The quick-hit <em>Minesweeper</em>-style RPG has just the right mix of logic and luck.
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Dragonsweeper is my favorite game of 2025 (so far)
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If you want to think about algorithmically solving minesweeper, check out Bombe. The interface is somewhat hard to figure out but it's worth spending time on.
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2262930/Bombe/
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2262930/Bombe/
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macosandlinux
Ars Tribunus Militum
Thanks for your reply! I'm already following Get Indie Gaming & I Dream of Indie Games and will check the other channels out. I rarely search for new creators/content on YT, so stuck with my subs mostly.
Also will definitely browse your recommended games on Steam and surely grab/wishlist some. I am totally indie gaming addicted
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Did you discover the game via MetaFilter, as well? I thought that "exploration budget" comment sounded familiar, and it looks like this smart 4-part strategy comment by jedicus is (besides this article) the only result for the phrase. Might want to give him a shout-out in the article for helping it click!
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Interesting, that site wasn't working for me yesterday when I tried it. Maybe they were updating it then.
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Classic Minesweeper with no guessing is here for free: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ along with a bunch of other puzzles. Some classic like Kenken, others you mightn't have heard of like Undead. There are downloadable versions too. The interface can be at bit clunky but otherwise these are excellent with a wide variety of difficulty choice, and in pretty much all types guess-free (totally deducible).
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The easiest way is to just click the "Run Game" button at the top of the store's game page. You don't have to pay or download anything:
https://danielben.itch.io/dragonsweeper
If you want to run it locally and/or support the developer with a "pay what you want" download, You unpack the ZIP into a folder, and open the index.html in a web browser.
Sadly, I just tested this, and I can't get the download to fully load the game in the browser running locally. It gets stuck on the loading screen.
It looks like security restrictions in browsers are to blame, based on one of the comments:
So, yeah, unless you want to set up a web server, just play it on the game page.
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Well, that was definitely a great way to waste a few hours! And if I hadn't managed to get the max score, I would've wasted quite a few more, that's for sure.
I'll be tipping the dev, they earned my money and I'd love to see this fleshed out further.
I'll be tipping the dev, they earned my money and I'd love to see this fleshed out further.
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Finally got my first win, through a bit of luck.
Didn't clear the board though because I had run out of hearts available to locate.
That's where I find my limiting factor ends up being most of the time, getting the in between level of not enough health to level up, and having no hearts on the board revealed. So then its just a guess to find that or a chest that isn't a mimic.
Didn't clear the board though because I had run out of hearts available to locate.
That's where I find my limiting factor ends up being most of the time, getting the in between level of not enough health to level up, and having no hearts on the board revealed. So then its just a guess to find that or a chest that isn't a mimic.
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Merely getting all of them doesn't seem to yield a perfect score... anyone know what's up?
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A few years ago I got addicted to this game, Castaway on a Weird Island
https://captaingames.itch.io/castaway
This article about Dragonsweeper reminded me about Castaway, though it’s definitely its own thing. It’s a little hard to understand without playing it, but it essentially combines a Brough-like game with Picross.
Each randomly generated map requires you to move your character to an escape tile, and most of the tiles contents are obscured until you attempt to move on to them.
On the border of the grid are little symbols, similar to Picross, that relay information to you about what things are on the tiles on specific columns and rows. It’s then up to you deduce what’s behind a tile by cross referencing the symbols on both axis and some other hints you get by what’s already been revealed.
Some squares have monsters, others have weapons, health, and treasures.
The ultimate goal it to see many maps you can clear before dying, at which point the game resets back to the start and generates a new set of maps.
At one brief point, it was available on iOS (and maybe android?). Strangely, it was completely scrubbed from the Apple App Store, it’s not even available for a redownload big you’ve previously had it, unlike most stuff that gets removed. I’ve managed to transfer it to my current phone via iMazing, but it’s a shame that it’s not still widely available there, the small maps and nature of the controls are perfectly suited for a small touchscreen.
