Shattered Pixel Dungeon is an open-source traditional roguelike dungeon crawler

https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon

by notamy • 2 years ago

747 228 2 years ago

github.com

JoshTriplett• 2 years ago

Highly recommended. It's a fork of the original Pixel Dungeon, and quite a bit more fun than the original.

Borealid• 2 years ago

I'm not really sure what this is doing on Hacker News, but the game (Shattered Pixel Dungeon) is fun.

One of the nicest features is that whenever you observe an effect that unambiguously tells you what a potion/scroll does - such as throwing a potion - that type of object is automatically identified for you. In more "traditional" hack games you'd have to write notes yourself even though obviously a thrown potion exploding into fire means it's a potion of liquid fire, right?

Shattered Pixel is a good way to kill some time on public transit or similar.

ToValueFunfetti• 2 years ago

Nethack identifies objects once you've observed their effect as well

Pwntheon• 2 years ago

Only in the most obvious of cases. Your cat reluctantly steps on an item? Cursed. Grey stone moved less than X tiles when kicked? Loadstone. Hundreds of these.

schoen2• 2 years ago

Some, but not all. For example, "Call a white potion:" or "Call a scroll labeled VE FORBRYDERNE:" prompts. These often appear after observing an effect where an experienced player or one consulting spoilers knows what the potion or scroll must be, but the game didn't auto-ID it.

notamy2• 2 years ago

I'm not really sure what this is doing on Hacker News

Incredibly fun game, open source, and in a genre that likely fits well into many HN users' interests. I rediscovered it recently and remembered it was open source, so why not submit it?

DrSiemer• 2 years ago

The title should include a [year], to save people like me from needing to check if anything significant changed in the game that made me miss half of a trip to Thailand in 2014.

mattbrewsbytes• 2 years ago

Thanks for submitting it, I have never heard of it. Maybe because I exist in the iOS "walled garden" and generally game on console only.

Do you know what game engine its based on? Or is it a custom thing?

SkyBelow• 2 years ago

I think the open source part is the main justification. Getting kids into tech and programming seems a HN sort of article, and an open source game is one way of doing it. Much more advanced than the entry level things like Scratch Jr. and not nearly as wide spread an audience, but a great step around the high school level for the few who wants to get deeper without committing to some formal education.

klik992• 2 years ago

I saw this post and immediately thought “there’s probably a lot of potential trad roguelike fans on hacker news”, for one thing it’s probably the genre with highest percentage of fans are devs or have dabbled into game dev.

SPD is a good gateway to brogue, DCSS, cogmind, qud, etc

aireo3• 2 years ago

I’ve already mentioned Cogmind, but Brogue is a beautiful game with tight gameplay. Another great recommendation.

II2II• 2 years ago

The fun part is trying to identify certain items before actually using them. (The guesses won't always be perfect, but you can greatly improve your odds.)

jasonjmcghee• 2 years ago

Game dev is historically pretty popular on hn.

uaserussia• 2 years ago

Skyrim had that mechanic. You could eat ingredients for potions and if you had a duplicate it would tell you the effects, and the next time you found the ingredient again you would know what it was.

zelphirkalt• 2 years ago

Good that they also have potions, so that no poison in the world is strong enough to kill you in Skyrim (or is there one?)

mminer237• 2 years ago

Don't Nethack and DCSS do that as well?

schoen2• 2 years ago

DCSS does; NetHack sometimes does but there are very many cases in which you observe some effect and are then asked "Call a milky potion:" or "Call a scroll labeled ANDOVA BEGARIN:".

mock-possum• 2 years ago

I can also recommend POWDER as a solid not-many-frills classic roguelite.

lupusreal6• 2 years ago

It would be nice if you could manually identity items though; sometimes the context you get a potion from tells you what the potion is but you have to remember that until you use it. Using the stones of intuition for this kind of seems wasteful.

axus• 2 years ago

It's reminding me I need to rebuild my very-slightly-modified version to keep my Google Play developer account active!

Shattered Pixel encourages variants and branches, though sometimes Google tries to block the blatant clones that want to publish on Google Play, even though the license and developers want that outcome.

On the other thread of "brutally punishing", there is the "Too Cruel" variant of an earlier version of Shattered for those of us who need more difficulty. PD is more like a long game of chess than a dungeon crawler.

whalabi• 2 years ago

I was aware of Pixel dungeon but didn't realize it was available on PC, Mac, and iOS.

Particularly impressed that it builds for iOS when written in Java - turns out the game is built on libgdx which builds for all these platforms.

Also, it's fun if you like roguelikes.

bilekas• 2 years ago

This is cool, I love a good roguelike especially on my phone for flights and other time sinks.

