Category Archives: Dungeons of Dredmor

Hotfix and Mac Update; The Future

July 21, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

Update: both these patches are now live. — N.

Hi, folks!

The Dredmor Save Fiasco Hotfix and a new OS X build have been sent to Steam, and they will go up some time tomorrow. (Steam is pretty good about these things.) As always, if you have any problems or questions, feel free to get in touch with us at contact@gaslampgames.com; we will try to get you sorted out as best we can. When updating the game, those of you using the hotfix may want to make sure you validate your Steam cache before, after, or during the install process to make sure you have the freshest, newest Dredmors that Steam can provide. (Or just uninstall and reinstall the entire thing, if bandwidth is cheap for you.)

At this point, the game seems to be running pretty stably for most people. We’re aware of a few slowdowns (generally bad performance on OS X; also blood, in particular in Monster Zoos), and a few odd things that happen using the Unsupported Features (the hidden speed-up key and the OpenGL renderer.) So this is good.

That said, we certainly have a bunch of issues to continue sorting out. My bugtracker currently has one hundred and eleven issues in it. In the words of Strong Bad, “That is not a small number! That is a big number!” There’s a very good chance that if there is an issue that’s bothering you (warrior health broken! Mages still need nerfing! Balance issues! Infinite Diggle Health bars! Pet stupidity! Monsters attacking you just as you kill them! Pets being stupid! WASD not working! This Translation is all Wrong… Is All Wrong! etc.), we probably have it on our list. This is in addition to the requested features list, which still includes 2X UI and has expanded to include a bunch of other things that everybody wants – and will eventually get – to make their life better. (Minimap icons springs instantly to mind, although there’s other stuff.) This is also in addition to new content. Plus, we need to finish the Linux port, and at some point we need to start assembling the next game! It’s a busy time to be a Gaslamper.

We are going to work through this as fast we can, and as best we can, but we’re going to have to stop for a bit and get our bearings so that we can figure out the best way to attack things. We are currently leaning towards alternating bugfix and content patches, and we can only do this if we start building some testing infrastructure, so we’re going to do that. (This is slightly complicated by the fact that I, personally, am supposed to be moving at the start of August. Oh well.)

We’ll let you know as soon as we determine what the next part of the plan is, and how soon in August I can actually get the Internet Access people to reconnect me with the rest of the world. In the mean time, we’re so thrilled you’re having a good time with Dredmor, and we hope that you continue to do so. I, for one, have spent several hours reading forum posts, laughing my head off, and being amazed at the incredibly long playtimes that people are putting in. It is very delightful to know that everything we threw in Dredmor over the course of several years has suddenly gone off with a very loud bang, all at once, all over the Internet. It’s like setting fire to an explosives factory.

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Gaslamp, Programming | Tagged , ,
37 Comments

Save Files and Apologies

July 19, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

First off, the good news. We have managed to fix the save file issue, and we will have a patch in your hands tomorrow. So hold onto them. Mac Users, we are still waiting on some information from Valve about the correct way to build Mac Patches. Again, thanks for hanging in there. Your patch is coming.

A few apologies are owed as well. Obviously, breaking save files is a bad thing. This is our mess, we made it, and now we get to live with it. I am not happy with the fact that we have been having teething troubles after launch. This is, bluntly, not how I want Gaslamp Games to be run. I want us to be the company that is so freakin’ awesome you tell your friends how awesome we are. The programming side of things is my fault, and I apologize for that as well.

The simple fact of the matter is that we were not expecting sales in the volume that we got, and we were not expecting the response that we got. I honestly thought we would make… maybe a thousand sales during the entire lifetime of the product. We are… doing somewhat better than that, and as a result we are doing our best to try to deal with the fact that we now have to support a massive user base, with no money, no staff, and no time. Consequently, we have been scrabbling around trying to get everything sorted out, and when we were testing the reasonably large patch that was about to come out, this slipped through the cracks at the last minute. We didn’t go back and re-test the savegames after we put together a last minute fix for a shopkeeper issue, and ka-blam, there’s nothing left to do but to pick up the bodies. It’s a mess, and our forums are probably on fire as well… I haven’t had the heart to look.

