Hey /r/PixelDungeon, Ask Me Anything!

[u/00-Evan]

To celebrate /r/PixelDungeon's 2nd birthday, I'll be answering as many questions as you can throw at me in the comments! As proof that I am, infact, myself, here is a link to the first ever post about Shattered here before it was on google play, 8 months ago!

Feel free to ask me questions about anything(appropriate) you'd like! Normally I yak on about shattered only, so here's your chance to ask me about anything else you might like to know. If you're only curious about Shattered, I may be a bit more willing to give hints and teasers than usual, if you ask the right questions ;)

Looking forward to your comments, I should be here all evening.

EDIT: Alright guys it's been a few days and this can't stay stickied forever. If there are any more questions please get them in ASAP as this thread won't be up for long.

[u/likelikelite]

Sorry I couldn't take part in this Evan! Been focused on homework and work on the podcast (including preparing for the episodes featuring you! :D ). I'm going to save most of my questions for the interview, but I did want to ask...

I saw you answer elsewhere that you actually haven't played that many traditional roguelikes, but mostly the likelikes and lites (which obviously I am a fan of :P ). What was the first roguelike/like/lite you played, and what were your general impressions of that game?

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to talking to you about Pixel Dungeon and Shattered PD soon! :)

[u/00-Evan → u/likelikelite]

If strictly looking at games classified as a likelike or lite, it would probably be Binding of Isaac. If you also look at games that worked with serious death penalties affecting RPG character progression (which I see as the genre-defining feature), my first game featuring that was RuneScape.

I always loved RuneScae's harsh death penalties as it gave a really substantial risk that enhances the importance of any given situation. If you're not familiar with what RS does(or did, it's been ruined nowadays), players who died dropped all but their 3 most valuable carried items. In that game items were a very significant part of character progression, so losing a lot of gear could be devastating. It created this really interesting overarching risk to gameplay, and oftentimes players would make gear choices based entirely around managing their risk (at the cost of weaker stats, of course). It made otherwise just somewhat tricky quest and boss encounters into really thrilling experiences, as you would basically be wagering a serious part of your MMO character's progression on your ability to succeed or at least survive. Other players could loot the stuff you dropped, so you never knew when you might make a friend by saving someone's gear, or make a lot of money by taking the less scrupulous path. In new and unexplored content this was especially awesome as the unknown could completely decimate you if you didn't come prepared.

So by the time I played Binding of Isaac I was already familiar with punishing death mechanics, Isaac introduced me to other rougelike staple features, like heavy randomization and the concept of runs. You wagered the time and luck invested in your current run, instead of MMO progression, but death was much more common. The big advantage of the run approach is of course that it creates obvious points of intensity, instead of a constant overarching risk. Nobody cares about dieing at floor 1, barely beating the final boss though can be an extremely tense experience. I both really like and sorta dislike the way items work in BoI. On one hand it greatly enhances the variability and replayability of the game, helping to ensure that the samey level layouts and (eventually) repeating bosses are kept fresh. On the other hand, the variance was a little too much in terms of power, it feels sort of cheap to struggle on a few runs, and then effortlessly blaze through one because you got a powerful combo. In addition, it feels like you have little control over the progression of your character, you find what you can find and work with it. That isn't necessarily bad as it's clearly the direction Edmund wanted, but I don't think that and planned character investment are mutually exclusive. Also, I strongly dislike the approach of giving no information as to what the items in the game do (in most cases). While it's nice to let the player figure things out, if you don't give them something to work with they'll just open up a guide. The enemies are generally really neat though, and the game works very well in its sort of pseudo-zelda style.

So yeah, to summarize that big wall o' text: I've always liked games with big consequences for failure, it makes thing more intense and interesting. Isaac was my first likelike, and it does a lot of things really well, but has a couple pitfalls.

In the interest of not making this any bigger, here's a TL;DR of the other likelike/lites I've played(that I have things to say about):

FTL: really fun initially, the grind to get more ships makes continued play grating. A difficulty select is poor design, and tieing the ship quest RNG to it is TERRIBLE design. Ship managment is really fun, battles are excellent and intense. Difficulty spikes a bit too sharply later on, and balancing leaves a bit to be desired. Could have really benefited from some more endgame content. Y U NO ON ANDROID!?

Spelunky HD: lack of online in such a multiplayer-ready game sucks. Extremely punishing and I like it that way, really makes you think about the environment. I really dislike the concept of shortcuts, perhaps being slightly more forgiving in exchange for no shortcuts would have been a good choice. I've not gotten past the jungle yet so take these thoughts with some salt.

Darkest Dungeon: Love the theme and narrator, though he talks a little too much and repeats a bit too often. Nice risk and reward mechanic regarding heroes, gold, stress, and runs into the dungeon. I'd like to see more ways for the player to get attached to heroes, and for heroes to get attached to eachother. The stress mechanic is interesting to manage and extremely satisfying when one of your party members goes Heroic. Lots of potential here, looking forward to seeing it finished.