I am curious though, why is the iOS version €4.99 but the Android version is free ? I've seen this a lot actually and have always wondered, I figured it might just be Apple's annual developer license fee but not sure.

sphars2• 2 years ago

Yep that's exactly the reason, plus not wanting to compete with Pixel Dungeon. The developer talked about it when first announcing it was coming to iOS

Shattered Pixel Dungeon will cost $5 US when it fully releases on the App Store. I’m charging because of a mix of Apple’s higher platform fees, not wanting to undercut Pixel Dungeon, and because Shattered is releasing in a much more finished state.

https://shatteredpixel.com/blog/shattered-pixel-dungeon-is-c...

chongli4• 2 years ago

I’m on iOS and I paid for it without hesitation. Evan deserves it, just read his blog for the game [1] to see how much he puts into it!

[1] https://shatteredpixel.com/blog/

awelxtr• 2 years ago

I guess it is the same reason Anki isn't free either on iOS: you must pay Apple's dev account whether you make a profit or not

grodriguez1002• 2 years ago

And also because historically iPhone users have been more inclined to pay for apps than Android users.

truth5656774• 2 years ago

Can’t shake the thought that this is mostly caused by Apple not allowing easy side installs. Android making it easy to just install a custom app but not on iOS so basically the developer is (ab)using to let iOS users pony up install money.

Biganon• 2 years ago

Last time I checked, having an app on the Android app store costs $14 a year, vs $99 a year on the Apple app store

tecleandor• 2 years ago

Isn't it that the Google Play store is a one-time $25 registration fee (and never again) but the Apple App store is $99 every year?

Townley2• 2 years ago

Excellent game, I lost an embarrassing amount of time last year getting all of the badges.

The mobile versions are great because they’re ad-free, and work without internet access when on airplanes. And since it’s turn-based, it’s very interruption-friendly. The Reddit community is also a lot of fun: equal mix of strategy and memes.

boothby• 2 years ago

All of them? I gave up on that goal partway through the pandemic; I spent about a year's worth of occasional games without seeing Tengu and eventually accepted that I wasn't interested enough to get that 6-challenge badge.

Strategy on Reddit, you say? Perhaps that could help. But, perhaps it's better if I don't spelunk that particular rabbithole.

Townley2• 2 years ago

For the last badge, it wasn't masterful strategy: I played until I got lucky with an overpowered Ring of Wealth run, and farmed the dwarven floors for like 3 days before breezing through the demon halls and ascending. That one and only six challenge run landed with 1,050,700 points, which was just enough to get the final "Over 1 million points" badge.

That was the last round I played, almost a year ago. I consider myself free from the game now, but look back on it fondly :)

PlunderBunny• 2 years ago

I love roguelike games (still miss you 100 Rogues), and I played Shattered Pixel Dungeon 77 times before finally winning with a Rogue class. Once I'd done that, I never had the urge to play it again.

rjmill2• 2 years ago

Well, there goes the rest of the week. I don't install games on my phone, but I always give SPD a pass because open source. The first time I installed it, I almost lost an internship because I was too focused on the game. The most recent time I installed it, my wife thought I was cheating on her because I was acting so shady and obsessive about my phone. Don't say I didn't warn y'all.

Quiark2• 2 years ago

If you only play open source mobile games and are afraid of wasting your time, make sure you avoid the factory tower defense game Mindustry which presents itself at https://mindustrygame.github.io/

_kwef• 2 years ago

Was on my way to suggest this game to avoid, which is also available for free on desktop.

rjmill2• 2 years ago

Oh no, it's on f-droid, my hands are tied! I'll have to ahem contribute my free time to this important open source library.

epiccoleman• 2 years ago

Honestly though, Mindustry is so much better with keyboard/mouse controls. It's a shockingly good mobile factory/automation type game, but I'd just rather play it on PC. (Or Mac, which runs it fine)

pjmlp3• 2 years ago

I have tried multiple times to play Mindustry, but always end giving up, it doesn't seem that well tested on touch screens.

On one of my phones it doesn't even render whole the items on the screen, making some actions unselectable.

ComodoHacker2• 2 years ago

And if you play on PC, also avoid Tales of Maj'Eyal (https://te4.org/), because of its depth and almost infinite replayability.

ativzzz2• 2 years ago

Couldn't play it on mobile. The UI just did not feel mobile friendly at all

Fnoord• 2 years ago

How does it compare to They Are Billions [1]?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Are_Billions

ronyeh• 2 years ago

They should put this review on their repo README. It’s making me want to play it. But it’s also making me scared to play it.

jcul• 2 years ago

I don't play any computer games these days and haven't since I was a kid.

But I can confirm that pixel dungeon is an exception, I have lost many hours to it, but it has been years since I've played it.

IIRC shattered is a fork with slightly different game play.

I do love rogue like games.

suprjami3• 2 years ago

Make sure you don't install Caves then, it's even better.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=thirty.six.dev...

sspiff4• 2 years ago

Contains ads, hard pass.

katzenversteher2• 2 years ago

I had the same issue and my solution was: I modified the code of the game to add cheats (make my character super durable), compiled it myself and loaded the apk onto my phone. Then I finally finished the game and my addiction ended.

vector_rotcev• 2 years ago

I like this. Both for the astute problem identification and the self-empowered solution.

lupusreal6• 2 years ago

I just play as an archer/warden. It's a pretty easy class, I can beat the game maybe one in five times. Once you get the nature footwear artifact you've as good as won, and if you get a blooming weapon then it's a cakewalk.

brightball• 2 years ago

Well, that's a pretty solid endorsement.

