Pixel Dungeon Mobile Game
Caterina Haggins
Pixel Dungeon is a 2012 roguelike indie game created by Oleg Dolya. Through turn-based gameplay, the player must descend and battle through dungeon floors to obtain the Amulet of Yendor. Initially developed for Android, it expanded to iOS and PC platforms. Dolya stopped updating the game in 2015. Since it is open source, the game's small community have created mods and games based on Pixel Dungeon's code, the most notable of which is Shattered Pixel Dungeon. While it received little attention from game critics, the few who reviewed it found the gameplay addictive, striking a balance between approachability and roguelikes's defining difficulty.
Pixel Dungeon is a simple roguelike video game with pixel art graphics.[1][2] Players are tasked with obtaining the immortality-giving Amulet of Yendor by descending down the floors of a dangerous dungeon filled with monsters. Like other roguelikes, death is permanent and requires the player to start from the very beginning with a new game.[3]
Before every game, the player must choose a character class to play as: the melee Warrior; the wand-wielding Mage; the evasive Rogue; and the ranged, unlockable Huntress.[3] Gameplay is turn-based and tile-based. Every time the player character moves or uses an item counts as at least one turn; in-game time progresses and enemies move every turn.[1]
The player descends through maze-like floors such as sewers, abandoned prisons and buried Dwarven cities.[1] New floor layouts are procedurally generated every game.[3] There are 25 levels, with shops and a boss fight every five levels. NPCs can appear and give players quests in exchange for items.[1][4]
The player can attack enemies with an equipped melee weapon, or use wands/ranged weapons from their inventory. Armor can be equipped which provides absorption against melee attacks. Rings can be equipped which provide bonuses to the player. Equipment can be upgraded, which enhances their stats. Weapons and armor can also be enchanted, giving them an extra effect. It is important to note that a player must become familiar with a piece of equipment to know its upgrade level. Some pieces of equipment may even be cursed, making them harm the player instead of helping them. The player has a range of items at their disposal. The player can find and use potions and scrolls, but they start off unknown to the player. For example, a player may not know the effect of an "orange potion" until they identify it.
The player levels up by gaining experience points from killing enemies. This increases their max health and effectiveness in combat. Enemies often sometimes drop equipment or money. The money can be used in shops that are on the floor below every boss level. Another mechanic is hunger. The player must find and eat food, or they will starve and take damage every turn.
Pixel Dungeon was created by independent developer Oleg "Watabou" Dolya, who was inspired by another roguelike titled Brogue (2009).[1] By July 2014, it had over one million downloads on Google Play.[2] Dolya released the game for iOS in July 2015, but shortly after stopped working on the game, considering it complete.[1][5]
Pixel Dungeon was highly praised by players upon release. In a 4.5-star review, TouchArcade's Andrew Koziara thought that it struck a good balance between approachability and the unforgiving difficulty of roguelikes by streamlining their mechanics, but found that the purpose of many items remained unclear.[1] Koziara and John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun enjoyed exploring the dungeon and learning the details over time.[1][4] The few critics who reviewed the game found it addictive despite the difficulty.[1][2][4][6] Android Central and GamesRadar+ included it on their list of the best Android games in 2022.[6][7]
Pixel Dungeon attracted a small community of fans who started a subreddit and Wikia for the game, which Koziara recommended for confused players.[1][2] In 2014, Dolya made Pixel Dungeon open-source. The community has since developed mods for Pixel Dungeon and their own games based on its code.[5]
Evan Debenham, a novice Canadian developer known as Shattered Pixel, started working on Shattered Pixel Dungeon shortly after Pixel Dungeon went open-source and he released it for Android. Debenham intended to work on balance out item benefits in Pixel Dungeon for several months, but it took seven years of continuous updates for Version 1.0 to come out in August 2021, coinciding with the iOS release. It is currently Debenham's primary project and main source of income.[5][8]
Other popular variants include Skillful Pixel Dungeon, Yet Another Pixel Dungeon, and Remixed Dungeon: Pixel Rogue. These games all have the same base mechanics,[14] something Bo Thompson tried to avoid when developing Pixel Odyssey.[3]
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is one of the best Pixel Dungeon variants you can find for Android. 'What is Pixel Dungeon?' some clueless gamer may ask. Pixel Dungeon is a free and open source roguelike that's perfectly adapted to touch screens, which for this very reason is much more accessible (although not necessarily easier) than classics of the genre. For this reason, it has become a benchmark of the genre for mobile devices.
At the beginning of each game, players can choose to play as a warrior, a mage, a thief, or a huntress. Each of the character classes has its own advantages and disadvantages, as usual, so it's important to know how to make the most of them. For example, if you try to use the huntress or the mage for melee attacks, you'll be dead in no time. In the same way, if you don't take full advantage of your stealth ability as the thief, you'll probably only manage to do very minor damage.
The experience of playing Shattered Pixel Dungeon is practically identical to the vast majority of traditional roguelike games. You start in the first level of a dungeon full of traps and monsters (especially rats, at the beginning), trying to make your way to the lower levels of the dungeon. The further you descend, the more dangerous your enemies become, and the more likely you are to die. Fortunately, every time you kill an enemy, you will gain experience. And with this experience, you can level up, which allows you to improve your character's attributes.
Beyond your character's level, there's also his inventory to consider. A good weapon and good armor can make the difference between life and death. In the same way, learning how to ration potions and scrolls is crucial if you want to reach the end of the dungeon. As a general rule, you should avoid taking risks until they're unavoidable. That is, never take an unknown potion if there are better options. That said, if you have the choice between dying by incineration or drinking a mysterious concoction, the decision is simple.
Like almost all variants of Pixel Dungeon, Shattered's controls are perfectly adapted to touch screens, so you can forget about using virtual keyboards and keys. To move your character, simply tap on an empty area of the setting. Similarly, to attack, all you have to do is tap on an enemy. And that's about it, as most of the game controls are fully contextual.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is an excellent roguelike that takes the best of the classics of this genre and adds a modern control system that's ideal for touch screens. The game also has an absurd amount of content, which only continues to grow with each update. Already, there are more than 50 different types of enemies, more than 100 objects, and a virtually infinite number of dungeons, all of which make for spectacular replayability.
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