I am impressed! You are definitely activating that "just one more attempt" impulse that the best of these types of games induce. I'm usually not very into tower defense games, but took a chance on DotE based on how good ES is, and it turned out that the roguelike and rpg elements are integrated so well with the towers, that it does come out being something altogether it's own.



So I'm hooked on the game design, but have to say that the art and sound are both beautiful and really produce a unique atmosphere. The first time I experienced some of the more set-piece looking rooms, I got a sense of exploration and discovery to go with the tension of opening a new door.



Again, really impressed, especially at alpha stage. Keep up the great work!

As am I a bit hooked like a fish... on a hook... but not fully, its a bit bare bones still.

Only 3 levels. Graphic could be more smooth like heroes 3. I wonder how long for next build.

Absolutely and unreservedly in love with this game, even in its Early Access state.... my praise...



Its a roguelike, tower defense, RPG hybrid that just works effortlessly in combining all elements into a tense strategy game that has procedurally generated dungeons and heroes with unique abilities that encourages you to become attached to them, and then be desperate when the permadeath hits.



You have to carry your crashed shuttles power crystal through a maze of sci fi dungeon rooms. You only have the two heroes that crash landed. You open each airlocked door, with anticipation of what is beyond. As you deliberately carve a path through the maze to find the exit, you have to gather resources, industrial (to build things), biological (to heal and level up heroes), dust (dropped from the entrails of your enemy) to power up rooms with light and make the defences within functional. Dust is also the currency with which you can buy equipment/weapons from wandering merchants. So theres a balance between powering up a path, and getting new kit.



This intricate balance, means you have to be really careful which doors you open up, because from opened but darkened rooms come the snapping horde! In waves. Ultimately to see your heroes destroyed, but also to break the crystal and make the rooms dark again.



You command heroes, and tell them where to go, what to open. They auto-attack enemies in a room. You also build resource crystals on powered up rooms with appropriate crystal slots. Building a crystal costs industrial resources and gets increasingly more expensive. So first room has an industrial crystal, second room has a biocrystal, and so on. So that each open of a door, you net the resources pumped out by these structures. But with each open of the next door, comes the clawing enemy. They will destroy all crystals pumps if left to it. It's your job to place heroes, and defensive structures (turrets, mines, healing posts, extra damage posts) to prevent your demise.



As you carve this path through, you can turn power off to cul-de-sac in order to scrape together dust to buy kit, or to re-route power to another more resource lucrative track. But beware, darkened exposed rooms become sources of the creeping enemy. So make sure you have a heavily defended choke-point/killzone.



If damage to your defensive structures occurs some heroes have the ability to repair. Also, in combat you can spend bio crystals to heal heroes on the fly. However, this is also used to level up heroes (making them tougher) and also to buy new heroes you might meet stranded on the way. Always keep some bio spare to pickup new party members - you can have a max of four. Some are melee, some are ranged, some are healers, some are speedy, some are slow high hit points etc.



Lastly, once you have the exit in sight, use your resources and heroes to plot out a well protected lit path to the exit, then one of your heroes (I suggest a fast one) must uproot the original crystal and carry it to the exit, whilst under many waves of enemy clamouring to take your life and your crystal.



Absolutely thrilling stuff. Pixel art. Lovely lighting and effects. Only three levels of dungeon at present in the current early access, but its being crafted regularly with community feedback/votes etc. I've put many hours into it, and quite a bit of it isn't active yet (like crafting blueprints). It is a very playable game at the current state, and I can't wait to see what other complexities and excitement it has to offer during development.



Well worth the effort, I picked it up on the off chance for £7, but after playing my socks off, had to badger Steam into changing my purchase into the Founders edition for the extra fruits available later on. Only £12 for that.



I will be playing the fook out of this game for a long time coming methinks.



Just been playing it, and have noticed something that I didn't twig earlier on, in that if you have your heroes in a room with a resource crystal, they work on it and maximise its output. So every new door (designating a "door opener" hero) requires hero placement management when the monsters start their assault. I was just keeping them all in a choke point room, and fending off the horde. But this doesn't really give me the best returns on crystal resources. So I need to spread them all out around my crystal generators, then when the attack begins, move them all to a fighting point as best I can. Timing based on their speed seems to be key, so that they all arrive when the nasties do. But they all have different speed stats! Amazing how this little nuance has just revealed itself to me, when I've been playing the game for 10+ hours. And theres only three levels at the moment!

I hope you put most of what you said there spelk into a review on steam for DoTE. Tis the honey of the peoples mouth music.

I am absolutely in love with this game as well, and cannot reccomend it enough to anyone!! Here is my review I put on steam...