I never tried World of Warcraft years ago until that South Park episode came out. Currently about the only games I still play on my phone are chess and Plants vs Zombies 2, which for some reason has had me hooked since the very first one came out. Luckily, my wife likes it too.

haloboy777• 2 years ago

I can confirm everything he's saying.

Spellman• 2 years ago

Free Open Source???

Unciv

https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv

raffraffraff• 2 years ago

I spent way too much time playing xonotic

KirinDave• 2 years ago

If you like these kinds of games but find SPD to be a little too mechanically simple and lacking in build diversity, you may also enjoy DCSS (dungeon crawl stone soup) and my personal favorite: Frogcomposband.

You can play the later at angband.live, and it's an exceptional game with incredible depth and variety.

AtlasBarfed• 2 years ago

And BTW, if I can figure out how to do Eclipse CDT and get the source code running in an IDE, so that I can do LOTS of fun things with class skills, you can to! Because the last time I did C/C++ was 1998.

Also, Remnants of the Precursors (java) you can do some fun things. I got "doomstars" half-implemented, a race skill that marks planets with resources or artifacts (archaeology bonus), and lots of other fun things.

I really like open source games, half the fun is hacking them.

I have yet to download nethack from the net and hack it though.

Al-Khwarizmi• 2 years ago

I agree about SPD. While it's great for a mobile game and looks gorgeous, I find the gameplay somewhat shallow for a roguelike.

If I have a monitor and keyboard at hand, I prefer to play the likes of ADOM (classic version, not Ultimate), Brogue, Legerdemain, Sil, DCSS, etc. which offer more depth, strategic complexity and meaningful choices, IMHO.

Haven't tried the frog one, will do at some point.

plagiarist3• 2 years ago

There was a Nintendo DS port of Stone Soup that I really loved. Had some great times provoking monsters into fighting each other while I hid in the shadows.

johnsillings• 2 years ago

This looks sick. Can't wait to try!

codetrotter2• 2 years ago

So after reading the positive comments here I went ahead and bought a copy for iPhone in the App Store.

I was hoping that it supports controllers, as i recently bought a pretty neat controller that you plug the phone into the middle of, and you get buttons and thumb sticks on each side of the screen. Kind of similar to the joycons you have with a Nintendo Switch. This controller is PlayStation branded, but produced by a different company that has licensed the right to brand the controller that way.

Anyway, I am happy to report that yes indeed this game works with my controller. Left thumb stick moves the character around, and right thumb sticks moves a sort of aiming square around!

Edit: the pointer sensitivity was a bit high for me, but it is adjustable in the game settings and after adjusting it it is comfortable

nihilist_t21• 2 years ago

Backbone One? I recently got the non-PlayStation branded one for my iPhone and I love it. I had been wanting one for a while, and finally jumped when they released the Gen 2 version with swappable mounts to support cases.

It’s been fantastic for playing SNES games on mobile. I can’t recommend it enough. Only downside would be the included app is hot trash. Always tries to sell you some subscription. Luckily, I haven’t found the need to ever use the app.

codetrotter2• 2 years ago

Yep, Backbone One.

I was waiting a bit too, because it’s not exactly cheap.

Eventually I found one that was brand new that someone was selling second hand because they had bought the wrong version. They had the latest iPhone which has a USB-C port, but they had bought the Backbone One with lightning connector. I have a slightly older model. The iPhone 14 Pro. So mine has lightning connector. He got most of his money back that way, and I got a discount compared to buying one in the store. Everybody wins :)

Anyway yeah, I’ve been enjoying mine too. I’ve mostly been using it with Nvidia Now or what it’s called. Via the Backbone app. This way I can play some of the games I have in my Steam account on a computer in the cloud using my phone and my Backbone One. I only play at home on WiFi, and I’m on the free plan so I have to wait in a queue and each play session lasts 1 hour and then I have to start a new session. Been re-playing one of the modern Tomb Raider games this way and have been quite enjoying it so far.

jeffhuys• 2 years ago

Oh I know those! I had one for the iPhone 6s, but now my 12 Pro is obviously bigger, so it doesn't fit.

So, I 3D-printed one of those holders that holds an XBox controller and your phone above it. A bit heavy, but works perfectly for all controller-enabled games! And worthy of mention, Geforce Now also works! So I'm "PC-gaming" from my bed with this, and all for "free" (if you don't count the cost of the plastic, phone, or controller lol).

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2553522

demondemidi• 2 years ago

Ohhhh this is perfect. I hit the wall with BG3 because it got mind numbing by the end of Act 2, so I totally needed something fast and easy.

NICE.

(Desktop)

Loughla3• 2 years ago

Got most of the way through act 3 and uninstalled bg3. I like that game, but just didn't feel compelled to complete it. At that point, it has been so long since the characters leveled up that gameplay was just sort of repetitive. There weren't really any new tactics to learn and employ.

