- Made pause screen black to prevent the ability to look at enemies or map while game is paused, to aid in speedruns
- Fixed bug where banshee’s deafen effect would persist if song ended and player fell through trap door
- Other minor Scroll of Need tweaks
- Fixed bug where flyaways would persist after death or restart

- Added option to manually set gameplay's zoom level!
- Added option to enable quick-move in the lobby!
- Fixed bug where the character select confirmation dialog wouldn’t allow you to say ’no'
- Fixed bug where tracks looping in Bard mode would desync the shopkeeper vocals
- Fixed bug where getting hit while using the shield spell would break Coin Multiplier and result in non-flawless boss wins
- Fixed leaderboard repeated ‘LOADING' bug
- Fixed bug where cracked walls could be turned into walls with gold in them, and the gold would cover up the teleporter

- Fixed leaderboard crash/slowdown issue
- Fixed issue where bombs were taking on the properties of the player’s weapon
- Made player drop weapon + holster when they pick up Boots of Leaping, and vice versa
- Fixed bug where Glass Armor and Crown of Teleportation were being shattered, even while Shield Spell was active
- Fixed bug where Scroll of Need was always turning weapons into glass daggers instead of glass versions of the pre-existing weapon
- Made the Shrine of Peace not take away the Ring of Peace nor previously purchased heart containers
- Made the player’s location on minimap flicker more rapidly to make it easier to find at a glance
- Added new Merlin NPC images
- Fixed issue with tar monsters sometimes not being damageable
- Better error checking when loading invalid custom music files
- fixed issue where dehorsed skeletons were still doing lots of damage
- fixed issue with mimics being invincible too long with boots of speed
- fixed issue where travel runes wouldn't teleport you if you were standing on them before wall broke (ring of phasing)
- fixed tween glitch with monsters attacking over bounce traps
- deactivate leaderboard GUI slots when they don't exist
- fixed bug where pending metagame items could appear places like the glass shop
- don't keep coin multiplier when watching replay from post-win screen
- fixed control rebinding display bug
- fixed issue with mages/elementals knocking you off stairs
- fixed issue with heart transplant + bard
- fixed death metal not teleporting bug
- Fixed issue with King Conga and Deep Blues King sometimes not teleporting away
- Fixed bug where Bossmaster practice rooms were always using the same RNG
- Made Death Metal NOT summon bats if you hit his shield with a Dagger of Phasing
- Made it so that exploding mushrooms also destroy nearby gold and items
- Added a “BEAT SKIPPED” warning message to help new players learn that they are sometimes dying because they accidentally missed a beat
- Removed the Scroll of Need and Ring of Courage from the Monk’s item pool
- Fixed bug where you could use boots of leaping to jump past the boss battle trigger tiles

[getter77]

Update #9, 8

Here are all the new features + fixes in v0.383!:

- Steam Workshop support for mods! Change graphical skins, sounds, music, and XML data! See necrodancer.com/workshop for details!
- Steam Workshop support for custom dungeons! Again, visit necrodancer.com/workshop for info!
- Added Transmute Spell and Scroll!
- You can now bomb traps to destroy them! And we added some secret rooms where items are surrounded by traps.
- Bombing activated shrines now give out different items than non-activated shrines
- Made transmogrifier NPS give out better items and made it so transmogrification can’t fail
- Doubled the duration of the Heart Transplant effect
- Added the ability to assign a given character for dungeons created in the level editor
- Level editor can now start the player with no items, and can place other starting gear on the player so they begin with it
- You can now edit the level editor-created XML files to modify each enemy’s starting beat delay
- fixed bug where shrine effects weren't resetting in level editor
- fixed item RNG weirdness in level editor
- fixed bug where trying to move nothing in level editor would crash the game
- Made torch of foresight a little rarer and more expensive
- Fixed duplicate definition of “level” variable in some parts of the Item class
- Reduced likelihood of finding glass torch in glass shops (it was too common)
- Fixed bug where transmuting normal shop items was causing them to have blood costs instead of coin costs

