Dungeon Diver!

Hey guys!

Here's a bit of demo of the game im working on at the moment.

It's called Dungeon Diver and it's essentially the opposite of an infinite jump game, you play as a little knight type dude who basically just has to descend as far as possible and pick up lots of loot etc!

At the moment the "core" mechanics are:

1. platforms are "randomly" generated as you descend, the kind of platform that is generated depends on how deep you are. as you get deeper you'll start to see new kinds of platforms, items and enemies showing up.

2. gameplay modifiers, there are all kinds of different items that will help and hinder our hero on his mission, everything from a simple helmet that will help deflect damage, to potions of various magic effects (invisibility, confusion, iron skin etc)

3. collecting coins and keys will allow you to purchase items from a vendor and unlock treasure chests that are scattered about, some of these chests cant be cursed however (think ghouls and ghosts!) so there's always an element of risk involved!

That's about as far as I've got so far, I'm looking to integrate a few more items and bad guys then I'll most likely get stuck into the sound and some kind of leaderboard...

I realise it's pretty rough, but I'd still appreciate it if you'd give it a go and let me know what you think!

The controls are fairly standard, WSAD + E to interact, and on tablets there's a touch control overlay and you just tap an item to interact with it (touch controls are hidden for now though)

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/test/1.jpg" border="0">

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/test/2.jpg" border="0">

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/test/3.jpg" border="0">

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/test/4.jpg" border="0">

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/test/5.jpg" border="0">

Dungeon Diver (test)

Looks like a great concept so far! I'm not sure if I didn't get far enough or if there just isn't any enemies yet but it seems pretty easy at this point. I ended up dying form what I think was fall damage but didn't fall from far at all, pretty sure landing on the key killed me lol. Also those spike things don't work, landed on several of them just fine. The speed at which you fall is a little bit too fast, so fast actually that you go right through platforms sometimes if you hit them at an angle.

I'm interested in seeing this advance for sure I think it could make a really nice game once more content is added.

Last thing I would say is I hate the color scheme, the pinky purple just doesn't fit to me, seems like a dark more teal color might work, but that's just me.

Dannyzigg

thanks for checking it out dude!

were you playing in chrome? I'm having trouble replicating the issues you pointed out....

The player should be able to fall about 1.5ish screens before dying,

I have a counter that keeps track of fall distance and there's a chance that it might not be resetting itself properly or something.

The spikes seem to be working fine for me, if you land on the very edge of the platform you can actually walk through them, which is intentional, but I'll do more testing anyway....

I can't seem to make the character pass through platforms at speed either, regardless of angle....

Also, the bad guys show up past the 4000ft mark, but perhaps I'll look into the scaling of the difficulty and ramp it up a bit quicker.

either way, thanks for checking it out and you've given me a few things to think about :D

So far I quite like it, but I was surprised by the height limit and didn't know I could die of height.

I wish I could see when I jump too high, like screen flash, pain sound, change of fall animation or something to tell me 'this one was near death, careful' so I can get an idea of the safe height.

It's fun, but it takes way too long to get to the first spikes and enemies, I don't feel like restarting because I have to cross the empty section again ... I got more fun trying to dodge platforms in free fall to my death than going slowly and carefully, maybe a power up could allow that? Or another game mode?

When I see the mushrooms I kind of expected I would have to climb back up later.

Other colours than purple would be nice after a while.

sved

thanks alot man, I really appreciate it!

it's funny you mention the colours, because after dannyziggs comment on colours I implemented a feature to change the hue of the bricks and certain depths :D

I really like the idea of a falling animation, I might put something together where he starts to flail around a bit as "warning" and the maybe have some kind of "plummet" animation to follow.

there are certain power ups that will actually allow you to fall substantial distances though, the blue potion available at the merchant is a sort of "stone skin" effect that makes you invincible (you also turn grayscale, giving a stone-type look) and there is also a potion that will save you from a single deadly fall (has a cool particle shockwave on landing)

I think a big thing I need to go back and work on is the difficulty scaling, and bring in more new elements quicker to maintain the players interest, although I kind of like the fact that you can take it slow and careful or just jump and pray (my favourite tactic is falling and weaving through platforms until I see a mushroom to bounce off of!) I think I just need to sit down and do some more thorough testing.

