Development plan - Winter 2012

I thought I should share my rather fuzzy development plan for Dweller for the coming few months. The plan is fuzzy because I find myself more and more unsure of what to do to improve Dweller further. I'm sure there's a ton of things I could do, but I've worked on Dweller for so long and that makes it hard to look at the game with fresh eyes (like a player who discovers Dweller for the first time). I've never meant for Dweller to be anything but a hobby project where I can experiment with different coding practices, technologies, platforms and have fun coding. At the same time it is pretty obvious that the average Android users expects a hell of a lot more of a game today than only one or two years ago. Anything less than a triple A title and you're required to be either very innovative to get player attention or be content with a much smaller group of brilliant gamers who can see beyond pretty pictures and enjoy a game because of other merits. You guys who are reading this are among the latter group, and I love you for it, but that doesn't mean I can't have at least a little bit of both, does it?

This is why at least part of my plans for the winter are about polishing the game in such a way to make it more attractive to "the masses". So, without further ado, here's the plan:

• Add an intro screen. I'd like to have some pretty pictures to give a good first impression.
• Improve the death/win screen. Currently it's something of an anti-climax to beat the game.
• Add music and sound (at least for Android and desktop version, most likely not for J2ME). I'm in touch with a composer who is working on music for Dweller. 
• Improve rendering performance by switching to OpenGL using libgdx or similar. Tablet performance is total crap at the moment and low-end Android devices are also starting to struggle. Switching to hardware accelerated rendering will increase performance significantly.
• Add player perks. I'd like to see something similar to talent trees (as seen in WoW, Torchlight, Diablo etc). It's going to be hard to balance, but I'd really like to allow the player to within each class come up with different kinds of character builds supported by talents/perks.
• Add more dungeon variation with rare rooms, encounters and items.

I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on the focus of Dweller in the months to come. In the words of House Stark, "Winter is coming", and I'd like to have a solid plan backed by the community to get it all done.

Source and comments: http://www.dwellergame.com/2012/11/development-plan-winter-2012.html

Dweller 1.22.12

Minor release primarily focused on bug fixes and stability issues. Full list of changes:


#553 Remove teleport traps from the labyrinth
#554 Unique monsters/bosses should ignore hidden traps
#555 Make sure that banishing a previously summoned ally when trying to summon it again never fails
#556 Adjust message sequence to show trigger message before damage message when moving to a cell with a trap
#557 Remove duplicate "You miss" message when the player misses a target
#558 Periodic effects such as poison should trigger on any action, not just movement
#559 Items that recharge when an enemy is killed should not have to be equipped to be recharged
#560 Adjust delay of stun effect to be half the time it takes for the stunned creature to make a move
#561 Make sure to not change position of an item in a quickslot if it is enchanted or recharged
#552 Fix broken room where items can sometimes be generated in walls
#544 Fix problem with item on the ground being destroyed when receiving a quest reward
#531 Being disarmed while all neighboring tiles are filled with items should not destroy the dropped weapon
#564 Player box does not properly update at all times
#565 Chest traps should not prevent the player from opening chest using targeting mode
#566 It should be possible to see if an item is in a quickslot from the inventory list

Source and comments: http://www.dwellergame.com/2012/11/dweller-12212.html

Dweller 1.22.11

Minor bugfix release:

#546 Remove "You resist" message when already poisoned
#547 Remove "You feel slowed down" message when already slowed
#545 Fix lingering enemy HP bar in top left corner of level
#548 Fix incorrect graphics for Claw of Wendingo
#549 Fix missing sleep and idle animations
#550 Add poisoned chest trap
#551 Reduce dodge chance

Source and comments: http://www.dwellergame.com/2012/10/dweller-12211.html

Dweller 1.22.9 - changes aplenty!

It took a while didn't it? Sorry 'bout that... but it's finally here, the new version of Dweller! The new version is shipped with a long list of changes. Some highlights:

• Shields are now in the off-hand category and can have on-block effects. Check out the spiked buckler!
• You no longer auto-gain a point of HP on level up. HP will be listed along with the rest of the stats that you're able to pick
• The required skull for the Restless Ghost quest should now be spawned on only the level where you get the quest, not randomly at any level.
• You will now find small status icons next to you HP bar if you get poisoned, slowed, disarmed or when you are levitating

Full list of changes:

