Enemy intention markers no longer animate between actions (they now animate only at the start of player turn).
Final results screen now displays the current game mode and, if you're playing Daily Challenge, it also displays the date.
Player info panels (top-left) are now more visually distinct to make it more clear which player is selected. Also added some animation when you switch players.
🐛 Bug Fixes
Snaptors no longer step on to spikes. 🙃
'Knockback preview ghosts' now face the same direction as the actual character.
Enemy intention markers now update between each action during enemy turn.
Hovering mouse over an unselected player's tile now shows the correct Perk information in the help popup.
Hovering mosue over player info panels during the enemy's turn no longer shows the confirmation prompt.
Fixed double-space in final screen "[NAME] SURVIVED" text.
Fixed Redhorn's dust particles failing to appear part-way through a charge attack.
Treasure Update (v0.19)
New Score & Ranking System
This update features an all-new scoring system. When you complete a stage you will now receive:
Score
Rank
Gold
These are all based on your performance, which is measured by the same 3 metrics as before (reach the goal, score a touchdown and finish within par).
You'll also get some score bonuses for additional actions, such as finishing even more quickly or collecting...
Gems
You find these dotted across every stage. Collect them for score bonuses.
Final Results
The ending screen now shows a full breakdown of your scores and ranks, stage-by-stage. Be sure to share screenshots of your best runs in the Steam Community. 😉
New Leaderboard
This update involved some big changes to the way scoring works, and it's now harder to get the kinds of scores players were achieving in older versions of the game.
Therefore, I decided to create a new leaderboard for all scores going forward.
However, I didn't want to simply wipe all the old scores (you worked hard for them!) so I've preserved them in the Steam Leaderboards. You can find them here.
Well done, WanderingHero, you'll have your high score forever preserved in the archive!
Everyone else: now's your chance to claim that new number 1 spot!
Here's the full list of changes in update 0.19...
🆕 Changes
3-Star rating system replaced with numeric Score system.
Created new Steam leaderboard to account for drastically different final scores (the old one is still visible in the Steam Community).
Added Gold system - earn gold based on your performance. Use it to recruit new players. (More things to buy with gold coming soon!)
Added Rank system - you'll get a rank (S/A/B/C/F) based on your performance, for bragging rights.
Added Gems to each stage. Collect them for score bonuses.
Stage Results screen now shows a breakdown of your score, gold and rank.
Ending screen now shows a breakdown of your score and rank on each stage.
Your lifetime High Score is now recorded.
You no longer have points deducted for deaths or taking too long on a stage.
Perk upgrades and player recruitment uses temporary new prices so they work with the new systems. These will be replaced with another new upgrade system soon.
The finish line now has a checkerboard pattern.
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed issue where the Ball would move from the wrong position if you used Shoot after moving in the same turn.
Enjoy!
Matt
Update 0.18 👹🔪😴 Killer plants and much more
Hey hey Deathballers!
I hope you've been enjoying the new Daily Challenge mode. I'm back this week with some more new deadly dangers to populate the dungeon, and a significant change to the way the Rest ability works.
👹 4 New Monsters
Potted Gob
A man-eating pot plant. It can't move, but its bite packs a real punch. Keep it at arm's reach or simply push their pot away in a condescending manner.
Rooted Gob
Like its potted counterpart, but rooted into the ground so it can't be pushed. This Gob is free to grow larger in the soil, which means it can reach further with its bite. Best avoided.
Hunter Mad Lad
The Hunter variety is a new 'movement behaviour' for your opponents. Monsters with this behaviour will chase after the nearest player. You can identify them by their teal colour instead of the usual green or orange.
Brutolith
A terrifying new super-enemy that shows up in Trial 4. It hunts down players and lunges at them when it gets close. What does the Brutolith look like? You'll have to make it to Trial 4 to find out... but you might not live to tell the tale. 💀
😴 Resting no longer uses up all your AP
NOTE: This change is somewhat experimental, so I welcome your feedback.
When you use the Rest ability you will now only consume 1 AP (instead of all your AP). Several players rightly pointed out that it really sucks to run out of Stamina and be forced to rest on a turn that results in death.
Now, you can Rest using your first action point, then move out of harm's way with your second.
