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Hello! I made this game for Game Maker Suomi summer -09 contest and I'd like to now share this game with GMC members.

Trapdoor Below is a game where you step into a dungeon and try to survive against various monsters and collect items. There are over 120 different looking items available and 15 different enemies. Some of the items may have different 'powers' which affect your stats or status and you can't see it before you regonize it. Every level is an unique thanks to randomly generated maps. This is game have taken influences from Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup which is a great rogue-like game.

- Info -

Publisher: Tprojects (my "team")
Genre: Rogue-Like
Version: 1.01
File Size: ~5mb
GM-Version: 6.1 reg (Vista-compatible)
Online Highscores: Yes
Story: "You are a great X (choose profession) who has been chosen to a mighty quest by the town's eldest. You have to release these moorlands from the grip of the evil demigod who enslaves the people of these lands. There is an underground passage which leads to the labyrinth of death where lives the most horrifying creatures of the world. Good luck. You probably need it."

ATTENTION! If Anti-aliasing doesn't work on vista then go to the options and set screen size to 100% or 200% (default 150%). That might fix those stretched sprites (I think).

Indie Games Freeware Game Pick: Trapdoor Below (Telchar) Tuesday, September 8, 2009

- Controls -

- move: numpad (1,2,3,6,9,8,7,4) or up, down, left, right keys
- rest/wait: hold/press numpad 5 or control
- pick up item/go downstairs: space
- other actions: You will find out when you put cursor over it.

- Download -

Mirror: Download (.zip)

- Screenshots -


[Screenshot 2]
[Screenshot 3]

Hope you find the easter egg.

Wow, I loved this game!
I think it could have been a bit more interesting, but it was still a lot of classic fun and totally worth downloading.

A more 8bit graphical design could have helped, and maybe more of a story, other than a single quest, but it was still tons of fun.
9/10

My highscore was only 8295 or something, but I only cared about the gameplay.
One big thing I didn't like, was having to use my mouse.
I think you should have movement keys for the character, and movement keys to move a selection box inside the inventory.
More of that old school feeling I was looking for.
The item descriptions didn't really help me figure out which were stronger, other than the number?
But then, a staff does more damage than a sword or warhammer? How is that possible.
Was there magic in the game?

Thank you!

I would be troublesome to convert that current inventory to use keyboard instead of mouse so I don't think I'm going to change that in the upcoming sequel. The item description is meant to be confusing at first because it would be boring to see +1 strenght +3 dexterity ect... and it would spoil the atmosphere. Your character isn't an omniscient just a normal person. Staffs (and bows) have a secret -10 strenght bonus but still there is a chance to hit harder than with a sword. You can cast a spell by pressing a scroll. Some spells act like a shooting attack so you have to aim it first.

Pretty awesome game, I have always loved this genre.

It would be nice if you started with a little bit of food.

Resting/waiting should probably make a sound to tell you that you actually did it.

Edit: I was poisoned by a snake and died.
Edit: I got to level 7 or 8, I was ready to go down to the next level, but I was hungry, so I had some cake...
Paladin seems the best class.
A bug: After my caked-out paladin got killed on level 100 (didn't upload high score), I started a new game as an assassin, and it showed the screen from when my paladin died (I was still dead, all I could do was hit escape). Tried it again and it did it again. It still showed the loading bar, even though it went back to the level from before. Tried yet again, picking paladin again, and it still didn't work. Restarted the game and it's fine now.

I hate when "Something hits you." I've tried everything. I assume it's behind me, so I'd go in a straight corridor, run until it hits me, then shoot behind me. I've tried spells and arrows. I've tried blinking away from it so it might lose me. I've tried going to the next level of the dungeon, 3 times. Am I missing something?! It makes me want to just start over. The "unknown" is a fun enemy though.

One upgrade that would be really good would be to show the letter for each inventory slot somewhere on that inventory slot. That way you wouldn't always have to mouse over, you could just look at it, and hit the key.

It would be really good to be able to turn off the music, but not the sounds.

"Strength" is misspelled in the levelup text.

You could show the damage done in a little number that flashes next to the enemy (e.g. in a red splash of blood with a white number). I find I never watch the damage, I just keep hitting towards the enemy until they die (and I watch my health bar). This way you'd notice when you do damage.

