Patrick DownI should never have discovered Dragonsweeper.
Isaac Ji Kuo@patrickd I have only read a brief description of Dragonsweeper and I'm already intrigued.
@isaackuo It's addictive. It's got that "I almost had it. Let me try just one more time." thing going.
John Hattan
@johnhattan @patrickd I didn't really understand what was going on in Mamono Sweeper.
But I sort of got the hang of Dragonsweeper right away. The logic thinking is close enough to Minesweeper to "get" it pretty quickly. Especially the 100 point mines, because that reverts to classic Minesweeper.
I've only played it a few times so far. It seemed kinda impossible but in the last game I got lucky and hit some sort of scroll that revealed the locations of the 1 point rats.
@isaackuo @johnhattan Yeah, there are a few other tricks. Some creatures facing will tell where others are and there are a few others like the rats that reveal all the locations of other types of creatures.
@isaackuo @johnhattan I think you are supposed to find this out by playing but you can also just search it.
@patrickd @johnhattan Okay, I don't like those sorts of game design things. I prefer something that doesn't require creature facing and such.
I'll just have to build my own theme park.
@patrickd @johnhattan I played some more times and I think I've got the hang of it. I accidentally clicked on the red slash through mine icon thing, and found out that it blew up all the mines and turned them into experience points. That helps clear the board a lot!
I haven't quite cleared the board entirely ... had one 7 left over I didn't clear. But I was a bit sloppy. I know I can clear it.
@patrickd @johnhattan Ah, well I did clear the board - or so I thought. I cleared it of monsters, but I didn't realize the walls could be broken.
I ended up with one wall left over, so one point shy of actually clearing the board. I don't know if I feel like playing all the way to a 100% score.
It was very fun, though! Thanks so much for the heads up!
@patrickd @johnhattan If I make my own clone, the biggest game design change I'd make is to have XP overflow spill away rather than accumulate indefinitely. So, you have to both manage not going below 0HP and also not go over max XP.
Also, health would be "food" items with variable amounts. As with XP, any HP overflow would spill away. Health potion would give max HP.
Hmm ...
@isaackuo @johnhattan I was thinking about making a more arcade version where opening a cell releases guys you have to fight.
@patrickd @johnhattan That would definitely change the feel of the game!
One thing I've pondered is playing the game to get minimum score, rather than maximum score. I see that maximum score is already pretty difficult, but minimum score would be a lot tougher ... maybe practically impossible.
Either way, it's too difficult for me to have fun playing. so ... oh well.
@isaackuo @johnhattan Yeah, I think games like this initially catch me through frustration. I should be able to get to the goal but stupid math mistakes or unlucky layout keeps me from it. I eventually get it right and I don't feel much desire to play after that. Moreover I'm not sure I had "fun."
The type of puzzle games I like the most let you noodle your way to a solution without irreversible consequences. I find these generally more relaxing.
@patrickd @johnhattan Yeah, like Windows Minesweeper, Dragonsweeper is unforgiving of stupid math mistakes. Although it's much less likely to produce an unlucky layout.
I think it would be more fun with an option for a few lives. You get to at least see how you would have done if you hadn't made that math mistake, even if it's not a true "perfect" run.
Also, the mental math is annoying and not fun. Thus, my roguelite idea of starting off with sparsely populated floors.
And also ...
@patrickd Instead of multiple lives, my roguelite-sweeper idea would be party based.
So, you have multiple characters and you click on a character to switch. That way, each one has its own HP and XP ... you have a lot more flexibility to ensure you can prevent HP underflow/overflow and XP overflow.