To balance this out, Resting now only replenishes 6 Stamina instead of the full 9, and the Powernap perk has been changed to boost that number instead of granting a free rest as it used to do.
🔪 Spikes
Wuh-oh!
These deadly daggers marks the introduction of traps, something I've wanted to add for a long time. I intend to add several more types of trap, which may eventually be unique to each different Trial. But for now, you'll see spikey death tiles randomly appear in most stages.
Traps do their thing after your player turn, before monsters take their turn. Anything standing on a spike trap in this time will be skewered.
Here's the full list of changes in update 0.18...
🆕 Changes
Added Potted Gob monster.
Added Rooted Gob monster.
Added Brutolith monster.
Added player-chasing monster behaviour for new Hunter Mad Lads.
Resting only uses 1 AP instead of all remaining AP.
Resting only restores 6 stamina instead of fully replenishing it.
Power Nap perk now boosts how much stamina is restored when you rest instead of causing resting to use 1 AP.
Added Floor Spikes traps which can randomly appear in all stages.
Goalies now track the Ball and try to block it from entering the goal.
Goalies health reduced to 3 from 5.
Non-goalie monsters no longer move behind the goal line.
Player help popup now appears instantly instead of animating from left.
Improved dust particles when characters move.
Improved star particles when characters die.
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed AI quirk where Savage monsters would sometimes step away from the Ball if a direct path was blocked.
Fixed issues with Redhorn's charging animation.
In the next update I intend to introduce new systems that will give you more control over how you upgrade your team.
Until then, give me a follow and try out the new version of Dungeon Deathball!
Enjoy!
Matt
Update 0.17 🏆 Daily Challenge Mode & more!
⚠ Save Data Reset
First up, a reminder: your save data will be reset in this update!
This affects your game settings and any mid-game saves you may have left unfinished. This is due to some major changes which have made the old data obsolete. Apologies for any inconvenience this causes! I'll always avoid resetting save data whenever possible but the nature of Early Access makes it inevitable sometimes.
With that out of the way, here's the the good news...
📅 Daily Challenge Mode
It's here!
Compete against other players to be top of the daily leaderboard in a unique set of randomly-generated stages.
To make it fair, everyone gets exactly the same challenges: the stage layout, the enemies you face, the player perks you're given... right down to the tiles your opponents decide to step on to!
Replay Daily Challenge mode as many times as you like to figure out the best path to victory.
Come back tomorrow for a whole new challenge and a fresh leaderboard to dominate.
🥇 Leaderboards
You can now view the the Steam leaderboards in-game! No more switching out to your web browser to view them on the Steam page.
And, of course, you can see your performance in the Daily Challenge here too.
💀 New Trial System
This update brings big changes to how the game's Trials work. Instead of randomly being dealt one enemy and playing through 3 stages heavily populated by that enemy, the stages you face are now much more shuffled. You may now face any combination of enemies in each trial.
Currently, Snaptors and Kappas will appear in Trial 2. Redhorns and Hatcheries populate Trial 3. Trial 4 is a combination of all the above, plus their savage ball-chasing versions. All 4 trials include mixtures of the basic Mad Lad enemy and sometimes Ticks too.
Of course, this enemy list is only going to get bigger before the game is finished so you'll see much more variety throughout your runs.
This change has no doubt impacted the game's difficulty and it will probably need further balancing. However, I'm making an effort now not to get too bogged down in fine-tuning the smaller details constantly and instead focusing on the bigger stuff that needs to be added. Polish can come later! 😀
🔙 Restart Stage
Now you can do it! It's limited to once per stage though, so only use it when absolutely necessary.
🎮 Control Fixes
Several players reported that using a combination of mouse and keyboard to play would cause issues where the cursor would disappear. This has now been addressed. Noice.
❤ Enemy Info Popups
I've also added a shortcut button to view information popups for all enemies. These popups show every enemy's health and the order they will perform their next action (vital information in some situations!).
This is particularly useful when using a gamepad as you were previously unable to view information for enemies unless an attack was possible.
This new shortcut is mapped to the "i" key, or R1/Right Bumper on gamepads. Alternatively, just hover your mouse cursor over the new "Enemy Info" icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
🐤 Tweety Birds
They're here too.