Thanks for you answer.

Saving is disabled because you could cheat and backup saving file to abuse online highscores. Starting gear depents what profession you are. Some of the classes have food at the start. I should fix that new-game-cake-bug or then remove it from the game. It's just pointless and people find it too often. Highscores aren't shown after cake because scores are calculated: experience*dungeon level*1.2 so you would get higher scores than a guy who almost completed the game. I made this 1.01 version to fix couple of bugs so thats why there is 1.2 multiplier.

"Something hits you." (spoiler) Maybe it's not following you

Misspells happen

EDIT: Typos

It seemed it wasn't following me, because I couldn't hit it or anything... how mysterious.

I don't mean to complain, just pointing it out because I assume you'd want to fix it.

I got the 2nd highest high score! (THE PALLY)
If you wanted to continue adding to the game and improving it, another thing that would be awesome would be if the high score table showed class, what level you reached and what killed you. I don't know how hard that is btw.

This is my new favourite GM game.

Edit: Also I was wondering how far you got in it yourself.

I have defeated the demigod.

The trick is to use blink. Stand somewhere where you can see a square far away, beat on him until your health is below 40 then blink and move so that there is a wall in between you. Demigods don't know how to get around walls. Then sit there for a while to heal up, and repeat.

I was disappointed that there's no ending screen. Something in the same style as the starting screen would have been good, just some simple text.

Woah! I never though anybody could beat him. I'm sorry, I totally forgot the ending screen.

I'm making 1.07 version to fix bugs and adding some content.

Hehe, there is always a way.

Great game by the way.
Iv already gone back to play it twice now, and plan to again.
It's not so hard that you don't wan't to come back, but not so easy that you finish once and your done.

umm, didn't see any bugs. So nothing there.
The graphics and sounds all seem to fit together nicely.


I havn't finished it yet myself, but when I do, perhaps a free roam mode which just goes on forever could be implemented. For chasing the High Score.

Out of curiosity are the levels randomly generated, or just a random pick of pre-made levels?


oh and great game, its rarely that I ever go back to a GM made game. This is one of those times. Great.

The levels are 100% randomly generated. That's why there is a loading screen between each level.

got 'unexpected error occured when running game' on startup
system specs: win xp sp2, 1.5gig ram, 2.6mhz proc, 128mb gfx, dx9.c

[edit]
this engine looks familiar.. was its first incarnation something to do with a 'skeleton key' ?? (quest item)
..if so - i downloaded that wip engine some weeks ago and learnt a bit thru tinkering with it

This 'unexpected error occured when running game' may be a random bug which has something to do with the DDL. I don't know how fix it. I have never heard about skeleton key before.

I uploaded a new version that fixes the cake bug.

This is a very well done game. I like it a lot and I'd love it to see a normal RPG based on it, with outdoor areas, quests, bosses, shops, NPC, and so on.
I also like the Fog Of War feature and I'd like to know how is it done. I haven't yet seen any smart way how to do it, people usually just cover all the map with black blocks and test them with collision_line. Did you use any tutorial you could show me?
Btw, my most succesful character so far was Assassin, 16th place in high score. Died because the fate generated too much of ogres and skeletons at the same time.

I like this game so much, that I have to submit some constructive criticism, which might hopefully result in a better game on a similar engine.
1) how is it possible to starve to death in a dungeon full of well-fed rats, snakes and orcs? If you really want a roguelike to get inspiration from, try ADOM. Corpses there can eaten, (cooked or raw) if killed with care. (and not with gigantic explosion) Trust me, they taste like chicken. I'm sure it will be a great improvement for gameplay, nobody wants their characters dead, just because the game didn't care to generate enough of pineapples and bread (WTF?) in the barren dungeons.

2) Ranged combat. It's a nuisance to click on a tiny item in the inventory, and then click on an enemy, over and over again. Do I have to choose the arrows or ranged spell? Can't it just be chosen once and then clicked repeatedly? Even better would be to have the distant targets chosen automatically. (with a possibility of switching between them) Firing then would be on keyboard...
For now, I just choose meelee combat characters, because firing manually is too annoying.

