PC Feature Planning | Patreon Weekly #123

Hey Patrons!

Firstly, there’s a new content poll! It’s relating to this weekly though, so please read through this first before going over there.

Also, if you’re a Golden+ Patron and missed it, I’m currently offering a Patreon-exclusive build of the game with the new music built-in! You can find it Here, please let me know what you think!

Finally, as mentioned previously, I’m going to be presenting at Roguelike Celebration 2021 this week! You can find more info about the talk Here.

For the rest of this weekly I’m going to cover my current plans for a PC release on Shattered Pixel Dungeon!

PC Improvements

As mentioned in Weekly #121, I’m currently planning out how to best present the game for new players on platforms like Steam and Itch.io. I don’t think it’s good enough to just present the game as a straight mobile port.

The first thing that has to get done is getting the game to work without requiring a separate Java installation. I’ve been offering the game as a generic JAR for a while now but it’s not really reasonable to expect players to install Java just to play Shattered. It is possible to handle this annoyance on my end though, by packaging Java with the game and presenting it to the user as a simple platform-specific executable.

After that, another big thing I need to do is rethink the game’s core UI. Currently it’s designed for mobile phones with its large buttons and nested windows, but there is a lot more screen real-estate to work on with desktop and laptop computers. At the very least I would like to rearrange the game’s current UI elements, and size game elements more appropriately for larger screens.

Here is a very rough WIP of what that new UI layout may look like, obviously this is subject to change as I get to implementing and take in feedback. I should also note that any UI overhaul I make would be optional. The current mobile interface would be an option to switch to in the settings, and similarly large mobile devices (e.g. tablets) would likely be able to access the PC interface as well.

For some of the additional things I’d like to do, go and take a look at this week’s poll!

I'm planning to make a public blog post later this week, in advance of Roguelike Celebration, which will share some of this info with everyone. That will also include publishing a 'coming soon' store listing on steam!