Here's the full list of changes in this update...
🆕 Changes
Added Daily Challenge mode with a new leaderboard every day.
Leaderboards are now visible in-game.
Revised the Trial system and how stages are randomly generated.
Switched to use a Seeded RNG system for reproducible random generation.
Trial intro sequence now shows more enemies.
Added option to Restart Stage once per stage.
Savage Redhorns, Snaptors and Kappas and non-savage Ticks will now appear in some stages.
Tier 3 Strength perk now boosts damage by 3 instead of 4.
Disabled auto-switch to next player when you Pass the ball (this is due to a bug that's difficult to fix but could cause a lock up of the game. I'll try to fix it later!)
Walls no longer spawn near the finish line.
You can now view all enemy info (health & act order) by holding the "i" key or R1/Right Bumper on gamepad, or hovering your mouse cursor over the new "Enemy Info" icon..
Changed enemy health bar popups layout for improved clarity.
Added popup text when stamina is restored or characters are stunned.
Changed stun effects to tweety birds.
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed crash when you pass the ball as the final action of your turn.
Fixed crash that occurred when enemies were targetted by other enemies whilst stunned.
Fixed aggressive Redhorn's attack animation showing the non-aggressive sprite.
Fixed crash when turn par was above 16.
Using keyboard controls will no longer hide the mouse cursor.
'How To Play' screen now shows correct keyboard shortcuts when using mouse & keyboard.
Fixed enemy health bars being too low resolution.
Fixed Windows mouse cursor becoming visible if you Alt+Tab out of the game then back again.
Fixed tier 3 Powerball perk using same icon as tier 2.
I hope you enjoy this big update! It's been a lot of work but I'm really happy with the results.
For future updates I'm planning to expand the ways you can level up your players, and having another look at the way the scoring system works.
Now dive into that Daily Challenge and show the world how good you really are!
Matt
❌ Notice: Save Data will be reset in next update
This is a quick warning to let you know that the next update to Dungeon Deathball will contain significant changes to the structure of the game data.
Unfortunately this means existing save data will no longer be compatible.
Right now, the only data that gets saved is:
your mid-session progress (i.e. when you select "Save & Quit" in the middle of a game).
your settings (volume levels, disabling pop-ups)
Therefore, now would be a good time to finish any games you have in progress.
I expect the new update to arrive some time in the next week. It's hard to say for certain right now.
Why am I making these big changes?
I want to add a Daily Challenge mode to Dungeon Deathball. However, at the moment the game is using a bit of a scrappy 'generate-on-the-fly' system. I am replacing it with a seeded system which allows deterministic procedural generation, which will allow a Daily Challenge runs which are the same for everyone.
Along with this, I'm rolling out some high level changes to the structure of the game. I'm moving away from the 'Trials' format with a new enemy per trial and going for more a mixture of different enemy types.
Both of these changes will come in the next update, 0.17. Stay tuned!
And remember to finish your unfinished runs. 😉
Update 0.16.1
🆕 Changes
Maximum number of Walls spawned on Small stages reduced to 2 (from 3).
Player input is enabled sooner (i.e. less waiting before you can input the next action).
Keybind for 'Confirm Action' changed to Spacebar.
Keybind for 'Rest' changed to R.
Keybind for 'Pass Ball' changed to T.
Keybind for 'Shoot Ball' changed to Y.
Enabled VSync by default. (An option to disable it may be added in a future update. Please let me know if this is important to you!)
The par countdown board now says "Over Par" instead of "No Par".
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed crash when you push an enemy in such a way that it would intend to attack outside the field grid on its next turn (this only affected attacks, not movement).
Fixed camera becoming stuck zoomed in if you used the Shoot command then the ball lands on another human player.
Fixed players spending an additional Stamina point when they step on to the ball's tile.
Fixed application running in the background (and therefore receiving keyboard input).
Fixed ball becoming the wrong scale after being shot.
Possible fix for crash after enemy is hit and stunned by another enemy (Unconfirmed, hard to reproduce. Please let me know if you experience this!).
Update 0.16 🧱💇♂️
New Backgrounds
This week's update brings some much-needed improvements to the dungeon backgrounds. Check out the latest images to see how it looks.
