Release #7 is out!!

Finally! Release #7 is now out, nearly 7 months after the previous one. It has the most changes in TGGW in a new release so far. I really hope it will feel like a fun and fresh experience. You can download it here. I’m excited to hear what you think about this release!

Quick “what’s new” guide for those who played the earlier releases:

There are quite a lot of new mechanics to be aware of when starting Release #7. So here is a short list of important mechanics in case it is confusing in the beginning:

  • You now start the game with the condition “dual wield” (with your fists). This gives you two attacks per turn. The dual wield status disappears as soon as you equip a melee weapon.
  • You now start the game dealing non-lethal damage (again, with your fists). Non-lethal damage won’t kill monsters, just make them unconscious. Unconscious monsters will wake up again when you rest. To kill monsters permanently you have to wield a weapon that deals normal damage.
  • Your fists will now appear as equipment, so you can see their effects. Wearing gloves may alter the attributes of your fists.
  • You start the game with 7MP instead of 5. Having at least one hand unequipped gives +2MP. This +2 shows up as an equipment bonus on the character sheet.
  • The background is now updating continuously when you are inactive. The game is still turn-based though. Fleeing and sleeping monsters will blink.
  • There is now a chance that traps won’t trigger (and instead you will be able to pick them up). If you press ‘z’ you can see your percentage to “avoid traps”. This percentage is based on your ‘noise’ and ‘light’ attributes. Lower ‘noise’ and higher ‘light’ increases your chance to avoid traps. Known (detected) traps will blink.
  • Some melee weapons now have “reach“. This means you can make a melee attack at a short distance with them. Target your monster and press ‘0’ to make a reach attack. The UI will give you a hint.

There are plenty of other changes, see the changelog for details, but these are the changes that makes the gameplay different from the start. The manual is not yet fully up to date, but it contains most of the new things already.

Updated: October 18, 2015 at 11:53

Comments

  1. Great news 🙂
    Bye bye my work 😀

    Big thanks for Your effort to make this great game

    1. Thank you! Feels great to finally have it out, I really hope you’ll enjoy it! 🙂

  2. Congratulations!

    Finally we get to try out these new trap mechanics. This and some of the other features should make for some interesting new strategies 😀

    1. Thank you Kyzrati! Yes, there should be a lot of new things to explore even for you 🙂 I hope you find some time to try it out!

      1. I will MAKE some time soon enough, but it might have to wait until after I release the next version 😉

        (Fortunately TGGW is easy to play in short bursts, so maybe before then!)

        1. That is very understandable, I also haven’t had time to play games much lately. I have to make time for the new version of Cogmind as well!

      2. And double congratulations, I see you got an article on RPS! Lots more players coming your way, no doubt 😀

        (www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/10/19/the-ground-gives-way-free-roguelike)

  6. Yeah, it looks awesome, looking forward to using my fists !
    For sur there will be a LP on this 7th release… of course in french 😀

  7. Finally! 🙂 But I have one question: how and where can I report bugs? I didn’t find special page for this or instructions. :F Could I send email(s)?

      1. Thank you for the bug report, I will get that fixed! Yes, you can mail or send comments, I appreciate it!

    1. It would be nice, and I am getting a lot of requests for it so I am going to give it more attention. I will see what I can do, but it’s not completely straightforward. I know it unfortunately doesn’t work in WINE. Thank you very much for the interest! 🙂

  9. I have always loved the idea of roguelikes, but none of the more traditional ones ever stuck with me. Either the barrier to entry was too much for a working dude who can’t game like he used to, or I got paralyzed wondering what I was missing from all the systems and options in play.

    The coffee-break timing of this game, the wonderful tutorial, and the deep-but-simple gameplay has me hooked. This is the PC roguelike I’ve been looking for. Great stuff!

    PS: Any thought about a mobile port?