Here are all the new features + fixes!:

- Added Glass Torch, Obsidian Torch, Infernal Torch, and Torch of Foresight
- Added Ring of Shielding
- Made it so you can bomb shrines and get items out of them
- Made it so enemies near a Nightmare miniboss are silhouetted
- Made monsters not seek the player when player is inside a wall with Ring of Phasing
- Removed some potential sources of game stutter, due to messages being logged to disk for Steam Stats
- Made shop items free when shopkeeper is outside his shop
- Fixed bug where game was remembering zoom level changes but wasn’t always applying them on restart
- Fixed crash bug in level editor when saving large dungeons
- Added quick delete and ability to move objects in level editor
- fixed issue where Aria + potion + trapdoor would cause a freeze
- fixed issue where level editor was generating the same level over and over again
- put background behind level editor GUI
- fixed tar monster spawning bugs
- fixed issue where arena minibosses would unlock exit stairs
- added flyaways to locked lobby stairs
- made tar monsters able to fall down trapdoors
- fixed millisecond formatting issue on speedrun leaderboards
- Fixed bug where Orange Scroll would sometimes take away your weapon
- Fixed bug where picking up items in the lobby as Monk would cause the other items in the lobby to disappear
- Fixed bug where game would sometimes not let you buy a torch after losing one previously to Shrine of Darkness
- Fixed bug where losing armor via transmog would not reset the player’s torso sprite to remove the armor

[getter77]

Update #10

Previously, some items like the Miner's Cap and Ring of Luck felt underpowered, so we beefed them up! Here are the changes:

- Fixed bug where the game was crashing for some people when submitting a mod
- Improved Miner’s Cap. It now 'auto mines’ any adjacent wall, gives +1 dig strength, and provides a better torch-like vision radius
- When wearing Ring of Luck, randomly moving enemies like bats will now only hit you if they have no other place to move
- Made the Ring of Gold automatically pick up dropped gold when the player moves
- Made blunderbuss do phasing damage (pierces shields, armadillo armor, etc) and added ‘not loaded’ image
- Made karate gi do double damage instead of +1 damage
- Made scrolls have more powerful effects than their spell counterparts. Example: Fireball scroll now does 8 damage. Fireball spell does 3.
- Fixed bug where confused conga line zombies would behave erratically
- Added ability to place locked miniboss stairs in level editor
- Made beat missing death for Aria happen in level editor levels also
- Fixed bug where enemies could move on the first beat while in the level editor when using bard
- Fixed bug where quick restart wasn't restarting from level 1 when choosing 'Play Dungeon' in level editor
- Made scrolls tell you their name when you pick them up, not just their color

[getter77]

Update #11 "Teh Urn"

Another sizable update incoming!! Here are the changes:

- Overhauled the core of the game’s movement system. Resolved a ton of longstanding bugs and made replays more reliable.
- Added crates, barrels, and ‘teh urn’ -- a very rare container that always has a powerful item inside!
- Added Boots of Strength item
- Made blood weapons do massive damage when player is at 1/2 heart of health remaining
- Made dagger of frost do 1 damage on first hit, but 9999 damage to any frozen enemy. Also, frozen enemies can no longer teleport away
- Increased Ring of Charisma discount at shops, including blood shop
- Added ability to attach thumbnail preview images to published mods/dungeons (see http://necrodancer.com/workshop/ for instructions)
- Fixed bug where ‘tink' sound was missing when you hit an undiggable wall
- Implemented movement priority system for enemies. Larger+stronger enemies now move and attack before smaller+weaker enemies
- You can once again dodge dragon fire and bomb blasts by using bounce trap tricks, and standardized the way knockbacks work
- Allow moving/deleting items from on top of player in level editor
- Fixed bug where level editor was generating the same levels for 1-2, 1-3, 2-2, 2-3, etc.
- Allowed movement with cat + ring of phasing into walls
- Fixed bug where 'no items' wasn't working in level editor
- Removed Ring of Gold from the Monk’s item pool
- Fixed longstanding issue where skeleton mages would sometimes wait 1 beat too many before moving or casting wind spell
- Fixed bug where transmuting items from a shrine would let you take all three instead of just one
- Made it so you can damage King Conga early, or on his throne, if you have a Dagger of Phasing (regardless of your shovel type)
- Fixed bug where King Conga looked funny when frozen
- Fixed bug where invisible enemies could show up with ice around their feet
- Let blunderbuss recoil knock player back into walls with ring of phasing