So, yep. There’s mud on all of our faces. Mainly mine, because whenever there are bugs it tends to be a programming issue.

At the same time, patch 1.0.3 seems to have dealt with the major crashes in 1.0.2. So that’s good news. Obviously, there are things that we will have to straighten out – vampirism, balance tweaks, whatever the heck is going on with dual wielding, mod support, social stuff, and I am sure that there is at least one more crash bug waiting to strike! – but it almost feels like I can sit down, stop running, and take a breather.

The only reason we put an achievement in for crashing was because we figured that the game was stable enough that this would no longer be an issue. Hence it might be coveted, instead of something that everybody now gets. Bleh. I was, also, admittedly surprised that this is an issue with a permadeath game. I didn’t actually think that enough people would care that much about their characters and their runs in the worst case scenario that we broke the save game format.  Frankly, this is also me being stupid. As users, you guys get to play the game how you want to play it, and who are we to make assumptions otherwise? I am, in fact, amazed and humbled that people are putting in monstrous amounts of time on Dungeons of Dredmor, and the stories of eighteen hour runs gone in an instant are absolutely heartbreaking.

As soon as things calm down and I get this hotfix out properly, I will be building some serious regression testing for save games so that this Does Not. Happen. Again. It was on the TODO list, and we didn’t get to it for this patch, because we wanted to deal with the Stairs bug and other issues. (Interestingly, the Stairs Bug has been in the codebase for five years; nobody’s managed to trigger it in all that time until the game has been released. Go team.) As soon as we actually get royalties, we will be investing in some hardware to run automated testing and hardware compatibility checking, and we will be building this into the next game from day one so that, again, this does not happen again.

I am also going to take a few days off to try and catch up on my sleep, so I feel less stressed out about having an Indie Hit on my hands that… well, to be frank, I’m not always totally sure how to deal with it. 🙂

Anyhow, as always, we are here to listen to your concerns. When I started Gaslamp in 2008 and dragged these other guys into it, I decided from day one that I wanted Gaslamp to be the kind of company that is awesome, listens to its user base, and puts out a good product. If we are not doing that, we need to know so that we can fix it… and we will fix it. So thank you, as always, for holding our irons to the fire.

Nicholas Vining

PS. Incidentally, we are interested in how things are going with 1.0.3 *other* than with the save game issues. A bunch of stuff did get fixed, and while I think we will be patching Dredmor a little more slowly from now on, we still need to start thinking at some point about what to tackle next.

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Gaslamp | Tagged , , ,
61 Comments

Patch 1.0.3 Update

July 19, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

EDIT2: Your old save games from Dredmor 1.02 almost certainly do not work with Dredmor 1.03. We apologize for the inconvenience. I’m pretty sure you’ll get an achievement for your pain, at least. — David

EDIT: Windows users, your patch is now live, but may have trouble on older saves.  OS X users, we’re testing your patch now, and it might be up a little later, but certainly no later than tomorrow morning. The Changelog below has been updated to reflect the final last, few things that snuck in. — Nicholas / Daniel

First a quick reminder: today is the last day you can get Dungeons of Dredmor at 10% off – save all of fifty glorious cents. That said, onto the meat:

Some folks have been asking what the deal is with the promised 1.0.3 patch, so here’s the deal. The patch is done; I’m not adding any more code to it. However, we still have to give it a quick playthrough tomorrow before we can let it loose upon the world. This is to make sure that we haven’t added any more crash bugs, corrupted save games, or all the rest of it; hopefully this turns out to be a good strategy.  I would test it myself, but it’s now 3:30 AM in Victoria, and doctors keep telling me that I need at least four hours of sleep, preferably more. Foolish men of medicine, what do they know?

The 2X UI scaler has been moved to patch 1.0.4 (the next patch), as has in-client leaderboards. Doing the 2X UI properly – making it all pretty and stuff – is going to take at least another couple of days. I think, however, we have now taken care of most of the other major complaints. Here is the current, completed, changelog:

{ read this article }

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Gaslamp, Programming | 108 Comments

Art from our wonderful fans, in water color and play dough.