3) Unidentifiable heaps of items. Amulets, staves, potions... No description, really? I don't believe that a normal, readable description of items is something that ruins gameplay. There may be scrolls of identification, or the items will identify themselves after use, or something like that. Just something. I already don't remember which one is poisonous, if light cyan or blue potion.

4) More music, if possible.

5) I don't believe in good old times when saving a game into multiple slots almost any time I want would make the player less of a man, or woman. (for a non-score-based game, of course) I also don't believe in necessity of extremely bad graphics and tiny resolution. (someone here suggested going 8-bit, noooo!) 16x16 with colors is survivable, but anything less has negative effect on gameplay. An old-school game doesn't have to be a clunky game. Look at Eschalon, it's so much old-school, but has a nice, real graphics and the interface is not clunky. We should take from the past only the good things. Who doesn't learn from the history, must repeat it, this is why there is so much of ugly 4-colored games, I guess.

There are 3 different types of alpha values for floors, walls and enemy objects. Zero is unseen, 0.6 is seen but blocked by line of sight (enemies have zero even you have seen them before) and 1 which is visible. The system is made using collision_line():s. The Background color is black all the time.



I could put item drops when you kill a monster instead of random item spawn. That's a good idea.



There is a hotkey for shooting arrows and casting spells there. Put cursor over an icon and you will see it. Automatic targetting was on the todo list but I didn't put it there because I thought hotkeys are enough easy to use.



I didn't want to make a generic rpg stat system for items because It would be more interesting to find out new things when you play the game again and again. +2 str/dex/whatever and prompt descriptions are boring and I wanted to try something else.


Easy to implement.


I'm a bad spriter. My 16x16 sprites would be more horrible than 8x8. I can convert the current engine to use 16x16 tiles instead of 8x8 tiles pretty easily.

Thanks for comments. I started to make a sequel but I still need more inspiration and more ideas.

I just got to the Demigod! And died. My paladin stood his ground well, but then Demigod started to give me a serious damage. And somehow in critical moment the Blink spell failed (or 22 MP was not enough?) and Demigod won. Next time I will try Blink in advance, if it works. Unfortunately, I'm now short on Internet, so I couldn't save my score online.

I have one more remark to a sequel of the game. Improve the pathfinding algorithm. Now it works best in 4 directions, but it's not really an effective 8 direction movement. For example, if there are two enemies in a row next to me, then the second one will not go around the first one and stand next to him.

Considering that you've made such a good game, you'll probably know a solution, I'd just like to say how I did it. I created an array called turn, filled with values.
turn[0] = 0
turn[1] = 1
turn[2] = -1
turn[3] = 2
turn[4] = -2
turn[5] = 3
turn[6] =-3
turn[7] = 4
(I have also made a random choice between a similar array of values, but with their minus signs reversed) Let's say you have a direction to the target. There is an obstacle at a block in this direction, and then you test for an obstacle in the direction + (45*turn[n]). This array tells the object how to search in for a direction nearest to the wanted direction. It is a simple, but relatively effective pathfinding, an 8-direction remake of mp_potential_step. It's very useful for simplier games, where things like A* algorithm are not worth of the effort.

I don't know what is wrong with the blinking scroll but it was intended to cost 10 mana point. It's hard to track down bugs in this game. :X

I made a grid movement engine for a different game using mp_potential_step and move_snap to find a way to the target but that looks also pretty good! The Pathfinding is going to change for sure.

Salutations, good sir.

I have not posted on this message board in almost three years, but I felt that after playing your game all the way through (after countless previous attempts, no doubt), this thread had earned a few minutes of my attention.

I normally don't come across a game from the GMC that I enjoy, but I absolutely love this one! From the simple (but well-done) graphics style, to the fast and easy gameplay, I like every bit of it. I was slightly disappointed to learn that Level 20 is the last floor of the dungeon. The demigod is quite difficult to defeat without being a caster and having the spell "Blink" available (and with sufficient MP to cast it). I managed to defeat him as a death mage using a combination of the "Blink" spell and the "Magic Dart" spell. It was most unfortunate that after the demigod's demise, I was forced to either submit my high score to the online high scores list, or return to the title screen as a nameless and forgotten hero. (On the list, I am "Slough Feg.")

