Dweller

Dweller
Stable game
Developer	Bjorn Ritzl (formerly Bergstrom)
Theme	Fantasy
Influences	Angband, Crawl
Released	2004 ({{{relver}}})
Updated	2009 Sep 27 (0.13.1) ({{{updver}}})
Licensing	Freeware, Closed Source
P. Language	Java Micro edition
Platforms	J2ME MIDP2.0 enabled handsets
Interface	Tiles, Keypad, Stylus
Game Length	1 hour
Official site of Dweller

Dweller is the first roguelike created for java enabled cellphones, created in 2004 by Bjorn Ritzl (formerly Bergstrom).

Description

Dweller is a fantasy roguelike for Java enabled cellphones. Some of its features are:

• Three player classes, the Warrior, the Wizard and the Ranger
• A simple end goal, kill the Goblin king!
• Random dungeons (with optional persistence)
• Monsters with simple AI
• Items, item enchants and named artifact items
• Inventory and equipment
• Spells and ranged weapons
• FOV
• Save/Load
• ASCII/Graphics support
• Touch screen support

Dweller is designed to run on any MIDP2 enabled handset. Older versions also work on MIDP1 handsets, but in 2009 MIDP1 support was abandoned.

Download

The easiest way to get Dweller installed on your phone is to point your handsets browser to the Dweller WML page at http://www.roguelikedevelopment.org/dweller/index.wml

You can also download the JAR and JAD files required to install the game here:

• Dweller JAR
• Dweller JAD

Old versions of the game can be downloaded from

http://www.roguelikedevelopment.org/dweller/old

Screenshots

How to Play

Note: All keys can be redefined within the game to better suit your handset. Since mobile phones have a somewhat limited set of input options Dweller also has a rather simplistic interface and way of game play. The game offers the following set of commands:

• Movement (one command for each direction)
• Interact (pick something up, open a chest, ranged attack on a targeted monster, descend stairs etc)
• Targeting (look around on the map and target distant monsters)
• Cycle target (only while in targeting mode)
• Exit/Cancel (closes a menu or leaves targeting mode)
• Inventory
• Main Menu

Movement

Use the Movement commands to move. If you have a touch screen enabled handset just tap on the screen in the direction you wish to move. Note: Orthogonal and diagonal moves take the same amount of time.

Combat

Move into monsters to attack them.

Doors

Move into doors to open them.

Interact with items on the ground

Use the Interact command to stand still and search, pickup items, open chests and ascend/descend stairs. If you have a touch screen enabled handset just tap on the player character to interact with something on the ground below you.

Targeting

Use the Targeting command to switch to Targeting mode. While in Targeting mode you can use the Movement commands to move a cursor around on the map.

Press the Targeting command multiple times to cycle between equipment or plain inspection mode. If you have a touch screen enabled handset tap and hold for half a second to cycle equipment.

Use the Cycle Target command to cycle between visible targets.

Use the Interact command to interact with selected target using the selected equipment (or no equipment ot do a plain inpsect). If you have a touch screen enabled handset just tap on a target to immediately Interact with it.

Use the Exit command to go back to movement mode again. If you have a touch screen enabled handset tap the bottom of the screen to go back to movement mode again.

Menu

Use Menu command to bring up the game menu (inventory, character info, new game, save/load etc). If you have a touch screen enabled handset simply tap the bottom of the screen to open the menu.

Inventory

You can access the Inventory from the main menu or by using the Inventory command. Touch screen uses have to go via the main menu to access the inventory.

Character stats

Your character has four attributes; Attack, Defense, Magic and Speed. When displayed ingame the are shown as Attack/Defence/Magic/Speed.

• Attack determines chance of doing damage in combat and the amount of damage that can be done in melee combat. Attack can be increased by using weapons and other items found in the dungeon.

• Defense determines your chance of negating incoming damage.

• Magic determines your ability to use magic items and deal damage with spell. It also increases your chances of resisting magic attacks.

• Speed determines the speed by which you act, allowing you to attack and move more often than your opponents.

Besides the four attributes your character has Hit Points (Magic Points was removed in a recent version). When Hit Points reach 0 you die and have to start over.