#514 Change description of warrior ally to not use the same as the warrior class description
#515 Change so that required quest items such as the Skull in the Restless Ghost quest are generated on the same level as the quest
#517 Review item prices for standard items
#520 Move Gold coins from Jewellery category
#521 Change Shield category to an Off-hand category
#522 Quiver of Elven Arrows (unlimited use) should always be generated with basic stats (no fine, worn etc)
#505 Add option to toggle minimap rectangle on/off
#524 HP and Energy (mana) should not automatically increased on level up
#525 HP and Energy should get fully recharged on level up
#526 It should be possible to increase Energy (mana) on level up
#527 Named monsters should have higher stats to make them more of a challenge
#528 Dropping an equipped item did not remove any on-remove effects (such as levitation)
#529 Spiked bucklers should do damage to attacker when a block is successful
#530 Fix crash when pressing center/use on an empty inventory section
#532 Fix spamming quest complete message on loot quests when picking up more than the required number of items
#533 Remove duplicate "You fall through a trapdoor" message
#534 Change so that item cooldowns/auto-recharging on player action is triggered on the entire inventory and not only the equipment
#10 Add visual feedback on buttonclicks
#540 Add Czech translation
#537 Do not show "you can not use this" message for Gold
#541 It should be possible to assign items to the clicked on quickslot instead of first available quickslot
#535 Fix problems with wands and tools being removed from the quickslot when used
#538 Optimize inventory list
#9 Show status icons in the character portrait

Source and comments: http://www.dwellergame.com/2012/10/dweller-1229-changes-aplenty.html

Czech will be the next language supported by Dweller

Once again has the Dweller community stepped up and provided a translation of Dweller to a new language! This time it's forum user Wendingo who has provided a translation of Dweller into Czech! The next version will be out in a few days and with the new release Dweller will support English, Swedish, Russian, French, Spanish, Polish and Czech.

If you would like to see Dweller translated into your own language then please join us at the forums, post here or send me an e-mail. Translating the game into your own language will not only give you the pleasure of playing in your native tongue. As a translator you will also be immortalized through an in-game item of your choice and design. Items such as the Magical Catnip, the Hell Cloak and the Celestial Armor are all created by translators of Dweller. Why don't you translate the game yourself and claim an item of your own?

PS Do you want an item of your own but don't want to go through the trouble of translating Dweller? Why don't you make a Donation instead?

Source and comments: http://www.dwellergame.com/2012/10/czech-will-be-next-language-supported.html

Dweller 1.22.8 - Balance, balance, balance!

This is mostly a game balance release with a few bug fixes as an added bonus:

#502 Merging oozes should reward more xp the larger they grow
#503 Quickslot item count does not auto-increase when picking something up
#504 Add random names to artifact items again
#506 Decrease base HP of the Ranger's dog
#507 Decrease base Magic and increase base Speed of Magical Cat
#508 Increase chance of finding Thieves's Tools
#509 Show item names in plural in inventory list if there's more than one of an item
#510 Fix missing item effect descriptions
#511 Adjust weight and attack value of some weapons to make them more useful
#512 Add a cooldown on Magical Catnip, Dog Whistle and Horn of the Warrior
#513 Increase defense on heavy armor

Source and comments: http://www.dwellergame.com/2012/10/dweller-1228-balance-balance-balance.html

Dweller 1.22.7 - Artifacts, fixes and a new quest

I'm back from vacation and I've almost caught up with my e-mails. And more importantly, I have released Dweller 1.22.7. This version contains quite a few tweaks and some new stuff for you as well:


#480 Fix Scroll of Enchant abuse bug
#481 Reduce sales price to one fourth of purchase price (previously one third)
#482 Remove the Use menu option from Piles of Bones
#483 Add a Miscellaneous item category in the inventory where Piles of Bones are listed
#484 The last item picked up from a loot quest does not trigegr a message or scrolling text
#485 Remove bogus "It is you!" message when using a Scroll of Enchant
#486 Remove empty "You get:" message when completing quests that give XP but no reward
#487 Remove small random variation in stats on some artifact items
#488 Reduce chance of finding artifacts
#489 Fix blocking "room" in the labyrinth
#490 Reduce sensitivity of fling gesture to reduce the number of touch events that do not register properly
#491 Elven Water should be sold by the Healer instead of the Merchant
#492 Add new arrow types
#493 Add a better arrow type sold by the Merchant
#494 Add the unique rings 'Ring of Longevity' and 'Ring of Mobility'
#496 Show on the minimap which part of a level is currently on screen
#497 Nerf Pearlescent Soul Stone
#498 Spell range no longer scale with magic stat
#499 Add Restless Ghost quest
#500 Add missing description to the Dungeon Atlas
#501 Adjust item prices to take item immunities into account

Source and comments: http://www.dwellergame.com/2012/09/dweller-1227-artifacts-fixes-and-new.html