Dragonsweeper
A minesweeper game that requires observation.
Make sure to read the monsternomicon.
Download
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Development log
- New Dragonsweeper Version!15 days ago
A minesweeper game that requires observation.
Make sure to read the monsternomicon.
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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Great game! I find it quite difficult, but really enjoyable.
I really like the addition of the stamps. Playing for all three compatible stamps at the same time is a very different game which requires a different strategy, and a lot more deduction, so if anyone is missing that element, I recommend playing in this mode. I seldom make use of all the additional pieces of monster information when I'm clearing the board, but they're much more important in a stamp game.
Dangerously addictive.
Super fun game, thanks for making it! I am really enjoying the current version (1.1.18). For me the balance is in a very good place (in the sense that it feels quite consistent to full clear if I don't make silly mistakes, but there are still challenging problems to solve).
I would really enjoy a "countdown" setting (so that the numbers on empty tiles show "total adjacent power - sum of adj. visible monsters - sum of adj. user markings"), just to ease the burden of the arithmetic.
took me a bit to get the handle of the rules, but i finally beat one game! that was so fun, i definitely want to try doing pacifist
feels less like a minesweeper and more like dungeon crawler compared to v1.0
have to kill creatures much more often now instead of having to deduce them
don't like the game anymore unfortunately
Yup. It used to be nearly solvable like Minesweeper once you got good at deduction. Now you HAVE to guess very often which usually results in death.
I liked the old one too for playability, but the new update adds many good features, board just needs reworked
I have a problem lol I got the 3 “pacifist” stamps and the board clear stamp and I told myself I was done! I was free! But I keep checking back here just in case there’s been an update to give myself an excuse to constantly play it again. What a great game!
Certainly didn't plan to do this for an hour 😂and still haven't seen everything! It's amazing how relatively simple mechanics make for a really complex game!
this game is max god brain power.
Such an excellent little gem. Kind of wish there was even more of it, but it's also nice with these smaller experiences.
The math ain't mathing for this game to be even solvable most of the time, i think. That's kinda frustrating but it's also fun.
It isn't strictly math, you can make deductions based off monster placement and behavior. Everything except the bats and the skeletons have a secret to them. From there its just about making plays that are livable that also give more information. If the total between two spaces is 14, for example, they can only either be 11 and 3, 10 and 4, 9 and 5, 8 and 6, or 7 and 7. Following the special rules of the monsters, you can reason out which is even possible to appear in those spaces, and judge if you can survive a guess or not. That's just one example, but this game is full of them, and once you figure that out, you'll be winning much more often than you lose.
It takes HP to kill things and they give you exactly as much XP back. Some levels take more XP than you have HP. That essentially neans you need to find either chests or healing packs before you run out of that. If you don't get lucky and get more than 2 healing paxks close to spawn it's just not possible to reach more than 10hp for example
You can maximize your chanxes of finding healing packs by always killing as many monsters as you can but that's still not a guarantee.
Or ta least that's what i've been trying, what your strategy? So far i've only managed one win.
Paying attention to the monsters that give you/point you to chests and such is really key. (Sorry if I’m explaining stuff you already know!)
Spoilers
Like Minotaurs (6) always have a chest in one of the three spaces behind them, the knights Romeo and Juliet (9) always give you a heart scroll, there is always an egg (0) in a space next to the dragon that gives you exp. The mine master (10) (or whatever they're called lol) is always in one of the corners and transforms all mines into exp.If you go through the comments, other people will also have more and better explanations and tips.
I've been playing this game too much like minesweeper then. Thanks
This stuff DEFINITELY needs to be explicitly explained. I saw the "Romeo and Juliet" stamp and figured if I saw a 9-square I should just leave it alone O_O
The monsters don't "behave" either. They either die or kill you when revealed. I didn't even know that the direction they were facing was important! I just thought they looked in different directions for variety's sake.
I would never have guessed the guy holding a magic dark ball was a "mine master" and did something special if you killed it.
