Release v2.0 is out!

You can now download release v2.0 for Windows.

You can read more about the release and version number as well as a summary of what’s new here.

You can also read the full changelog. If you have any questions be sure to check the FAQ.

While the manual is out of date (although a huge parts of it can still be used), be sure to use the effect reference whenever you find an effect you don’t know what it is!

I hope you enjoy the new release! 🙂

If you have played the game before, I recommend doing the “what’s new tutorial” to familiarize yourself with the changes.

 

Updated: October 3, 2016 at 11:16

Comments

      1. Currently I’m playing with tutorial. I like the new tut’s organisation. Always liked TGGW but never play much…

        These braziers which updates color just-in-time looks really nice, but they also updates when turn passes. I mean, it looks a bit unnatural – when player moves braziers are flickering like crazy.

        1. Yes, this is a problem with how I implement glowing/flickering. It was present even in #7 (with ice/gold etc) but might be even more visible now.

          It is because the screen updates both continuously and when the player moves. Each time it is redrawn a colour is chosen randomly.

          I don’t find it a very huge problem right now, it really only appears when you move very quickly.

            1. Yes but thank you! I didn’t think about it much before and now I realized a good of a way to solve it!

  2. Congrats on making it to the big update at long last—absolutely fantastic to see one of the very best get that much better still!

    1. Yes, I am aware. I really don’t think I can do anything about it since it has to do with what Windows do with console Windows. There’s a workaround on the download page. Thank you for reporting!

  5. * Pop Champagne *
    Congratulations for the release!!
    I’m tinkering with fonts and color themes (nice!), will do the tutorial soon but refrain myself from playing a game because I want my very first game to be let’s played so I need to wait for the correct moment. 🙂
    A question: how can I “redraw” the screen when I resize the window? Is there a shortcut key?

    1. Thank you 🙂 It feels great to finally have it out!

      Are you using Windows 10? Does it get garbled? I don’t think there is a way, you have to restart the game unfortunately. These are not things that I can influence from the code (I think) since it has to do with how Windows draw console windows.

      1. Yes I’m on Windows 10. That’s weird because I can “redraw” console in Nethack for example.

        1. The game already redraws the full screen several times per play turn, so it does not seem to be the issue. I saw this problem on Windows 10, but I don’t really know how to deal with it as it doesn’t appear in Windows 8 (which I’m using for development).

  6. Congratulations on the release, I’ve been looking forward to it for ages it feels like now.
    The changes so far feel really meaty, a lot of them stemming from the Ep system. I -love- being able to ID items using it, and the changes for stuck doors and swimming to use it are great. Equipping stuff now gives me pause, where before it was a no brainer and you would play inventory shuffle for each encounter.
    The removal of monster stat obfuscation is a welcome change, and I love that they play by your rules now.
    Also had found a food bag on my first run, which is a welcome addition. I am curious if apples and meats can still be cooked if they are in your food bag when you are attacked with fire?
    Anywho, thank you so very much for all the hard work you’ve put into this game. This is clearly a labor of love and it shows with it’s careful attention to mechanics, ease of play, interesting decisions presented, and the cheeky bit of humor in unexpected places.
    It’s a game I’ve always come back to because it demands that you use all the tools at your disposal rather than hammering against featureless monsters all the time.
    Still have yet to ever win a game, and I hope to one day, but the journey is always a memorable and enjoyable one. The ground doth give and eventually taketh a-way.

    1. Oh thank you very much for those encouraging words 🙂 It feels great that my work is appreciated 🙂 Yes, I really love working on this game. It is very motivating that you point at exactly those things that I’m trying to achieve. Thank you and cheers!

      Ps. No: food inside bags cannot be cooked by fire damage. A slight drawback of putting them there. Another drawback is that you cannot open bags during combat.

  7. Yaaayy! This is great! I’m having a lot of fun! One question I have: I got some gloves of dexterity. The description says it makes melee easier, but they actually reduce mine by one. Do you know why?

    1. Good that you’re having fun 🙂

      It can be for two reasons:
      1) they reduce them by one COMPARED to what you wear now. The display shows relative stats, you can press ‘x’ again to see absolute stats.
      2) the “of dexterity” is an enchantment, but if the original gloves have a melee-penalty (like black gloves), the bonus from “of dexterity” is not enough to make it positive.

