TyreForHyre

Gunthro and the Epic Blunder for sure. it's what's on Steam and all the other holds you get as DLC for that, except Second Sky cause that's it's own engine. Anyway, Gunthro and the Epic Blunder has a much better difficulty curve and outright teaches you a lot of the elements clearly, has a little hub world to run around in between dungeons, and it's a prequel to everything else anyway.

TyreForHyre @tyreforhyre6/10/2024, 1:03 PM

the actual first game in the series which is King Dugan's Dungeon, really has a lot of designs that are of it's time. annoying mazes, rooms made only to be "combat puzzles" which just means rote execution and trial and error unless you can see 200 moves in 5D chess in your mind. pretty much every other game has rooms that have those fun "aha" moments where you discover the lynch pin that holds the whole puzzle together, and i think Gunthro is a great example of that kind of design ethos.

catastrophically yearning transfem-like lanky kong @lankyfromnowonbutprobablynot6/10/2024, 1:36 PM

I think what I'd played might have been some of Dugan's, which explains why I didn't get very far or stick with it much, despite loving the concept in retrospect. Was/is Dugan's free? I don't remember buying it.

TyreForHyre @tyreforhyre6/10/2024, 1:48 PM

it's likely you were playing DROD: Architects' Edition https://caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/AE.html which is the free rewrite of DROD before the newer and shinier rewrite of DROD that is available on Steam and GoG. and yeah that would have been Dungan's 1.1 or somesuch. there was also a free flash version but i have no experience as to what levels that one has.

catastrophically yearning transfem-like lanky kong @lankyfromnowonbutprobablynot6/10/2024, 1:37 PM

Also thanks for the recommendation!