The level cap killed that game for me, it turns out.

IgorPartola• 2 years ago

So I used to play Pixel Dungeon and then saw a bunch of clones that looked like it. Is Shattered Pixel Dungeon the original project or a clone of a closed source game? Or completely unrelated?

romanows• 2 years ago

"It's based on the source code of Pixel Dungeon, by Watabou." I also played the original Pixel Dungeon, great game and bonus points for being free and open source!

davewasthere• 2 years ago

original creator: https://twitter.com/watawatabou

Was always free... now people have gone to town with the source code.

blacksmith_tb• 2 years ago

I've played a fair number of PD spin-offs / remixes and Shattered stands out as the best. It get regular updates that sometimes add or substantially change large chunks of the game.

knodi1233• 2 years ago

It's a variant, with lots of quality-of-life upgrades, some very well thought-out new mechanics, and new biomes and missions.

iCarrot2• 2 years ago

I always found the game becoming easier with more mechanics/weapons/potions added (in other variants). Is this the case with SPD?

flexagoon• 2 years ago

The original Pixel Dungeon was closed source IIRC, but then the developer stopped working on it and released the source code. Now there are many forks/mods of PD, all with different features (the Pixel Dungeon wiki has a great list). Shattered PD is the most popular and polished one, it adds a ton of stuff and is very actively developed.

bjconlan• 2 years ago

Yeah, I was looking though the code wondering what java based rendering library this was using but all of these support classes come from "PD-classes" (which was sighted in the SPD readme... just never joined the dots) but also pointed me to the creators itch account and relevant "Generator" artworks which are all very impressive

https://watabou.github.io/ https://watabou.itch.io/

Some really great work here

FrostKiwi• 2 years ago

Was absolutely obsessed with it couple of years ago. Hard, deep mechanics for its genre, super fun. First finish was quite the ride. What a win for FOSS.

aireo3• 2 years ago

I hadn’t played games for a long time, mostly because of school, but recently I picked up Cogmind, a fantastic sci-fi roguelike. Basically, you’re a robot that can attach and replace different items, including utilities, propulsion systems, weapons, and power sources. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had playing a game in ages.

The developer, Josh Ge, is also very kind and deeply engaged with the community, which is great.

Highly recommended!

eadmund• 2 years ago

This does look really neat, but IMHO ASCII art is one of the keys to being traditional.

Nothing at all against Shattered Pixel Dungeon, just that a quick look through the site didn’t reveal a terminal version.

hubblesticks• 2 years ago

Check out YAPD (Yet Another Pixel Dungeon) if you're on Android for a nice variant of the original. I found I like the mods in YAPD better.

gaudystead2• 2 years ago

I (perhaps mistakenly?) started with YAPD but then got my friend hooked and he went for SPD. I love how active the SPD dev is, but the mechanics are juuust a tad too different for me to want to learn them all. Both are great games though!

jpsouth• 2 years ago

I’ve played this for a while, and not to brag, but I’ve got to chapter two on a warrior AND mage.

I love the identification process and relatively quick, albeit very tactical if you want, gameplay. It’s my go to iPhone game when on short journeys, mostly because I can just save where I am and pick up whenever without having to remember dungeon layout or potions/food etc.

desiarnezjr• 2 years ago

DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS.

I downloaded (not Shattered) Pixel Dungeon and then Shattered, and nearly a decade later I'm still playing. In fact it's 70% of my non-work computing time.

Not only that Shattered's dev updates often with sometimes great changes.

You've been warned.

Graziano_M3• 2 years ago

I've never seen a game, or software for that matter, with a better version history screen.

metadat3• 2 years ago

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

GolfPopper• 2 years ago

Thank you for the warning.

I am going to download it. But I'm not going to touch it until I'm on vacation next month. :) I've got a lot of work between now and then.

smaddox• 2 years ago

I feel your pain. I've spent more time playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup than I care to admit. The fact that this can be played on Android makes it even more dangerous.

wredhyn• 2 years ago

Same. It's really the only mobile game that I keep coming back to.

Graziano_M3• 2 years ago

This game is so good. It's probably the thing I miss most from having an Android phone.

notamy2• 2 years ago

It is available on iOS!

Graziano_M3• 2 years ago

It wasn't at the time, and I didn't need to know that! I have it on PC but luckily that's easier to avoid.

zem2• 2 years ago

this is far and away the best roguelike i've played on mobile. indeed, it's pretty much the only roguelike i've ever seen that has a decent mobile user experience. you can tell that the dev team has put a tremendous amount of work into making it look and feel good.

prirai• 2 years ago

You should try Dead Cells.

zem2• 2 years ago

i looked it up, and it looks like more of a metroidvania than a roguelike. also the play store reviews say the controls aren't great on mobile. might pick it up for steam deck though, it does look fun :)

LelouBil• 2 years ago

6 or so years ago I wondered why they were so much Pixel Dungeon versions on the Play Store.