    1. Thank you very much for getting in touch Josh! I am particularly happy to read your story. This was exactly one of my goals when designing the user interface: to be able to hook players not normally interested in roguelikes for the reasons you mentioned! I wanted to prove that it is possible to make a deep and interesting roguelike without a complicated interface. Really happy you like it! 🙂

      I am starting to get requests for ports, so I will start to look into it. I don’t know how possible it would be to port the current version to mobile platforms (most likely not straightforward), so I am not saying more than that I will be looking into it a bit more…

      1. Hey man, in my opinion, you have definitely succeeded. If you ever put a little donation jar up on your site I’ll chip in a bit.

        That’s fair enough on the ports, I’ve got far too much junk on my smartphone anyway, good luck with your other projects!

  11. This isn’t working for me unfortunately, it crashes at startup.
    I tried Win 8 compatibility (I’m in win 10) and ‘run as an administrator’ but still no joy.
    No error message or anything, just the generic “The Ground Gives Way.exe has stopped working” windows error box.

    Any ideas?

    1. Have you tried earlier versions before that was working? Also, do you have a virus program? My virus program interrupts and crashes it the first time I run it when downloaded, but it works on subsequent runs.

      1. No difference if I turn Windows Defender’s real time protection off and unfortunately I don’t have the old version anymore, I overwrote it.
        I don’t think I have played since going up to Win 10 so no idea if the old one was still working!

                1. Ok, thanks for trying though. That’s a real shame if it doesn’t work on Windows 10. I will investigate further!

    2. It is also untested on Windows 10, so there might be a problem there. I might have to upgrade my compiler.

    3. One thing I had issue with was when the font size was too large vertically, it would crash immediately. Create a shortcut and right click, go to properties, and try fiddling with the font tab for a smaller size, and see if that helps anything.

        1. I actually vaguely remember having this problem with the other versions. May be worth a mention in the release notes as it’s probably not just me!

          1. Yes, it has been an issue for several players. Thanks to TypeForHyre I have put it on the webpage, I will also put it in the release notes. Really glad it worked out! (also I relief to know it works in Win 10!).

            Thank you Doug for the help!

  12. Great news. Looks awesome. I really like the new features and how well the game is running. Definitelly one of the best *true* roguelikes, in my opinion.
    So I can’t finish unconscious enemies with melee weapons, right? Last time I was using a whip to incapacitate foes from a safe distance, and finished them with a single shot of any ranged ammo. That worked fine, but why can’t I just pierce them with my dagger?
    And I was so surprised with the new type of potion. I’m talking about that Very Rare one. Great idea.

    1. Great, you already found the secret mechanic then 😉 (and thank you for not spoiling it!)

      The reason you cannot use normal melee attacks on unconscious monsters is that it would result in a lot of weapon swapping and that weapons dealing non-lethal damage would be superiour after you found a weapon dealing normal damage. At least now you have to “waste” ammo on them. You could of course still swap in a normal weapon to do the killing blow though (before it becomes unconscious).

      Really happy you like the changes since you’ve been playing it from the start!

  13. I’m sorry. Delete the post if it unveils too much. The mystery shall be preserved! 🙂

    Also one of the oozes tried to corrode my fist, but it didn’t affect me in any way. Is it normal?

    1. No no, you didn’t reveal anything! I think you mentioned it in a very good way (enough to make people curious 🙂 ).

      Corrosion shouldn’t affect your fists, so that is normal. But maybe there should be a specific message when that happens..

  14. Oh man, Time for my productivity to drop about 75%. You know RockPaperShotgun gave you a review on this game recently and it was absolute SHIT, the comments on the review are making my blood boil. people saying that since its described as a coffee break roguelike they are going to pass since they prefer “epic” rogueikes. UGH . anyway i am so excited for this, thank you for all of your hard work!

    1. Interesting, I saw the review as well, but I interpreted as really positive! That one comment I thought was fair enough; I understand if someone doesn’t like coffee-break roguelikes, but sometimes I wonder if it is right to describe TGGW as “coffee-break” since it can get the associations that it is shallow/simple which I really don’t think TGGW is.

      Anyway, thank you very much for your support and I hope you are having fun with the release! 🙂

  15. Love the new release, nonlethal combat adds a lot to the game and I actually felt like the early game became more balanced.

    A tiny request: You think you can make an icon for future releases? I’d like to have something official to put as an icon for my desktop shortcut 😉

    1. Thank you! Yes, I feel the early game is both more balanced and more interesting now. Thanks for the suggestion, an icon would be good!

