Is Dungeons of Dredmor a Dead/Dying Game?

Discussion in 'Dungeons of Dredmor General' started by Arron Syaoran, Jan 11, 2015.

  1. Arron Syaoran

    Arron Syaoran Member

    I just tried to look up how store prices are affected by Game Difficulty online, and none of the wikis online have it. One wiki is dead, another only has skills, and J-Factor is outdated(and doesn't show what is affected by Difficulty Selection). I could always scrounge through the XMLs on my computer, but it'd be nice to have a User-Friendly Reference for the stuff in this game.

    Now on to my point: Does anyone still play Dungeons of Dredmor often anymore? I know that Clockwork Empires came out a few months ago, and most of the attention is towards that. But I'm just wondering since my Android Rogue Mod is only 1/3 finished, and wouldn't be worth continuing if no one bothers to use it. I'm considering scrapping the mod, leaving only Android Origins on Steam intact, but only if I'm certain that no one's interested in Dredmor anymore.

    Perhaps I should say goodbye to Dungeons of Dredmor, after 1250-1300 hours of play? There's no point modding if you're the only one who uses said mod.

    If anyone feels any thoughts about DoD's fate, whether it be about the outdated wikis, whether this game is still lively or whether it's time to move on, please tell any thoughts, concerns or opinions on this. I would hate to work on a half-finished mod that only I would get to play.
     
  2. Haldurson

    Haldurson Member

    Many of the Dredmor players hang out nowadays on the Steam forums. People play the game, then they move on. And sometimes they come back. I thought I was all played out... then I started a new game as recently as last night.

    People DO still play it. Maybe not as much as they once did. But it's a game that I see new players discovering now and again. Look at the Steam workshop -- there's new mods there, there are people posting there. It's not AS active as it once was, but it's not dead either.
     
    Pyrotanis likes this.
  3. Pyrotanis

    Pyrotanis Member

    Let me preface that I love this game. I love it to the the point where it seems scarily tailored exactly for me. That said, it's easy to see why this game is not very popular. It is a game that rewards patient, calculated decisions in a majority market that craves fast paced, adrenaline-pumping gameplay.

    The beauty of Steam and indie development is that games like this can be made and a niche community can grow around them. Like Haldurson said: the game always has the opportunity to be discovered and treasured. You should use this ideology for your mod: who cares how many people will enjoy it (especially since you have no monetary investment;)). As long as you feel you have an enjoyable mod, you can have confidence that people will enjoy it.
     
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  4. LionsDen

    LionsDen Member

    I still play it occassionally but I am waiting for them to put out a patch or patches to fix a few issues and if I'm really lucky to add a little more content to it. I will then pick it up and play it a bit more. I do like the rogue like games so I will keep coming back to this for years to come. I do still check the forums once a day to see if anything is being said and to keep up to date.
     
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  5. Daynab

    Daynab Community Moderator Staff Member

    There's a surprisingly healthy (for a small indie game) number of daily players even now: http://steamcharts.com/app/98800 but most of the community that formed around Dredmor here have moved on to other things, I think. I believe the Steam forums are a bit more active. I don't really know the state of the Steam Worshop for it, but you might get some downloads if you post your mod there too.
     
    Haldurson likes this.
  6. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    It's sort of an interesting question: we're making a second game, and that's definitely taking our attention, but Dredmor has been pretty stable and very finely polished (well, as polished as it can get without literally tearing large pieces of it out and completely redoing them, which is just... drama for drama's sake in many ways) since the last post-Conquest of the Wizardlands patch in 2013. There's still a small list of TODOs I would like to revisit at some point, but I doubt very much they'll be happening until after CE is fully out of Early Access.

    But... in what way is it dead or dying? People still buy it, people still play it, people keep racking up insane playtimes and people keep talking about it online. Dead or dying implies that people have stopped playing it, or people have stopped buying it; neither of these things is true. I would say that at 1300 hours played, we're providing good value for $7.99 or whatever we're charging now :)

    TL;DR: THAT WHICH IS NOT DEAD MAY ETERNAL LIE
     
  7. Arron Syaoran

    Arron Syaoran Member

    The Android Rogue Mod Shall continue Forever! At my schedule.(slow, but inevitable). I intend to remove some useless consumables that I originally planned to conserve inventory space.
    There should be about 3 Drinks, 1-2 Food Items, 6 Thrown, 6 Bolts, 5 Traps, 8 Wands and 5 Potions throughout all of Android Rogue(Origins, Insurrection, Comb Ravers, Legends and Human Pride).

    I'm going to focus more on Rooms and a little less on items, perhaps even as many rooms as ID, RR, Monstrous Megapack and Swashbucklers, since I put a halt on new item ideas and a ban on new consumable item ideas. My Modding Cycle is usually this:
    1. Play some other Game or do some other thing for 3-6 Months, then 2. Play Dredmor Vanilla, then 3. Play Modded Dredmor, then 4. Work on my Dredmor Mod, and finally, 5. Do something else for another 3-6 Months.

    Collaborations would probably speed up the mod, but I have very few intentions to go beyond the Human Pride patch, and I never trust anyone I don't know IRL since i'm not the best at socializing. Also, Collaborating would probably ruin my relaxed time schedule and force a deadline. There's no point finishing a project by the clock unless it's for money.
     
  8. Alistaire

    Alistaire Member

    I am still getting steady views and subscribers on my workshop mods, especially when it's in the Steam Workshop section of Dungeons of Dredmor in my library.

    It seems there's a lot of people out there who have it and they occasionally come back to check on mods.
     
  9. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    Honestly, I would sort of like to see one of the larger community mods released? I was rooting for Vaults of Maslech but it sort of ran into technical issues and I haven't had time to deal with them yet :(
     
  10. Graceclaw

    Graceclaw Member

    It's not dead! I picked it up from the Christmas sale (all of the expansions and the game for $3.50), and I've logged close to 90 hours already. FINALLY coming up on my first Dredmor kill (I hope!), and from there I'll probably download a lot of mods and keep playing.
     
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  11. Not dying. Well, my girlfriend died to Dredmor 2 days ago. Does that count? ;)
     
    Haldurson likes this.
  12. sam12six

    sam12six Member

    I tend to agree with Pyrotanis per the game's general appeal. As roguelikes go, Dredmor's pretty easy - i.e. if you halfway know how to play games and pay attention, you'll almost surely win once you know what the enemies can do. That said, the impression I get is that most of today's players want games they can Leroy Jenkins their way through.

    There have been tons of times I've heard scuttlebutt that a game is hard (strategically hard, not arcade hard) and tried it and threw down my keyboard in disgust at how easy it was. Looking for ways to make it more of a challenge, I'd head to forums to see if anyone was talking about challenges or whatnot and see pages and pages of threads of people asking how to cheat their characters to godhood.

    For myself, though, Dredmor has a weird and addictive fascination. It's really doing the same thing over and over, but the RNG plays enough of a role that I still feel like each playthrough is unique. If the skills were more balanced and there were around 500 more crafting recipes, I'd say this was about the perfect roguelike. Even without that near perfection, I still log a couple of hours every other day or so...
     
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  13. Brolo

    Brolo Member

    I saw the RPS article, then it clicked it was by this lot so figured it was worth a punt. 21hrs later, not got deeper than L6 I think, but will continue to die trying. My Vegan/Vampire/Tourist has lasted much longer than expected though, and longer than most of my 'sensible' builds have :p
     
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