Delver's Drop: When Zelda meets Roguelikes

[Tebryn]

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u131/Tebryn_Cabal/DelversDrop_zps9eb5c633.jpg

Delvers Drop is a top down dungeon crawl with plenty of inspiration from the SNES era of Action Role Playing Games, Roguelikes and physics based puzzlers. The game is currently in closed Alpha but has more than enough character to make even it's pre-Alpha content seems almost endless.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u131/Tebryn_Cabal/ddrop-2013-02-01-14-44-02-424_zpscbb593b7.png

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u131/Tebryn_Cabal/original_zps50f74511.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u131/Tebryn_Cabal/Delvers-Drop-enemies_zpsbfc6daa4.png

Episode One: Not So Endless Drop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rly0HpaTteg&feature=c4-overview&list=UUJQCKs8DBOC92yJFoqW_6rg)
Episode Two: Delving in Leaps and Bounds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XMoHEIJHyk&feature=youtu.be)

[Domochevsky]

Hm... iunno. It does look intriguing, but the controls seem a bit swirly. Does it just look like it or are you sliding around a bit when you stop moving or change directions? :smallconfused:

[Cogwheel]

...Domochevsky, did you have a hand in this?

Because looking at the image with all the enemies at the bottom of the first post, I could really see that for some reason.

[Tebryn]

Hm... iunno. It does look intriguing, but the controls seem a bit swirly. Does it just look like it or are you sliding around a bit when you stop moving or change directions? :smallconfused:

There is a bit of sliding going on yes but keep in mind that this is a pre-Alpha. The sliding really isn't that distracting once you get used to it, makes movement fairly entertaining really. The biggest issue with the current build is that the pits have gravity of a sort so if you get to close, even if you're not at the edge, you'll get sucked in. They handed this build out because the team that's working on it is made up of three people and they missed the deadline to upload the full Alpha release yesterday. So it should be coming out here Tuesday if they're on the money. I'll most certainly be covering Alpha and beyond when they're released, the game is insanely addicting.

[Tebryn]

Next episode is up, this one really shows off the physics engine and how you can use it to really mess up the enemies.

[Tebryn]

Episode 3: Now with Commentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0jE4TbcQHQ)


Title says it all, this is a further look at the game and probably the last until Alpha comes out for real on Tuesday only with some actual commentary and talk about what should be coming in Alpha and beyond. The devs are super friendly and helpful and open to discussing the game with backers/supporters. Lot of info in this and more to come!

[Rosstin]

I just downloaded and played this today, now that early access has begun.

I only played for about an hour, but I wasn't particularly impressed so far. Is there a strict limit on character orientation? I noticed that I basically had a choice of 8 "facings" which I felt was pretty limiting when I wanted to hit things.

The wizard was my favorite character simply because he let me play like a shooter.

Overall I'm not feeling it too much yet... I think picking up the little bits and pieces in each room is a bit tedious (as is having to kill all the enemies who don't seem very inclined to move towards you at all.) I know the mood is very different, but you could take a look at Nuclear Throne. I know that's a way more action/projectile oriented game, but I feel like they did a pretty good job with enemy aggressiveness and pick-ups. Enemies are a bit more threatening in the way they move towards you, pickups have their own magnetism so you don't have to go out and tap each one, and player weapons (even the melee ones) have more breadth and reach so it's easier to actually hit things.

Despite the gameplay flaws, I will say that it is absolutely gorgeous, and the artists and everyone should be very proud.

[Tebryn]

I just downloaded and played this today, now that early access has begun.

Been open since October if I recall actually.


I only played for about an hour, but I wasn't particularly impressed so far. Is there a strict limit on character orientation? I noticed that I basically had a choice of 8 "facings" which I felt was pretty limiting when I wanted to hit things.

There was a discussion on the Delver's Drop forums about moving it to 360 movement, with the puzzles and all it was decided that the 8 facings was a better method. There's also a bug in the current version that makes attacking out of the four main directions a problem, probably linked to the changes in stalking. Should help once that gets resolved.


The wizard was my favorite character simply because he let me play like a shooter.

Sorcerer is certainly the most powerful of the classes in 0.4.2 though his wand is being changed to a Spirit Flask that contains spirits to lower his range.


Overall I'm not feeling it too much yet... I think picking up the little bits and pieces in each room is a bit tedious (as is having to kill all the enemies who don't seem very inclined to move towards you at all.) I know the mood is very different, but you could take a look at Nuclear Throne. I know that's a way more action/projectile oriented game, but I feel like they did a pretty good job with enemy aggressiveness and pick-ups. Enemies are a bit more threatening in the way they move towards you, pickups have their own magnetism so you don't have to go out and tap each one, and player weapons (even the melee ones) have more breadth and reach so it's easier to actually hit things.

Dungeons: The Dev Team agree with you, the way dungeons and progression are handled now don't work. They've spent the last two months working on getting that done better. It's also important to remember that it's still in alpha and things like Puzzles and the other eight levels/enemies aren't included. The next build has some new enemies that are crazy aggressive including one that when provoked will turn the room into a table hockey rink of destruction.

Weapons: The build that is going to go live, in a few days, is the weapon system and item system going on line. A conservative estimate has shown that up to 30,000,000 weapons are going to be possible in the system. Having played around a little with the system there are weapons with a range of 0 such as claws and daggers and swords that can reach about three tiles forward. The diversity isn't represented yet, but it will soon.

Re: Nuclear Throne - While they're both Roguelikes, Nuclear Throne and Delver's Drop are pretty different. Nuclear Throne is more a Twin Stick Shooter where as Delver's Drop hearkens back to the SNES Zelda style games. It hasn't reached that level yet since puzzles aren't really in but that's the inspiration. Having beaten Nuclear Throne a few times, they're just...different games.


Despite the gameplay flaws, I will say that it is absolutely gorgeous, and the artists and everyone should be very proud.

It does indeed, and they should. The Dev team is one of the nicest groups of people I have met on the internet.

With all the above said, and probably coming off as a fanboy, there are some issues with the game at current. Perhaps it's because I've followed the dev stream so closely (and full disclosure a mod on their forums) I know a lot that the new player has no way of knowing. A lot of the criticisms you raised are on the chopping block to be fixed but as I've said...the game is at a fairly early stage of development. Things are going to be tweaked and twerked for a while until they settle on what they feel is good. The good part of all that though is they've taken to heart a lot of what their community has suggested instead of powering through and ignoring the criticisms.

[Rosstin]

As a developer myself I certainly appreciate the struggles and challenges they're going through. They've definitely created a game and nailed the aesthetics, and I'm sure if they keep working on the mechanics they can tighten things up.

[Tebryn]

As a developer myself I certainly appreciate the struggles and challenges they're going through. They've definitely created a game and nailed the aesthetics, and I'm sure if they keep working on the mechanics they can tighten things up.

It's been a wild ride seeing it from the front seat. I think Delver's Drop has what it takes to strike it big. Especially with how they're handling their modding interface.

I'll post a video I did this morning, showing off the most recent build (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMc62XvbaXY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUJQCKs8DBOC92yJFoqW_6rg).