  16. It’s crashing on every start on a pretty-much stock Win7 gaming machine for every version I’ve tried. I’ve tried all versions listed here with any and all compatibility modes activated.

      1. I have so many Visual C++ redists it’s crazy. 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015. Did a repair installation using the download you linked to.

        I also tried the XP version in an XP virtual machine in Virtualbox and it didn’t work. I’ve also tried versions of TGGW #2, 3, and 6.

        I’ve also tried another comment about making a shortcut and trying that.

        1. hm 🙁
          That is really weird then. I really have no idea what the problem can be. I suppose you have tried to turn any virus program off also (sometimes they mess with new programs)? But if none of the versions works with any compatibility mode, then it is really a mystery. You don’t have a problem with any other programs?

                1. Same result, unfortunately

                  Well, I came here from RockPaperShotgun and I’ve never played the game, but I like this kind of roguelike, so I feel like I’d like to help troubleshoot this for you, if you want.

                  No way for me to give debug info or more details on what brings about the crash? Any other dependencies? I don’t have any weird customizations and have had no problem with a myriad of other games. Running a modern laptop with a decent graphics card. I’m a computer technician if that helps you suggest things to try.

                  1. I certainly appreciate the help! What I meant is that since I am clueless of what could be wrong, I am not sure myself what to test for. I am not very experienced in distributing software, and it seems it has worked for most players.

                    The dependencies should be only on pdcurses.dll and the visual studio redistributables.

                    TyreForHyre just posted a comment (see below), might that be the problem?

    2. Like I’ve mentioned to Doug, I also had crashes on startup, and it all stemmed from having the font size just a bit too large on the vertical scale. Try creating a short cut, going to properties, and fiddling with the font tab and see if a smaller size doesn’t fix the issue.

      1. Well, that worked (on the special static DLL one, anyway). 🙂 But I did that before…so I’m confused.

        So I’m running at 1366×768, which is less than most, probably (since I play old games that run in a window), so when it created the window partially off the bottom of the screen, it seems to crash. 10×20 (the default) font crashes, others work now…10×18 even, so maybe ship it with that since I doubt you’ll have anybody on less than 768 vertical?

        Thanks for the help, folks. 🙂

        1. Awesome! I am not sure the settings I put on the file I distribute actually makes any difference (more likely it is the users settings for console windows that will be used), but I have now put TyreForHyres fix on the webpage. I am really glad it worked out!

          Thank you for all the help Chris, and enjoy the game!

  17. Really loving the game so far, this is my first exposure to it and I’m having a blast.
    I did have a bit of a strange occurrence recently, a beetle that I had managed to confuse was knocked out by my whip. Even in it’s incapacitated state though it would continue to stumble around every few turns, is this an intended feature? I’m fine if it is, because it just means they have a chance to blunder into a pit of lava or any such thing, just curious is all.
    Thanks again for such a fun RL experience, it really has become one of my go to staple games for that dungeon crawling itch!

    1. Hey! Really happy you like the game, and thank you very much for your replies to Doug and Chris! If this is a common problem I will put it on the webpage and in the readme file. It is frustrating to have the game crash for some players and not knowing what it is. So in your case the font size was too big directly from the downloaded file?

      And haha, no, that’s definitely a bug (but a fun one 🙂 ). Unconscious monsters should not stumble around. Thanks for reporting!

      1. Yeah, the font size was too large in the vertical sense I suppose? It would only crash when the window popped up and I would see a scroll bar on the side of the window. Mind you I must have done something funny to my default fonts awhile ago and perhaps this lead to my issue, hard to say.

        Shame the unconscious thing is a bug, would like to see this stay in and perhaps be “spasms” caused by being muddled in the head. 😛

        1. Yes, the same happens to me if I try to start the game in full screen mode (only when I start it like that though). I guess it takes your default settings (or maybe mine, since I distribute it?). I really hope this is the problem that the other players had too, then at least I know what it is!

