Heya. I bought the game the day before yesterday and I wanted to let you guys know what I think of it.



I really like roguelike games. The randomness makes it interesting everytime and usually the difficulty makes it a game you can keep playing for months/years.



When I played this game at first, It was rather confusing. There were so many options and I actually thought this game was damn near impossible, because i thought to be a good idea to move the diamond base thing (that you need to protect) from room to room. I'd unlock a few rooms and move the diamond there, because, I knew I was supposed to bring it to the exit eventually. Turned out you end up with unlimted waves.



When I eventually unlocked the last room, I thought: why not move the diamond there, to see what happens? Turns out you've instantly finished the floor once you do that, without having to survive a lot of waves.



When I realised that, the game started to get fun. I started to understand the game and I pretty much knew what I was doing and after a few attempts I made it through the final exit.



Now, I have to say: you made the game very interesting. Because there are so many options, you want to try out stuff and it keeps things interesting. You've combined multiple games and it turned out really well. This is a game I can see myself playing for a long time. Also, bug-wise, I've hardly seen any. Except for one I mentioned here already (if you move the diamond to a room that is not the exit).



However, it's not all good. Even though there are many options, once you've played it a couple of times, you see there is a simple way of winning the floor easily. You have to do a few things and then the game isn't challenging anymore. Now, I know the game is still in it's alpha stage and I expect it to change, but at the moment, all those options aren't usefull.



All you need to is this: Select a dude who can operate machines. Select another dude who's good at fighting.



When the game starts, open a few doors until you find a room where you can build a machine. Leave the dude there who can operate machines and build an industry machine. At first the industry machine is the most important one because with it, you can get more resources, build more machines and build turrets. In that room and any other room that is between unopened doors and the diamond, you build some turrets.



Alright, so now, all the fighting dude has to do is unlock some doors until you find the exit. In between those rooms, when you find I new dude, always get it. If you're in luck, it can also operate machines. With it, you build the food one. The food is the second most thing, as it allows you get more dudes and level up. There is absolutely no need to get more Science, since you hardly use it. Unlocking more turrets to build isn't really needed, once you get the claymore one. Other than that, you just want to upgrade your food/industry and the claymore, but no biggy if you don't have enough industry or the stone that is required to upgrade them is destroyed.



If you open a door and you have to fight multiple waves, you simply pull back to a room where you built those turrets and you kill them there.



That is pretty much all you have to do. If you happen to encounter a merchant who has something usefull, you can just buy them because you don't really need the light and if you unlock a stone where you can upgrade stuff, you can just use it too, if you have enough science, but none of it is really important.



Just use the food whenever you have enough to level up your dudes so you can keep up with the increasing difficulty and spam their spells. That's all there is to it. So the first few times you play the game it's fun, but after a while you realise its all the same.



That's pretty much it.



So here the pros and cons:



Pros:

-unique, refreshing game

-Lots of options

-Makes almost a new genre of games by combining multiple others

-The randomness is a good idea to keep it interesting

-Even though it's in the alpha-phase, little bugs

-Humor

-Well worth the money



Cons:

-The different kinds of turrets have little to offer

-The upgrades aren't important enough

-The merchant isn't important enough

-Different resources also not important enough. The industry one is the only thing that is needed, pretty much everywhere. The food is nice although it loses it's value once your dudes are maxed. Science isn't really needed at all.

-Randomness isn't enough. It should have a much bigger impact. Sure, each room is different, but they have small impact.

-Even though there are many options, most of them turn out to be rather useless, making the game repetitive.

-Different characters are a little too alike.









Okay, this is how I should solve those cons:

-The different kinds of turrets have little to offer:



Make different kinds of turrets, like turrets that do splash damage, heat seaking, freeze/slow units, aoe damage etc. Also, it may not be new and unique, but it works, to allow each turrets to be leveled up seperately. By researching, you unlock the option to level up turrets, but to actually level them up, you need to it yourself, by instance, with the science resource. That way you make use of it and it actually becomes useful. It also is a good idea to give each turret a different option to level up. Like prisoner prod.



