Diehard Dungeon cover
Diehard Dungeon screenshot
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Indie

Diehard Dungeon

Version 1.8.1 is Live!

Hi everyone,

This is a small update to fix a couple of teething problems with version 1.8, as well as a couple of other small changes.

Changelog:


  • A bug that showed an incorrect number of tokens required for a Green Chest respin has been fixed.
  • If the player has the Forget-Me-Not pickup, it will now show on the game over screen. For those times when you forget the Forget-Me-Not ;)
  • Zombie Chest boss description changed.


A couple of issues that were fixed in a recent stealth patch:


  • An occasional responsiveness issue when using a mouse to attack with the sword has been fixed. If you ever encountered a situation where a mouse button click didn't result in a sword swing; this was probably the cause.
  • The light beam now correctly aligns with the Searching Eye enemy on the Fading Light minigame menu screen at all resolutions.

Version 1.8 is Live!

Hi everyone,

Version 1.8 is finally here!

Changelog:


  • Fading Light - A new minigame that costs 10 tokens to unlock.
  • New enemy - Searching Eye.
  • The respin system for green chests has changed. Every respin will now guarantee a win. Each successive respin will require more tokens, to a maximum of 10 tokens (increase: 1, 3, 5, 10).
  • Double-spin spin attack. Pressing the attack button at the very end of a spin attack will activate a second spin for a potential of 10 points of damage.
  • Spin attack movement speed increased slightly.
  • Door key carry speed increase. Carrying a door key will increase the player's speed instead of slowing them down. I've received a lot of feedback regarding the tedious task of having to carry the key to the lock. Carrying the key will now be advantageous.
  • Move whilst attacking with the sword. The player is allowed a small amount of movement whilst attacking with the sword, as opposed to being fixed on the spot. Sword combat will feel more fluid.
  • You can now turn whilst attacking with the sword. Locking the player's direction whilst attacking led to some frustrating situations where they would be hit from behind, unable to turn and attack quick enough.
  • Player move speed has been increased slightly.
  • Keyhole colour has been changed from dull blue to a vibrant gold. This should make them much easier to spot.
  • Hitting a cannonball with the sword will now provide some satisfying feedback.
  • A new achievement for the Fading Light minigame.


A big thank you goes out to everyone that has helped support the game since its initial Steam release. Your feedback, suggestions and motivation have been invaluable.

Version 1.7.6 is Live!

Hi everyone,

This is just a tiny update, but one that fixes a couple of potentially big issues.

Changelog:


  • The new enemy spawn system included in the previous patch, inadvertently led to the possibility of enemies (including bosses) that had the ability to teleport, teleporting outside of a boss room, becoming unreachable by the player. This has been fixed.
  • An issue with certain remapped keyboard/mouse controls not responding to the correct key/button press, or an incorrect image being shown has been fixed.
  • Player sword attack -> aim incorrect sprite bug fixed.


Version 1.7.5 is Live!

Hi everyone,

This patch addresses issues with difficulty, unfair/cheap deaths, Champion Mode improvements and much more. The changes should have a dramatic on how the game feels and plays, especially at higher ranks.

Changelog:


  • New chest: Yellow. Yellow chests only contain abilities. They are rarer than green chests and must be destroyed(they are bound in chains) in order to collect the ability.
  • Enemy collision response has been massively improved. The previous system had issues with enemies bouncing off of each other, or seemingly charging/popping instantaneously from one position to another (many times directly into the player). There were also issues with knocking enemies back, where enemies could block each other, forming an almost impenetrable wall. The new system fixes these issues.
  • Champion Mode has been improved. When a good champion wisp explodes, it will inflict the blind status effect on all susceptible enemies, as well as cause a large amount of damage in its explosion radius. Good champion heart drop chance has also been increased. Evil champion movement speed has been decreased. Good/evil champion ratio is now context sensitive; depending on the players current predicament, he/she will be more(or less) likely to encounter one type over the other. Champion spawning is now staggered, so they won't all appear on top of the walls at the same time.
  • Pro Mode option added to options screen. Turn on to disable all warning, ability and item popups. Good for players that already know the game well and want to avoid the interruptions from popups.
  • Arrow traps will no longer activate if the pressure pad is activated off-screen. This is to ensure that rogue projectiles do not appear from nowhere due to an enemy triggering the trap off-screen.
  • All enemy status effect immunities have been reevaluated. Most enemies are now much more susceptible.
  • Minimum room size increased. Rooms will feel more spacious at higher ranks, with more room to avoid enemies/traps.
  • Enemies will no longer spawn near the player when entering a new room.
  • Luck now lasts for 1 minute (used to be 30 seconds) and has been improved.
  • Mines dropped by Goblins are now bigger, so should be easier to spot.
  • Evil Chest teleport attack radius has been reduced.
  • Token wells now drop a necklace as well as gold when it spits out treasure. Treasure values are: gold 10, ring 25, necklace 100. This will be much more useful for leveling the Companion Chest quicker.
  • Spinning blade shooters will no longer shoot projectiles if they are off-screen.
  • Mini Lilly and Toadstool enemies will no longer shoot if they are taking damage. This prevents cheap/unfair deaths due to taking damage at point blank range whilst hitting them with the sword.
  • Spear thrower enemy range decreased slightly.
  • Eye enemy movement speed decreased slightly.
  • Arrow projectiles have had their speed decreased slightly.
  • All bosses that shoot projectiles have now had their projectiles reset properly when encountered again.
  • The shield HUD no longer obscures part of the second row of hearts.
  • Chest damage scale fixed. The accidental overwriting of a sprite caused chests to enlarge after too much damage.
  • Companion Chest Dash ability incorrect sprite fixed.