Now I know why ! The game was Open Source !

wanderingmind2• 2 years ago

Any reason this is not provided for download through F-Droid. I trust apps on F-Droid more than Google Play and helps with installing in degoogled phones.

sphars2• 2 years ago

There's a thread on GitHub where the dev explains why: https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon/issues/13...

Downloading the APK direct from GitHub is the official way to get it without the Play Store. App updates take a bit more work, but you can set up notifications through GitHub to be notified for new releases.

depingus• 2 years ago

Just FYI, there's an Android app called Obtainium that lets you add Github (and a few other VCS) repos to it. Obtanium will then check those repos for updates and install the new APK for you. Its pretty slick for people that prefer to get their APKs direct from the dev.

https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium

wanderingmind2• 2 years ago

I like Fdroid because it automatically compiles from source and does vulnerability scanner. Its not a safe practice to download random binary blobs from github. Its a shame it looks like a nice implementation but I will have to give it a pass.

iCarrot2• 2 years ago

Is this not it? Built and distributed by F-Droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.shatteredpixel.shattered...

lupire6• 2 years ago

I understand DeGoogling, but besides that, how is FDroid trustworthy? It doesn't have build attestation or antimalware protection, does it?

monetus• 2 years ago

It has been neat watching this game change over the years. Every year or so, enough new updates have been had that it feels like a new "season"; similar to online games. It keeps getting better.

howenterprisey• 2 years ago

You gotta check out Yet Another Pixel Dungeon too! I like it very much. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.considered...

mproud• 2 years ago

It’s available on Homebrew:

`brew install shattered-pixel-dungeon`

flykespice• 2 years ago

I see they accept donations (and it's probably the only way they keep themselves financially supported), does it need to go through Play Store's billing system?

Afaik, Google takes down open-source apps that link to their donation page without going through their billing system because it falls on their "no circumvention" policy.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21268389

magicalhippo• 2 years ago

Semi-unrelated but this reminded me of the countless hours I spent playing Castle of the Winds[1] as a kid.

Based on this thread I went searching for it and, as it turns out, the original author is working on porting[2] it to Unity!

[1] https://www.mobygames.com/game/842/castle-of-the-winds/

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/CastleOfTheWinds/comments/172ckn6/i...

jd3• 2 years ago

While imperfect, I nevertheless adored Reign of Swords/Clash of Kingdom on my old iPod touch back in ~2008.

I've looked for a replacement for years but 99.9% of similar games on the App Store are spam/pay to win/microtransaction hell with the typical cheap ugly "international" art style.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/10/06/reign-of-swords-revi...

https://www.ign.com/articles/2009/08/03/reign-of-swords-2-re...

https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/02/07/mobile-battles-reign...

http://web.archive.org/web/20111001213349/http://www.mobileb...

FranOntanaya• 2 years ago

So many hours trying to farm cube slimes to get rare items in that game. I loved it.

stavros3• 2 years ago

Oh man, that reminds me of my childhood in rural Greece, where the only software I could get was from magazines, where they downloaded demo/shareware versions of stuff and put it on a CD.

Obviously there was no way for me to pay or get the full software, so I spent hours and hours playing the same levels over and over in the demo.

I loved Castle of the Winds, and another turn-based games with pirates. There was also a similar one with tanks and such, called Metal Knights maybe?

Loughla3• 2 years ago

Holy fuck I completely forgot about that game. I spent hours and hours and hours playing that game as a kid.

I probably logged 50 hours just in the free demo level.

system7rocks• 2 years ago

I think you are the best. Period. End of story.

thejarren• 2 years ago

I’ve been stuck playing Pixel dungeon and now Shattered Pixel Dungeon since ~2014.

Fantastic game, highly replayable.

I’ve not been heavily committed, so I’ve only really “won” about 2-3 times total.

sspiff4• 2 years ago

My 5 year old son got REALLY into this a few months back. He played up to the first boss and then had me take over. We had a lot of fun with it.

worksonmine• 2 years ago

I've only played the original Pixel Dungeon and never tried any of the forks. How does this compare?

notorandit• 2 years ago

You die a little bit too often when compared with old school rogue, nethack and moria. But it is very nice.

chongli4• 2 years ago

You don’t have to die often. Winning streaks of 20+ (with 6 challenges active) are completely doable. This guy RunningFromCake [1] has some nice tutorials on how to get better at the game. He also has videos showing his winning streaks and how he accomplishes them.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/@runningfromcake

nurettin2• 2 years ago

This is the only game I ever donated to. I open it up almost every time I recompile and run. My previous build was an experimental corrupt mage with corpse dust. I wanted to see if I can balance charges and corrupting an army of wraiths that spawn all the time because of the corpse dust. Current build is a plain old assassin with +10 assassin's blade and anti-magic armor. Trying out the badder bosses challenge this time.

