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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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I got my beta account yesterday, and I've been busy going through the game to report what you can expect in the full version of Desktop Dungeons. Note that the game may change between now (early beta) and release.
First things first, the old game setup screen has been replaced by a Kingdom screen:
Kingdom screen
At the start of the campaign, all you have access to the Guild LV1 (Fighters), Humans LV1, and the Tavern. Just like in the original game, you have to unlock more options. Sometimes it's by fulfilling quests -- for example, to unlock the Halflings, I had to find a hurt Halfling in a sub-dungeon, give him a health potion (which hurt because I had been wasteful with mine), and then survive the dungeon -- sometimes it's by paying gold, which you get from completing enough dungeons.
When you upgrade buildings, often you are given a choice:
Upgrade decisions
For example, I just upgraded my Mage Tower to LV2. This gives me access to the Sorcerer and lets me choose 2 preparations (more later) from among the 3 options. When adventuring, I can choose to start with either or neither preparation, but the third is not accessible... unless I pay gold to redo my choice. The bottom line is you can tailor your kingdom toward certain builds, but you can't have everything (unless you pay for it), so the decision is meaningful.
The way you go typically go adventuring is this. First you select a dungeon:
Dungeon selection
There is now a greater variety of dungeons than the handful in the original game. Also note that certain dungeons are tied to particular quests.
After selecting a dungeon, you setup your adventurer:
Adventurer preparation
This is probably the biggest change, gameplay-wise. In the past, your hero went into the next dungeon with nothing except the gold leftover from your last run. This lead to some gamey play, like making throwaway runs with a Goblin Tinker to max out your gold so you can play your real dungeon like it was a spending spree. And hope you find the right shops early enough.
Here, the player gets to customize their adventurer beyond just selecting race and class. The Bank allows me to start with a little gold (25gp), enough to buy something decent, but not game breaking. The Mage Tower allows me to replace 2 mana power-ups with health power-ups, which is what I want for my Human Fighter build. The Blacksmith allows me to start with a Sword for +2 base damage, though this occupies an inventory slot. However, all of these cost gold; the above cost 70 out of my 77 gold. Right now, gold is pretty easy to come by as killing a boss drops an item that you can usually sell for 150-300 gold. However, the important thing is you can customize your hero even more, and dungeons are more challenging now that you can just rush in with 150 gold.
Some other new features. This is the Tavern:
The Tavern
Like the old RPG trope, this is where you find quests to complete. Though if you're king, shouldn't the quests be coming to you? Anyway, the quests create a story for your kingdom as your campaign unfurls. They serve the purpose of the old unlock system (beat dungeon X to unlock Y), but it's nice to have a narrative.
Another new building is the Adventurers' Guild:
Adventurers' Guild
This is where you find a new kind of dungeon: puzzles. Desktop Dungeons is already halfway a puzzle game, but now there are non-random puzzle levels:
A puzzle dungeon
In these dungeons, the goal is to figure out a way to kill the boss. The dungeon starts off revealed, so health and mana are in very limited supply. This means the player has to choose their fights, glyphs, and potions very carefully. I've only played several easy puzzles, but they were satisfying to solve.
What else is there to say? As promised, the glyphs and gods are being redone. For example, WEYTWUT is no longer a random teleport; instead, you switch places with the targeted monster, giving you access to stuff they were blocking (this was important to solving a puzzle, but I won't give it away) and also weakens some monsters. IMAWAL, which I never used to use because you create a wall and deprive yourself of experience killing the monster, now grants an experience bonus based on the next monster you kill, so it's now an arrow in your leveling toolkit. PISORF, another glyph I rarely used, now performs a free attack that can do knockback damage and breakdown walls. I still like my fireball, but now other glyphs are valid options.
The gods have also been rebalanced. To unlock a god, you have to beat a challenge to prove yourself. For example, for Taurog I had to defeat 4 golems with death protection. Thus it was very important what boon I got with my starting piety.
Finally, each adventurer has limited space for glyphs and physical equipment, each class with a different mix. I have yet to be seriously inconvenienced by this, but it is another consideration as you don't want to waste your limited gold on something you'll replace later. That said, your unwanted equipment, glyphs, and even potions can be converted for racial bonuses.
All in all, this is still Desktop Dungeons, but improved.
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Ken H.
United States
Amherst
Ohio
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Wow, this sounds great! Thanks for the review. Do you know how long the beta is planned for? Your post has really piqued my interest in buying the full version once it's out.
fusag wrote: What else is there to say? As promised, the glyphs and gods are being redone.
Have they changed the glyph names, to keep in line with the new emphasis on narrative? I hate the names in the free version. Stuff like WEYTWUT and PISORF are really theme-breaking.
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Sorry, no idea how long the beta will last.
Rubric wrote: Have they changed the glyph names, to keep in line with the new emphasis on narrative? I hate the names in the free version. Stuff like WEYTWUT and PISORF are really theme-breaking.
As of right now, the glyphs still have the same names. I think it's part of the game's sense of humor. I would contact the dev team or post on their forums any changes you want.
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Royce Hix
United States
Wausau
Wisconsin
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It seemed as though the updates were previously flowing very slowly. I had no idea they were working on a beta towards a full game. Thanks for the write-up - I'll be keeping my eye out on this one since the free version offered me many hours of fun!
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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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A little more info: I've been slowing playing through the campaign. I would say the game is harder than the original game, mostly due to the new dungeon (I think) not always having the selection of monster levels we're used to. For example, I'm currently stuck on the Creeplight Ruins, where there's a bunch of cultists. If you kill a cultist, it comes back as a zombie that is 1 level lower, and you only get XP for the zombie. There's not a lot of XP here, so even with a Priest dealing double damage to undead, I find myself using health potions to level up. Except the boss has 3 forms, and the closest I've gotten is 2 health potions short of killing him.
Another one I had trouble with was the Rock Garden, which is a maze, though every time you level it spawns 2 golems from the walls, so gradually the maze breaks down. This is the first dungeon with 2 bosses, one with 50% physical resist, the other with 50% magical resist. Because of this, unlike the themed dungeons in the free version, there isn't a clear direction to specialize your build.
I am enjoying the new dungeons though. Each has a different flavor (layout, monster types, set pieces) and the game feels more puzzle-like. I find myself sometimes making several runs to figure out what's a good build, how to best handle the sub-dungeon, etc.
Let me know if there's anything else people are wondering about.
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PenumbraPenguin
Australia
Sydney
NSW
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The beta is planned for about 4 months, according to the website.
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Posted Tue Aug 2, 2011 9:02 pm