Thankfully, it is still available to download for Mac and Windows on the itch.io link above.
https://captaingames.itch.io/castaway
This article about Dragonsweeper reminded me about Castaway, though it’s definitely its own thing. It’s a little hard to understand without playing it, but it essentially combines a Brough-like game with Picross.
Each randomly generated map requires you to move your character to an escape tile, and most of the tiles contents are obscured until you attempt to move on to them.
On the border of the grid are little symbols, similar to Picross, that relay information to you about what things are on the tiles on specific columns and rows. It’s then up to you deduce what’s behind a tile by cross referencing the symbols on both axis and some other hints you get by what’s already been revealed.
Some squares have monsters, others have weapons, health, and treasures.
The ultimate goal it to see many maps you can clear before dying, at which point the game resets back to the start and generates a new set of maps.
At one brief point, it was available on iOS (and maybe android?). Strangely, it was completely scrubbed from the Apple App Store, it’s not even available for a redownload big you’ve previously had it, unlike most stuff that gets removed. I’ve managed to transfer it to my current phone via iMazing, but it’s a shame that it’s not still widely available there, the small maps and nature of the controls are perfectly suited for a small touchscreen.
Thankfully, it is still available to download for Mac and Windows on the itch.io link above.
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I just realized that on the 'rulebook' there's a second page with 4 possible achievements to play for.
'Lovers Survive', 'Rat Pacifist', 'Future Generations', and 'Clear Board'
'Lovers Survive', 'Rat Pacifist', 'Future Generations', and 'Clear Board'
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A search indicates that for an older version of the game (max 303 points), you had to destroy the walls as well.
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The walls are breakable (with a lot of effort). A single coin is available from each.
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I’ve managed “Lovers Survive” and “Future Generations”. The other two, maybe later!
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It doesn't have to be perfect, as far as I can tell. I just finished a run with 4 hearts to spare, so there's a margin of error.
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Anything within 2 hops of a Beholder is a ? (Unless there is an enemy on it), the Purple slimes always spawn in a box with a wizard at the center, Gargoyles and Walls always come in Pairs.
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I knew that looked familiar.
Hey, does anyone remembers that Sega Genesis Dungeons and Dragons game?
About this game, sorry but I am terrible at Minesweeper.
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You could try this site:Can anyone proxy or host the game? My work blocks the site.
https://dragonsweeper.com/New-Dragonsweeper-Version
I don't think it's official, but it's the same game.
It's a version behind on the "New" version, while the "classic" is V 1.0.0.
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Having gotten within ONE point of the max score after spending way too much time on this I think it's pretty much always possible to win at a minimum (you'd have to be supremely unlucky at the start (edit: having just had a couple of bad starts I guess not THAT unlucky. Or I'm not in the same zone I was in after playing this endlessly last night!) - there's enough health on the board to clear it, including the walls, so getting the dragon is minor in comparison), getting them all seems doable but you have to be careful. And without guessing. It's fairly algorithmic once you figure it out. My goal now is clearing the board (the dragon just becomes another monster with xp then + you can kill it and get the xp, just don't click the crown).
Basically never ever ever level up or pick up health unless you've expended as many hearts as possible (ideally all of them, every time). Therefore the trick is making sure you have just the right mix of monsters available to use up all your hearts (and not more). Mark monster positions as you go and don't start clicking until you have a plan. Mark the bombs (the 100s) too. You don't want to get one, obviously, but once you get the Mine King (the only 10 hp monster) they become xp pick ups. The only monster patterns I've really noticed is the 1hp wizard surrounded by the 8 hp things, and the ? tiles come from a 5 hp beholder (a "gazer"). There are some others but I haven't really needed them.
Edit: the mine king is always in a corner, so omce you've got 10 hp and you've maybe cleared 1 corner it might be worth taking a guess (I don't think the other corners are necessarily bad, but they can be!). Turning the mines to xp is a major help and the earlier you can do it the easier it'll be.
