Recent reviews by MeVII

Up front and honestly - the QoL is low.

- Inventory space is small and can never be increased.
- There is only one quick bar with only 8 slots, and attack abilities / magic needs to go into those slots to be used.
- Storage chests cannot be picked up and moved. Everything must be emptied from them.
- Storage chests start with every little storage slots, and take advanced resources (gold, titanium) to build ones that have more slots.
- Crafting is clunky and confusing between all the crafting stations.
-- You have a single crafting window that shows all items from all stations, and the station you are at highlights items you can build while using it, along with a total number, and, since you can always craft some items "by hand" those numbers and items always get shown and listed in with every other crafting station.
- Items cannot be "nearby" but must be in your inventory to craft items.
- There are very few passive lighting items - a helm, a ring that leaves fire footprints, and a potion.
-- The helm has issues because its a miners helm with a candle on it that the player must have visible, either as the primary or vanity slot, in order to benefit from the light.
-- The potion takes no small amount of resources, and they only last for an unworkable 2min, or 4 min for the upgraded version.
-- The fire footprint ring is the best option, but the light is dimmer and a darker orange color.

However, I still recommend the game.

- As one can see in the videos and screenshots, it is a bright and vibrant presented game with good clear audio.
- There are quests and events that populate to go and do all over in the game.
- There is a variety of environments, each with their own scheme of blocks, creatures, etc...
- There are 5 classes to play: fighter, ranger, mage, druid and rogue.
-- Each have their own armors, weapons, and skills.
- There are plenty of NPCs, many of which are shops, and some you can even bring with you and place in your home location.
(You literally gain them into your inventory and can place them. So you can even "cheat" and keep one in your inventory to place so you can sell off items to free up backpack space, or buy what they have to sell.)
- The locations, "islands", dungeons and more are fun to explore.
-- There are large, furnished castles, towers, homes, temples etc...
-- Expect volcanic islands to have a volcano mountain on it.
-- There are lakes with underwater environments to explore.
-- There are floating islands, and secret locations underground to discover.

All these reasons are why I play, and recommend the game, despite its low QoL issues.

The most tragic thing about the game, is while the core game could be expanded to the likes of Terraria, Starbound, Core Keeper, Necesse, Dragon Quest Builders, etc... the developers are done with it, no activity in years as they have moved on to other projects, and, they also left without making the game modable.

So, yes, Im recommending it out of a selfish motive ;) that if it remains popular enough, perhaps the developers will come back to fix it up a bit, make a few more dlc's for it, or, at least open it up to the community to be modded.

Be prepared to research, read wikis, and dig up videos, for every item, every enemy - everything, in the game before you make a level.

Because the game is too busy being "funny" with everything to be informative.

"Zipper - Time and space are just, like, social constructs, you know?"
"Waylay - GET OUTTA MY WAY I GOT THINGS TO BE!"
"Jabber - It just wants to have a really boring conversation."
"Blopsack - Blopfush wings are just there for show. This is where the magic happens!"

Oh, that enemy can pass through walls.
Oh, that enemy jumps.
Oh, that item does this.
Oh, that block works like this.

In game mini gifs / animations to show what everything does? - Nope.
Is there a tutorial level that demos everything? - Nope.
Is there in game documentation to read for anything? - Nope.

But hey! At least its got zanny quippy lil funny sayings!

I spent almost 2hrs trying to create a level that had everything in it as a demo.
However, that proved tedious since I had to figure out what everything did in order to setup each things demo space.

No.

I dont have time for things that waste my time.

The only reason its not refunded is because I didnt get around to trying it out before the two week time limit passed.

I guess Ill get back to it in a year or two after the community does the work the developers didn't, and make a clear, detailed and comprehensive guide on everything in the game.

I remember back in the day when Civ games were good,
with who knows how many 1000s of hours in Civ 1 - 5.

Even getting this during some 90% sale - still wasnt worth it.
Couldn't even get though 5hrs.

I simply dread what 7 will be like.

Ive only played for 16min, and, in that time I will say two things.

1. I think there is a good game here that has potential to grow even better.

2. I have never had to struggle so much to learn the basics in the first 16min of any other twin-stick rogue-lite - which are usually so simple as, "kill anything that moves, pickup anything that drops, pick your perks when you level up".

I think the game is straight forward - I think... but the tool-tips actually muddle that.
That is to say, the very many tool-tips all come across as, "You need to 'X' to 'Y' and then 'A' can 'C'."
However, it leaves visual learners (like myself) scanning the screen to try and connect, what X,Y, etc.. actually *are*.

