Game Impressions I really like this game. It is quite awesome. However, there are some serious design issues with it. Dungelot 2 is a rougelike. Quote from developer "Dungelot 2 is a remarkably simple and engaging roguelike" In a rogue-like, the point is to learn from your mistakes when you die so that you can progress further next time. For example: Gee, I shouldn't have attacked a monster stronger than me. Or, next time I better check for traps. The idea is even though the world is random, you are always in control and therefore you can never blame the game for when bad things happen. Dungelot 2 goes against these principles with: time bomb, ogres, mana drain, and a few others I'll find later, I'm sure. Time bomb (18 turns to finish the level): basically means you have a 60% chance to pass the level, and there is nothing you can do about it. Ogres: 15% chance to die, nothing can be done about it. To reach level 40 in dungeon 1, I usually have to fight about 5 ogres. Statistically, that means 55% of the time, I will die, through no fault of my own, and there is no way to change it. Mana drain: while not necessarily a killer, this is very similar to the above instances due to lack of player control and the fact that mana is a rare resource which is collected slowly. On level 35 I clicked a tile and now I have no mana. No possible way to prepare for or avoid it. I had over 40 mana that I slowly collected and saved since level 1, gone because I clicked a tile in order to progress the game. I was prepared to deal with the difficult fights ahead. I died in the next level because I had no mana. If I had had 3 mana, I would have been fine. This is terrible game design. These are essentially "game over" menus with a random chance of showing up. Want to kill me with a big monster? Fine. I can prepare for that. But don't have have a completely random chance of me dying just because I clicked a tile or attacked a monster. If you're not going to follow the idea of a rougelike, then call your game something else, like "random death generator." Maybe a better game description would be: "Dungelot 2 is a remarkably simple and engaging roguelike with the addition of random unpreventable deaths."
No big deal at all, but I did notice that after I found the master key in Ironhold, all the sound effects from the map/character area disappeared. Also, just out of curiosity, one: are more dungeons planned for the buildings above Ironhold, and is anyone keeping track of tier scores or furthest depth?
This doesn't seem much more random than most rogue-likes I've seen. In fact I think of a fair amount of randomness as one of the defining characteristics of rogue-likes.
sure, but i think he has got some points that can get pretty annoying later in the game. nevertheless, loving the game like hell keep on working on it please!
don't know if this is a bug or intended: i got the skill that my first spell is free - so it shows as '0'. if i tap on a crystal, the spell even goes down to '-1', '-2' and i get mana from the spell
I don't know too much about it but i really think you guys here should check the Twitter feed from Pixeye. I started playing Dungelot 2 from the beginning on my iPhone 6 (had to revisit that great but flawed/bugged game) and I wanted to see if anything new has happened since 2-3 months ago. Dead here so I got nosey and poked around and long story short it looks like there is a Dungelot 3 possibly happening and if the stuff I saw on Twitter that linked to YouTube is correct they are going back to the cartoon art lots of you were missing. So far the small parts I seen had me DROOLING! I basically started at http://dungelot.com then clicked on the Twitter button on the top right. I don't know if he wants me to put screenshots in here as I did not ask yet but I was too excited to not tell you guys. Despite the rough bugs D2 had I still loved the game as well as the original. I am putting this at the top of my most wanted games on the iOS.
I MUCH prefer the D2 art style. I wish he wouldn't bother with a 3 at all and just keep working on 2!
Why Dungelot 1 is better Hi, I tried Dungelot 2 first and then I tried Dungelot 1. From my own perspective, now I can easily say why Dungelot 1 is better. At first I really liked Dungelot 2, I didn't encounter any bugs which spoiled my game (if we exclude the ham replenishment). Here I prepared a list from my point of view, which game is better than the other one. -Dungelot 2- Pros: 1) Large map with different dungeons. (I think sometimes we need to go to surface for a break and dive inside the dungeons again.) And map looks beautiful. 2) Limitless character upgrade (talking about only: health, armor, mana) 3) Better Dungeon graphics Cons: 1) Battle Mechanics are not clear (Sometimes player damages 5, sometimes 11 while I always see the Power Level 1 on the Hero. So it is spoiling the tactics, which monster to attack first by looking at their hitpoints and power. However in Dungelot, I see clearly what is attack value of my hero and what are the hitpoints and attack value of each monster.) 2) Totems and counterspells are really disgusting me by seeing them in every dungeon with almost every monster. 3) Spells are useless, I almost never use them because their "benefit/cost" value is too low. 4) Very limited inventory. 5) Using spells for each dungeon level only is very bad idea. We can't keep the spells for later use. -Dungelot 1- Pros: 1) Better Inventory with 4 equipment and 4 spell slots. 2) Battle Mechanics are very clear. Every monsters' attack and hitpoint value can be seen clearly, you know how to hit with which attack value or with which spells. But in Dungelot 2, it looks to me totally random (especially hitting a monster 11 while I have 1 power value. Or just 1 minute after, hitting a 2 hitpoint enemy with 1 attack, then finishing in the second attack with 1 attack again. Totally random) and it is messed with all those counterspells and totems while I have very little inventory. So I prefer Dungelot 1. 3) Graphics are cute. I loved cartoonish heroes more than Dungelot 2's hero pictures. 4) Limitless dungeon with endless replayability. Cons: 1) A large map like Dungelot 2 is needed, which is outside of dungeon. New dungeon types would be cool in addition. 2) Skills are limited, with the money I generated by 3 voyages into dungeon was enough for me to upgrade 1 hero totally and half of other one. So heroes are completed for me very easily. Instead, a gradual increase to some specific skills with little addition of values could ensure us to develop a hero continuously by spending more time. For example, instead of increasing "Holy Strike" skill of Paladin 25% each time, we could increase 5% everytime but there is no cap to increase more, so we are not limited to increase the skill 4 times, but we can increase 8 times, 10 times or more. Same with Hitpoints. Instead of increasing 150 HP altogether, increasing 8 HP each time with 800 Gold each time could give us a need to pursue more playing to develop a hero and we progress inside dungeons more after, then the cycle continues. So a limitless skill update can be implemented for every hero, at least 1-2 skills among 4 of them. (Limitless HP increase is a must, but with fewer increases at a time) One Last Suggestion for a Further Dungelot 3 or latter: I loved Warhammer Quest, so if both game can be combined with the dungeon crawling of Dungelot 1 and Warhammer Quest's Map, Quests and Story could work very well, with finishing a dungeon with a boss fight in the end. And there can be many different dungeons with all different monsters peculiar to that dungeon type. Conclusion With all these Pros and Cons of both Dungelot games, a better game can be done together I believe. By the current state of playability, I find Dungelot 1 better than the sequential. So I am even considering to delete Dungelot 2 in the following days, because I discovered Dungelot 1. Thanks to Pixeye for developing such great game models, I appreciate his work greatly and I am hoping to contribute, even if it can be just a small bit of ideas.