Facing? I thought they moved if I opened a spot opposite of them. I'm not even sure how I got the Romeo and Juliet stamp, last time I played (before stamps) I got (I think?) a bad ending. What does the mine master do?
You should leave the 9 squares alone if you’re trying to get the stamp! This is definitely a game where you’re supposed to fail, study the board, and try again.
Or be like me and look through all the comments from people who have done that and are nice enough to explain it lol
Deduce where monsters are and kill as few as possible. If you need to scout, kill weaker monsters to reveal squares over stronger ones. Learn the secrets of each of the monsters. Your first objective is to explore the full board so you know where everything is, and can secure all the loose experience, especially the gnome. You want to preserve your HP as much as possible while doing that. Calculated risk and deduction. If you play perfectly, you will end up with 13 hearts left over, which doesn't sound like a lot of wiggle room, but its only the difference of using HP scrolls sooner rather than later, so if you need to use a scroll at 6 hearts instead of 9, you're only losing on 3 hearts of that extra wiggle room. And if your only objective is to kill the Dragon, you have TONS of extra space if you're still getting the hang of the game.
Long story short, do not try to kill everything. Not right away. Start by just fully mapping the board, and it will get a lot easier for you. Find the exp chests, the egg, isolate the gnome, and hunt down the rat king, slime wizard, and eventually the mine lich. Then once you've done all that, start killing things until you're out of hearts, level up or use a scroll if you can't, and repeat until you have 13 hearts to kill the dragon with. Or more if you want to aim for the full clear.
I have never played a game so good, so simple, yet so goddamn frustrating
I'm addicted to this. Amazing game
I finally managed to clear the board and get a perfect score!
And finally the Rat King!
it took me 157 trys but I did it
I'm not sure what to do after downloading the game. There's no .exe file?
You have to serve the files with some sort of HTTP server. For example, install Python and then run this from the unzipped folder:
then go to http://localhost:8080 in your browser and the game is playable.
Wow it's very nice game 💯🔥🔥
Absolutely loving this, have been playing it on and off for 3 days and I think you've struck gold with this one.
Could I humbly request a keyboard shortcut for leveling up?
I humbly request that do so you must type out "J O R G E"
Amazing game!!!! Took a few days to get all stamps :D
Aaauuugh!! I was on track to a 300+ point victory, then got screwed over by the orb scroll. I had already found and marked the mimic with "11" so I could avoid it, but when I used the orb scroll it revealed the mimic's square as a chest and erased my marker. I clicked on the chest without checking and ended my run. So frustrating! I feel like the game shouldn't preserve your marker if you placed it on a treasure chest square, pretty unfair way to end the game.
Amazing game, but I'd like to ask for some help with or a README included in the download so I know how to run it without digging through the files and code?
Running the index.html brings up a frozen intro screen. I'm using Windows 11.
I'm also unable to access the new version in the Developer log.
You have to use the terminal to launch your browser with all permissions
Incredible game! Anyone know how many stamps it's possible to get on one run?
Max of 3, since for full clear you have to defeat every enemy and the other three require you to leave certain enemies alive. I don't know how realistic it is, but I don't see why you couldn't get Lovers Survive, Next Generation, and Rat Pacifist in one run
Would be interesting to see if it's possible!
It is possible, and relatively frequently tackled. You have to scroll down a little to find it but we even mathed the theoretical highest score possible while also doing a three-stamp run. It's 325, but you need to not use a single health scroll until 9 hearts, and corner the gnome BEFORE you reach 10 hearts as well as all the chests. It is very difficult, but with some luck, possible. JUST doing a three stamp run at all, though, is still hard but doable, especially if you can luck into finding Rat King early.
