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[Gradir]

A little bit of self-advertising from me:
I just released (free!) first-person dwarven dungeon crawler I'm developing in Unity after hours for some time now (7 years to be precise...)
I'm posting regular updates on Discord.
Warning! Despite placeholder assets, the game requires good GPU and I didn't yet add proper graphic options


Closed beta on Steam ongoing, visit Discord to get beta keys!

Discord: https://discord.gg/A2aDA9N3p3

[n9103]

1.25GB?! Holy wow, Urist!
Giving it a shot.

Alright, first impressions, and they're kinda short:
(Win7 x64. High-spec ca. 2012, zero hitches as far as machine specs go, afaik)
Lighting is a bit too dim, and camera is a bit too tall/monsters are a bit too short. Easy not to notice that you're about to be in combat.
Monsters (only ran into tiny spiders) are WAY too strong for a starting mob, as they two or three-hit my dwarf in the time it takes to swing more than twice, or charge up a single hit.
Can't seem to try again on same name on same instance (i.e. have to force close and re-launch after starting again if using same name, or blank name).
Would advise against using character names as the unique DB key for highscores, and probably best to avoid high-score tracking period until game is at least more balanced.

[Gradir]

Thanks for the feedback!
Yea the starting mobs are way too strong, I'm on it
Not sure what you mean with database and stuff, character name isn't being taken as an ID,
it's just that saves are not propely finished yet (but I'm close!) - only one save instance is possible right now

[Gradir]

Released an update with save and load panels (you can now have multiple saves!) and also tweaked starting creatures drastically
https://gradir.itch.io/underneath-dwarven-artifacts/devlog/469361/underneath-051-released

[Ghazkull]

Cheerio,

First of all thanks for releasing this for free!
Its a great game idea overall and i enjoy the premise.

Okay on to the bug hunting and balancing problems:
1.RNJesus seems to oftentimes spawn mushrooms and plants into walls.
2.When you die and restart the game freezes on the loading screen. You have to restart the game entirely to start a new game
3. Random bug when returning to a floor: game enters an endless loading cycle, the prompts switch too fast for me to read but it loads for several minutes then drops me in the main menu.
4. Butchering doesnt seem to work...or has such low probability of success that ive never seen it succeed.

Thats all i found so far. Resource drops and enemy spawns seem to be heavily RNGed and might vary from 1 spider and like 10 different ingredients and just a host of creatures and nothing to loot.


Edit: Bug number 3 softlocked me out of the game had to delete the saves.

[Gradir]

Nice bug hunting Ghazkull! Thanks!
I'm on it!

[Gradir]

I've uploaded version 0.5.2
now with textured rocks in caves!

[Gradir]

build version 0.5.3:
• added textured mushrooms and mineable gems
• added sheathe / unsheathe weapon (under **R **key)
• added textured wooden stairs model
• added clan and starting gear options to character creation panel
• added story panel on beginning of the game
• smaller thin stalactites
• blood shows on corpses now
• even more save/load fixes
• music & sfx volume sliders in options
• snapping stuff to other stuff

[Gradir]

Hey guys, just released a new version, now with auto-updater!
https://gradir.itch.io/underneath-dwarven-artifacts

Also changed:

• Loot generating by skeletons in caves
• Furniture have less hp
• Added mining skill
• Clicking now unsheathes weapon
• More save/load fixes
• Dungeon generation tweak
• More gold in containers
• Trader offers better prices for now

[Kagus]

Downloaded this earlier, and have really been trying to give it a go but... Man, this really does not want to be played for some reason.

Of my six or so runs now, one found no equipment or food (save for one handful of peanuts and one minor meat, maybe guts) before getting surrounded and ganked on the fourth level. Every other attempt has ended in level generation loops/freezes that lock the game and need to be alt-F4'd out of.

One even managed to fall endlessly into the void, because I thought "report back to Ahrnsbrak" meant going beyond the little stove sitting there, and I slid down some of the interesting cavern generation there and out of the map while trying to get back once I realized I couldn't actually enter the fortress.