  8. Yippee ki-yay! (I think I’ll also wait a bit. I want to play the first game seriously. This is isn’t a game.)

    1. Hm ok. Well, I know nothing more than what it says in the FAQ, and this is only from what I have heard, I have not had the possibility to try it myself. I might alter the text to “it works for some” 🙂

      If you find a way to make it work, please let me know!

  10. A few design choices, balance issues, and oddities i noticed that might need fixing:
    1. Some symbols are “mixed” like the barrel and the stuck door (both red +) and the whip having a letter S instead of a weapon |. Try to avoid this, as it’s confusing on first glance.

    2. Campfires only illuminate themselves, not their surroundings as one might expect a campfire to. Increase the light radius by 1.

    3. Doors are capable of spawning as free-standing in “ruined” levels as well as being generated stuck. This results in a 2-EP “trap” door if you happen to bump into it. These kinds of doors should simply “fall flat” when pushed against. Bursting into sticks is optional.

    4. The amount of brazier spam in rooms can be a bit much, i once counted eight in a 3*8 room (four against the wall opposite the door) Braziers can also spawn in front of door support walls, making it impossible to close from that position. While likely intentional, this could theoretically result in the walls next to a door *surrounded* by 4 braziers (or any other impassible object) which creates a door that’s impossible to close. The only solution that prevents this problem is letting more than just the walls activate doors to open/close.

    5. Mutations that destroy equipment outright are not enjoyable or balanced in the least. Please keep the mutations around, but also please force the items to unequip and DROP, instead of outright destruction (unless it was cursed) Scissor-hands is currently game-ending, apparently by pure RNG.

    6. Multiple chances per rest to knock down stuck doors is great! When are you going to let us use our weapons on that wood, though? Bashing EP cost raised to 3 for fists, then 2 for any weapon, but dedicated door-bashers drop the cost to 1… That’d also be a good excuse for iron doors, and switch-operated doors…

    7. Diving into deep water for a fish is presently hugely counter-productive: You spend 4 EP getting into the water and 4 EP grabbing the fish. Assuming you had zero food and ate the fish without a campfire (the likely scenario) you’d get only 5 EP back. Even with a campfire, you’d only manage to break even. The swimming cost should be altered in some way, because 4 EP a turn is still too much. Minor regret that you removed water-breathing; sea-pearls would’ve made sense as a $ money item.

    8. When is the “summon monster” scroll ever useful? I won’t suggest “remove it” because i believe feature removal is wrong (don’t be a “Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup” dev) But please implement something to make these outright deadly-useless items have a point, even if it is an obtuse/rare puzzle. (ie: standing on a specific tile and reading the scroll then)

    1. Hello and thank you very much for your feedback! There are a lot of good suggestions there! I’ll answer all your points below:

      1. Yes I know. Barrels and doors you can usually differentiate by context, but in some cases you cannot. I experimented by making containers have a different background colour, but it was really ugly. I am going to think more about what to do about it. I’m kind of running out of colours and characters..

      2. Yes, I planned to do this, one of the things that didn’t make it in this release.

      3. Hm yes. That’s also one of the situations where you cannot tell it apart from a wooden barrel. Good point.

      4. Yes, I’ll probably make braziers bump-closing doors as well.

      5. Yes, I plan to make it unequip instead of outright destroying equipment. Scissor hands are really powerful (dual wield + 2 damage), but yes it depending on build they can be very bad.

      6. Oh, that’s a really nice idea! I might implement something like that!

      7. True, this is something I overlooked when removing water breathing. Will have to do something about that, thanks!

      8. Never. Neither is scroll of starvation. They are currently there to make it more important to identify scrolls. I’m not convinced they must have a use, but yes it would make it more interesting.

