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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytesting[Beta] DungeonUp - A puzzle-like rogue-like dungeon crawler
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Author Topic: [Beta] DungeonUp - A puzzle-like rogue-like dungeon crawler  (Read 14789 times)
clewcat
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« on: March 30, 2014, 07:00:24 PM »

DungeonUp is a dungeon crawler features procedurally generated levels and map-based mini puzzles (key and door problem-solving and so on).

Gameplay GIF:


Heavily inspired by Tower of Sorcerer, DungeonUp aims to take the classic gameplay further to infinite fun.

PLAY IT HERE
(You can play the first 30 levels for free in the demo version.)
 
Thanks for your time! Hope you like the game!


===============================================
UPDATES:
v0.7.0
Initial public release.

v0.7.1
* Added shadow casting of walls and creatures;
* Added a setting option which can double the speed of movement and text;
* Disabled the usage of teleporting items in boss levels. Wont't effect save data of previous versions;
* In Casual Mode, the key-buyer is gifted free keys as well, so he no longer wants buy any key from you Smiley
* Fixed the bug that the monster tooltip blocked clicking of the monster on the map.

v0.7.2
* When you start playing Story Mode after the first time, you can skip the opening scene;
* You can now attack monsters that have higher defence than your attack. To avoid dying, you can use "Flee";
* Optimized login workflow;
* Fixed bug: the game may freeze after clicking "Resurrect" in Game Over menu.

v0.7.5
* Finished all levels in Story Mode. You can still play first 30 levels in the demo version;
* Added a new type of consumable item "Scroll of Chaos";
* The Book of Monsters becomes smarter: it now shows special abilities/attributes of monsters;
* Also does the Wand of Flying: the gems and blue keys can be revealed for each level;
* Added a close button to the UI of the Book of Monsters;
* Splitted sound & music switch button in the setting panel;
* Monsters are now moving faster as well if you turn on "Faster Move & Text Speed";
* Added tooltips to arms;
* The disabled items will become darken when you enter a level; the Scrolls of Teleport are no longer disabled in boss levels;
* Map loads much faster.

v0.7.6
* Brand-new website and main screen in game!
* Added higher quality music;
* First release of Windows and Mac version;
* Fixed some text errors;


I have created a survey, please
vote for the features you want!

« Last Edit: May 23, 2014, 09:30:54 PM by clewcat » Logged

joe_eyemobi
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« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2014, 12:08:41 AM »

I love rogue-likes so I quite enjoyed this Smiley  I actually like how you've blended an oldschool RPG with a puzzle game!  It was quite fun actually  Smiley

I guess in terms of recommendations, perhaps have some warning when you are low life?  I know you can consult the monster manual, but I seemed to be on high health and then I fought this glowy guy and died abruptly in 2 hits.   Wizard
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Zaratustra
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« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2014, 06:43:32 AM »

Got stuck in the Vampire King's room. Can't hurt him, can't use any items to escape.
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clewcat
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« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2014, 05:37:24 PM »

Sorry to hear that... I think you have to restart the game. In the next version I'm planning to allow player to attack the monsters that have higher defence. You can still escape from lethal combats by hitting ESC/"Flee" button if you want.

BTW, try to collect as many items as you can before facing the Vampire King Smiley
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Netforza
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« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2014, 11:34:07 AM »

I like the feeling of the game, it's smooth.

The only problem - the book should have a close button or something more suggestible on how to close it.
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Gear
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« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2014, 05:07:49 AM »

Pretty fun, being able to warp between floors later on was a life-saver.
I found trying to revive myself using a soul stone would cause the game to freeze on the screen transition.
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BrandonSPX
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« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2014, 07:56:35 AM »

I played it and got up to level -27, where I was able to land myself the blue sword. Unfortunately, I ran out of keys. I did several playthroughs, and I think there are too many doors, or not enough keys. The vendors had a role to play there, but they were generally locked behind a yellow door, so if I needed yellow keys, they were useless.

