Passion for games
Dungeon Sweeper
Tools:
Photoshop, Aseprite, Unity 5.Android, 2D pixel art game, unity, solo project
A very tiny, but highly polished dungeon crawler reminiscent of minesweeper. Part puzzle, part strategy, part adventure. Devlog is found here.
These gifs left and right are how the game looked in the second iteration, during gameplay testing.
The visuals have been redone, and are seen lower on this page.
The visuals have been redone, and are seen lower on this page.
This game is currently in it's third iteration, having been increased in resolution every time.
The mechanics are now final, gameplay is solid. What's left for the fourth iteration is to implement the visual redesign and finally the levels.
Most significant is the removal of the two compasses at the top of the screen displaying the exit and the closest enemy, focussing the game more on exploration and setting a more thoughtful atmosphere.
The closest enemy compass has been replaced by an indicator on the character itself as testing showed nobody looked at the top compass.
The mechanics are now final, gameplay is solid. What's left for the fourth iteration is to implement the visual redesign and finally the levels.
Most significant is the removal of the two compasses at the top of the screen displaying the exit and the closest enemy, focussing the game more on exploration and setting a more thoughtful atmosphere.
The closest enemy compass has been replaced by an indicator on the character itself as testing showed nobody looked at the top compass.
The basic gameplay mechanics are very simple.
Each dungeon is divided into tiles (7 by 9 in the last iteration) which have a property such as stone, lava, water. Each tile can also hold one entity, the player, an item, an opponent.
Your character can move by swiping the screen in the desired direciton or tapping on a valid tile. You can see what is on the tiles directly adjacent to your character, you can move to those tiles, and also to diagonal tiles.
The fact that you can move diagonally and orthogonally, but only see orthogonally is the main puzzle mechanic of the game.
Aided by an indicator of the direction of the nearest opponent you can generally determine where they are with careful moving around and some strategic insight. Mark that the indicator doesn't mention HOW FAR away this opponent is, however by checking how many tiles movement it takes for it to change direction you can deduce where he is.
Each dungeon is divided into tiles (7 by 9 in the last iteration) which have a property such as stone, lava, water. Each tile can also hold one entity, the player, an item, an opponent.
Your character can move by swiping the screen in the desired direciton or tapping on a valid tile. You can see what is on the tiles directly adjacent to your character, you can move to those tiles, and also to diagonal tiles.
The fact that you can move diagonally and orthogonally, but only see orthogonally is the main puzzle mechanic of the game.
Aided by an indicator of the direction of the nearest opponent you can generally determine where they are with careful moving around and some strategic insight. Mark that the indicator doesn't mention HOW FAR away this opponent is, however by checking how many tiles movement it takes for it to change direction you can deduce where he is.
This is the final look for Dungeon Sweeper.
Higher resolution, the compass moved to be a yellow arrow on the tile the player currently occupies, the health bar moves up as it's non interactive, reserving screen space at the bottom for easy reach with the thumb.
Mechanically a few things have changed as well such as the removal of the hunger stat which used to decrease with each step taken. Combined with the compass pointing to the exit it created too much of a quick action feel to the game. In favour of a more strategic nature these changes were made.
As you can see the dungeon is laid out in tiles, one level being all that is on screen. Unexplored tiles are hidden by a fog of war, currently not visible but explored tiles are shown with a dither fade over then to increase focus towards the immediate surroundings of the player.
The player has 5 health points, indicated by the green health bar. I chose 5 over a single health point to allow me to create a greater range of situations. A player will be more bold when he's got an inventory full of potions and full health than he would be with a single health point left.
Players can create their own levels and share these with others using the level editor shown in the gif on the top right of this page. This is also what I use to design the levels.
Higher resolution, the compass moved to be a yellow arrow on the tile the player currently occupies, the health bar moves up as it's non interactive, reserving screen space at the bottom for easy reach with the thumb.
Mechanically a few things have changed as well such as the removal of the hunger stat which used to decrease with each step taken. Combined with the compass pointing to the exit it created too much of a quick action feel to the game. In favour of a more strategic nature these changes were made.
As you can see the dungeon is laid out in tiles, one level being all that is on screen. Unexplored tiles are hidden by a fog of war, currently not visible but explored tiles are shown with a dither fade over then to increase focus towards the immediate surroundings of the player.
The player has 5 health points, indicated by the green health bar. I chose 5 over a single health point to allow me to create a greater range of situations. A player will be more bold when he's got an inventory full of potions and full health than he would be with a single health point left.
Players can create their own levels and share these with others using the level editor shown in the gif on the top right of this page. This is also what I use to design the levels.
Dungeon Sweeper is currently on hold in favour of my internship and the co-op Mafia clicker project.
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