For the month of February my one-game-a-month project was Dungeon Sweeper, it’s a dungeon crawler with randomly generated dungeons and minesweeper inspired actions. Basically you start with the dungeon and there are lots of hidden areas. To explore you click on an unexplored square and discover what’s underneath. If it’s a monster, then you fight it and gain experience, if it’s loot you pick it up and grow stronger. If it’s a staircase you can go down it to find another level of the dungeon.
I think it turned out pretty good, although it is sorely in need of a couple of additional features. I was thinking that, like minesweeper, it would be good if you could have some sort of indication as to what was under the unexplored squares. I was thinking that perhaps it could have a number that is within 2 levels of the hidden monster’s level. That would give you a little bit of uncertainty and make the choices a little more interesting. I think it could also use some traps. I was thinking that the squares with monsters would have level numbers next to them, and the squares with traps and loot would have nothing. So you could tell if a square was a monster, but you would never be sure if it was a trap or some loot until you clicked on it. I think it could use some more balancing as well. At first when I was playing it there was basically no way to lose. You started so powerful, and gained levels and equipment so fast that you would quickly outclass any monster you met. I’ve re-tuned it to make it more difficult, but I may have gone too far.
Another thing it could really use is a better combat mechanic, currently you just click a button to attack the monster and it attacks back, and you just kind of keep clicking until one of you dies. You can use potions though, or run away, so there are a couple of choices, even if they aren’t terribly interesting. I think it would be really nice if there were different character classes, and they all had slightly different battle mechanics, it would make things much more interesting.
Still, I think it shows a lot of promise. I think with the new features I’ve listed it could make a very interesting game. I’ll most likely revisit it once I release Flame Warrior. Here’s the link again, in case you missed it the first time.