You'll find backgrounds in...
3 different sizes (to match the stage sizes)
4 different colour palettes (as you progress through the 4 trials)
More variation to be added in future updates.
Rocks
A video game wouldn't be a video game without ROCKS, am I right??
You'll find these new obstacles scattered around every stage. They obstruct movement and attacks, but they can be pushed around like any other object in Dungeon Deathball and they're break if you punch them enough times (side note: I do not recommend punching rocks in real life).
This adds some small variation to each stage and gives you new options for intercepting enemy attacks. See what new tactics you can devise using them!
🆕 Changes
Here's the full list of changes in this update.
Added new background art.
Added Wall obstacles. They can be attacked, pushed and destroyed like regular characters.
Added several new hairstyles for more character variation.
Enemies who have no actions queued are now skipped during the enemy turn (to make it quicker).
When you pass the ball, your control will automatically switch to the recipient (provided they have Action Points).
Camera during player input phase is now an overhead view that covers the whole field.
Camera during enemy attacks now points down-field to mirror player attack camera.
Changed 'stage intro' camera angle.
🐛 Bug Fixes
Snaptors no longer take a step backwards if their movement is fully obstructed.
Development Livestreams
Also! Did you know I've been livestreaming development again recently? There have been two streams already this month! (1)(2)
Want to catch my livestreams when they happen? ✅ Subscribe to my YouTube channel 🔔 Turn on Notifications
That's all for this update! I hope you enjoy the new changes. 🙂 Same time next week?
Matt
Price Increasing Soon
Hi folks.
This is a quick update to let you know that the price of Dungeon Deathball will be increasing soon. I just wanted to give you a heads up before this happens so you can get it at the current, lower price if you wish.
New Price
The new price will be: $9.99 / €8.49 / £7.99 (pending Valve's approval).
Why?
I've thought long and hard about this, and ultimately decided than an increase in price as I head towards full release is the right decision. I don't take it lightly and I'm not doing it as some kind of quick money-grabbing tactic. I'm in this for the long haul.
To be completely honest, I originally opted for a low price because I wasn't particularly confident in my ability to deliver a game that justified any higher. I didn't want people to feel ripped off.
However, that was over 2 years ago. Now, I'm feeling much more confident in my own abilities having released 3 finished games on Steam.
Of course, I still don't want you to feel ripped off. I know we're all going through difficult times at the moment, and the last thing I want is for you to feel like you wasted your hard-earned money.
Therefore, I intend to expand the game so it will be larger and more polished than what I originally envisaged. This means more variation, more monsters, more modes and more ways to upgrade your players. And - if you've been following recent updates - you will hopefully agree that the overall quality is improving every week.
I hope you understand this decision and continue to enjoy Dungeon Deathball's updates leading up to version 1.0. It's been a bumpy ride at times but I'm truly optimistic about what's coming next.
Thank you.
Matt
P.S. Stay tuned for update 0.16 (coming this week).
Update 0.15 🐊🐢 Two new monsters!
As promised, this update adds not one but TWO new monsters to the dungeon...
🐊 Snaptors
A fearsome new monster and star of the new Talon Trials. Snaptors can move up to 2 tiles in a row per turn, and if anything gets in their way they'll chomp it to bits. Beware their toothy maws!
🐢 Kappas
A deadly swamp creature which features in the new Cucumber Trials. The Kappa roams the field with an armour-piercing spear, which it will use to impale friend and foe alike at a range of 2 tiles.
👊 Change to 'avoided attacks' behaviour
One consequence of introducing the Snaptor's 2-tile movement: it's very difficult to retreat away from their attacks. They would easily follow you and kill you in the next turn, even if you backed away.
I felt that this was a little too punishing, and it got me thinking about the game-wide behaviour for all enemies in this situation. It's quite easy to get stuck in a death-loop of retreating and burning your stamina until you die. So I decided to try out a change to enemy attacks when you avoid them.
Now, enemies who try to attack an empty tile won't automatically move instead. They will now perform a 'missed attack' and remain where they stand.
(An exception to this behaviour is the Redhorn, whose charge attack causes them to move anyway.)