Inventory and Equipment

The inventory shows all carried and equiped items. Available equipment slots are:

• Melee Weapon
• Missile Weapon and ammo
• Armour
• Shield
• Helmet
• Boots
• Ring
• Amulet
• Cloak
• Trinket (wand or similar)
• Spell book

Use your inventory to equip/remove/drop/examine items you are carrying.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the following people for helping out with play testing, bug reporting, making suggestions for improvements and much more:

• ABCGi
• DarkGod
• David Damerell
• David Grenier
• DrG
• Haloocyn
• Harlander
• Jakub Debski
• Jeff Lait
• Kajetan Nieszporek
• Kostatus
• Marius Vasaasen
• Paul Prestidge
• Pekka Nurminen
• Petr "JuPiTeR" Visek
• Philip Linde
• R.Dan Henry
• Rhialto
• Stephen Legate
• Terje S. B????
• Tim Allen
• Vesa Nieminen

Testimonies and reviews

"Just started playing Dweller on my new phone and it seems like a pretty nifty game :) Simple enough to pick up quickly and easy to control despite the lack of keys available." - daniel andersen

"I really love to play roguelikes and I think that dweller is a superb idea THX for all those who developed dweller for making it and working on it. If I can help just let me know ;)" - haloocyn

"Awesome game!!! I've been playing your game since your very first version and i always check your site for new version. It rocks!" - Ethaniel

"IT ROXX!!!" - mastaG

"Far more addictive than the all singing/dancing multi-coloured "Bomberman" that I spent ????5 on downloading. Well found. :)" - www.stumbleupon.com

"I think is the best Java Game I have ever seen, so addictive, so beautiful, and free." - Roberto

"Dweller is surely the best cellular game i've seen; really good job!! Thanks!" - Ci00rix

Article on Dweller at AtomicMPC http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?CIID=24903

And of course Rhialto's Dweller fanpage (thanks!) http://www.rhialto.com/Dweller/

External links

• http://roguelikedevelopment.org/dweller/index.wml — direct WAP browser link

Known bugs

• On HTC Dash handsets the player is rendered at the bottom of the screen. Probably caused by the handset reporting an incorrect(?) screen height
• On Nokia N73 handsets the double tile graphics doesn't show the correct graphics for out of sight tiles. The graphics come out as a black and white checkboard pattern instead of the intended black and transparent checkboard pattern

Todo list

Handset support

• Try to get the game running on a Blackberry
• Try to get the game running on Google Android

User experience

• Add more in-game help

Inventory

• Add an option to Use Many (for instance use 3 Mushrooms of healing in one go, without having to go in to the menu between each use)

Map

• Place stairs further apart
• Perhaps add several stairs up/down, possibly to different branches ("You see a staircase leading down to the sewers", "You see a staircase leading down to a dungeon")
• Sewers: Add junk that can be searched for items (can spawn monsters and/or cause disease)
• New map type: Catacombs. Undead monsters mostly. Coffins that can be opened for loot/monsters
• New map elements: Altar (sacrifice items to gain favors), Teleporter, Fountain (healing, antidote, mutation, poison)

Monsters

• Add some kind of danger assessment to monsters (Harmless, Weak, Even, Dangerous, Deadly etc)
• Named monsters (mini bosses)
• Immobile monsters: Statues, Deadly plants

Items

• Add items/skills that increase the light radius
• Other lightsources (fires, torches)

Spells

• Curse (decreases chance of attacking/casting spells or maybe preventing items from being removed)
• Acid (damages inventory and/or equipment)

Change log

2009-09-28 v.0.13.3
CHANGE Changed the targeting mode touch screen functionality slightly

2009-09-27 v.0.13.2
NEW Touch screen support has been added. Still somewhat experimental and needs to be tested on a real device
NEW Added a single use item, Bag of Monsters, used to summon an ally to fight by your side
NEW Added an option on the main menu to show the current list of highscores
FIX Solved issues with charmed monsters not attacking monsters adjacent to you
CHANGE Charmed monsters now give you some information about what they attack
CHANGE You can now swap places with charmed monsters

2009-09-24 v.0.13.1
FIX The probability of Dark Wizards were way too high (about 100x more likely than anything else...)
FIX Items and monsters out of sight are now drawn on top of the fog of war mask to make them easier to spot, especially in ASCII mode
NEW It is now possible when startign a new game to chose between playing a game with random or persistent levels

2009-09-22 v.0.12.1
NEW Added out of depth monsters to make things more exciting
NEW Added persistent maps (please report any problems you may experience with this!)
FIX Solved the problem with immobile and passive monsters
FIX Solved a problem with artifact naming
FIX Accidently allowed cloning of targets again (Oozes would clone you...)
FIX Dungeon theme wasn't saved when a map was saved. This could result in incorrect/no items being generated in a loaded game
CHANGE Reduced frequency of chest traps
CHANGE Rebalanced some items and monsters slightly
CHANGE Mushrooms can now also be found in the caves (previously only in the forest)