A bug I noticed during one of my adventures is that if you ready a spell by clicking it (or by pressing the corresponding key) and enter the next level of the dungeon (before casting it onto whatever selected tile), you can no longer cast spells, except for the ones that do not require the cursor in order to be used. There were a couple of other bugs I happened upon, as well, but I do not remember what they are at this time...

Bugs/glitches and abrupt endings aside, I really think you've created a wonderful game. As of now, this and Darth Lupi's "Mage Craft" are my two favorite Game Maker-made games... and I encourage you to create a sequel to this one...




A couple of suggestions for you if you intend to update this game and re-release it:

- You could make two gameplay modes. One could be "Normal," where the player would play through the game normally with the score system staying the way it is. The other mode could be "Easy," where the player would play through the game without a score system, but would have the freedom of saving and loading the character whenever he/she likes. (The loading option could be on the title screen, I suppose.)

- Give the warrior-type classes (adventurer, paladin, etc.) an increased amount of maximum HP at the start of the game. They don't seem to handle the deeper levels of the dungeon well, as they're always facing their opponents up close, therefore taking damage from melee attacks more often than any caster character.




Inquiries:

- Personally, I'd like to know exactly what the attributes do for my character when I increase them through a level-up. I cleared the game using only the Vitality and Intelligence attributes for my mage whenever he gained a level, and he did just fine in hostile areas of the dungeon. The bonuses gained from them are discernible, though. (They increase HP and MP, respectively. Intelligence also increases the effect's of a character's magical abilities, no doubt.) I assume Strength would increase the damage done by a character's melee attack, as well as improve his Armor Class, and Dexterity would increase the occurence of successful hits done by a character's melee attack, and then give him a hidden bonus to his Evasion statistic.

- Are there any differences between the multiple throwing weapons available in the dungeon? There are axes and spears both designed for throwinng at the opponent, but I can never tell which one inflicts a higher level of damage.

- Finally, could you please inform me about the various effects created by magical items that have the description "There are strange inscriptions."? It seems to come with a lot of items, but most of the time, I can never tell if it's good or bad for my character. You don't have to tell me this, though. I'm sure it was meant to be a mystery.




Thank you for reading my post, and I wish you good luck with the development of your future GM creations! Good day, sir.

Hehe thanks! The spell casting bug was there because I forgot to set 'global.ranged_attack=false' when entering the new dungeon but that is easily fixed. Normal and easy mode is going to be in the next version when I have fixed most of bugs. I find melee classes a bit better than others because they can wear a heavy armour without getting negative stat modifiers so I don't think they deserve more hitpoints at the start. Throwing axes and spears have different damage and durability. One does more damage and the other is more durable (smaller chance to disappear after being thrown). All items usually have positive effect on your actions exept potions that clearly hinder your movement or stats. Your character will 'learn' if the potion was bad and you will see the full description when you next time examine the same coloured vial. Descriptions that sounds like magical can have something to do with intelligence, and rage and power may increace your strenght. But it's your decision how you interpret it.

Btw I have never seen the demigod without using cheats

Started playing just earlier, really enjoying it. What on earth is this "Something hits you.".

Hidden mechanics are never fun :<, and I have no idea what started this and how to get rid of it.

Looks fun.
I'll edit in my thoughts once I finish playing it.
Very, very nice.

Maybe it is in your inventory.

HOW disappointing... When I ran the Game After I extracted it 3 times it kept saying unexpected error occurred. I do run XP Home and sure as hell It's more than system requirements

Please look into this. Coz I sure wanna try this game

Aww I hope it's not some kind of bug in Game Maker because I downloaded it and ran it without getting error message. I'm using Windows XP too. It's hard to say what's wrong with the game right now.

Hi,

This was really something inspiring! It reminds me very much of my favorite roguelike game, with music and sound effects!
The fact that you used these sound effects is definately something rewarding.
The music is awesome! It brings a good atmosphere to the game, and gives me the feeling of actually being somewhere in a dungeon!