      1. Thanks for the reply, rarely if ever do i see a developer (even independents) interact with the community as much.

        Possible solutions for “useless” hazard items if you want them are generally to involve: Direct or indirect combat, Puzzle solving /Dungeon features, or traders/NPCs

        – Anti-stash aliens could be specialized per item. What if the item transformed or was lost, too, so the monster drop was the objective? Ex: Drop apple, attract “fat giant rats” fight, collect higher-chance drop (rat tail)
        – NPCs who specialize in trading hazard items for bonuses or weak beneficial items? Ex: A “Glutton” NPC who wants to stay hungry, so he can keep eating.
        – “Purification” puzzles requiring treking over the dungeon to change the item to something else.

        The difficult task of even crazier new mechanics; If a “Charm Monster” wand ever becomes available, the monster summon scroll would instantly have a good use, too…

        1. Thanks for the ideas (glutton npc was fun and creative)! Those are really something to think about, it is for sure possible to make hazard items useful. I actually already have one example (rotten things have a use, but I don’t want to spoil it).

          And btw, I actually do plan to add a charm wand (or similar) in the future, so yes 🙂

  11. I’m really enjoying v2.0! Lots of the new things I’ve found feel really interesting! I especially like the power circle, I could see those making some really cool strategies for buffing yourself in a heavy armour run.

    However, when I was playing I managed to get nauseated by some sort of invisible flame dog (I think), and I noticed that it stops you being able to use consumables. I think this is a really cool idea (and it did, indeed, kill me), but I gotta wonder if there is any way to remove it. Because I had no food(the stat) or food (the items) left, how could I have rested? Maybe I was able to eat consumables for food, I’m not sure, but it is something to think about.

    1. Glad you like the release 🙂

      If you have no food-stat NOR food-items, then you couldn’t have rested anyway, nausea or not. However, if you had items that gives nutrition, you CAN eat them if you are nauseated and starving. Although it will make you sick. So nausea is never game ending.

      Remember that you can look up the exact mechanic of any effect like nausea in the reference document on the webpage.

  12. The new changes are fantastic! I especially like the new EP system since it makes player choices more meaningful.

    Some things I noted while playing:
    1. I somehow got Tmp flying for no reason after encountering a bat. No idea why, maybe bat cast Fly on me somehow? Could not reproduce it.
    2. Can sit on a bench to rest during combat. Doesn’t make much sense.
    3. Inability to close doors standing directly in front of one is now very annoying with addition of braziers. For instance
    #^
    /@
    #^
    Player cannot close door from this position.
    4. Typo ‘of corrotion’
    5. Any -100% resist is missing ‘%’ in the status screen (e.g. magic leech)
    6. Changelog said unpassable water/lava levels should no longer appear, but this definitely still happened at least once to me. Level 1, first room next to starting completely water, only path out. Also once blocked by a room with all lava except the outer tiles but these were blocked by corner braziers. Too many braziers?
    7. purple leaf “This is the only known cure for confusion” I’m pretty sure it’s not (restoring potions?)
    8. You can still put things into container items when ‘dead’
    9. Can equip unknown (aka enchanted) items even if not enough EP
    10. Can’t view inventory after death if died in deep water
    11. Enemies don’t react when surprise attacked from long range? They just stand there and take it.
    12. Cannot stack an item into a container if the container is already full.
    13. Equipping something that reduces Max HP also reduces current HP. This may be intentional, but it is a little counter-intuitive. For example equipping golden crown at 5/10 HP I might have expected result is 5/5 HP (max HP is now lower), although the result is comical.
    14. Lava bubbles OP? They don’t die or pop or anything, and if one is in a hallway between you and the exit well game over? Maybe they should pop on damage or hitting a wall?
    15. Always thought that cold/slow attacks were a little too strong, mainly because due to the sequence of events, after the initial attack, the player is slowed and is attacked again before he can act. 6-9 damage burst from a frost beetle?
    16. Maybe add traps in Discovered list after they are triggered, not just when picked up?
    17. I almost won! I lost due to the new stairs type and a crowd of statues on the other side of a door. Even though I had Noise 0 and in no immediate danger I still could not ascend. No choice but to try and fight. Oh well.

    Overall a great improvement and still very addictive gameplay. Almost all play through feels winnable and unique in some way. Thanks for an excellent game!