Thanks for playing!

Version 1.7.1 is Live!

Hi everyone,

This is only a small patch that doesn't contain anything particularly exciting, but it does fix a critical issue with one of the perks not working.

Changelog:


  • The Sword Damage+ perk has been fixed and will now work correctly.
  • Sprites (the evil fairy things that attack with status effects) have had the Blind status effect added to their possible attacks.
  • A red badge with the letter "A" will appear on top of the next activatable ability (Voodoo or Reflex) on the HUD.
  • Diehard and Large Eye enemies have had their movement speed decreased slightly.

Version 1.7 is Live!

Hi everyone!

This is another big update that adds lots of new features and improvements.

Changelog:


  • Perks. After a successful run (escape from the dungeon), the player will be rewarded with a random perk for the next run. Perks bonuses will remain active for the entirety of the run.


    • Movement Speed +
    • Sword Damage +
    • Hand Cannon Damage +
    • Shield Health +
    • Hand Cannon Juggle + (can hit cannonballs with sword more times before they explode).
    • Chest (start with a treasure chest).
    • EXP + (the run will reward more exp).
    • Companion Upgraded (the Companion Chest will start at level 3).
    • Gold Rush (increases the chance of finding a gold dropping wisp).
    • Heart Slots (start with 10 available heart slots. Only 5 will contain hearts).


  • New status effect: Blind - the player's vision becomes severely limited to a small circle. Enemies are also susceptible to this effect.
  • New ability: Sense - highlights trap pressure pads, making them much easier to spot.
  • New ability: Vision - immune to Blind status effect.
  • New ability: Attract. The Companion Chest has a much larger treasure attraction range.
  • New ability: Reflex (single use) - slows time (for everything apart from the player), allowing the player to easily avoid enemy attacks and potentially deal massive damage.
  • New ability: Pierce. Hit cannonballs with the sword to unleash a piercing wave attack.
  • All routes in Champion Mode are now hard. The hard routes still respect the player's rank.
  • Diehard minions. Occasionaly the Dungeon Master will spawn a Diehard into the room instead of a spectre of himself. Diehards will be selected from the global leaderboard of players that have attained the rank of Diehard. The higher your rank, the more likely you are to encounter a Diehard. Diehards drop an EXP pickup when defeated.
  • Boss health bar. A boss heaslth bar is now visible above the north wall of the room.
  • Trap pressure pads will now glint briefly if the Companion Chest's light shines on them. This will help the player spot pressure pads covered in debris.
  • Token Wells now drop 2 tokens instead of 1.
  • The Dungeon Master will now only spawn to fight you in the final boss room if you have taken all hard routes.
  • New "complete" ending. Escape the dungeon at Diehard rank, in Champion Mode, and defeat the Dungeon Master to view the new ending.
  • The previous "best" ending has been modified to account for the "complete" ending.
  • Champion Mode trigger distance has been increased for the Champions that wander along the tops of the walls.
  • Blind status effect has been added to the possible Pyramid attacks.
  • 5 new achievements for the new abilities.
  • 1 new achievement for the "complete" ending.


I hope you like the changes.

Version 1.6.5 is Live!

Hi everyone,

This update brings many changes and additions, so the version number has jumped straight to 1.6.5.