Level XPBank XPGain Extra XP2Lvl
1 0 +5HP -4
2 1 +5HP -5
3 1 +6HP -7
4 0 +6HP +5chest -9
5 2 +7HP -9
6 0 +7HP +5chest -10
7 2 +8HP +5chest -12
8 3 +8HP +9gnome -12
9 8 +9HP -12
10 5 +9HP +9HP -15
11 8 +10HP +27mine -18
12 27 +10HP -21
13 16 +11HP -21
14 6 +11HP +11HP -25
15 3 +12HP +12HP -25
16 2 +12HP +12HP -25
17 1 +13HP +13HP -25
18 2 +13HP +13HP -25
19 3 +14HP +14HP -25
20 6 +14HP -20(-25 to level up)
Total 325
This is an example of a 325 Three Stamp Run giving as much room as possible for the chests/gnome. You see its still REALLY tight.
How did you get this report?
It's definitely possible to get Lovers and Next Generation in one run, I did that.
it's not clean, but here is a finished "no crystal ball" run. it's probably possible to full clear if you get lucky
we are just making up runs left end right.. i love it
Got a perfect clear with no orbs used. I suspect it’s 80% early dumb luck, 10% early rat king and 10% strategy. Plus the rat king revealed the eventual location of the bomb scroll as the other corners had rats in them. I think detonating all the bombs as soon as you get to 10 hearts is an important step to a perfect clear.
One strategic insight is that it’s best to start with the squares around the dragon, as they’re more constrained than everywhere else. One has to have the egg, and the squares that are directly North, South, East or West of it can’t contain 7s. Essentially that means if you click all the squares around the dragon and clear them, you’ve probably got a good layout for this challenge.
Early on you’ve got to expand in whatever direction you have good information for, and I suspect that if this goes in the opposite direction to the King Rat area then it might be best to restart. The rat reveal is essential for two reasons: 1. The rats give you much more flexibility in using up your hearts, 2. The information you get from killing them is even more useful in this run where you’re very constrained by not using orbs.
this is so cool
Minor issue report:
the timer starts on game load; I'd make it start from the opening of first square.
Nice game BTW! ;)
That was ridiculously fun! Trying to do the board clear achievement now
great game
Thanks. Please return the original soundtrack, this ... long-pause-then-dubstepped-remix isn't doing it for me.
amazing way to procrastinate for an hour
Very Fun!
This game makes my brain feel very good
Finally got board clear with 13 hearts remaining, which I think is the best possible run for board clear. To do this, you need to all the free XP before using any heart scrolls (egg+chests+defused mines+gnome). You use the first scroll at 11 health.
Need good RNG in regards to getting egg/treasure chest and quickly locating slime wizard/rat king. Basically need to have as much board info as possible ASAP to remove empty squares in order to get the gnome (this also requires careful analysis of squares).
Took me about 30-40 attempts, restarting when initial RNG didn't look promising. Had about 5 serious runs before finally getting it, having to blind guess between mine or gnome (25-50% success chance) and failing until the last attempt where because of good enough RNG, didn't have to make any blind guesses.
Probably took around 4 hrs total, went slowly to avoid any mistakes and was clenching whenever I had to make completely random guesses. Fun challenge, though can't imagine trying to speedrun it, would be so stressful.
Impressive!
I’m still griding the “3 stamp run with max score”. I have had about 10 or so serious runs after a gazillion restarts. So I know what you did here!
I think I encountered a bug? Spoiler alert: in 9/10 of cases gargoyles look at each other, but in this case it didn't happen. Maybe those screenshots will help you with fixing that and making your game even better?
And here's the map after I poked the dragon to reveal it:
the map always changes so that won't give an exact replica of what it should be there are patterns though like the egg is always touching the dragon
Well yes, I'm aware that map changes and that there are patterns. One of those patterns is gargoyles looking at each other, it was the case in literally every game I played so far except this one case I posted. I posted it so the developer can see for himself what happened: gargoyle was looking at a skeleton rather than at another gargoyle. Hopefully that will give him a better of what happened when his game generated this map and fix it.
How do you know there isn't a gargoyle touching the other one from the top?
Look at their red eyes - they're pointing in the direction where the other gargoyle is supposed to be.
Lotta fun
Hit max score, but also just discovered the nice Easter egg with Romeo & Juliet. Well done game!