Loughla3• 2 years ago

Doesn't corruption require you to hit the enemy? How does that work with wraiths when they die after one hit?

nurettin2• 2 years ago

Via wand of corruption. But you need a lot of recharge. Ring, ability and armor needs to be able to recharge your wands. Wraiths become very resistant to wand towards the end, so you will need those charges.

lambdanil2• 2 years ago

For those who enjoy SPD I recommend checking out some other popular roguelikes, many of them are also open source.

Some of my personal recommendations would be brogue (probably the most beginner friendly), DCSS (friendly, tons of content), ADoM and Cataclysm DDA (a sandbox survival roguelike, quite a unique mix)

sandspar2• 2 years ago

What do these acronyms mean?

bananicorn• 2 years ago

DCSS = Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

ADoM = Ancient Domains of Mystery

Cataclysm DDA = Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead

I swear I didn't make the first one up ;) Edit: ah well, you got your answer already^^

lambdanil2• 2 years ago

I should probably have used the full names for clarity, either way the acronyms mean, in order: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Ancient Domains of Mystery and Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead.

zuik• 2 years ago

Shattered Pixel Dungeon

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Ancient Domains of Mystery

Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead

rjbwork• 2 years ago

Currently hung up on CDDA. Probably the most complicated hardcore game I've ever touched. Learning curve like a brick wall. Incredibly rewarding to master though.

Really love that it's FOSS. I've got a bunch of scripts I run to scan the game files to learn things that are hard to get just from the in game menus.

VagabundoP• 2 years ago

ha never knew this was open source.

Awesome game! When my kid was young I'd have this on my phone to keep her busy for a few minutes if she was melting my brain.

She was always killed by a rat at some point.

hiergiltdiestfu• 2 years ago

It's a great game, and feels very very close to crawl, aka Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It's also fair regarding the payment model (cosmetics only, otherwise completely free on the mechanics side).

nottorp2• 2 years ago

Oh. Lost me right there.

Are you sure you're rich enough to afford games with IAPs?

rkagerer• 2 years ago

This is one of those games I wish I could play on an emulator or VM or something where I could take a snapshot and subsequently undo my inevitable, catastrophic mistake.

Grangar• 2 years ago

That's called save scumming

pid-1• 2 years ago

Like DF, this sort of game becomes terribly boring after you have won / seen all things. You don'y want to win quickly.

pjmlp3• 2 years ago

Oh well, now I now what I should add into my phone.

Being in Java and a roguelike dugeon crawler with cute graphics already makes it for me.

zeograd• 2 years ago

It's an awesome game, I'm playing it non-stop since last summer and embarked my 9-years old daughter along. We're sharing games and exchanging bits of information (yes, she's thinking out of the box, and it sometimes works :) )

The author, Evan, is maintaining a fediverse community for all mods of the original Pixel Dungeon, accessible via https://photon.lemmy.world/c/pixeldungeon for instance, after the Reddit troubles from last year.

JyB• 2 years ago

What is gameplay/control like on mobile? Is the crawling and combat engaging?

sandspar2• 2 years ago

As of my reply there's 120 other comments raving about it.

normaler• 2 years ago

I have been playing Pixel Dungeon and then Shattered Pixel Dungeon since ~2016.

Such a great game.

afatc• 2 years ago

The original Pixel Dungeon isn’t available in the iOS App Store in Portugal, anyone know how to get around it?

lensi• 2 years ago

But it requires you to login with your Google account. Weird for an open source game.

lupusreal6• 2 years ago

No such requirement if you get it from F-Droid, which you should.

tgkudelski• 2 years ago

This is not true. Probably you installed it through the Play store?

gaudystead2• 2 years ago

From my experience, you can just skip it and still play the game.

Most of those Google prompts can just be bypassed by hitting the "back" button (on android, at least).

whitehexagon• 2 years ago

I dont have google account, but noticed they release apk builds directly on github, side-loaded and running, I may be gone a while...

hamilyon2• 2 years ago

How does it get around apple GPL ban?

richardwhiuk• 2 years ago

If you own the rights to all of the code, you can dual license under GPL and non-GPL, and then you can post on the appstore.

They don't accept code requests, so that might be their strategy

luckyshot• 2 years ago

If you like Magic The Gathering card playing game, avoid Forge (Desktop + Android) because it is open source (made in Java) and it has all the cards, gameplays, you can build your deck or choose from a huge list of ready-made ones and play against the AI and online up to 4 players in the same game I believe.

https://github.com/Card-Forge/forge

mdaniel2• 2 years ago

recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38651346 and XMage is usually submitted alongside them when any M:TG makes the front page, including the quarterly(?) "M:TG is Turing complete" paper thread

6mian3• 2 years ago

https://pixeldungeon.fandom.com/wiki/Shattered_Pixel_Dungeon is a great resource if you are new to the game and genre, although I suggest first trying discovering everything by yourself (prepare to die a lot) and start reading the wiki after getting through the first boss on lvl 5.

I've been playing SPD for years now and for me the best strategy to win the game is to keep Scrolls of Upgrade until you get a hold of a weapon of at least tier 4, same goes for armor. This makes the initial levels much more risky, but if you survive it's a matter of not making mistakes or getting yourself into high risk situations. Using this method I get to the Amulet in about 30% of the runs. Since the recent updates getting back to the ground has become a much more fun challenge.