Changelog:

<*>Day/night cycle, rain and dust/spores. Adds to the game's atsmosphere dramatically, making each environment feel slighlty different depending on the time of day.
An option has been added to the options menu to toggle these on/off.
<*>Champion mode updated. Evil champions can now also spawn directly in the room to fight you.
Champion mode has been re-balanced. I underestimated the amount of players that would choose to be good, making the mode too easy. It's now much more challenging.
<*>If the player's shield is hit, the player will now be knocked back enough to avoid further attacks.
<*>Chests now drop a heart or token if you don't win anything from spinning the reels.
<*>Many sprites have been updated.
<*>Lots of tweaks made to enemies.
<*>Lots of tweaks made to game balance (frequency of hearts etc).
<*>Gold key acquired splash no longer shows every time you restart.



As always, I hope you enjoy the update, and thanks for playing!

Version 1.6 is Live!

Hi everyone!

This is a fairly substantial update. I hope you like the new additions.

Changelog:

<*>New feature: Shields. There are two shields that the player can pick up and use: a standard shield and a fear shield. Shields can only take a certain amount of damage before they break, as indicated by a HUD meter. Shields are obtained by defeating shield wielding enemies. Defeat the enemy without destroying its shield, and the shield will drop. Collecting a shield whilst you already have one equipped will replenish the shield's health.
<*>New enemy: Witch Doctor. Wields a fear shield
<*>New enemy: Goblin. Hops around on a pogo stick, dropping mines that detonate damaging anything within their explosion radius.
<*>Some changes have been made to the way Chests work. A small amount of situational bias has been added to the way items that are chosen, whilst still retaining as much randomness as possible. So you will be more likely to receive an ability as opposed to treasure, if you currently have no abilities etc.
<*>Chest 0 spins message changed from "Empty" to "Failed".
<*>Destroying a chest, or stopping on 0 spins will drop either a heart or a token. This means you always receive something from a chest.
<*>4 new colours have been added to the customisation list (Black, Camo 1, Camo 2 & Camo 3).
<*>Alt-Tab player visibility bug fixed.
<*>Hit Wisps (the things that leave trails of gold) with an attack for 50% chance to receive a token.
<*>Some balance changes have been made to shield wielding enemies.

Tip for shield usage:
The direction that the shield is facing will be the direction that the shield will block attacks from. Aiming the hand cannon or carrying a key will place the shield on the character's back, blocking attacks from behind. Attacking with the sword will leave you open to attacks from the front, but will block attacks from the side the shield is facing.

Thank you to everyone that has posted feedback and suggestions. Any changes/additions that didn't make it into this release will be included in the next.

Version 1.5.2 is Live!

Hi everyone!

This patch includes a feature that has been requested many times: Player customisation.

Pink bandana and yellow shoes FTW!



The feature is limited to changing colours, but it's surprising the difference it makes.

Changelog:

<*>Appearance option added to the main menu. A variety of colours can be selected for bandana, skin, tunic and shoes.
Selecting random will switch the colours each time the game is started, or you exit the Appearance menu.
<*>Survival minigame re-balanced, and rules changed. Time limit reduced to 50 seconds. Enemy numbers and movement speed has been increased at the top end of the difficulty scale.
The number of held abilities has been limited to 3. Any new abilities acquired will replace existing ones.
To earn the Rage boost, finish 2 rooms in a row without receiving damage.
<*>? ability box removed from HUD. It no longer serves any purpose.
<*>Spinning Blade projectiles are now being cleared properly upon entering a new room.
<*>Heartbreaker ability heart drop rate reduced.
<*>Cube enemy now awakens on close proximity to the player.
<*>Potential leaderboard upload crash fixed.

Version 1.5.1 is Live!

Hi everyone!

This is a small update, but one that brings some significant changes.

Changelog:

<*>Sword swing delay has been removed. Every button press will now result in a sword swing.
<*>Room generation algorithm has been improved. Rooms should feel much more open, have less corridors and generally be more interesting shapes. The minimum room size has also been increased from 9 grid tiles to 12.
<*>Room entrance location has been improved. The chance of an entrance being placed in a corridor has been greatly reduced.
<*>'Survival' minigame enemy spawn locations have been moved away from the entrance.
<*>Sloths, and the Giant Oaf boss have had their stun duration tweaked to account for the new sword swing.
<*>Knives, Slash and Repel have been tweaked to account for the new sword swing.
<*>A new Lilly projectile destination sprite has been created.
<*>Trapdoor game incorrect ability reward icon fixed.
<*>Enemy hit momentum tweaked. As a result, the Repel ability has become slightly more effective.
<*>Hive Mind will no longer spawn Blob enemies when hit with the Repel ability.

The Roadmap will be updated shortly detailing the next lot of extra content.