My suggestion would be to put all vendors on the level that has the stone, or remove keys altogether and just add a separate stone for keys that also scales in price. If you don't like that, perhaps you would consider only placing vendors next to the entrance of a level.

I was actually hoping that this game would have static levels, as opposed to procedurally generated. During my first playthrough, I saw where I went wrong and came up with some ideas on how to improve it, only to find out that the levels were different. Desktop Dungeons (paid version) had procedural levels, but they also had a challenge section that was not procedural with really well-designed levels. I found that to be more fun than the rest of the game, and thinking about that across multiple levels sounds amazing. Designing and balancing that would certainly be a challenge.

All in all, I had a lot of fun. Losing came with too much overhead, so it had limited replayability for me, but I enjoyed my 45 minutes or so of gameplay.
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lonelytomato
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« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2014, 12:51:47 PM »

I just tried your game out and I find it oddly addicting and pretty darn fun, however I too fell victim to the vampire boss issue and I felt kind'a cheated. Every other enemy in the game (Boss skeleton included) had shown what was needed before hand, yet I had to walk into a room that would trap me inside without knowing and throwing myself to randomness rather than the calculating mindset the rest has shown off with deciding a path and what is safe to take down without putting me too low and the likes and being forced to restart, which made no sense as I barely had less than his shield, but I had the cross which does double damage so I should've been able to take him on.

I've also come across this a few times at the skeleton boss.

This seems to occur if you switch to another tab on the browser while the fight sets up, it's impossible to go further because of the door and the boss just disappears.
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clewcat
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« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2014, 08:34:23 PM »

I like the feeling of the game, it's smooth.

The only problem - the book should have a close button or something more suggestible on how to close it.

Thanks Netforza! I will add a close button to the panel in the next version.
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clewcat
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« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2014, 08:37:21 PM »

Pretty fun, being able to warp between floors later on was a life-saver.
I found trying to revive myself using a soul stone would cause the game to freeze on the screen transition.

Yeah that Wand of Flying is indeed a must-have Smiley

I have fixed the revive-freeze bug in v0.7.2. Go check it out!
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clewcat
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« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2014, 08:55:38 PM »

I played it and got up to level -27, where I was able to land myself the blue sword. Unfortunately, I ran out of keys. I did several playthroughs, and I think there are too many doors, or not enough keys. The vendors had a role to play there, but they were generally locked behind a yellow door, so if I needed yellow keys, they were useless.

My suggestion would be to put all vendors on the level that has the stone, or remove keys altogether and just add a separate stone for keys that also scales in price. If you don't like that, perhaps you would consider only placing vendors next to the entrance of a level.

I was actually hoping that this game would have static levels, as opposed to procedurally generated. During my first playthrough, I saw where I went wrong and came up with some ideas on how to improve it, only to find out that the levels were different. Desktop Dungeons (paid version) had procedural levels, but they also had a challenge section that was not procedural with really well-designed levels. I found that to be more fun than the rest of the game, and thinking about that across multiple levels sounds amazing. Designing and balancing that would certainly be a challenge.

All in all, I had a lot of fun. Losing came with too much overhead, so it had limited replayability for me, but I enjoyed my 45 minutes or so of gameplay.

Thanks for your 45 minutes and great feedback!

Keys balancing is really difficult, sometimes the random generator gives you 60+ keys in a zone(every 10 levels), sometimes there are only 30. Keys vendors are designed to try to balance this, and you should all benefit from them at the beginning.(A yellow key worths ~100G, while there's a merchant selling 5 keys for only 50G). In the upper levels, their deals get less worthy but sometimes player may still want to have the choice.

