Cool game but it suffers a bit from slow pacing. The blocks fall way too slow, could speed up 2x or 3x. First level should need less points so it gets obvious how to level up. A 4- and 5 tile combo should make much more points. Other than that nice game!
Nice little game!
Clicking the start piece to confirm is not intuitive though, maybe add a separate button for that. Also I get perfect performances, but I’m stuck in 3x3 levels, they don’t get larger. Am I missing out on something?
Just updated the game, the bow got buffed. It’s a small change but it makes it quite a bit stronger: When a targeted monster gets defeated, the field gets revealed. This effectively opens up a new discovery path.
The game doesn’t make it obvious that shooting with the bow also requires hearts. Hearts are more like energy in this game; you need energy to shoot. I changed the bow to show its strength when activated.
The bow only shoots 2 tiles straight, not diagonal. I like that, because it adds kind of a quest to open up a straight line to shoot.
About being solvable with lots of walls: The starting area provides 4 hammers (though 2 are playing hide-and-seek). So far, I haven’t seen a map that’s truly impossible given optimal play. But the real challenge is: what is optimal play?
You can mess around with different strategies by replaying a map - just grab the seed from the bottom of the main menu and hit “Play Seed.” If you actually stumble on a map that’s 100% unsolvable (even with some lucky guesses), drop the seed or a screenshot! I’d love to see it!
Hey thank you for your feedback! I’m open to ideas on improving the items! The bow makes most sense with the slime master and the eye, both of which you might get knowledge of before they are in reach. I’d like it to be stronger though. Maybe allow it to attack not only the second row, but also all covered fields beyond the second row?
The split animation gives a clue on where the final boss in located. It also weaves into a subtle story which I potential sequel would pick up on.
Landscape: The game was primarily targeting Android portrait. Agreed it would be cool to have landscape on Desktop! It’s planned for the potential sequel!
I suppose those who like traditional (guessing) boards over NG, accept the risk of losing in order to benefit from the added meta games guessing-boards provide.
There’s 2 layers “meta games” added compared to NG.
analyse which fields got the lowest risk of a mine
analyse which field provides most “gain”, that is progress or meaningful hints
Often higher risk fields provide better gain, which makes it worth taking the risk.
It’s that added challenge that makes it fun (for me), even at the risk of losing the game without making actual mistakes. Nevertheless I also like playing NG, to me it’s just a different way to play 🙂
Agreed - players and devs often see this slightly different. Essentially, it’s “guess” vs “no-guess” maps.
Many Minesweeper fans today prefer no-guess boards, while others enjoy the added challenge of probability-based decision-making. It adds another layer to the game. It’s a matter of preference.
In Dungeon Squire and Dragonsweeper, most maps don’t require guessing, but some rare tough seeds do, like this one. I actually enjoyed it, even though (or because of) some guessing involved. The fun is to determine the safest square vs the square promising progress, that is: risk vs gain. There wasn’t any 50-50 though, but more like 1:3 or better, which feels fair.
While guessing is not required in the majority of maps, there are tough seeds out there where guessing is absolutely required, like this one. I really liked playing it though so I think it’s worth keeping it that way and allow guessing!
The game is always solvable, but guessing is generally undesirable — even though it technically remains solvable in a strict sense. There are certain patterns that could make the board unsolvable, or more often, situations where guessing becomes necessary. The real question is: can any board be solved on the first try, given ‘optimal play’? That’s the central point I aimed to explore in my article.
I wrote an article exploring the question: Is the game always solvable?
– a fun topic from a game design perspective!
While it focuses on my Android version (approved by Daniel), the ideas apply to Dragonsweeper too. I get this question a lot, so maybe my version just ended up a bit harder!
Thanks, yes it’s heavily inspired by Dragon Sweeper. I love that game and wanted to play it on mobile. It turned out very similar, while it has its own twists too. I’m glad you like it :D
It only works if you got items in your inventory and they are usable in your current situation. If you want to use specific items explicitly, try pressing the buttons 1-3 to select an item from your inventory. Generally, using ctrl is faster though.
If you think you found a bug, we need more information to fix it. In this case, please join us on Discord, we have a #bugs channel there to discuss problems with the game.
You can’t, but you can start over by clicking the wrench in the main menu and then the reset button. If you want to use another name, you can ask a moderator to give you another nick name. The best way to find help is to join us on Discord. Thank you for playing :)
Awesome!! Cool game! As an idea, make it so when you keep the right mouse button clicked, you charge a bullet and when you release it you fire a big bullet making more damage (depending on how long you charged)