[getter77]

Update #12 "Blood Magic!"

Blood Magic, Blood Drum, Boots of Pain, and more!:

- Added a bit more variability to the initial setups of all of the boss battles
- Added an option to allow the display of ‘hints’ when standing next to items
- Made it so that you can cast spells even before they’ve cooled down. This “Blood Magic” just costs you some health.
- Made it so you only attack crates/barrels/urns if you’re adjacent to them (regardless of what weapon you have)
- Added ‘Blood Drum’ item and ‘Boots of Pain’ that do damage to enemies you walk towards
- Fixed some Death Metal bugs and also made it so you can’t double bomb him before he teleports
- Made Teh Urn also give out a spell and some food, in addition to the powerful item it previously gave out
- Made Ring of Mana cut cooldown delay by 1/4 rather than 1/2 and cause all spells to have more powerful effects
- Fixed a few Bard bugs, including the bug where Bard took no damage on hot coals
- Fixed some longstanding input bugs that prevented exiting the game and navigating menus
- Fixed issue where enemies could fall down trapdoors and not let other enemies fall
- Fixed issue where player could drop a monkey down a trapdoor and avoid it
- Fixed issue where Bard could move quickly onto and off a trap without triggering it
- Made barrels and chests have something inside them slightly more often
- Made it so Teh Urn can be opened by hitting it with a weapon and dealing 5 or more damage, instead of 9
- Made crates/barrels say “EMPTY CRATE” or “EMPTY BARREL” when opened and empty
- Made Blood Shops have slightly better items
- Made transmogrifier NPC cost 1/2 as much

We hope you enjoy the update!

[getter77]

Update #13

And our "Peace On Earth" update, version 0.391!:
- Added a new playable character: Dove, the pacifist!
- Added new NPCs to the lobby: janitor and diamond dealer!
- Made it so crates and barrels are now never empty, and sometimes contain something dangerous…
- Made Shrine of Peace give you 2 heart containers when activated, instead of just 1
- Removed central spike trap from Conga1 and replaced it with a speed-up tempo trap to make it easier to bomb the throne
- Various fixes related to confused enemies and confusion particles
- Fixed bug where jumping on a trapdoor on last beat of a song would prevent you from falling
- Fixed bug where ring of courage wasn't working against spike traps
- Fixed bug where erasing crates/barrels in level editor would cause them to reappear and duplicate when you play the level
- Fixed bug where players could kill themselves while falling down trapdoor to retain gold in lobby
- Fixed bug where dropping crates or barrels down trap doors and then dying while falling down that trap door would result in items being placed in lobby
- Fixed issue where 'woah!' would play for every ice slide
- Confuse particles, frozen enemies, and gigantism all now flicker on the final beat before the effect wears off
- Fixed bug where starting bombs in level editor were inconsistent
- Fixed bug where winning while playing a gamedata mod would fail to progress to post-game screen
- Made Aria and Dove die if they pick up a weapon
- Fixed bug where Transmute was changing Blood Shop costs to 1/1/1 every time
- Fixed issue where you could theoretically get infinite score via Death Metal spawns and transmute spell


We've had an amazing year, thanks to all of you. Thank you, and Merry Cryptmas, from the NecroDancer team!!