I've got a few other cool tweaks I've been mucking around with as well, so once I get enough substantial changes together I'll put together a new version.

once again, thanks alot for the feedback, I really appreciate it :D

update v0.2

-fine tuned difficulty (still a work in progress!)

-dungeon changes colour at lower levels (still a work in progress, will have to look at layering sprites and using fades to ease the transitions and introduce new block types)

-spikes are now hidden and spring out at player.

-worked on cleaning up events to simplify troubleshooting

-new title screen

-added falling/plummeting animation and motion trail particles, hit box resizes to falling player character.

-added another enemy (eyebat)

http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/test2/index.html

Very interesting game and a pretty original concept. I like it a lot. I feel like the height from which the player can fall is too forgiving, making the game way too easy. There is a hidden-spike platform that feels pretty cheap : it is not difficult to avoid it, it's just impossible. It's punishment, not challenge.

Anyway, I like the art, the feel, the concept. I think this project has a lot of potential. I will be following it. This can be a very good mobile game.

Dannyzigg

thanks for checking it out dude!

were you playing in chrome? I'm having trouble replicating the issues you pointed out....

The player should be able to fall about 1.5ish screens before dying,

I have a counter that keeps track of fall distance and there's a chance that it might not be resetting itself properly or something.

The spikes seem to be working fine for me, if you land on the very edge of the platform you can actually walk through them, which is intentional, but I'll do more testing anyway....

I can't seem to make the character pass through platforms at speed either, regardless of angle....

Also, the bad guys show up past the 4000ft mark, but perhaps I'll look into the scaling of the difficulty and ramp it up a bit quicker.

either way, thanks for checking it out and you've given me a few things to think about :D

goyo666

Yep was playing chrome but actually after posting that I played some more and noticed its just more the fall speed is so fast it SEEMS like you go through platforms. I think it could be adjusted just a little bit. Like if you take it slow it still wont matter since once you miss a platform its hard to control to hit another platform before dying from fall damage. Not every time but it seemed more often than not for me. Maybe it could start out falling slow and then get faster?

I disagree with the comment about the fall distance, I think it is too short, or it may just be buggy. As I mentioned before I have died from a rather short distance once or twice.

It is pretty discouraging too how long it takes for content to appear, kind of don't want to go right back into it again after getting so far. Maybe there could be a life system?

I did have the spikes work for most of my other play throughs not sure what was the issue there.

Just had a play there; solid game idea, I really like it!

Dannyzigg,@alvarop & Wrangler

thanks guys, I'm taking it all onboard and your comments really are a great help!

I might make the spikes a tiny bit more obvious, but I thought having them protrude slightly was enough, but I guess it really just depends on the pace of the player and I'll just keep fine tuning the fall speed & distance.

I often forget that I've played this game for so long I can't really reliably judge difficulty, so it's really good to have feedback like this!

goyo666 I like the spikes the way they are, when you're playing at speed you really get used to recognising things by their silhouette. When I died by the spikes I wasn't mad at the game because I didn't recognise them, I was mad at myself for hitting them.

Wrangler

that's exactly what I wanted to hear! thanks dude :D

nice, had a play nice game

I can't post more links yet (although I was allowed to post the first one?)

but here's an update for now

update v0.3 5/1/14

-added persistent online leaderboard (YAY!)

-added basic help page (may expand upon this)

-added "story" if you wait on the title screen for long enough.

-added "exit rune" that allows player to escape the dungeon with their loot by summoning a magical portal to the surface!

-added basic scoring mechanic, if a player dies their score is their depth. if they escape their score is their depth multiplied by their coins :D

-eyebats can now be lured into spike traps!

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/pix/8.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/pix/7.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/pix/6.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://skimasktestsite.comxa.com/pix/9.jpg" border="0" />

if you'd like to play if just go to:

skimasktestsite.comxa.com/latestbuild/index.html

not working on chrome win xp sp3