I'm also planning to add custom maps with full static levels. There might be a in-game Map Editor too! Anyway, I have to finish the levels and storyline for Story Mode first.
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clewcat
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« Reply #11 on: April 25, 2014, 09:01:26 PM »

I just tried your game out and I find it oddly addicting and pretty darn fun, however I too fell victim to the vampire boss issue and I felt kind'a cheated. Every other enemy in the game (Boss skeleton included) had shown what was needed before hand, yet I had to walk into a room that would trap me inside without knowing and throwing myself to randomness rather than the calculating mindset the rest has shown off with deciding a path and what is safe to take down without putting me too low and the likes and being forced to restart, which made no sense as I barely had less than his shield, but I had the cross which does double damage so I should've been able to take him on.

I've also come across this a few times at the skeleton boss.

This seems to occur if you switch to another tab on the browser while the fight sets up, it's impossible to go further because of the door and the boss just disappears.

Oops...never tried to switch browser tab, but this is definitely a critical bug need to fix.

I have disabled the "Attack Protection" functionality, that means, you can rush into combat with any monsters now. In case of misoperation, you can use the "Flee" button.
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yaomon17
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« Reply #12 on: April 25, 2014, 10:59:32 PM »

Spam clicking a tile makes the player spaz out in place. Not sure if intentional but looks funny.
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PeterPixeleap
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« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2014, 03:02:26 AM »

Hi guys,

I took a quick tour of the tutorial and I think the experience already feels really polished.

I really like the sound effects in the game, I think they add a nice feel, and I like the puzzle element as well, good ideas all around in my opinion, the idea that you can keep increasing health feels good and I am curious to see how it plays out over a longer session.

I have a suggestion for the monster atlas/book, in it self this is a very helpful and nice tool, but I would like some tooltips when I mouse over the different attributes of the monsters, because shortly after being told I had forgotten what they meant Smiley

Keep up the good work
Peter
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lithander
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« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2014, 04:53:02 PM »

Great game so far! I really like the puzzle aspect of it. But now I'm also stuck at the vampire boss. I get the message "I can't even harm him" even though I have 1800 HP and 62 attack which should count double because of the cross. So it should be a hard but managable kill, if I just could attack. I also can't leave the room because of locked doors. So... yeah, game over I guess?
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clewcat
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« Reply #15 on: April 27, 2014, 03:54:10 AM »

Great game so far! I really like the puzzle aspect of it. But now I'm also stuck at the vampire boss. I get the message "I can't even harm him" even though I have 1800 HP and 62 attack which should count double because of the cross. So it should be a hard but managable kill, if I just could attack. I also can't leave the room because of locked doors. So... yeah, game over I guess?

Sorry for the bug... I have fixed it! But I'm afraid you still have to restart a game Sad
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neutonm
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« Reply #16 on: April 27, 2014, 09:01:23 AM »

Hey,

I decided to skip the tutorial and start the game instantly on normal mode. Roguelike with story, heh? I got my first impression on positive side! Although haven't really got into fighting system at first glance - it seemed to me a bit absurd... but going further made me reconsider it and enjoy the game. This is sort of mini RPG tactical puzzle game where you use calculations as your main weapon. The puzzle itself lies on maneuvering with keys mostly. Since keys are essential part of this game they are very disturbing - sometimes levels are generated in not very convenient way so that you will end up without having that damn yellow key no matter how you cut your way out. I replayed several times and couldn't enter vampire room without red key which was held in other room under yellow door. Durr...?

Looks like casual difficulty makes the day! Having free key solves everything. However, this free key requires 60 sec to wait, which is actually a bit odd assuming we are having here non-action game. If it would be action game like Serious Sam or good old Crimsonland then 60 seconds would be awesome option since player knows it's not safe to idle for one minute. Perhaps, trading some health or money for that very key could be solution. You might as well put it as another option for that dwarf machine;trade for money or health if there is no money cuz there might be moment that there is like 2000 health but not even a penny in a pocket.

Sometimes music plays, sometimes game forgets about such feature.

About that dwarf machine. I think health boost option is the unbalanced here. It gives so little for such high stacking price and not worth buying. 