I cannot recommend this game enough. It has become (in ALPHA, mind you) my absolute FAVORITE Indie game. It's a Rogue-like (which means randomized, perma-deaths, all that good jazz), Dungeon Crawler, RPG, Tower Defense AND OFFENSE. You protect your Power Crystal from enemies lurking within the dungeon, while simultaniously branching out into the randomized dungeon, placing defenses and slaughtering monsters as you go... Did I mention there is no way to know what you are about to encounter? Yep, you never know what's behind the next door (which is especially scary when you are presented with three or more doors, since any of them can lead to your demise if you aren't lucky), which adds tension and a great sense of satisfaction when you find more blueprints to build new defenses or finding a treasure chest with equipment for your party of heroes. The party system definitely lives up to the greatness of the game's concept. You are given two random heroes to start with (You can, however, find more heroes throughout the dungeon to recruit), and you basically give them commands (kinda like FTL, where you don't really have REAL control over where they go in the room, but you tell them to go from room to room, where they automatically do things such as repairing defenses or fighting enemies.) It's a really simple concept, but in the thick of enemy swarms it certainly makes you think quickly and react fast, commanding your heroes like a pro. Okay, so I've already gone on about the gameplay and concepts (which, if I haven't already stated my feelings, I LOVE THEM), but the real show-stealer for me is the QUALITY of the world, characters, effects, and sounds. This game is GORGEOUS, like a modern day retro classic. The visuals are pixel art, but done in such a stylized way it's impossible not to stare at it's beauty. And the sound design is OFF THE CHARTS! It's so awesome that they are actually bothering to give you the soundtrack when the game officially launches. Not to mention, if you buy the Founder's Pack (which I did), you can actually vote on what features you feel are the most important for them to implement throughout it's development, which is awesome! They are also listening to player feedback and working to make everything exactly the way that we the gamers want them to be. In a word, the developer is awesome. I fully support Amplitude and this project has my Bender-Certified Seal of Awesomeness and Approval.



I commented on it with:

"The big question is: Are you ready for what's behind the door?"



I just love this game so much I cannot wait to see how it develops...

Great game so far, fantastic concept, but it needs a lot more content.



The rooms so far just feel like empty rooms, they need more character and diversity.



Same with the characters. They tend to feel a bit like mobile towers in a tower defense game. There is a lot of potential for becoming very attached to your characters.



I feel like the game has a slippery slope mechanism, where you start doing poorly (nodes, turrets get taken out, have to be replaced) and you set yourself further back, making it even harder to recuperate. On top of that, resources carry on to the next level; or, if you didn't save any resources, the disadvantage carries over to the next level. I'm not saying make it too easy, but make it less frustrating if you're pretty far along in your game and things suddenly take a bad turn.



The spaceship should be revisited somehow. Maybe have a bunch of missions to reconnect/rebuild parts of the ship, and finally bring the power source to the core and launch off the planet? Maybe introduce a recurring boss who sends in lieutenants as mini-bosses. Anything that develops the story and RPG elements would serve this game well.



I think it's very important for this game to stick to the exploration/RPG/one more room theme and stay away from the tower defense theme.

red_locust wrote:


I think it's very important for this game to stick to the exploration/RPG/one more room theme and stay away from the tower defense theme.

I think if they keep it the way it is now, where it's perfectly balanced, it will be great Honestly, I enjoy the tower defense bits a whole lot, as I think it compliments the overall experience very well.

Digitalhawk96 wrote:
I hope you put most of what you said there spelk into a review on steam for DoTE. Tis the honey of the peoples mouth music.

Didn't think about putting it up as a review on Steam, but I have made sure that most of the online gaming communities I frequent know about the game. Grognards.com, QuarterToThree.com, GamerswithJobs.com,OctopusOverlords,Temple of the Roguelike etc. Fingers crossed some will listen to my prattle and give the game a go.

Might be interesting if the aliens/monsters gained special abilities (like disable turrets, slow attack speed, etc) aside from just priority targeting for heroes, turrets, or w/e.

Aside from finding the game a bit to easy to beat, at the moment, I really enjoy this game. With only three floors per game, I still find myself wanting to play the alpha on a daily basis. Can't wait to see what further development holds for this game ie Hero ablities.

Thank you!! Worth every moment i play it. Very enjoyable and it hits home with a solid combo of the rogue/rpg/tower!!.. awesome stuff.. nice work artistically/musically/spacetheme!! thank you.

I enjoy the bits of humor throughout intro/eq descriptions keep that light of heart up, i feel it blends well to the darkness of the dungeon. Highly enjoy the pug with the merchant!..



would like to see:



Random deaths for enemies. (depends on death by sword/gun turrent/claymoar)- more gore!!



Hero's with random dialogue - perhaps a random language.. comic style jargan inbetween waves. to increase chances with humor. (higher wit more sayings??) - more life!!



Better hero placement. - make the whole room clickable?.. frustrated with the random click in the middle. - more tactics!!



thats all for now!



thank you

I find the game to be far too easy atm. I really hope they add more mechanics that make it more than just using the same strategy over and over again; some way to force me to do different things. Hopefully the science stuff will do this?

I wasn't going to buy and play DotE, rogue-likes are meh for me, but Amplitude gifted me the founder pack and after spending about an hour on exploring the beautiful dungeons I find the game pretty interesting. Looking forward to the next update