Edit: also the mimic is just an 11 hp monster and all the numbers reflect that, just make sure to do some quick math when opening a chest.
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I usually try to use up leftover hearts on smashing walls, but otherwise haven't figured out the ideal time smash those.
Always seems like I'm roughly one level short of a perfect clear and not sure where I'm losing efficiencies since I do try to maximize my heart usage.
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Based on the time I came in one point shy (it was one of the damned walls!) I think there must be some minimum number of levels you need to get aided by pick-ups. I hadn't left one heart behind but I had like half the XP to a level up. I'm guessing I needed to get one more level up via pick-up instead of a heart pack, then I'd still have that heart pack at the end (and more hearts than I'd need, so maybe there's at least room for a little error...). I'll research more (i.e. play and neglect life duties!).
Edit! Just cleared the board! I had 3 hearts left over so I think there's a little wriggle room. I wonder what the absolute best possible remaining number of hearts is.
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Did you mean the Mystara games made by Capcom? They are available on Steam as Chronicles of Mystara.
The developers left Capcom and founded Vanillaware, where they made Princess Crown and Dragon's Crown (my favorite). I've been waiting over 10 years for Atlus to port Dragon's Crown to PC, but I don't think it's ever going to happen.
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And they face each other.
The other patterns I've found:
- The minotaurs (6xp) always spawn one square from the treasure chest (except above or below it) and face away from it. They do not spawn next to the treasure chest monster (11xp)
- The gargoyles (4xp) always spawn in pairs. If they are on the same row they face each other. If they are in the same column the one with red eyes is above. I don't know if it's intended (bug?) but sometimes a treasure chest does spawn between two gargoyles.
- Rats that are standing up indicate the rat king is in the same column. Other rats point in the direction of the column the rat king is in
- The bomb king always spawns in a corner
- The gnome moves around until you can trap it in one square
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There are a few sources of gold that you don't need to kill monsters to get. In order to clear the board, you want to prioritize finding those ASAP, so that you can save your health scrolls for when you're as high a level as possible.
My specific strategy for clearing the board:
Even with this strategy, clearing the board is still pretty tricky and requires some luck. I've only managed it once. Still, really fun!
My specific strategy for clearing the board:
In the early game, you want to prioritize finding chests, since some chests contain 5 gold. This means looking for minotaurs (6 power), which always appear next to the chests. Minotaurs face away from the chests they guard, so when you uncover one, you know the chest is in one of the three squares to its back. Even if you don't uncover it and just find a 6-power tile, you know a chest must be in one of the six squares to the left or right of it.
Once you get to 10 hearts, you want to take out the Mine King (10 power) right away -- ideally the very moment you hit 10 hearts. The Mine King is always in one of the corners, so if you've ruled out 3 corners, you know it has to be in the last one. So, as you approach 10 hearts, try to prioritize figuring what's in the corners so you know which corner the Mine King is in. Then once you defeat the Mine King, immediately go around picking up all the 3-gold pickups from the places where the mines used to be -- by that point in the game, you've probably already marked where most of the mines are.
The gnome (rewards 9 gold when you corner it) seems to just warp around to unoccupied, unrevealed squares until it runs out of squares it can warp to. So once you've figured out what most of the squares contain, focus on clearing out the last few blank squares.
Oh, and don't waste your health on walls, since the gold-to-health-spent ratio for them is so much lower than for anything else. Save them until the very end. The only time you should ever attack walls before that is if you're down to one or two hearts that you really don't have any safe way to spend on monsters. But try to avoid getting yourself into that situation if possible.