    1. Thanks for the kind words, I think the game is much better balanced now, I also feel that most games feel winnable now. And the uniqueness is exactly what I’m trying to achieve. Thank you very much for playing and for the detailed feedback, it is really helpful. As you probably saw, a lot of your feedback has made it into the game 🙂

      Answers to your points below:

      1. Are you really sure YOU got “tmp flying” or was it when you were examining the bat (the screens look pretty similar)?
      2. Haha, good call 😀 Will fix 😀
      3. Yes, several players have pointed this out already. I will probably make braziers bumpable to close doors.
      4. thx!
      5. yes, it does not fit. It’s intentional but unfortunate.
      6. the lava situation should be ok, i did not mean to remove situations where you are forced to step on lava, only to make situations where you cannot continue at all. The water room should not be there though, I have to investigate.
      7. ok, you’re right. Should reword.
      8. hah, really? Should fix that too 🙂
      9. oh? Didn’t know that one either. Thx!
      10. ah. That should be fixed too.
      11. yes. They currently can only track you if they can hear or see you, which they by definition they can’t if you make a surprise attack. But yes, they should be able to detect from which direction it comes and go and investigate. AI is pretty dumb currently 🙂
      12. Will fix.
      13. It has always been like that and it’s intentional. It does warn you if equipping/unequipping something would kill you 🙂
      14. Yes you’re right. If they’re in a corridor you *can* get them out if you are patient, but that’s not really fun.
      15. Yes, very strong. Maybe frost beetles should be nerfed or put a bit deeper.
      16. good call!
      17. Yes, twisty stairs can be really nasty. The statues have been nerfed quite a bit compared to earlier versions though, but if you rely on stealth it sucks to have to fight them. Congratulations to the near win, that was quick!

  13. Thanks for replying!
    1. Yes in fact I used it to get over some lava later.
    6. I grabbed a screen here in case it helps although it really does not show much, http://imgur.com/a/AYq9u
    13. I don’t think I got a warning prompt, but I may be wrong.

    2. 1. sounds just extremely weird. I cannot understand how this could happen. Please let me know if something similar happens again!

      6. Wow. And the first room nevertheless. I will see why this generates.

      13. Hm.. I may be wrong also, before it was downright impossible to equip something that would kill you, but it has been changed after introducing Ep. Yes, must have been a very weird way to die :p

      1. Yeah, a few times now I’ve just randomly found myself flying… It’s a bit weird.

        P.S Also, wow, some of the new items are super cool.

        1. Very weird, it has never happened during the testing phase. If you see a pattern or realise in which circumstances this happens, please let me know!

  14. Awesome new release! Love the EP system.
    Game crashed on me, though:
    I was trying to put an apple and moldy bread into a food bag. I don’t fully grasp the concept yet, but next to the food bag was printed “”. I assume that means it can hold one item. If that’s the case, the bag was full when I tried to put the moldy bread. System was Windows 8

    2. Hey! Thank you, I’m happy you like the new release 🙂

      Yes, it’s been reported that it crashes if you press the wrong key…

      It works like this:
      It says <1> next to the bag because that’s the key you use to put things in it. So to put something in a bag, you select the item in the inventory and press 1. To open the bag, you just select the bag and press space.

      The game crashes if you press 2 or above since it thinks you are putting things in unavailable containers. I will fix this ASAP.

  15. Entire rooms filled with water is one thing, but here i’ve found another map layout that has a “requires rest/healing to pass” pathing error:

    http://imgur.com/a/AanEc

    The map block that looks like “spaghetti paths” with 3 liquid pools in it, which can apparently be placed as the only route between the up and down staircase. This wouldn’t be so bad if it was shallow water, but in this case it was lava.
    I only managed to pass because an apple roasted and i drank an ale to skip the first 2 pools without resting.

    If i theoretically manage to descend and ascend, i COULD use the magic portal to be on the proper side of the map, but still. It’s a brutal way to start a new map.