          Yeah, maybe it could be stretched to be logical somehow with the confusion… 😀 But I’ll probably remove it :p

        2. So as you saw, that seems to have been the problem for many players. Thank you so very much for your help and for informing the other players! I will put it in the release notes, and on the download and FAQ page for now. Really feels good to know that it was not a more severe problem! 🙂

          1. No problem mate, just really love the game and want to see more people playing it!

  18. I’m really enjoying this version so far. Finding out the new items is really exciting (e.g. that new very rare wand). The early game is far less intimidating now.

    Found some possible bugs/things:
    1. Had 2 apples in inventory then rested. Get message ‘an apple has fermented’ and ‘an apple has rotted’. End up with an apple and a rotten apple. Maybe one apple rotted twice?
    2. Drank a stack of 2 potions. Message says “You drink 2 bottles of liquor”. Obviously only drank 1 from the stack.
    3. Broken Door (the shield) says ‘-41% a. traps”. Is it supposed to be 40%?
    4. If I’m equipped with anything Open/Closed Melee, it will say Lose: Open Melee or Lose: Closed Melee whenever I equip anything (including armour/jewelery).
    5. Can definitely kill unconscious monsters by displacing the body onto a stairs then ascending/descending from the other side.
    6. Swapping equipment takes a turn now? At least in once case(from unarmed to equipping/unequipping an offhand item) I noticed it took a single turn.
    7. Silver weapons knocking undead unconscious rather than killing (intentional)? Sometimes it kills, sometimes it’s just nonlethal to them. Shouldn’t silver kill undead every time?

    And just some other suggestions:
    1. Ability to move unconscious enemies around? I mean other than displacing them repeatedly.
    2. Since ranged enemies can now use ranged attack at melee range, why not allow player to do so as well?
    3. Things like anvil/campfire would be better if you got to choose what you wanted to cook/unrust on use rather than it being randomly from inventory.

    Love the game and it was well worth the wait!

    1. 5. Nice find! Can be a bit problematic though, because you need another way to reach previous level. I just wanted to add that placing it on a portal and telepoting from another works too.

      7. I think, it has silver and nonlethal damage. I don’t remember which comes first, but you can miss with silver and hit with nonlethal at your finishing strike, incapacitating an undead this way.

      1. 5. Oh, I’m sorry, i was wrong with that portal thing. Body just hides behind a portal, you can’t move it, it isn’t showing on the sidebar, but it can be seen if open level map from main menu and return to game screen. And the monster awakes after rest. 🙁

      2. About 7: you’re right! But you never “miss” any of the damages, it just depends which damage type does the “killing blow”. So it depends on the remaining hp of the monster.

    2. Hi gza! Great to hear from you!

      1. haven’t seen this one before, will investigate.
      2. Ah… will fix.
      3. It is actually correct. Broken door has -50% in trap avoidance, but this is tapered down if you have less than 50% from the start. You probably had 50% from the start, so the first 40% are removed normally, but the last 10% is tapered down to 1%. This is similar to the melee/ranged fighting mechanic.
      4. Yes. That has been reported by a few players, it is a bug.
      5. haha really? I didn’t even know that 😀 Will fix for next release.
      6. hm.. it shouldn’t really. I will look into it.
      7. zennaris nailed it, see his comment above. If the monster dies or becomes incapacitated depends on which kind of damage that takes its hp to 0. This is intentional.

      About your suggestions:
      1. I think this would lead to too much carrying around, which would be tedious. The optimal strategy would then be to move all unconscious monsters to a room an close the door.
      2. I want to have that drawback with ranged weapons. The reason that monsters are now allowed to do it is more of a workaround for the annoying behaviour they had when they stayed at a range making it near impossible to attack them with melee. If I find a better solution, I will remove this restriction on monsters.
      3. Yes, I agree. I will see what I will do about that!

      Thank you very much for reporting the issues and for your suggestions! 🙂

      1. Some more info on those:
        3. This was in the item description, not in the effect, so possibly a typo.
        6. I might be mistaken, but I think this occurred only with offhand light sources such as candle or torch. I do this to make it happen:
        – both hands empty, enemy in view that is approaching you
        – ‘c’ to go to inventory, equip torch, unequip torch
        – ‘esc’ to exit inventory
        At this point a turn passes.
        7. Doesn’t this negate the point of silver weapons, that it is a special damage type to aid in defeating undead? If it has a chance to be nonlethal, then it’s usually inferior to standard non-silver weapons.

