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Deep Dungeon

A roguelike for the Gameboy, built in GB Studio. GBCOMPO21 Entry. · By Lazy Dev Games

Feedback & Suggestions Sticky

A topic by Lazy Dev Games created Sep 09, 2021 Views: 1,095 Replies: 21
Viewing posts 1 to 13
Developer

Please feel free to leave any feedback and suggestions in this thread!

(+1)

this is amazing would love to know how you got text variable's and how you made the leveling system my only feedback is when using healing spells it would be nice to see the hp on the menu when selecting who to heal same with potions  

Developer

Hi! So, I'm using GB Studio version 2.5.

For showing variables as text, you have a few a options. The first is display the current value of a variable, which can be done by placing the variable name/number between two $ signs in your dialogue box. For example, if you had a global variable tracking your XP, you could display $XP$ in any dialogue box and it would show it's value (0-255).

For the names, it's a little different. I have a variable tracking each letter. I then give the variable a value equal to the ASCII value of the character I want to display. In this game's case, it's just capital letters and spaces, but you can cover your entire ascii table if you needed. So if my character's name begins with "A", I have global variable "Name 1" = 65. Then, you can display it in dialogue by using the variable in between # signs. So to display a name, I write: #Name1##Name2##Name3# etc.  I believe this has been available in most versions, but it's possible it's not an option in certain early builds of 1.0.

The advantage of ## over $$ method, besides showing ascii instead of just a number, is that the ## method always only counts as 1 character. $$ always counts as 3 characters because it needs to reserve space for an entire range.

The leveling system is just tracking an XP variable for each character. On the results screen, if you've reached a certain amount of XP (depending on your current level and your class), you can level up. The game runs a check and update your stats/unlocks new skills based on other variables that only trigger at those XP thresholds.

(5 edits)

Interesting game.

For some reason I loaded up a save and got a new starting floor in the dungeon. It was weird because I went down perhaps 5 floors and got the the old dungeon starting floor with chests already open and items taken then after another 5 or so floors I encountered the new dungeon floor again. Some kind of strange loop.

I came across one item that had no description in my inventory and when trying to use it, it said "there's no reason to use this right now".

After the floor with Legion, I went downstairs again (to floor 22) and the game froze.

Suggestions:

  • Increase inventory space
  • Increase chance of hitting enemies. The amount of times I went several rounds with nothing but misses got a little frustrating.
  • Make it a little less grindy.
  • Add item descriptions in the shops. Add who can use what equipment. More equipment might make sense. The cycle of resting and revisiting the shop to see if there is a key available got a little tedious.
  • The bed where you can rest. Make it a little more obvious. I was on maybe floor 4 or 5 before I discovered what it was when I went back to the camp and it really improved the game play being able to heal and replenish monsters.
  • When an enemy has been defeated, automatically move the target cursor to the first available enemy to attack, as opposed to having to manually select them.

Quite enjoyable!

I really like the game, here are some tips that i think could help improve the game:

1. Show the EXP that the hero needs to lv up, is hard to know when to stop farming when you don't know how long it will take you to lv up. Also, the lv could increase other stats asides "attack", like accurasity, obiously in the higher floors, the enemy will hace higher accurasy too.

2. Add a desciption to the spells as well as the MP that each one cost (Even when all spell cost 1 MP, it will be more interesting if the earthquake or the fireball  could cost 2 MP in higher levels ).

3. Description of the objects, when i got 2 crystal balls i tried to equip it to the wizard to recoverd 2MP per battle, but that didn't work, you can make this items "unique" if you only want that this effect only activates onces.

4.I get that the "tombs" can be use to farm, but it could be more interesting if you could purify them, with some object of the shop or some skill of W/C.

5.I didn´t end to understand the used of "The pool of charm" i know that it can kill you if you step in after the game have warned you, and that you can cross it with the rope, but you could make it a zone between floors 25-30, in wich you will need a pair of "boots" that can make you walk on it, and create new enemies, but this is only a suggestion, you don't need to include it.