Once you get to 10 hearts, you want to take out the Mine King (10 power) right away -- ideally the very moment you hit 10 hearts. The Mine King is always in one of the corners, so if you've ruled out 3 corners, you know it has to be in the last one. So, as you approach 10 hearts, try to prioritize figuring what's in the corners so you know which corner the Mine King is in. Then once you defeat the Mine King, immediately go around picking up all the 3-gold pickups from the places where the mines used to be -- by that point in the game, you've probably already marked where most of the mines are.
The gnome (rewards 9 gold when you corner it) seems to just warp around to unoccupied, unrevealed squares until it runs out of squares it can warp to. So once you've figured out what most of the squares contain, focus on clearing out the last few blank squares.
Oh, and don't waste your health on walls, since the gold-to-health-spent ratio for them is so much lower than for anything else. Save them until the very end. The only time you should ever attack walls before that is if you're down to one or two hearts that you really don't have any safe way to spend on monsters. But try to avoid getting yourself into that situation if possible.
Even with this strategy, clearing the board is still pretty tricky and requires some luck. I've only managed it once. Still, really fun!
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Ah, I see, I was on an older version of the game that didn't have this. I see it now, thanks!
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I've cleared the board with both 3 and 6 hearts left (and now 0! Phew ---and now 9! Ok I'll take a break) so there must be little flexibility.
Edit: I think in both cases I didn't waste any hearts, I think the big variable is how fast you can find non-monster XP so you can level up without having to use the health packs on smaller numbers of hearts. Maybe one way to analyze it is there is a minimum number of hearts you'll need to replenish, and the health regenerates more the more empty stars you have so using one to heal like 6 health means you can't use it later to heal 14 health, for example.
If I were really bored I'd made a level/exp table, I think there's 365 max score, minus the 5 you start with, and figure out how many hearts you earn cumulatively (assuming you lvl up with none left, which is ideal), then see how many hearts are there and how many points are left, and you can see on average how many hearts you meed to be restoring per heart to have enough.
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Well.
Not an article, but you wanna talk idle games, OK then
Probably your starting point should be the classics:
- Cookie Clicker is the OG, lots of playtime, and represents "standard mechanics" - a stack of purchaseable "generators", prestiging, skill trees, and some light interaction mechanics. Goes on ~forever.
- A Dark Room is a more weird, narrative "thing" progressing much more idiosyncratically, and has an "ending" you can reach
- Candy Box kinda splits the difference between those two if memory serves, has some of ADR's weirdness and similar sort of length, but a bit more mechanically standard. (Has a sequel you should also play if you enjoyed it.)
- Realm Grinder has a shitload of depth and length, fairly classical mechanics, but very oriented around builds and combos, no endpoint, still in active dev last time I looked
- Antimatter Dimensions - very long and very deep build-oriented game, but with a definite ending. Also contains its own scripting language later on
- Universal Paperclips is in the Candy Box mould, with an endpoint
- Bitburner - a hacking idle game where you have to implement and optimize your own hacking scripts in javascript, lots of depth and progression, strongly recommended if you're into that kind of thing
For mobile (specifically, iOS) games, the "greatest hits" list's probably a bit longer:
- Kittens Game is old and weird but with plenty going on, I never found an "end"
- Exponential Idle is a lovely math-centric take, clean and smooth and not too long
- Magic Research and the sequel are absolutely worth the small amount of money they cost, very high quality and with definite endings
- Leaf Blower Revolution is something I keep meaning to go back to, a lot of depth and quality here
- Unnamed Space Idle is relatively new but I'm enjoying it, still in active dev, mechanically interesting
- Idle Slayer ditto
Finally, if you're interested in the craft of idle game design, there's a sequence of games by Lutsgames that are interesting to play in order to watch someone figure out and refine their approach over multiple iterations, specifically:
- Idle Dice as a reasonably straightforward starting point (the UIs are all shit, sorry)
- Idle Idle Game Dev developing the formula
- Idle Superpowers exploring combinatorics
- Idle Dice 2 refining combinatorics down into a sharp point
There's a shitload more games out there - check out Incremental Games Plaza for a deeper dive - but these are the ones I'd put on a mixtape.
