Dwelvers (former Dungeon Dwellers)

[Ameena]

You mean pay-to-win? I don't have an iPhone/Android or any of those - all my gaming is done on the PC so I only really play "proper" games (for want of a better word) rather than those quick little things that run on phones. Personally I don't like the idea of "Pay us some money for the game but then you have to pay us some more in order to complete it/to get better stuff than other players". I'd rather pay once for a game and that be it - the pay-to-win concept puts me off, really. If it's more like they're doing in Path of Exile, however (the game is totally free but there is the option to donate if you wish, in-game rewards are only stuff like different armour appearances or whatever, nothing which gives you any mechanical benefit over anyone else), I'm okay with that .

[Paul Stevens]

I very much like the FREE game and pay
us if you want to have more than one level
or fewer advertisements or whatever. I like
to be able to play the game first to see if it
is worth my money.

[Rasmus]

I feel like it could be a good idea to split it up. But I also feel like it could ruin it all.. So I will take the safe road

[Seriously Unserious]

Regardless of what way you choose to go, you seem to have a very solid foundation to build upon with what I've seen so far.

[Rasmus]

Thanks SU.. Hopefully it will go well

[Rasmus]

I have updated my webpage with the gameplay information and also inserted some of the concept arts that my friend made for me
http://rasmus-dev.com/dungeondwellers/index.html

[Rasmus]

So, now I have started my Indiegogo campaign at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dungeon-dwellers, please share with your friends at Facebook or other sites and help me get the word out there

[Bit]

Gogogo!

[Rasmus]

Started a FB page if anyone would like to join https://www.facebook.com/DungeonDwellers

Now, I am off to terrorise other forums

[Seriously Unserious]

I have updated my webpage with the gameplay information and also inserted some of the concept arts that my friend made for me
http://rasmus-dev.com/dungeondwellers/index.html

I took a look at that page; excellent description of your game. I love the idea of having a minimum number of Imps -- that reminds me of Majesty, where your main builders were peasants, and you started with a minimum of 2 peasants, and if any got killed a new one would spawn out of your castle. In Majesty, however, there would be a delay between when a peasant got killed and when a new one would be spawned. I'd love to see a similar feature here as well. This would also give you a compelling reason to defend your imps at times, as you can at least temporarily run short or even run out all together of imps if you let them get killed off too fast, and most likely when you need them the most too.

EDIT: I just noticed something about the imps... they have a candle burning on their heads... ?

[Ameena]

Well, they must need to light their way in those dark corridors somehow, and how can they carry a torch when their hands are full with all the goodies they're mining? Just because they're born underground doesn't mean they can see in the dark like all the DM creatures can .
Having Imps respawn when you ran out happened in DK2 as well - if you ever dropped below four Imps, your Dungeon Heart would automatically create some until you reached a total of four.

[Bit]

...EDIT: I just noticed something about the imps... they have a candle burning on their heads... ?

no problem - it doesn't rain in dungeons

[Ameena]

I've posted about the IndieGoGo campaign on a couple of my other forums (since they're both gaming related), right before I headed off to work this morning. I'll be checking them shortly to see if anyone's replied about it .

[Rasmus]

...EDIT: I just noticed something about the imps... they have a candle burning on their heads... ?

no problem - it doesn't rain in dungeons

Maybe it will I have been thinking about my farms and how the wheat will get its sunlight, and my solution to this problem is to create fences in the roof so that the daylight can shine in. The fences won't be visible, but the fence-shadowed-light will So, if it starts raining outside it may just rain down into the fences in the roof.. In this way we can get some climate in the dungeon too
So I guess the campaign won't be about reaching the surface, because then we can win it by just building a farm

Thanks a lot Ameena
I have posted on some other forum to, but most of them require me to be a member for at least 48 hours before I can start posting
But I have received some answers, and one of them was: "why would I back this when war for the over world looks so much more promising?" and I think a lot of people that have seen WFTO thinks the same. It is a little bit annoying but at the same time I like getting that answer because then I can explain the differences from what I am doing and the whole DK theme.

[Gambit37]

@Rasmus: Congrats on setting up your IndieGoGo. I found this article about how to set pledge/reward points on Kickstarter, you might find it useful -- although I don't know if you can change your reward points once it's started?
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TroyLone ... 03/191665/

[Seriously Unserious]

...EDIT: I just noticed something about the imps... they have a candle burning on their heads... ?

no problem - it doesn't rain in dungeons

that doesn't mean dungeons can't get very, very wet -- ever heard of underground rivers? dig into the wrong spot and a part of your dungeons floods and watch the imps' head candles go out...

[Rasmus]

So... I was missing one imp, and guess where he was hiding



Thanks gambit, I will checked it out yesterday and there was some real good pointers, especially about the rewards.. To bad I didn't read about it before I started the campaign

[Lord_BoNes]

that doesn't mean dungeons can't get very, very wet -- ever heard of underground rivers? dig into the wrong spot and a part of your dungeons floods and watch the imps' head candles go out...

You could even make this a sort of "trap" that you could use on an unaware enemy... kinda like an underground moat. You could make it simply fill a tile up to the ceiling with water (you'd have to have it not burst until someone else digs into it, so you could place 2 of these traps next to each other).