I have some suggestions:

Because the player is at the center of the screen, I think this gets annoying to watch. It's more tiring for my
eyes to see the whole level moving around than if just the player would move around.

I also think that walls get dark too soon. If you're in an alleyway sometimes the walls are completely black while they are only 2 squares away from me.
This is open to speculation, though.

Nick

Bit confused about the potions, is there intentionally a vague tooltip?

Woot, Rank 74 on the high scores.

Awesome game, Telchar. You mixed the quick playing pick up action of Action games and combined it with the character development, exploration, and dungeon crawling action of old RPGs. Nicely done.

My only pet peeve is that we don't get much info on the items. I had to use trial and error just to know that a potion healed my character.

Oh, great!

That was my main goal while making the game.

This game was fun ! I will challenge my friends to see who can make the highest score . I got 505690 points.

I hope you will continue adding stuff into the game like more weapons, armors and stuff.
I would also love to see like, random shops in the dungeons. Where you can sell and buy different loot.
Maybe throw in a bit more food into the levels too. But only a bit more, and it will be perfect .
I liked the "randomizing stats" thingy if you know what I mean. Also I liked that it had simple controls, not like 34 different buttons to remember like in other rogue-like games.

I enjoyed the game, granted I can never get too far.

It has tons of replayability and the levels are never the same, although I do have a few gripes with it.

For one: L heals with the scroll of healing..I hate this, it makes it so I have to waste mana to check the description of items. (Shift L Click)
The only other thing I can think of is that it gets a bit repetitive at times.


Other than that I loved this game. I'm glad I voted for it in the cagematch.

Other than the occasionally broken English this game's OK, to say at least. I assume the author's first language isn't English?

1. "Deadly in wrongs hands" - Description of a dagger I found. One wrong is enough, I believe.
2. Satisfied (after eating enough) - I don't know... I'd use the word "satiated" or simply "full". I'm satisfied once I play this game through.
3. "As a mage or archers don't wear a heavy armour." (from readme) - Try this instead: Don't wear heavy armor if you choose to play as a mage or an archer.
4. (more to be added... maybe)

Anyway, I hate to correct spelling and grammar when the game is great.
Sitäpaitsi, en munkaan äidinkieli ole englanti

Thanks for finding those errors! I'll fix them asap.

Anyway, I can read quite challenging texts in English but my writing skills suck balls. ;E

LMAO

fix that darn unexpected error

When does it appears? I haven't seen any errors (I'm using XP) plus I have used Vista converter.

I want to first say I saw the preview of this on Youtube a while back and was very happy to find it was available recently. Assuming you are still checking back here, and updating, I thought I would post a few things I found.

1)Not sure if you care to hear another spelling error, but I just noticed it: The strength potions (both draining and fortifying) are spelled "strenght"
Also, the "armour melting away" potion is described as "temporarily reduses armour" where it should be "reduces"

2) If an object is sitting on the staircase, it must be picked up before walking down. With a full inventory this poses another problem as you must walk away, drop an item, walk back and pick up the stair item, drop it, pick up your first item, then go down stairs. Changing the down stair walk perhaps? Or walking down automatically if a full inventory?

I know the mouse thing has already been mentioned so I won't go there. All-in-all a really great game and another roguelike that will likely consume many hours. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

I know that there may be some typos because I have dyslexia and I haven't spell checked it completely through. I have to admit when I finished the game engine I quickly made some content and really didn't plan anything so the game isn't one solid pack that works smoothly. I like to desing games and but I don't have much interest to finish them.

Ha! That sounds very familiar, I constantly start projects I never finish. Probably already been asked, but are you planning on releasing the source at all? I'm sure there would be someone willing to go through bugfixes, well it's great as it is anyways. You said you're working on something else now right?

I'm not releasing source because I want keep files if I sometimes started to make project again. I'm planning to make Trapdoor Below 2 and use the same engine but it is more RPG:ish. At the moment I'm creating new shadow engine and tiles but I don't think it's never going to finish.

But now I'm working on item descriptions deleting all fluffy stuff and putting numbers and more accurate info there. Also I found that the stats of the items aren't correctly calculated and they are missing some bonuses. Character's stats are still imbalanced but I'm not going to tell how yet.