2009-09-13 v.0.11.2
FIX Solved a problem with incorrect target messaging when not in look mode and selecting a tile with a door or trap
FIX Solved a problem with incorrect item enchants being generated on items
FIX Saved settings weren't restored properly
FIX Touched up the character selection screen slightly
FIX Improved messaging when dying in melee combat
FIX Worg graphics were not included in the previous release
FIX Solved the problem with invisible monsters that block movement and stand still
FIX The stats at the bottom of the screen will now be presented in a more compact way on handsets with low resolution
NEW Added map description when entering the map
NEW Added the four most recent messages to the death/win screen
NEW Added a disarm ability to Orcs. Hold on to your weapons now!
NEW Added a knockback ability to Trolls
NEW Added poison antidotes
NEW Added more weapon enchants (extra damage, slowing, displacement, chaos)
NEW Added a debug screen to the main menu to improve bug hunting and bug reports
NEW Added random names for artifacts (highly enchanted items)
NEW Added some more room and corridor variations to the dungeons and sewers
CHANGE The target selection screen now remembers the most recently used item, and doesn't start the cycle from scrath
CHANGE Adjusted the speed of most monsters
CHANGE Adjusted the stats of a lot of items to improve game balance
CHANGE Monsters are now allowed to move diagonally in a single move
CHANGE Made some changed to monster movement when moving monsters randomly (if target direction is blocked)
CHANGE Rebalanced player classes: Ranger was a bit too easy and Wizards were a bit too hard
CHANGE The display of current xp and xp for next level is now shown for the current level instead of accumulated xp
CHANGE Equipped items are now always marked as "(equipped)" in the inventory instead of only when being selected

2009-09-07 v.0.11.1
NEW Started adding tutorial/welcome/help screens (help screens can be disabled from the main menu)
NEW Added a 'Restore Default Keys' option to the main menu to restore key bindings to the deault values
NEW Added some new monsters: Dark Wizard, Crazed Cultis, Sewer Troll, Sickly Rat, Worg
NEW Added descriptions to all monsters (can be viewed when inspecting a monster)
NEW Added descriptions of the player classes when creating a character
NEW Started work on themed levels (currently forest, cave, dungeon, sewer). More to come here!
CHANGE Improved the way poison works in the game
CHANGE Improved targeting interface
CHANGE Casters got a lot of xp for casting spells, regardless if the target was killed or not. Xp is only rewarded for kills now
CHANGE The Warriors speed has been increased
CHANGE Any class can now use scrolls again, not only Wizards as it was changed to in 0.10.4
CHANGE Removed scrolls with offensive effects (fire, drain etc)
CHANGE Chance to resist poison is no longer based on Magic but on unmodified Defense
FIX Solved a problem with item cycling while targeting when equiping both a book and a wand
FIX Solved a problem with item targeting for items that doesn't require a target (Wand of Mapping etc)
FIX You should no longer see multiple death messages when dying while fighting multiple/fast mobs
FIX Non-casters no longer use effects (poison, draining etc) in other ways than as a result of successful attacks
(ie a spider applying poison when biting, a vampire draining life when biting etc)
FIX Solved a problem with linebreaks when displaying text

2009-08-30 v.0.10.5
CHANGE Increased casting time of spells
CHANGE Animals no longer drop any loot when killed
CHANGE Vampire Bats are no longer of neutral alignment
CHANGE Improved some feedback messages when interacting with doors
CHANGE Renamed some arrow types
FIX Selecting a "non menu item" (version, memory etc) when having no active game no longer cause a crash
FIX Creatures no longer use effects (poison, draining etc) unless they are adjacent to the player or if they are casters
NEW It is now possible to disarm traps on chests
NEW It is possible to use double size graphics. Change graphics size from the menu on the fly

2009-08-25 v.0.10.4
CHANGE Removed MIDP1 supprt. Game is MIDP2 only. This means a single version for all handsets
CHANGE Merged graphics and ascii version into one. Change mode from the menu on the fly
CHANGE Removed Magic Points. Wizards can now cast unlimited number of spells
CHANGE Rangers now have unlimited number of normal arrows.
CHANGE A default set of keys are defined at start. Keys can be reconfigured as usual via the menu
CHANGE Changed a lot of stats on items and monsters
CHANGE Removed some monsters
NEW Added some monsters
NEW Added more items
NEW Current xp and xp to next level is now shown at the bottom of the screen

2007-02-05 v.0.9.10
FIX Inventory categories weren't correctly remembered when coming back
FIX Corrected yet another issues with cloning

Older changes can be reviewed here.