This does remove some certain opportunities for luring enemies into hitting each other, but it also opens up several new ways. Overall I don't think it's a bad change but it does require you to adapt your tactics. Have a play and let me know what you think!
One last note on this subject: I changed the enemy intention markers so they now distinguish between an 'obstructed move which will result in an attack' and a genuine 'intended attack'. The graphics used here may change in the future to clarify the difference.
🎥 Less erratic camera during enemy turn
Several players have complained that the camera zips around rapidly during the enemy turn, as it focuses closely on each single enemy as they perform their actions. This updates adds a more distant, static camera which loosely follows the entire field. It will still zoom in to highlight attacks, but the general feel is hopefully less dizzying. 😵
🆕 Changes
Here's the full list of changes in this update.
New monster: the Snaptor, star of the the Talon Trials.
New monster: the Kappa, star of the Cucumber Trials.
Enemies who try to attack an empty tile will no longer automatically move instead. They will now perform a 'missed attack' and remain where they stand.
Enemy intention markers now distinguish between an 'obstructed move which will result in an attack', and an intended attack.
Enemies now have a 'Move Range' stat which is displayed in their info popup.
All characters who attack adjacent tiles now have an 'Attack Range' stat which is displayed in their info popup.
Camera during enemy turn is now fixed in one static position instead of snapping to each enemy in turn (except when enemies attack).
A marker now appears under each enemy as they act to draw your attention.
Character idle animations no longer flip left and right but squash instead.
Characters now face their direction of movement, attack, and next intended action.
Damage values no longer show a minus symbol prefix.
Attacks can now stun enemies for more than 1 turn.
"Knockout" perk is now called "KO" (to avoid confusing it with "Knockback" perk).
KO perk can now be upgraded (up to level 4), increasing the amount of time that enemies are stunned by your attacks.
🐛 Bug Fixes
Enemies who try to step outside the level no longer take a step backwards.
The camera now waits for attacks to finish before moving on to the next action in a queue.
I hope you enjoy this update! Let me know what you think in the comments, a review, or on Discord.
Remember to follow me on Steam, and follow the game or add it to your wishlist for more updates.
Enjoy!
Matt
Update 0.14.2
This new update brings some nice visual polish in the form of animation, plus several important bug fixes.
Code rewrite
But the bulk of the work has gone into a complete overhaul of some systems that control just about every action in the game. The truth is I wrote all the game's code over 2 years ago and I was still fairly new to programming at the time. I've made twomore games in that time, and I've learned a lot about how to write better code. Code that's not spaghetti. Code that won't leave me stumped when I'm trying to add new things. Code that's won't baffle me when I'm debugging problems.
So while this update isn't jam packed with new features, it does bring some important changes that will make it much easier for me to add new stuff in the future.
One thing to note is that the major code changes here have resulted in some timing differences when it comes to all the player actions. You may notice the game generally 'feels different'. Some actions may be faster, others slower, or delays between actions may have changed. I'll be tightening this up in future updates, and also adding controls for changing the game speed to your liking. Let me know if you have any specific issues.
Animation
I've added a little animation to all the character movements. Now every time a character moves to a tile they actually animate from point A to B, rather than popping there instantaneously. I've tried to keep it quick and snappy as it was before, but with a little more of a sense of motion. Being knocked back by attacks is now animated too, with a slow grind to a halt.
More player names
You may be aware that your players have a randomly-chosen name. There was a pretty small list of names in the game (30 male, 30 female) which meant you'd often see the same names pop up repeatedly if you played the game a lot. I've now added 90 more names for each gender, bringing the grand total up to 240 names.
🆕 Changes
Here's the full list of changes in this update.
Rewrote action queue system code.
Implemented new audio system.
Added 90 new male names and 90 new female names.
Character movement is now animated.
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed crash caused when you preview Shoot command when the ball would land on the same tile as another human player.
Fixed crash caused when an enemy was knocked into another enemy's attack after it was stunned then recovered in the same turn.
Fixed inconsistency in stun duration (it was counting down a turn too fast if an enemy was stunned before performing their action).
Fixed Stamina gauge showing animation with orange text when you hover mouse over player info panels.
Keep your eyes peeled for new enemies entering the arena soon!
Remember to follow me on Steam, and follow the game or add it to your wishlist for more updates.