For 4 research you can level it up to prisoner prod lvl2. For 6 to prisoner prod lvl3. Once you've reached that level, you can either level it up to... i dunno, laser cannon lvl1, that shoots slow but powerful bolts of ligtning. You can also level it up to 'shocker lvl1' that does a weak bolt but jumps to nearby targets (or something).



also, it might be an idea to make the movement of your own dudes actually targetable. Instead of going to said room, they actually go stand where you clicked the mouse. That way, you can make use of the turret locations. For instance: piercing turret lvl1 shoots once piercing beam in a straight line. If you go stand that that spot, you can make enemies line up before they get to you, thus making use of its piercing shot. That way you can also add wall turrets, that are simply nothing but walls to block the path of enemies so they're forced to walk through a small patch, making piercing shots ideal, etc.



You also want most turrets etc to deal damage but not all, but those who deal no damage need to do something else to make them worth while. For instance, the wall ones I mentioned. Besides those, it might be an idea to make turrets that boost the damage of other turrets in that room.



-Upgrades aren't important enough:



I pretty much covered that one already. Give each one a different effect and not just damage. Slow/stun/snare/aoe are all good ways to make them interesting, but don't just do that. Make turrets upgradable seperately, adding a new layer of strategy.



-Merchant isn't important enough:



I'm quite sure you guys are already working on it, but there have to be more items with different effects. Besides the obvious pieces of clothing/weapons, it's also nice to add more different types of items. Like potions that heal/buff units for a certain amount of time. Also, an item that teleports a unit to a different room might be an idea, to save them from dying.



-Different resources aren't important enough:

Okay, so, industry is pretty much fine as it is. You need them to build pretty much all, so you should keep those like that. The other stats, however, aren't that important. Food loses its use entirely once you have leveled up all units to lvl8 and science isn't usefull at all. If you'd make the turrets upgradeble seperately by using science, you'd make use of the science much more, but food needs to do something else, besides healing/leveling up. Perhaps you could add a machine that mind controls enemies? Or some other way. You'd take control of a bug, that helps with the fight but can't do much else. Each door you open, the bug needs some food to stay alive. That way you have something else and it needs food.



-randomness isn't enough:

This is a tough one. Most roguelike games have a random element that each requires a different way to tackle. In dungeon of the endless, there is no such thing. Sometimes you encounter a few enemies and sometimes you find a new room with just a little bit of resources/chest, but they don't really matter. Surely, if there would be new items, the chest would get more interesting, but the others are not. Perhaps you can add different enemies, making elite ones or bosses, even. At the cost of quite an amount of resources, you can lock down the door again if you're not ready to face them, but with a chance of encountering very strong dudes when you open a door, you add a new layer of strategy, because you actually have to be careful when you open a door. At the moment, it doesn't really matter because the room itself is no problem. You just have to fight a bunch of dudes often because most rooms are dark, but that is simply solved by the strategy I've mentioned above. You want to reduce the creeps from everywhere factor but make the actual room a much bigger impact. That way, you can't just win by dropping turrets at every exit who just take care of it.



You also may want to increase the amount of resources gained. A player actually has to think twice about opening a room or not, because they can either face a very tough battle or a reward that's actually worth it.



Also, I'd add more rooms on every floor. But that's something I think you're already working on, since there are only two difficulties now. Besides that, you could reduce the amount of rooms where you can build a machine. That way, you prevent players from building everything they want to after the first few rooms, and also making opening new rooms more worthwhile.



-many options but most useless, making it repetitive:

I've already came up with a solution for that already. Just make the turrets different, thus making the researches more worthwhile (because you need to unlock each level upgrade by researching them, before you can upgrade the turrets yourself). Also, more items from chest, bosses or otherwise stronger enemies etc. Also something about the dudes you can play with, but I'll say that in the next section.



-Different characters too alike:

The characters are too much alike. There are two types: Workers and fighters. You need a bunch of workers and one good fighter and you've got everything covered. A way to change that is to actually make a big difference in stats. For instace, you can make a character that does a ton of damage but dies in a matter of seconds. A character that does little damage but take a lot of hits works too. That way, people actually have to make use of the abilities given by items. The stealth ability, would be very useful on the character that does ton of damage.



Also, it would be a good idea to make the active abilities your units have, stronger and better but have a longer cooldown so they won't just be spammed. It also helps if you add visual effects, like a jump, or something else so that looking at it makes you already want to press it again.





So that's it. I'd like to know what you guys think of it and if you'd need some help solving a problem, I don't mind helping you out.