Graph Paper Dungeon 4+

Great game (but not good update)

Got this game the other day and flew through the existing three levels... inside of an hour but was still blown away by the clever applications of fairly basic “rolling marble” mechanics. Super fun! Was delighted to see that a new update had JUST been released with new levels so I grabbed it and dive back in... and was abruptly disappointed on numerous counts. First, I was surprised to see all my progress had been lost. Ah well, it was short...I flew through the first levels and discovered my second gripe: a wall had been added to the “hidden path” room to make it easier to navigate. Totally unnecessary and diminished that levels fun sense of accomplishment. Finally reached the village and was further disappointed to find that there was only one puzzle, one place that felt like something in a village (shop) and one item available in the shop. The one puzzle was easy tho the marbles involved kept vanishing. That may have been part of the puzzle but honestly it felt like poor design. After that on to the temple... which seemed to feature nothing but a series of the worst part of the game—Giant blocks with spikes. No clever thinking things through—just tons of touchiness. It was as if a clever developer got busy and handed the reigns of the app to a much younger sibling...still giving the app five stars for an amazing concept and brilliant first three levels, but I’d give the latest update closer to two stars.

Developer Response ,

Glad you like the game. Thanks for the input. There will certainly be more puzzles in later levels, and more to buy in the village.

Wowed

Just picked this game up as I saw someone post about it, the concept is awesome so simple yet makes you feel like you are accomplishing huge things at times. Certain puzzles can be a bit touchy or confusing before dying due to not being sure if you could go that way or not, but I think it adds to the adventuring mechanic, it should feel dangerous! All in all great game that is well executed and I hope for more levels in the future!!! Not to mention finding a quality game without ads is a feat within itself.

Okay, so... mixed feelings.

This is one of the most interesting, inspiring, engaging, and compelling games I’ve ever tried. It had me hooked from the first few minutes. But just when I was really starting to get into it... it was over. The first few minutes are the only few minutes. That’s the big downfall here - it’s short. Not just disappointingly short, not just unacceptably short... I mean unfinished and borderline barely even started short. I was done with the available levels in less than fifteen minutes. There isn’t enough content to this game yet to even merit a release. It needs easily ten times more content before I would even consider it to be a game of acceptable length.

I eagerly await more content to be released, but... man, to make me even open this game again it’s going to have to be a LOT more content.

Edit: after learning that this game was created by a single developer and upon the promise of more content and a very cordial response from the developer, I have decided to amend my review to four stars. I look forward to the future content!

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the compliments!! I am an independent developer, doing all of the coding, animation and testing by myself. I plan to regularly add new, high quality content as quickly as time allows.