        Just some other thoughts:
        1. Doesn’t really make sense that you can knock “mindless” enemies unconscious
        2. If a rapier impairs melee, shouldn’t it also impair missile stat?

        1. 3. My point is that in your circumstance, it should be -41% both in comparison and in the “stat” window (or rather it should say “-50% [now -41%]”. The textual item description doesn’t mention trap avoidance.
          6. No, you are right. I checked it too, it really passes a turn under some circumstances, I think it is when you unequip. I will look into it further.
          7. Well, it still helps to accumulate damage and to knock them out faster. There are some weapons and magic that deal pure silver damage though.

          About your thoughts:
          1. only some mindless monsters are “unconscious” such as worms. The game internally tracks most mindless monsters and all undead monsters as “inanimate” and those monsters are always “incapacitated” instead of “unconscious”. Edit: this a purely cosmetic difference, both statuses work the same way.
          2. Hmm, maybe. Will think about it, that would certainly make rapiers more desirable.

          Thank you again for your feedback! 🙂

          1. Regarding 3.
            I really do mean the text in the stat window is wrong.

            “it should say “-50% [now -41%]”

            It actually says “-41% [now -5%]” or similar. Same thing with Flail (also a 5 noise item). I’m pretty sure this is inconsistent with other items where -X% (not in brackets) is a multiple of 10 always based on noise/light modifier.

            Also when it is equipped the description change to “-41% [4% now]” which is also inconsistent and indicates a display bug.

            I understanding how the stat is tapered down, but I really am indicating it is displaying improperly. I hope this makes sense.

            1. Ah ok then! Then it really is a bug, thank you for being patient with my misunderstanding 🙂 I will see what I can do about it.

  19. Just as a note, don’t know if this is a bug or hilarious side effect, but upon death your fists fly off your body: http://puu.sh/kYISv/d9b4b935e3.png

    To be honest I’m all for having this kept in, because the thought of a giant rat blasting me so hard my fists fly off amuses me to no end.

    1. Fully intentional, so don’t worry! 😀 In the changelog it is described as “more graphical deaths”.

  20. Just a couple things I had a question and some feedback on:
    Rusty Halberd only show negative effects, perhaps do to it’s rust status it has an implied 1DMG and 0Melee? Just unsure and it left me scratching my head. Can be seen here: http://puu.sh/l05OA/c9f8730d0a.png

    Gloves show damage modifier on hit (if unarmed) such as here: http://puu.sh/l05Py/50151b5bb8.png
    However Iron Gaunlets just show +1DMG, which is a bit confusing even though I -know- it’s only if I am unarmed. Can be seen here: http://puu.sh/l05PW/8d05e800c6.png

    Just as a friendly note to everyone out there, the winds are not in your favor and will gladly knock you against a wall repeatably. Stay vigilant! Stay in open spaces!

    1. Hey!
      Ah yes, now I see that the halberd (and rusty version) is actually very buggy. It also shows the effects as temporary (if you look at other equipment, it shouldn’t even display like that). It is one of the newest weapons and I forgot to test it properly. I will fix!

      About the gloves, yes.. that is a bit confusing. I should put some info there too.

      Thanks for the feedback! 🙂

  21. Hi. The XP version has a very high CPU usage. it is at 50% vs the 1% for the release #6. I haven’t tested the non XP one.

    1. That’s odd. For me it seems to use very little resources. The only difference that I can think of between the releases is that the new one has one more thread running, but it really shouldn’t make that much of a difference. Thanks for letting me know!

  22. Yeaaah, a new release!!!
    It ‘s been a long time that I have not check your website. (studies,studies,studies….)
    Thanks to keep dev this awesome game!!
    And congrats for your RPS article ^^

    1. Cheers! Good to hear from you! I hope you’ll find some time to have fun with the new release, there’s a lot of new stuff to explore 🙂

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