In the end, after reading a tool-tip I still have no idea what it said, because they mostly all come off like,

"A gizorninplatz can charge your quijibo to use the uliiorp."

To be honest, it is the time and passion users have invested into mods that make this game so incredible.

Once (a lot of) mods are added, that do everything from push lighting & shadows, vast player options and QoL controls, and whole environments into the A+ level, due to the games inherent planetary / environmental scope Starbound surpasses Terraria - a game I have ~900hrs in.

Then, if Reshade is used as well, it is nothing less than a truly gorgeous spectacle to see, and play.

I have a post regarding a mod collection and ReShade preset here on Steam

[Edit]

After experiencing multiple critical logic flaws during dungeon design in how switches function and player re-spawning, I have uninstalled the game.

[Original Review]

While I'll still use this game since I'm stuck with it, had I known the future I would not have bought it to begin with.

Feature poor, very flawed, and still has bugs.

Failed to meet production costs.
Abandoned in favor of new projects.

They say they will still fix "critical bugs", but the problem with that is that a "bug" and a "flaw" are not the same, and "critical" excused them to nothing more than bare minimum effort focused on absolute game breaking issues.

If this is how they operate, I won't recommend this game, and, I won't buy their next one until after they have shown that it won't fall into the same pattern as this one.

I have a long memory, and so if they prove otherwise in this game or the next, I will come back and change this review.

This is their post on Kickstarter.

Originally posted by FIRECHICK:

Current Status 📊

Despite our shared successes and pride in Super Dungeon Maker, we have a difficult message to share today. With around 18,500 units sold, we’ve only covered about 50% of our development costs, putting us in a tough financial position.

This reality means that we can no longer plan big new features or extensive content updates. Our publisher rokaplay is unable to sustain this any longer and neither are we at FIRECHICK. We did not make this decision lightly, and it pains us to have reached this point.

What This Means for Super Dungeon Maker 🚧

Future Development: Beyond fixing critical bugs and providing hotfixes, we will not develop new features for Super Dungeon Maker. This decision allows FIRECHICK to focus on new projects that will hopefully carry on our passion for games.

Community and Support: Our commitment to the community remains strong. We will continue to be active on Discord to offer support and celebrate your creations.

Looking Forward 🔭

As the chapter on Super Dungeon Maker slowly closes, new doors are opening for the FIRECHICK team. FIRECHICK is deeply involved in developing a new project that we hope to share with you, soon. Your feedback and support will continue to play a crucial role in the future.

[Stopped play time is due to waiting on the major August patch to play more and then update my review.]

At the moment still in early access, Core Keeper is already in the same sphere as Necesse, and, as such, also has the potential to reach the same level as Terraria and Craft the World, both of which have over 10 years of development.

Explaining why is difficult due to the density of subjectivity.

The exploration, pace of tech/item development, building and crafting, etc... are all done well.
It is enjoyable to explore to see and find new things.
it is enjoyable to craft new items, use them, and design and build structures.
Combat is interesting as the enemies often have a unique quirk to them.

I end where I began, if this trend continues in creativity, depth, intrigue, novelty, and expansion, for the next 10 years - adding to it polish, precision, and excellence like Terraria, it will end up being very successful on its own merits.

Credit where credit is due.

I was going to type my review, then saw that Nephid already did.

Click HERE for Nephids review.

A friend visited and we beat it over the weekend.
My friend is a TMNT fan that could identify all the characters even by their silhouette.
I bought the DLC just because my friend knew of, and wanted to play Usagi. (The rabbit)
It was like a nerd-night sleep over from decades ago - and nothing about the game got in the way of that.

This is a "you see what you get" game.
Retro, simple, button mashing, special spamming fun.

While not for me, other players can opt for the challenge of arcade mode to limit lives.
Then there is a direct difficulty level that can be layered onto that as well.

For 3$ or even less on one of the many sales that happen, this is a obvious game to have in a game library.
Sokpop has a good business model.
Create super simple bare-bones games and sell them for a very low price.

It is a straight forward and simple RTS.
You attack / capture zones, which auto create units, you use those units to capture more zones.
The point is to overwhelm opponents who are doing the same.
There are a few mechanics for flavor - units "grow" / level up at least once that Ive seen,
there is special unit that has more hp and does more damage, and the leader can collect / trade out a special move.

You can easily play with a controller.
Its not a deep game meant to be taken seriously - its designed to have casual fun.
Clearly, it would shine best with a friend or two all playing in the same room.
If someone visited and have never played a RTS before, they could learn this game in literally 10 min.