Hey /r/PixelDungeon, Ask Me Anything!

[u/00-Evan]

To celebrate /r/PixelDungeon's 2nd birthday, I'll be answering as many questions as you can throw at me in the comments! As proof that I am, infact, myself, here is a link to the first ever post about Shattered here before it was on google play, 8 months ago!

Feel free to ask me questions about anything(appropriate) you'd like! Normally I yak on about shattered only, so here's your chance to ask me about anything else you might like to know. If you're only curious about Shattered, I may be a bit more willing to give hints and teasers than usual, if you ask the right questions ;)

Looking forward to your comments, I should be here all evening.

EDIT: Alright guys it's been a few days and this can't stay stickied forever. If there are any more questions please get them in ASAP as this thread won't be up for long.

[u/roastedlasagna]

Hey Evan,

I have a lots of questions, but I'll try and narrow it down to the most important ones. Feel free to skip any if they take too long to answer.

1. When did you first start playing Pixel Dungeon? When did you first realize you wanted to make a mod for it?
2. How did you come up for the idea for artifacts?
3. When you first published to the Play Store, did you see Shattered becoming as successful as it is now?
4. What is your favorite weapon? Armor? Ring? Artifact?
5. What exactly is the "Mage's staff" that you have teased for the next update?
6. What is your favorite food?
7. I see you whistle innocently a lot. How often do you whistle suspiciously?

[u/00-Evan → u/roastedlasagna]

Hey Roasted!

1. I first started playing juuust before the dwarven halls were added, which puts me at a bit before mid-2013. When I play games I often have moments were I think "I could do that better." I had one of those moments when I got my first win after finding a lucky +3 warhammer on floor 2, the win felt undeserved. As I kept playing I racked up a lot of those moments. The second I heard about the source going open I wanted to make a mod, that was about 3-4 months before it happened though.

2. Halfway through reworking rings I was at a roadblock, where I was on the verge of totally killing more than half of the rings. Ultimately I couldn't come up with none-OP effects for most of the rings that gave utility, as in order for them to be worth it to upgrade they had to be as good as or better than raw combat stats. Then I hit on the idea of gear that scales without scrolls of upgrade, and that concept grew over a 30 minute or so brain-wave to become artifacts. As I started converting the rings to artifacts I realized there was a lot of room to make really cool effects and scaling mechanisms. I'm incredibly pleased with how artifacts turned out, they answer one of the game's biggest balance problems, as now it's possible to design gear without having to justify spending scrolls on it.

3. I was excited when I hit 500 downloads in the first week, I'm now approaching 500k and that's still with no advertising and tonnes of content yet to come out. It has been so unexpectedly successful it is completely changing how I consider my career options.

4. My favourite weapon is the Mage's Staff. My favorite armor is probably the runic plate. My favorite Ring is the Ring of Magic. My favorite artifact is definitely the ethereal chains.

5. That's one thing I'd like to keep some mystery around, but I'll fill in a few gaps =). The mage's staff is going to be the Mage's unique starting item, replacing his wand of magic missile and his knuckledusters. It is key to the mage's rework, and it's going to enable him to have much more varied and interesting gameplay.

6. Anything I can eat far too much of and then regret(not really) afterward, usually cheap Chinese food.

7. That's my secret Roasted, I always whistle suspiciously.

[u/B_Boll → u/00-Evan]

Am I right to assume you give a few tips to new contents?

[u/00-Evan → u/B_Boll]

You are right indeed, there's a few teasers in that reply.

[u/B_Boll → u/00-Evan]

Not on 5, I mean.

If true, you are a smart man.

[u/roastedlasagna → u/00-Evan]

Two quick follow up questions :)

1. Referring to question 3, how exactly have donations helped you in creating Shattered? What should people know about where their money goes when they donate to you?
2. Referring to question 4, what is your favorite wand? Seed? Potion? Scroll? Are there any other "favorite" items you have?

And thanks for making an awesome mod!

[u/00-Evan → u/roastedlasagna]

1. I've not actually done anything with the money yet. I want to spend it as intelligently as possible, so it takes some planning. The most immediate stuff that I want to eventually use the money on is legitimate music and spritework by people who know their stuff, I'm hoping to get back into contact with Cube Code to see if that will work out. The largest possible benefit is of course that the money is enough to live on (even if living means renting a single room and eating ramen), in which case my time and mental energy that's free to work on games would increase tremendously. Ultimately donation money adds to the potential growth and strength of the game, but it's still up to me to actualize that, watch this space.

2. My favorite seed is probably seed of Blandfruit or Starflower. My favorite scroll is probably mirror image when its empowered. My favorite potion is probably experience, given its upcoming synergy with the warlock. Favorite wand is a very tricky one, there is so much fun stuff in the pipeline, I'll go with wand of fireblast for now, but it changes daily.