[getter77]

Update 14

Hi folks! Lots of fun stuff in today's update for you! But first I wanted to explain something.

We were previously saying that the game was still in "alpha" which seemed to confuse quite a few people. We were using the strict definition of "alpha" which means "feature complete but not content complete". The problem with this is that a lot of people hear the term "alpha" and think that the game is FAR from completion, which is not true! We only have a few months of dev left, at most. So, despite it not being a 100% accurate term in our opinions, we've decided to switch to calling the game "beta". Hopefully this all makes sense! We do still have some core chunks of content to add, but the gameplay that is there is certainly close enough to finished to call it "beta".

Anyway, without further ado, here are the new features in this build!:
- Added a new character!: Eli. Unlock him by completing zone 3, regular or hardcore.
- Added a new weapon: The Rifle
- Daggers and spears can now be thrown!
- Added monstrous shopkeepers who show up VERY rarely
- Made custom music work with non-ASCII filenames on Windows
- Implemented cloud saves using Steam's remote storage API
- Improved mod zipping/unzipping system without the use of external tools
- Fixed it so that crates + barrels can no longer be confused
- Added text to blood weapons and crown of thorns to show how many kills left until heal
- Made Dove’s bombs teleport enemies away rather than confuse them
- The EXE is now “code signed” to help cut down on false positives from virus scanners
- Made it so that bats move away from Dove, when confused
- Fix issue with crates/barrels dropping enemies too often, and enemies dying right away to the bomb or attack
- Fixed bug where HEARTTHROB achievement wouldn’t be triggered if the 10th heart was gained via Ring or Shrine of Peace
- Fixed bug where Orange Scroll could sometimes give out Dove’s flower as a weapon
- Made phasing damage hurt skeleton knights immediately
- Fixed bug where Blood Magic and Blood Drum could prevent a flawless victory in a boss battle
- Made crates/barrels drop good stuff slightly more often
- Made Scroll of Need give you a glass rapier if you have no weapon at all
- Fixed issue where Death Metal, Deep Blues, and 3-1 were skipping the wrong beat with Shrine of Rhythm
- Made Shrine of Space give out Miner’s Cap if bombed after being activated
- If Dove is surrounded by enemies and uses Scroll of Need, it now casts the Fear spell
- Made it so that Death Metal won’t spawn skeletons right next to bounce traps
- Allowed use of bombs in training mode
- Made ghasts not auto-hit player when bombed
- Fixed bug where you could still die after winning a Dove run
- Fixed bug where Aria and Dove would die immediately upon entering Dance Pad mode
- Fixed bug where ghosts could spawn inside walls in the Death Metal boss battle
- Fixed a memory leak
- Fixed issue where picking up multiple coin piles with Ring of Gold would result in incorrect flyaways
- Changed Janitor’s text to say 'NON-HARDCORE item pool'
- Fixed bug with confuse particles showing up too low, when player is confused
- Fixed issue with crates/barrels spawning enemies after trap door
- Made it so crates/barrels/urns can’t be Feared
- Made it so wraithlikes + moles don’t spawn for Eli
- Fixed issue where buying hearts in lobby with Eli/Dove gives you an extra heart as other characters
- Fixed bug where clones move when you do a non-movement action
- Monk unlock after zone 1 Cadence
- Dove unlock after zone 2 Cadence
- Changed text in character select room
- Popup in lobby when player has unlocked a new character
- Fixed trap door clipping when trap door is above a wall
- Fixed bug where sometimes flyaways don't appear on locked stairs in lobby
- Set item hints to ON by default for new players
- Changed the game from "alpha" to "beta" since it was confusing so many people, and since we're getting closer to the end

Looks like this is relatively on the home stretching kicking it to high gear---excellent.   

[jim]

Urgent Question: do the monstrous shopkeepers sing in a different octave?! Eagerly expecting a dev reply ASAP.