July 17, 2011 by Daniel Jacobsen

These pics hit our inbox this afternoon, courtesy of one of our younger fans.  We absolutely love fan art, and if you have any that you’d like to share with us, please email it to us at our contact address!

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor | Tagged , ,
5 Comments

What’s In The Next Patch

July 16, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

EXALTATIONS UNTO KRONG! While he cannot disclose any sales numbers, he is exceedingly pleased by sales of Dungeons of Dredmor, bringing Krong in all his glory to the masses (and also that slimy, good-for-nothing Lutefisk God.) Long has his anvil-shaped heart awaited this moment, and he thanks his chosen Mightily.

Nonetheless, he hears the people crying. “Krong,” they say, “why hast thou abandoned us? Our game, it crashes. Our game, it has small icons. Our game, it lacks keyboard binding interfaces, yea, and other certain necessities.” And Krong didst look upon his people, in their despair… and wept.

And lo, so it came to pass that Krong didst re-chain Gaslamp Games to their anvils, and Gaslamp Games has come forth in order to help the people. And lo, a great Patch came to pass upon the land, to be released Early Next Week.

What is in said patch? Krong is so very, very glad you asked.

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Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Programming | Tagged , ,
92 Comments

For those of you with technical issues

July 15, 2011 by Daniel Jacobsen

EDIT: Stairs crash and the shopkeeper disappearing issue after load/save are now resolved. Patch will be sent to Steam on Monday. In the mean time, avoid saving and loading in shops, and be careful when using summoned monsters. (Let your old monster die off before going up or down stairs.) — Nicholas

Hi Guys,

A select few of you are still having some issues with some rather annoying bugs in the game.  Most of you are fine, and if you haven’t had any issues don’t worry!  However, if you *have* had issues, know that we want to make playing Dungeons of Dredmor enjoyable for everyone; believe me when I say that getting these issues dealt with is at the top of our list right now.  So, if you’re having some issues, click through here for your definitive guide for getting us the information as efficiently as possible so that we can get this sorted out for you.

(Linux guys: those of you who have emailed us have hopefully received a note from me.  We are still very committed to getting you a Linux version of Dredmor, please be patient, we have not forgotten about you!)

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Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor | 38 Comments

Update From the Code Bunker

July 15, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

We’ve put up another build which has a fixed audio driver, and resolves a few other little issues. We have tried to make this backwards compatible with previous save files, but one of the things we added in this patch was also backwards load/save compatibility… so we’re going to have to work out the kinks here a little. If you make a *new* save that crashes and can’t load it, or you still get a random crash (we know about one descending, then ascending stairs, which we have seen a bit – but it might also be the audio thing, so we’re just going to wait and see… also what are you doing going back *up* the dungeon anyway?), send us an e-mail, preferably with a save game or crash dump, and we’ll get on it.

That said, so far everybody who was having crashes has reported that this build has cleared it up. Whew.

(Profound thanks to Ryan C. “icculus” Gordon, who debugged the first audio crash, then confirmed that the second audio crash was, in fact, “something that has just never been triggered in the past eight or so years in SDL_mixer.” We have now broken SDL_mixer about eight times and aren’t allowed to keep breaking it any more.)

I don’t know when the next patch will be up – probably not until some time next week – but we are going to try to start resolving some of the UI Clunkers people have reported (getting the keyboard/mouse movement a little more consistent, adding UI scaling, etc.) I would also like to turn on the Mod Browser and Weekly Challenges, but getting the core game running well is the top priority for all of us.

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Programming | Tagged , , ,
10 Comments

Crashes, Cynical Brit, Feature Request FAQ

July 14, 2011 by David Baumgart

First: Crashes

There is known crashing due to problems with the SDL sound library or something. Nicholas is chained to his work station with a coffee IV (Foul Liqueur of Yog Sothoth!) and is enjoying the effects of The Motivation Stick. Ye shall receive another patch post-haste.

Cynical Brit / Total Biscuit

… did a lovely video for Dredmor. Check it out:

Wonderful stuff! (By the way, his Blade Being spell kept going to random squares because he targeted a monster directly – if you do that, the spell will get pushed off to a random tile.)

Feature Request FAQ and Other Nonsense

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Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Gaslamp | Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
43 Comments