Besides postponing the use of Scrolls of Upgrade, here are a few things that work for me:

  * You don't have to identify potions and scrolls right away, often you can keep them until you gather more information. For example, killed flies sometimes drop health potion and they are on early levels, so you can learn the color without using it.

  * Before you get the Scroll Holder that protects the scrolls from fire, it's a good idea to stash all the scrolls in water at the beginning of each level and retrieve them back before going to the next one. 

  * Scrolls of Mapping are absolutely crucial on levels >20 because of the traps and they are relatively cheap in the first two shops. 

  * Summoning trap rooms are great to gather a lot of xp if you have potions of paralytic gas and fire/toxic gas. After the level is cleared, you just open the doors by throwing something at it, go as far away as possible, throw paralytic and then fire/toxic potions. And run to the next level.

If you like the game, consider donating to the project, you can do this directly in the game, at least in the Android version.

ourmandave2• 2 years ago

(prepare to die a lot)

No thanks. Repeatedly punishing you for stupid shit isn't a fun game.

Like the Sims will burn you alive for not buying a smoke detector and then having the audacity to make toast.

ohwellhere• 2 years ago

This may not be the genre for you, then. And that’s fine!

6mian3• 2 years ago

I see it as a different model of building knowledge about the game than most other genres. Dying early is part of the process, because each time you die you got to this point in a bit different way, learning other things on the way.

If you were hand-held to the very end you'd only see a a narrow path you went through, which is also ok. It's just a difference in the journey, similar to Breadth-First Search and Deep-First Search in graphs.

Another thing is game fairness. In my opinion, SPD is fair, there's no "you stepped on something you couldn't detect if you tried and died". If you pay attention you will see enough information to identify threats after the initial die-a-lot period :)

nottorp2• 2 years ago

Dying is not dying in computer games. Think of it as a game mechanic.

devit• 2 years ago

With the exception of NetHack, which is famous for it, current roguelikes generally don't end the run for stupid shit (e.g. instead of killing you if you accidentally step into lava, they just don't let you do it), but more for wrong strategy or tactics.

lupire6• 2 years ago

HN markdown doesn't want you to indent bullet lists.

killed flies sometimes drop health potion and they are on early levels,

Stuff like this feels a little game breaking. Maybe potions should have no color until consumed (though this conflicts with the (arguably maldesigned) inventory system where duplicate objects have 0 encumbrance).

There's a delicate line between "learning how to play the game" and bypassing the intentional design that certain facts are not supposed to be known before a run starts.

berkeleynerd• 2 years ago

Love this! I purchased both the iOS and Steam version. Completely happy to support indie game devs willing to open source their software.

gamblerrr• 2 years ago

https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon/blob/mast...

This is such a useful document. It details how to get your own fork up and running. I’ve seen a lot of open source software go in the other direction.

thurn• 2 years ago

Interesting that this project seems to contain a bunch of sprite assets released under GPL3. How does GPL apply to something like an art asset?

rlonstein2• 2 years ago

I started an opinionated and still incomplete guide for new players https://spd-huntress-guide.pages.dev/guide. I didn't put it out there and was going to take it down because I couldn't finish it let alone maintain it. It's impossible to keep up with the pace of Evan's updates so the walk-throughs with seeds probably don't work, but someone might find it useful.

EduardLev• 2 years ago

I can't seem to load the page, would love to read.

rlonstein2• 2 years ago

I don't know why that would be, but someone archived it: https://web.archive.org/web/20240321134120/https://spd-huntr...

nonethewiser• 2 years ago

As someone who was intrigued by this post but felt a little overwhelmed starting out, this is awesome. Thank you for sharing, whether its incomplete/outdated or not.

lupire6• 2 years ago

I'm probably biased, but I liked PD and then SPD better when I first played it, and felt the later updates to be overwhelming.

bastawhiz4• 2 years ago

By sheer coincidence I'd installed this a few weeks ago. It's really well made, but I ended up uninstalling it because—unless I'm really missing something—it is punishingly difficult. Maybe I don't know all the controls? Or there's some sort of mechanic I'm missing? Or maybe my expectations are wrong?

This very much seems like the kind of game I'd enjoy, but I find myself getting absolutely obliterated by the first snake or two that I encounter. I've yet to figure out how to sneak up on or by them. I've yet to find or earn any early loot that might help.