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Anton Longshot
Ars Centurion
I hate this game.
Right now my max score is nine hearts.
I'll get to 13 eventually. I put Dragonsweeper on my bookmarks bar for easy access.
Right now my max score is nine hearts.
I'll get to 13 eventually. I put Dragonsweeper on my bookmarks bar for easy access.
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macosandlinux
Ars Tribunus Militum
Thanks, will check all these links!Well.
Not an article, but you wanna talk idle games, OK then
Probably your starting point should be the classics:
Then, choosing from the smorgasbord, on PC I'd suggest looking at (in roughly the order they occur to me):
- Cookie Clicker is the OG, lots of playtime, and represents "standard mechanics" - a stack of purchaseable "generators", prestiging, skill trees, and some light interaction mechanics. Goes on ~forever.
- A Dark Room is a more weird, narrative "thing" progressing much more idiosyncratically, and has an "ending" you can reach
- Candy Box kinda splits the difference between those two if memory serves, has some of ADR's weirdness and similar sort of length, but a bit more mechanically standard. (Has a sequel you should also play if you enjoyed it.)
Those are all things I think are probably better on PC, even if they often have mobile versions too. I think all four are on Steam if that's your preference.
- Realm Grinder has a shitload of depth and length, fairly classical mechanics, but very oriented around builds and combos, no endpoint, still in active dev last time I looked
- Antimatter Dimensions - very long and very deep build-oriented game, but with a definite ending. Also contains its own scripting language later on
- Universal Paperclips is in the Candy Box mould, with an endpoint
- Bitburner - a hacking idle game where you have to implement and optimize your own hacking scripts in javascript, lots of depth and progression, strongly recommended if you're into that kind of thing
For mobile (specifically, iOS) games, the "greatest hits" list's probably a bit longer:
I generally prefer idle games on the phone, but only if they support the "dip in occasionally" playstyle and have a UX that makes sense at that scale. I think all of the above are available on PC also.
- Kittens Game is old and weird but with plenty going on, I never found an "end"
- Exponential Idle is a lovely math-centric take, clean and smooth and not too long
- Magic Research and the sequel are absolutely worth the small amount of money they cost, very high quality and with definite endings
- Leaf Blower Revolution is something I keep meaning to go back to, a lot of depth and quality here
- Unnamed Space Idle is relatively new but I'm enjoying it, still in active dev, mechanically interesting
- Idle Slayer ditto
Finally, if you're interested in the craft of idle game design, there's a sequence of games by Lutsgames that are interesting to play in order to watch someone figure out and refine their approach over multiple iterations, specifically:
They're not great games, but they're interesting as an ensemble.
- Idle Dice as a reasonably straightforward starting point (the UIs are all shit, sorry)
- Idle Idle Game Dev developing the formula
- Idle Superpowers exploring combinatorics
- Idle Dice 2 refining combinatorics down into a sharp point
There's a shitload more games out there - check out Incremental Games Plaza for a deeper dive - but these are the ones I'd put on a mixtape.
I just discovered Monsters 'til Midnight in the current co-op sale, and lost many hours to it today. It's a fun Vampire Survivors "clone". Realm Grinder is free, I take that.
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There's a P5 beholder (purple eyeball guy) nearby causing the ?.
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My best finish so far is clearing the board with 10 hearts left over. I didn't use my first health pack until I had 9 hearts. I used another one later before I had gotten all the non-monster xp but with just a little luck I wouldn't have needed to, so I can probably do better.
I think in theory it's probably possible to finish without using health packs until you've collected all the non monster xp. If you can get to 10 health and kill the mine king it's easy after that since the mines become xp.
I think in theory it's probably possible to finish without using health packs until you've collected all the non monster xp. If you can get to 10 health and kill the mine king it's easy after that since the mines become xp.
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