I do like a longer DS, but i kinda feel those extra designs are kinda "lazy" or "game breaking". i found the exprience less enjoyable after gaining some upgrades, comparing with just play another round of DS.
I don't have a solution for this, and I have been thinking about how to add longevity and replayablity to DS but I don't have a better answer than you.
Hey thanks for trying the game out. I understand the sentiment; DragonSweeper's design is quite tight and doesn't have much design space in its base formula in that regard. I don't know if I would call my expansion "lazy" but by adding additional design vectors to expand the space (enemy types, map size, items), I agree that I "loosened" what made DragonSweeper great in the hopes that it can provide a similar but differentiated experience
A lot of items do break the core conceit of the game -- I admit a lot of them were me just trying stuff out. The nice part is I can balance them but since there's so many, I often like to think of it as letting you choose your difficulty to some degree
Sorry "Lazy" might be too strong of a word, but I think you got my idea.
On a second thought I think this is still more related to tension: In the origin Dragon Sweeper player almost never felt too safe until the lich is killed. But here some upgrades makes the game, especially the very early phase of a session feels "too safe".
That's fair -- the game is intrinsically easier than DragonSweeper, especially the first level. I made a shorter experience and limited the spawns so that players can experience the shop. DungeonSweeper's 2nd level was originally the only level, where I 1-for-1 matched DragonSweeper... but a clone isn't cool -- I wanted to do more. Perhaps the game is too easy overall - I can always balance the, map size, enemies, $ generation, items, etc. If you have any specific feedback I'd love to hear it