All other odds and ends are completely awesome: sound, graphics, gameplay etc. Level generation makes it quite re-playable. Indeed a very great game. It could be a boom for mobile platforms i guess. I'm looking forward for fixes, changes and new features - it would be very enjoyable to replay it once more!

I ended game on dwarf boss room, disability to do something (place a bomb) was fatal Smiley. Fallen dwarves and lizards traded ~460 hp per fight. It happened that during 29-20 levels there was no red key but only traded who wanted 2000g for it, f**k... There is "save & exit" in menu - it would be better to add another button but either "load" or "exit" without save.
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clewcat
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« Reply #17 on: April 28, 2014, 02:12:14 AM »

...
Perhaps, trading some health or money for that very key could be solution. You might as well put it as another option for that dwarf machine;trade for money or health if there is no money cuz there might be moment that there is like 2000 health but not even a penny in a pocket.
You can trade a Soul Stone for the free key if you can't wait for 60 seconds. The one-minute-cooldown is to make sure that even you are playing in Casual difficulty, keys management is still important, but not fatal.

About that dwarf machine. I think health boost option is the unbalanced here. It gives so little for such high stacking price and not worth buying. 
I think you are right. Very few players chose to boost HP. How about double the number?

...it would be better to add another button but either "load" or "exit" without save.
Have you tried to resurrect, or use Soul Stone to re-generate levels? I know it's different from save-and-load, but hey, I give you options besides permadeath anyway!

P.S.: that trader is indeed a jerk Smiley you can just ignore him if you have some good items in hand.
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neutonm
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« Reply #18 on: April 28, 2014, 02:53:23 AM »

Yep, died and restarted the game and once used that stone. It actually doesn't really help that much.

Stones are to be something ultra mega intergalactic divine artifact at first glance, especially after you see possibility to buy some artifacts in dwarf machine room. To trade one stone for yellow key is like sell your Dodge for a hot dog Smiley... well just like with bloody trader and his key for 2000 gold coins.

The problem with trader is that there was no skipping item or red key for last 30 rooms - the only way to obtain the key is to buy it! I understood if there was room with 10 lizards guarding red key and you have 2000 gold and you say "baah, f..k em, i;ll buy a key and pass this quickly"; if you decide to buy it instead of loosing fights with lizards then it's ok. In this case this is alternative! But now, in the game, it's pure deadlock with no alternatives.

Quote
How about double the number?
I guess triple it! Minimum. If you buy 8 armor then most likely you will save 1000 health in further fights (calculations!). If you buy 200 health instead of armor then that would be a hoot.

Lack of keys make trap situations. If player goes up and up bypassing bonuses only focusing on opening doors that lead to stairs still able to put player into "no key" situation. But if somehow you manage to get more further you will most likely encounter situation where you don't have enough money/health/damage/armor to pass that monster because you skipped rooms with monsters (that give money) and artifacts just to keep those keys.

Lack key situation usually appears after first boss.

Despite what i say it's up to you how to make the game. I'm just saying what player experiences from his position with psychological perspective.

Keep up the good work clewcat!  Toast Left
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« Reply #19 on: April 30, 2014, 12:47:47 AM »

Like everyone else I'm quite blown away by this game.  The swarm of roguelikes we've seen lately makes it hard for one to stand out over the other, but you've got a winning combination here I think.  I played a good 30 minutes before deciding to get back to work.  I only usually ever give games here 5-10 minutes max so that says a little something.

I hope you bring this to mobile, I think with the right marketing you might get lucky.  Also I know F2P is like almost a racial slur at this point, but it almost seems like this game is begging for an F2P mechanic.  Since it's a roguelike people can't accuse you of designing the game to be a moneygrabbing machine (although they probably still will) but I came to some points where I was almost begging to just buy a key somehow. 

It was exhilarating getting out of the first stage with just exactly the amount of keys I needed, and the little story segments you have built in are a nice touch.  My only peeve would be some improved walk animations but otherwise I love this game!
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