Category Archives: Programming

Realm of the Diggle Gods! Roadmap Post! and More…

December 6, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

Diggles for The Diggle God! And don't ask where that throne's been either.
Praise be to Krong, for you have participated in the Ancient Krongian ritual of the Humble Indie Bundle, and lo, the Children and the Internets are saved from poverty (to the tune of a cool $778,000.00-ish.) Lo, we hath generated over $200,000.00 for the Charities, and hath contributed to a project with many fine indie developers, some of whom are now labouring over games based on Prison Architecture. Of this, Krong mightily approves – and we have many new Dredmor players besides! All praise to Krong, et cetera.

So what else doth he have in store for you?

– 1.0.7: Now that the Humble Bundle is over, Krong is free from the chains of his period of exclusivity and is eager to spread the gospel of a new patch, with a female hero and mod support and all manner of good and crafty things besides.

But lo,

– 1.0.8: is just about done, and should be out either Thursday or Friday. So he shalt simply wait until then, and pass the savings on via Steam and Desura (and yea, to the Humble Bundle customers besides.) All praise to Krong, for he doth not force you to run the auto-updater more so than usual.

and yea:

– Linux Humble Bundle users: let it be known, Krong feels your pain from his throne covered in the flesh of the finest penguins. We hath addressed your issues, and lo, we hath rolled our fixes into Dredmor patch 1.0.8 – for it is good patch, and it doth fix the random crashes and the general instability.

Last but not least, there is an expansion. It is spoken of in the words of the great prophecy, wherein dwarves with giant beards do toil over the finest of new levels and features. Soon! Soon a sign shall come to the Youtubes, in the form of a great Trailer, and the chosen of Krong shalt follow the hyperlink to the trailer wherein all his mysteries shalt be revealed, including a release date which is much, MUCH closer than you think.

And yea, the name of the expansion shalt be:

The Realm of the Diggle Gods.

That is all. As you were.

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Games, Gaslamp, Programming | Tagged , , , , , ,
27 Comments

On the Arcane Devilry of the Linux Port

October 11, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

As we noted in the previous blog update, we now have Linux binaries. In fact, we snuck them into the Steam distribution, so that those of you who bought the game from us on Steam can install it and run it natively on Linux. The port is done! It’s up to date. The distribution methods, though, are a bit arcane… so pay attention! There will be a quiz.

There will be two – at least! – separate channels for purchasing a Linux build of Dungeons of Dredmor that do not require fiddling about with WINE. This option is only suggested if you bought the game on Steam for Windows, and want to run it under Linux. If you have *not* purchased the game, we recommend you wait until we have a better distributor for your needs. That said, the following is a crash course in how to build it.

1. Install WINE. Install Steam under WINE. Install Dredmor, from Steam, under WINE.

2. Find where Steam has hidden Dredmor on your computer. In general, it will be somewhere like Steam/steamapps/common/Dungeons of Dredmor

3. Copy all that stuff out onto your Linux box in the location of your choice.

4. From that directory, run chmod +x Dredmor* {amd64,x86}/*

5. Run Dredmor.

6. Note that Diggles are not like penguins, and will not give you free software and/or herring. In fact, they want to kill you.

Linux is still somewhat in beta, as it hasn’t gotten much testing. Please let us know how it goes.

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Programming | 31 Comments

Patch 1.0.6 Update; Dredmor Twitter Fiction Contest Results

October 4, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

Patch 1.0.6 has now been sent to the beta testers. As soon as we get the all clear, we’ll fire it your way. Thanks for being so patient. (Beta testers: if you’re on WINE, you can try the Linux build too! Dump everything out of your Steam install with WINE, and you should be able to just run “./Dredmor”, a little shell script which autoselects the correct build, x86 or amd64. You may have to chmod +x some files, I’m not sure.) The Changelog is still as posted, with the exception of the addition of some additional support for the WASD controls (which now break more things, open more things, flip more things, and are generally more useful than ever before) and correct proc assignment to crossbows (if you have a crossbow with Thaumites, only your crossbow will shoot Thaumites.)

In other news, we ran a 140-character Twitter fanfiction contest last week on our Twitter feed (which you can read here if you are so inclined.) A selection of the entries, and the eventual winner, has been rounded up for your pleasure…

{ read this article }

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Gaslamp, Modding, Programming | Tagged , , , , , ,
3 Comments

Patch 1.0.6 Changelist

September 29, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

… I swear, when I started working on Dredmor I had more hair on the top of my head. Time to go get the razor.

In happier, hairier news: Patch 1.0.6 is coming down the hopper. Our entire motivation for Patch 1.0.6 is to ensure that, when we release the Linux version, we can simultaneously release Windows and OS X versions that have the same set of gameplay changes and new items… so patch 1.0.6 is not as large as patch 1.0.5. It is also not as large as 1.0.5 because, well, we’ve mainly been working on the Linux port and new distribution stuff. We hope to have a *huge* slate of announcements within the next week or so about where you will be able to buy Dredmor; Chris Dykstra, our Director of Business Developmentation, has been working the phones so that we can distribute for you so hard, so bad, so smooth, that you’re never going to want to buy games from anybody else, ever again.

Nonetheless, here is your changelog:

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

Patch 1.0.5 Is Now Up

September 6, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

The Windows version of Dungeons of Dredmor has now been updated to patch 1.0.5. (OS X users: we’re having one last Lion Issue, so we are working hard to resolve this; you guys should have your patch either later today or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow.)

Let us know what you think in the comments. Also please remember that this is not intended to be the end-all and be-all of fixes; this simply addresses everything we got done. (I have another one hundred and thirty seven issues, of varying levels, in the bugtracker, so we’ll be addressing your favourite issues as soon as we can.)

Changelog below. We’re pretty sure we did some other stuff that we’re forgetting.

EDIT: There will also be a leaderboard wipe in a bit.

EDIT EDIT: The leaderboards have been reset. Have fun, folks.

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Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Game Design, Games, Gaslamp, Programming | Tagged , , ,
48 Comments

Patch Status

July 28, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

Hi, folks!

We’re still grinding away on the next patch; this is slightly complicated by the fact that I am moving on Sunday, so my apartment furniture consists of nothing but my desk, chair, and a never-ending sea of boxes. There are two practical sides to this, however. The first is that I will be in the same city as David, which can only increase The Madness. Gaslamp will have shared offices again! David may yet drink decent coffee, if I have anything to do with it! And so forth. The second consequence is that I was originally slated to begin a Ph.D in Computer Science as of September; this has now been pushed back to January 2012 so we can wrestle the madness a little bit more, and ensure that Gaslamp is well set up to work on the next thing. (Who knows if I make it there in January, either. At the rate things are going, all bets are off. Dredmor may have spelled the end of my academic career… or not. Who knows. It worked for Jeff Vogel…)

That said: our planned next revision hums along at a good pace. My working notes on the things that have actually been fixed are below: subtract these from the most recent list we put up to get an approximate idea of the amount of work is remaining. I’m considering splitting this into smaller patches, so we can get this out sooner rather than later; at the same time, I want to make sure that we … well, for a lack of a better term, that we get everybody’s pet issues. 🙂 If you want to participate in our Exciting Dredmor Blooper Beta Bonus Round, send us an e-mail to ilovetocrash@gaslampgames.com (really) and tell us why you want to be one of our Exciting Patch Testers. Preference will be given to those who participated in the beta, to those who have been active in the community with assembling bug reports and tracking things, and to those with existing QA experience.

Okay. List of things we’ve done so far… is below.

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Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Game Design, Games, Gaslamp, Programming | Tagged , , ,
70 Comments

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 , ,
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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:

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