If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong, please let me know. I'd love to just crank the difficulty down by 50%.

untech• 2 years ago

Coming from classic Pixel Dungeon and a bit of Nethack, I can suggest the following heuristics:

- Don’t leave a level without finding a ration

- Identify scrolls and potions as early as possible by using them in a safe context

- Use doorframes to fight one enemy at a time

bastawhiz4• 2 years ago

I'm rarely even getting to the end of the first level let alone leaving it unprepared!

kaibee• 2 years ago

Are you making full use of the items you find, or are you dying with an inventory of wands/scrolls/potions that you were saving for a rainy day? One of the things to do is to identify items when you have some safety. One way to do that is to use the wands on enemies. Sometimes you do end up wasting a charge or empowering the enemy, but then you know what the thing does. And after a few runs you'll have a sense for something like "I've identified a lot of the 'good' scrolls, so its more likely the unidentified ones are 'bad' ones"

bastawhiz4• 2 years ago

I'm not getting past the second or third room in most cases, so I don't even have an opportunity to hoard items

lupusreal6• 2 years ago

Get the snake to follow you through a door and hit the snake when they step into the door. This counts as a sneak attack. I think if you inspect the snake with the magnifying glass it will give you this hint (always take your time and do this with new enemies.

Alternatively, play as a mage (wands always hit snakes) or as an archer and shoot the snakes when they're still asleep.

Most of the game's difficulty curve is in learning tricks like this to cheese enemies. For instance, always fight flies (or any large group) in chokepoints.

lupire6• 2 years ago

Sensible battle tactics aren't cheese.

WaitWaitWha• 2 years ago

Playing it for over a decade.

I primary play the huntress, so all these are from that perspective:

* only eat when necessary, that is starving or early on level and likely lot of enemies.

* your first upgrade scroll is for your permanent bow, upgrade the scroll, then apply it to the bow

* there is a specific path for enemy's approach, always

* use the seeds with statues and mimics in there presumed path

* ranged attacks where possible

* before walking into a well of health, put on all the cursed items, they will become uncursed

* in the shop order of buying is next bag/satchel, then food (even with horn of plenty), ankh (unless you are super confident), thereafter as augment your weaknesses with potions of healing, scrolls, rings, wands from the store

* when picking up things make sure you pick up in order of most preferred to least preferred. Items last picked up get stolen first.

* always try to "trap" enemy in a door. i.e. they stand in the doorway

* if you get a plate armour, dump every, single, upgrade into it. No questions.

* drink potions early, standing near door and water

* a broken honey pot & health potion brewed is worth more than individually

* upgrade potion of experience and scroll of transmutation, then use it to pick and improve a tiers of abilities.

* the frost and fireblast wands can turn your raw meat into good food. With frost, the meat needs to be against a wall or something. Fireblast just torches everything.

* rooms with traps - if they are single target traps, go to the furthest spot, then rest or make noise to bring the enemies in. Throw stuff on the trap triggering attacks on the enemy. for the avalanche rooms, drop something in the doorway, step back then throw stuff on the traps.

* enraged gnolls, just walk away. There is no arguing with someone who lost self-control :)

Good luck! You will need it.

TalEs• 2 years ago

Just got hit with a wave of nostalgia, I remember playing it in 2015, and I opened up the link to Google Play, and I still see my comments there, that the dev even responded too. Great game that I will have to pick up again!

tacocataco• 2 years ago

As a super fan of roguelikes I appreciate the recommendation.

I found a doom roguelike recently, maybe yall would be interested to.

https://drl.chaosforge.org/

max_k• 2 years ago

Why does the Android app require access to my location? I wouldn't expect open source apps to spy on me.

metadat3• 2 years ago

An open-source multiplayer version of this would be pretty sweet!

I've been playing on and off for about 3 years now, I'm not even very good, have never beat it yet.

In the past week or two I've learned about better strategies, e.g. max out your weapon so you can one-hit most enemies. Trading blows is a death sentence.

This play guide has more helpful knowledge information:

https://old.reddit.com/r/PixelDungeon/comments/4tthsy/shatte...

Ome additional note: Don't let thieves get too far away after they steal from you, else This stolen item will disappear forever. This just happened to me a few minutes ago.

skulk• 2 years ago

How would multiplayer work with the turn-based aspect? Do you have to wait for other players to take their turns? This would be terribly boring IMO. Do you instead allow anyone to take a turn whenever? That turns the game into an RTS. I've thought about this a lot and I don't really think it's possible.

metadat3• 2 years ago

Yeah it'd have to be a RTS/ Diablo type of mechanic, although if you keep food as a number-of-moves-limiter, the turn-based aspect may be less critical.

Maybe a game could work where each player explores the map independently but when a creature is encountered, the other player is teleported in, and then returns to prior spot after the fight? Could be fun.

lupire6• 2 years ago

A bit different, but Hoplite is another fantastic game with turn-based single-hero tactical fighting. No dungeon exploration though.

klondike_klive• 2 years ago

Thanks for reminding me of it, I used to play it all the time but haven't even installed it for several years. I bought it after a recommendation from Roguelike Radio, the podcast hosted by Darren Grey, one of the ADOM and TOME devs (If I remember correctly)

bilsbie2• 2 years ago

I just downloaded this on the iPhone. It seems like it would be more fun if you could save checkpoints instead of starting over.

nomel2• 2 years ago

Permadeath is a primary aspect of the genre [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike

bilsbie2• 2 years ago

Interesting. It seems like it would be hard to make much progress.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is an open-source traditional roguelike dungeon crawler

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