And then it'd be a great addition to be able to "cave-in" a tile (turn it back to dirt). That way you lay down your moat squares, and cave-in all around them... someone else comes along... dig, dig, dig... KA-WHOOOOOSH! = 1 thoroughly drowned enemy

The next step would be being able to create lava traps like this. It wouldn't be a case of dig, dig, dig... KA-WHOOOOOSH!
It'd be dig, dig, dig... ARGHHHH! I'M MELTING! I'M MELTING! <insert the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz's death sound effects>

MWA-HA-HA-HA!

[Ameena]

Ah yes, anyone who's played Minecraft will be able to tell you how easy it is to go into insta-panic mode when you're mining deep underground and suddenly break through into lava...which doesn't even flow that fast so you have plenty of time to plug up the hole as long as you've got any kind of block in your hotbar (which I always do for reasons like this) .
For setting up a lava/water trap, you could just have a magic forcefield of some kind holding back the water/lava until you've put the dirt wall in the way - then the forcefield gets cancelled and the flood will pour through once the wall is destroyed. I suppose water would have the benefit of pushing creatures back as it washes them away, dealing damage when it slams them into a wall (ooh, get a trap that's a wall of spikes...) but probably not drowning them unless there's enough water or it knocks them into a pit and pours in on top of them or something (maybe a pit trap could be another kind of trap, whether or not there was anything unpleasant in the bottom of it). If there are any creatures harmed by water, obviously the water-burst trap would be incredibly unpleasant for them, if not fatal . For lava traps, I suppose it'd be a similar kind of thing, only slower-moving and with constant fire damage instead of being slammed into walls. Obviously any fire-immune creatures could just try wading through it instead .

[Lord_BoNes]

Ah yes, anyone who's played Minecraft will be able to tell you how easy it is to go into insta-panic mode when you're mining deep underground and suddenly break through into lava...

I would fall into this category. And yeah, insta-panic mode is right. By the time you get over the "Argh! My butt's on fire!" you're usually too toasty to save yourself. You can always try to create a column underneath yourself though... if the lava's not so deep that you can't place a block on the bottom... then you're screwed
Thinking like this, I can't help but be reminded of Monolith's game called Blood. Whenever you catch fire, you start screaming "Argh! Argh! It burns! Argh! It burns! It burns!"... which is quite funny when it's an enemy running around on fire, screaming
You just wanna start cheering "Burn baby, burn!" <insert music from Disco Inferno here>

[Ameena]

Lol...if I dig through a block and see lava, I just switch to the slot containing cobblestone (because I always have one, and another for dirt) and plug it up before it can do anything . I've also taken to carrying a bucket of water with me whenever I go exploring, so I can dump it on any lava pools I find and then pick it up again .

[Rasmus]

Ameena, it's easy to see when you are hooked at a certain game Minecraft is a really good game, played it a lot myself, and I was thinking of making some of the traps in DD like in Minecraft.. More advanced traps than in DK anyway, something like mechanics hooked up to each other so that it is possible to play around and try certain combinations

So the water/lava spreading could always be created, digging holes in the ground to steer the lava or water to certain locations. I was also thinking of mixing outside environment with the dungeon, like cave-ins, some open areas where there are some sunlight and plants and a stream of water pouring into the dungeon creating underground rivers and so on.. Could be a really cool effect.

Just hoping that I can get some of that done before my time goes out. I am focusing on making as much eye candy as possible now, and leave the game mechanics for after the campaign.

[Ameena]

Hmm, maybe there could be a level where you're trying to bring down an enemy (surface) kingdom, but they have this massive "impenetrable" castle/fortress which you can't breach...so you have to redirect an underground river to flow around its foundations and wear them down or otherwise damage them to the extent that the castle just collapses and there's nothing that the people inside can do about it, except send in a load of guys to try and stop you before you destroy their base .

[Seriously Unserious]

I was also thinking of small artesian wells that you could uncover, if you know where it is you could tap into it to use the water as a resource, eg for growing food, or for feeding it to your queen monster to get some sort of water based monster, or for building water traps. If you aren't careful though, your imps could accidentally dig into one and sploosh! you have some very soggy, unhappy, head-candle-less imps on your hands, or their dead and you'll have to wait for the new ones to spawn before you can get back to building whatever it was you were building... possibly with a section of your dungeon now flooded, unless you had a pit or underground river nearby that the water could drain into of course...

[Ameena]

Hehe, maybe there could be some kind of spongy monster who can go into flooded areas and soak up all the water .

[Rasmus]

Spongebob?

Yeah, I will start working on the rivers today and tomorrow, so hopefully I can get next teaser video out on Monday.. Was thinking on a dam system.

[Seriously Unserious]

yes, because a dam system would be that - damn - good

Seriously though, if you are going to have bodies of water then some system of dams, dykes drains and other water control systems will be needed.

[Lord_BoNes]

For sure, the ability to "pump" water (or the not-so-dark and yet sinister lava ) out of the dungeon is a must have... either that or just simple drains (that the dungeon designer must build and place in good spots) that allow the fluid to "run off".

"Flood-gates" might be an idea too... so you could just click the mouse, and release a torrent of water on unsuspecting enemies

[Seriously Unserious]

Pumping it may be a little too high tech for a game like this, but definitely the ability to drain excess fluids (like water, acid or lava) off is a must if they're gonna be in the game.

[zoom]

water wave dungeon flushing
could be a late in the game super bomb.
kills off one wave of intruders or weakens
greatly. so 1 use