    1. Another possible design issue with dungeon layouts has been found:

      http://imgur.com/a/5PebT

      In the above image i’ve clearly failed to open the stuck door (the only way out of the area) after 5 attempts. Normally you would find a shadowy corridor to sleep in, but all the places off the starting room are other rooms, which also have braziers. Initially confused for what to do, i finally noticed that there are in fact two tiles not illuminated in the northern room. (the red box with stripes in the image)
      If however the northern room was ONE TILE SHORTER, or had large braziers instead of small ones, it would’ve been *impossible* to rest there. (dead-end on level 1)
      There’s also an arrow slit there, which raises further questions…

      Solutions:
      1. Prevent any “stuck doors” from being placed on the path towards the down-stairs, period. This is expedient and could be easy, but would definitely remove some of the challenge. (stuck-door starts would be a quasi-handicap mode)

      2a. When the player attempts to rest on a “up staircase” check if the player doesn’t have enough EP left to bash a door with fists. Allow the player to rest on the up stair, no matter the circumstances (in combat from noisy unseen enemies, in light of braziers) Generate a unique resting event that over-rides all other rest events: “Rested on an uncomfortable up staircase.” where the player spends the normal food cost, but only recovers energy, and still loses any temporary effects they had.
      2b. Let only the level 1 up staircase do this.

      Possible UI enhancements:
      A. Change the “Rest” menu option so it’s proceeded by a colored notifier of what’s preventing you from resting, or that resting is acceptable there.
      B. The “Maps” menu option could use the left/right arrows to change views from the current “Seen” (full bright) version to an “Illumination” map that highlights where the “in light” spots are, if possible.

      1. On a similar note, I swam through a lava lake in an earlier run attempting to get to a Silver Chest, planning to rest in the middle. However, when I got there, I realised that the brazier generated on the island prevented me from resting, forcing me to die.

        1. That’s unfortunate… but I think it is within the rules of the game and I don’t think you’d do it again 🙂

      2. Well first off: you can always sleep on the first stair up, it is never in light. So you could actually have slept on the start position already!

        Yes, that particular start with the lava was unfortunate. I’ll see if I’ll do something about that.

        About your solutions to the resting problem: I like 2a a lot. Actually it would be ok to even allow sleeping in light altogether but with a prompt “really rest in light? You won’t recover hp/mp”.

        UI enchantments are both very good ideas! I’ll most likely add them!

  16. Hey, I’ve noticed that rust traps don’t damage to any enemies, which is fair enough. But, I’ve also realised that some enemies are made of metal. Hows about floating longswords (if they somehow stopped flying) or Statues or something are instantly killed?

    1. Yes, there are some traps that don’t have an effect on monsters unfortunately. That’s a really good idea! But yes, it would apply to very few monsters in practice. Another idea I have is that it will affect any monster wielding weapons made of metal.

  17. once again, thank you very much for your efforts and devotion in this great game.. to be frank, reading your posts I was in doubt that I would like V2 (probably because I just loved #7 and those that preceded it), but must say I’m having a blast..
    One point I’d like to ask out of curiosity is according to you (or to the fellow players here) what is the aspect of V2 that makes the game feel more winnable?

    1. I’m happy you liked v2! Yes, I thought that some would maybe prefer #7, but from what I’ve heard v2 is very well received!

      There are several reasons v2 is more winnable:
      – most (but not all) unwinnable scenarios (being blocked by water/lava) are gone.
      – Seeing exact monster stats makes it easier to plan your tactics
      – Monsters have limited magic points and ammo (in #7 there were no limit to either of those)
      – A lot of difficult monsters have been nerfed

      Of course, some things are a bit more difficult now as well (area attacks and surprise attacks, chance of missing magic attacks etc), but these are minor compared to the above.

  18. Trojan Horse detected by Windows Defender in The Ground Gives Way.exe and it is automatically quarantined.

    This is happening every-time I download the file, it says that it has detected Trojan:Win32/Varpes.N!cl alert level severe.

    Anyone else getting this?

    1. Hey, I saw someone on reddit getting the same. I don’t know what may be the problem, I’m going to submit it as a false positive to Microsoft. Which OS are you using?

      2. for me I get this when I run the exe:
        “Windows SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from running. Running this app might put your PC at risk”

        But I can choose “run anyway”.

        2. The way I understand SmartScreen is that it checks against “known programs” and since TGGW is new (and not known to this program) it warns. I’ve seen this warning on many smaller programs.

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