6.The objects "Belt, helmet, cloack, etc" can also be used to improve other stats than defense and attack

7.Give the bosses more attacks, i only tried it in hard, but the first boss only have physical attacks, the second boss only summon wisp, and the Dragon i only saw him doing fisical attacks, furthermore, the dragon is affected by venom, this made the fight more easy that the second boss.

8.As we can go to the camp thanks to the portal in the boss room, you can make the bosses harder, especially because we'll come with full health and full Mp.

And i think that is all, hope to see future updates :D

Gonna try on my gba

Lost like 2 hours, and didn't check the campfire... Totally need to reVITAlize in morning sessions. 

Please revamp char lists, it's costly to mistake type of the armor. 

And if the potion is being applied, could we see the HP of character?

(+1)

My first party was wiped out by a single snake on Level 1 or 2.  I laughed.  I would have burned through so many AA batteries playing this on an original Game Boy.

(+1)

my sugestion is a party of 4 people instead of 3, and more variety of dungeons

(+1)

I like the music! 

If a character dies and you don't have a holy symbol, do you really have to continue with two characters forever? Could you add the option to recruit a low level replacement?

Developer(+1)

Hi! This game is no longer receiving updates. The permadeath/lower party count was intended to be part of the challenge, but for some behind the scenes info: recruiting a low level character was actually planned in the original scope (it was part of the reason to return to the campsite), but it didn't make it in during the gamejam timeframe. 

An awesome work. Really a great example of what is capable GB Studio.

I really wish there was some kind of devlog or explanation on how you did it. I really want to know how you got both the procedural levels and the turn-based movement to work

Developer

This was back in 2.5, so we can do even more/better with GBVM.


Since this was a compo game, a lot ended up being cut actually, so what you see is mostly tricks and wasn’t quite as robust as I had planned.

One day I may do a 3.0 rebuild like I did for Joyride.

This game is super cool so far! I do have a few suggestions for the game however (My furthest dungeon run so far was until the secret room):

1. Miss chance: You should reduce the miss chance when facing enemies, and if that means the game starts lacking in difficulty, increase the amount/strength of enemies you face. I personally find it a lot more annoying if I loose from 2/3 of my characters missing their attacks than if the enemy/enemies get hit but don't die to the attacks, and it means that I don't randomly get statused by weaker enemies on my trek through the dungeon.

2. Descriptions. Please add descriptions for spells and status conditions if possible.

Other than those two things, this game is really neat and fun to play! I love the art style and managing mp makes the game much more interesting. I'm using a Warrior, Cleric, and Wizard, and having a blast!

Developer

Glad you liked it! I'll keep that feedback in mind if I come back to updating this game for GB Studio 3.0!

I could make the rolls more transparent, too.

Hey Lazy Dev. I have a question. Me and couple other people on reddit create QR Code games for Homebrewed 3DS and we'd like to ask if its ok if we make your Deep Dungeon  game into a QR code to post on our subreddit. We will for sure credit you in the post and also post a link to this page so people can donate to you! Let us know if its ok!

Developer

Sure. Send me the link when you’re done!

(+1)

Hey Lazy Dev! Thank you so much for letting us post your amazing homebrew game! 

Here is the link to the QR Code you asked for!

https://www.reddit.com/r/3dsqrcodes/comments/1cn9ze4/deep_dungeon_gb_homebrew_by...

Here is also a couple screenshots of what it looks like on the 3DS home menu and in game!

Developer

That's awesome! Thanks!

This game is genuinely great! I dreamt the other night that I made something very similar to this, glad to find someone else already did it for me. I love the soundtrack and the art. I love the DnD 1e style difficulty. A minor critique I have is that spells and attributes seem to be ripped wholecloth from DnD, whereas I would have preferred something more unique, but it's not really an issue; it means that I know roughly what everything does going in.
Congrats, I can see myself spending hours on this one ^^

Developer

The mechanics  behind stats/classes/spells were based on Basic Fantasy. Since it was made for a game jam, I decided to use something open source as a way to keep things familiar for players and have a semblance of balance.

Makes sense :)