[Gradir]

Hey Kagus, thanks for the feedback!
Make sure to download the newest version from Itch (now it has an auto-updater, so running it will check if there is a new version, download and unzip and start the game)
There is loads of mushrooms and lichens in the caves now, so food shouldn't be an issue.
The global map is badly generated and you can sometimes find a passage to very dangerous levels early on ( when hovering on a ladder it should display the depth - deeper = stronger enemies, but better loot)
The Ahrnsbrak Fortress is not generated, it's just a huge work in progress. I should've added some colliders or just make it a room with a trader really

Anyways, solo game dev is a tough

[Kagus]

0.5.3b, right? Yeah, that's the version I was working with. I'd downloaded it the day before posting.

I did however try out the auto-updater, so I can attest that the updater is in the wrong place It's currently checking (and installing to) its own directory, which doesn't have the necessary config.txt (which is in the parent directory).

And while hovering over an exit does provide information about the next level, that information is somewhat moot if it's the only exit on that level. Your options are to either stay on the empty level you're on and inevitably starve, or go down deeper to where there might be something to eat. I've even had it generate a couple times without a ladder going up back to Ahrnsbrak, the *only* option was one down ladder. Also I have never at any point found anything edible growing naturally in the caves, everything has been dropped from monsters or containers. Is it just very, very difficult to see?


Just did a couple more attempts, and first one immediately hit a generation loop and cycled for a while before finally crashing back to main menu. It's difficult to tell, but it seems to be hanging on "Placing exit models" (47%) or whatever that message is... Again, a little difficult to see exactly what it's hanging on when the text loops and cycles as rapidly as it does.

Second one got all the way to "Loading" (98%) before locking in a bizarre state where it never completed the loading screen/animation, but hitting Esc would bring up the little sword cursor as though I was ingame and had opened the menu. It didn't break out of the loop itself though, and I couldn't seem to do anything, so I had to alt-F4 again.

Third time was actually a pretty decent run! Found a hatchet early on, found the gobbos who didn't care about me, reported back, came back down to smack the now singular gobbo, went down another level, found a better axe, and since I'd just discovered that spiders and bats respawn when going back and forth between levels I attempted to farm some (although none had provided any ingredients yet that run, I was hopeful), until transitioning between two previously-explored levels encountered the samel "Placing exit models" hang and it eventually crashed back to menu.

[Gradir]

Oh man it was a long time since last build!
• I've switched to Unity version 2022.2
• I've switched to Rider and cleaned all the code
• I've reworked dungeon generation and it's looking good. The rooms and corridors are more logically connected, and there should be way less ramps/stairs to one tile and then down again.
• Passages to other levels are replaced by special rooms now instead of objects placed randomly on the map.
• Mushrooms etc fixes, snapping works better
• Audio system had a bit of a rework
• Minimap was changed to UI element (it was rendered straight to screen from a camera), allowing for more fancy things in the future (markers for example)
• Minimap visuals were tweaked, cave maps are looking less blocky now
• I've added gatherable bugs running around. One day they will crawl along other crawlers (spiders for example) on walls and ceilings too
• Post-processing was tweaked so everything looks a bit nicer now
• Added some volumetric fog with procedural material on the bottom level
• Lots of bugfixes and tweaks
• More gold the deeper you go
• Trader has more gold the more experienced you get

From major things I'll be working on next:
• Inventory total rework (diablo-style grid, item stacking, backpacks and containers)
• Cooking rework (ability to process one item into cooked one, cooking will take a little time, cooking pot items)
• Quality system for items (gatherable mainly) and you will always gather something, just low quality
• More traders
• Procedural quests


@Kagus
Thanks for detailed feedback!
I've fixed some of the things you mentioned. The generation still has some flaws I'm aware of (there is sometimes a wall where it shouldn't be and it could prevent accessing passage to the next level. It should be fixed in the next update. But there should be plenty of food now in the caves. Fixed the updater too. Thanks!

[n9103]

• More gold the deeper you go

If only all games were like that 

[Gradir]

Version 0.5.4c
• Added diablo-style inventory grid!
• Added inventory sorting and more space in player inventory
• Added two more traders (food and general) and tweaked "fortress" location a bit
• Added butchering trainer
• Some gatherable stuff balancing
• Small change to notifications and popups
• Some bugfixes

Still many bugs to kill. Full list @ Discord Channel https://discord.gg/A2aDA9N3p3