A really cool game that had me occupied for quite a bit of time. The only comment I have is that well, it was too easy. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!) All you have to do is get the clingon blade, practice hitting the correct cell for a little while and then just plow through everything. And once you have the statue that slows down the "dice roll" (not sure which one that is) hard mode is just a piece of cake. That said, I really like the fresh gameplay and mechanics, and would love to play a more challenging version, so in case you are interested, here are my thoughts on how to make hard mode "hard":
- The "dice roll" in hard mode should move to random cells instead of the left-to-right-top-to-bottom sequence (yeah, I know that's not deterministic, but it makes hitting the exact cell you want harder, which is something I was able to do 99% of the time on my second playthrough).
- Remove the unlockable "dragon" equipment (Right from the start you can trade it to the witch for buff scrolls, so there is no point in leveling up the character).
- Make the AOE scrolls (pulse blast, lightning) less common (they make leveling up too easy).
- Reduce the amount of loot.
Reviews for "Deterministic Dungeon"
Nice! Glad you enjoyed, I'll take your suggestions under consideration!
Was gonna post this sooner but I had to leave for a bit. But gees, there were nothing but negative reviews on the first page earlier...
I don't normally like randomness in games either - but this is controlled randomness, so I really do like this. To all the people complaining about hitting zeroes - you guys realize some weapons don't even have zeroes, right? Sure, the damage is lower, but it's a guaranteed hit every time. Just aim for the high number and hope you get it. No matter what, you deal some damage. Weapons with lots of possibilities and one zero are really nice, too. Unless your reflexes are *really* bad, you can just avoid that 0 like the plague and average some pretty good damage. Aim for the highest one if it's not close to the 0.
Unless you've got really good timing, it's moreso about controlling risks than just landing perfectly all the time. I feel like several people didn't understand that. And someone was complaining that the game told you to feel bad for hitting a zero.. Really? Give me a break. I mean, if nothing else you can just not pay attention to the spinner and it's practically a normal die roll. That would destroy a lot of the point of the game, but still... Most of the complaints I saw were just people whining about silly things instead of actually providing real criticism.
Anyway, I liked it. I'm not usually big on RNG - but this gives the player more control over it. Even if you play it without trying to control it, it's not terribly punishing, either. It's not XCOM levels of RNG bullcrap, heh. It wasn't quite what I was expecting from the title, but it's fun. So far, I have no big complaints, although it would have been nice to actually name and create your character and maybe some sort of gold system for selling unwanted loot.
Thanks, I'm glad you picked up on some of the subtleties of the determination system, it really becomes about seeing patterns of "safety" in the layout of the numbers and mitigating your risk... kind of like real life! :-D
Ironically enough, coding all the RNG was probably more time-consuming than coding a flash of this caliber would usually take...
A breath of (semi) fresh air on the age-old flash rpg cave-crawler style of game. Really cool idea, really good execution, good time-killer.
Ha ha, yes, that is the irony of doing this, but also what makes it special!
Original and surprisingly addictive!
Despite some of the previous reviews, I do not think stopping the selector on your desired number is all that difficult, it just takes a little time to get used to the timing and learn to anticipate when to click.
I managed to reach the 6-3 boss on my first run through, only to run out of healing scrolls before I could finish him off. About to make my second attempt at beating this now.
On another note, I am not sure whether this is a bug, or intentional, but I did not lose any of my totems when I died, and they carried on to my second playthrough.
I agree, some players tend to exaggerate how difficult the chooser is, but my experience is that you improve quite a bit in a short amount of time once you can wrap your mind around what's actually happening.
Yes, totems remaining is intentional to soften the blow of the perma-death.
So much effort went into this. I played it for half an hour honestly trying to enjoy it, but I didn't enjoy a single second of it. The game is never really fun, everything is kind of tedious and time-consuming. The worst part is that you often end up missing a certain important hit, and unlike regular random games, this game gives a semi-false impression of being in control, when in all honesty there's almost nobody out there who can accurately hit this. Nor is that a skill that anyone except slots playing alcoholics and chimpanzees can or want to boast.
The bottom line is that you never have fun, and rather than feeling the motivation to improve something that would require Guitar Hero levels of no-life training to perfect, you just feel as if you're not just getting rammed by random chance... but you should also FEEL BAD... because you were totally in control of that swing, right?
This is probably the first time I've given a 1-star review to a game that has been executed this well, but it's also the first time that I have wanted to shut a game down this bad.
Sorry. Your concept is horrible. I hope you make other games in the future though, this was still really well done.
Ha ha, sorry you didn't like it. It does require very good reflexes, but the cool thing is that you improve quite a bit with practice and there are items in the game that enhance your choosing abilities. Sorry it wasn't your cup o' tea!