Triclops Mage, I choose you!

February 12, 2010 10:51 AM

Great Dungeon in the Sky Is a pixelly gotta-catch-'em-all flash platformer built using flixel. There are 400 characters to unlock. Each character can have up to 3 abilities controlled by the z, x, & c keys (arrow keys to move).

Protip: Of the starting characters, I like the necromancer for the ability to both summon & heal. The summoned skeletons don't follow you, but you can set up a bunch on them in the same area and lure enemies towards them.

posted by juv3nal (62 comments total)

Is it bad that the moment I saw flixel I was like YAY THIS IS PROBABLY GOOD.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 10:55 AM on February 12, 2010

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
posted by Damn That Television at 11:00 AM on February 12, 2010

There are 400 characters to unlock.

The amount of choice-anxiety this fills me with is Lovecraftian. I think I'm becoming too neurotic for video games.
posted by griphus at 11:00 AM on February 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

So I get the loading screen, then the title screen, then it says "Continue Press X" and pressing X doesn't do shit

;_;
posted by Damn That Television at 11:05 AM on February 12, 2010

This game basically justifies Flash's existence.
posted by the dief at 11:09 AM on February 12, 2010

Feel the wrath^* of the Citrus Elemental!

^* Some conditions apply
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 11:12 AM on February 12, 2010

Oh man, I am playing as a Tabby but it only has one attack. :(
posted by Mister Cheese at 11:20 AM on February 12, 2010

Damn That Television, you can also click on the symbol above "continue press x."
posted by stresstwig at 11:20 AM on February 12, 2010

OMG this is the best thing ever. By which I mean, WHY HAVE YOU SHOWN ME THIS?!?! HAVE YOU NO COMPASSION?!

Freakin awesome.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 11:24 AM on February 12, 2010

Jumping is really sketchy.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:28 AM on February 12, 2010

Finished it. Well, killed the "ultimate bad guy." The dragons and the Big Baddie are pretty damned easy to kill. Messed around with other characters and then did the rest of it with archer. Kind of lame, actually.
posted by papercake at 11:32 AM on February 12, 2010

"Please wait while the game loads"
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 11:33 AM on February 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm loving the huge variety of classes so far. Here are some of the neat ones I've seen so far:

- Walrus with Legs
- Chicken (Cucco)
- Master Baker
- Astronaut
- Cosmonaut
- Cube of Purpleness (Its only attack turns other enemies into Cubes themselves)
- A variety of Birdmen, Aliens, Cyclops, Triclops, Trolls, Yeti, and Gnomes

90% of the classes may be junk, but it's fun to try them all out at least once. It helps to offset the relatively tiny number of levels I've seen.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 11:35 AM on February 12, 2010

Heh...

Master Baker

Attacks:
   Bread
   Stab
   None

posted by Salvor Hardin at 11:38 AM on February 12, 2010

More like DUDGEON in the sky amirite!

...

Ugh. I was told a good vocabulary was a good thing.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:52 AM on February 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ok, it gets boring after a while, but it's still awesome.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 11:58 AM on February 12, 2010

I too saw "yay Flixel!" and then just played it without reading the thread.

It was good.
posted by The Whelk at 12:06 PM on February 12, 2010

No you wait while the game loads!
posted by Eideteker at 12:25 PM on February 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am. Still.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:31 PM on February 12, 2010

Nice time waster, very cool character spread. Controls, however, suck.
posted by deacon_blues at 12:39 PM on February 12, 2010

Great. I just got over my Gemcraft addiction. (Level 84, beyotches!)


So, er, I needed a new outlet for my obsessive tendencies.
posted by darkstar at 1:47 PM on February 12, 2010

Triclops mage? Pfff! Triclops Warrior, fool. Ridiculous how dominating that was. Lovely, all the same.
posted by Dandeson Coates, Sec'y at 1:58 PM on February 12, 2010

No, it's all about the Birdman Guard! Fly wherever you want!
posted by Comrade_robot at 2:02 PM on February 12, 2010

Mmm, beholder.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 2:25 PM on February 12, 2010

Yoda unlocked!

Yes, yes, this will do nicely.
posted by threetoed at 3:35 PM on February 12, 2010

After the first play, are there any really neat things left? The dragons are invincible, and my unlock netted a crappy golem.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 3:59 PM on February 12, 2010

Over in the Rock, Paper, Shotgun thread the author says

Since lots of new people are playing this all of a sudden, I’ll try and update it over the weekend with some new levels and unlocking things.
posted by ecurtz at 4:26 PM on February 12, 2010

It seems like an intense processor hog.... I tried running it on my eee (which does fine on most flash games), and it was choking at 100% cpu utilization on the _character selection screen!_ I'm guessing that's why people are having trouble with it hanging... There's probably some simple optimizations that would make it run like a dream.
posted by kaibutsu at 5:03 PM on February 12, 2010

Good thing I don't use the letters z, x, or c much, since this game is going to wear those keys OUT.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:38 PM on February 12, 2010

It amazes me how much blind sexism there is out there that goes uncommented on. Barbarian and Barbarian Female? So there are the normal characters and then there are the female. Hmm... Females are barbarians, too!
posted by bitslayer at 5:42 PM on February 12, 2010

Ugh, I'm playing a level as a dark blob but my jump is so weak I can't actually get to the end of the level because there's a wall in the way. uick, some enemy come in and kill me!
posted by subbes at 5:46 PM on February 12, 2010

...I had to quit because I was stuck in a hole I couldn't escape. Damn you, dark blob.
posted by subbes at 5:47 PM on February 12, 2010

If you get stuck you can press Esc to go back to the level or character select. But now that I have a Pegasus I will never get stuck and I will never need another character.
posted by Nedroid at 6:10 PM on February 12, 2010

mind control can lead to some weird situations.
posted by episteborg at 6:44 PM on February 12, 2010

awful controls. just awful. the level design is also... well, if it's not generated randomly, it sure could be. it's a shame. it otherwise seems kind of fun.
posted by radiosilents at 7:28 PM on February 12, 2010

There's more potential than payoff here, but it's fun all the same. I think if the creator made a few key changes, this could be a really great game.
posted by picea at 9:12 PM on February 12, 2010

I just played that game for much longer than I'd like to admit. Seriously needs more levels, and more strategy: there no reason to use more than one or two characters. Also no reason to kill bad guys you've already unlocked. After beating the end boss three times, I was unlocking very few characters at each new level, and just flying through them.

The end boss does change. I saw two, and also unlocked a "platinum dragon" that's different from the four you have to beat each time. Some other critters I saw: Yoda, Link, Shyguy, "Tim".

Strategy for beating the game quickly: Use anyone with a bow until you have a flying creature that can do some damage. The bow at close range is by far the most effective weapon, but flight makes the levels go much faster. I mostly used the birdman soldier for flying.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:19 PM on February 12, 2010

thunder dragon is pretty much invincible - 100 hp, flies and super fast attack.
posted by clockworkjoe at 1:01 AM on February 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Shit Blob

Attacks:
None
Bite
None

No thanks!
posted by imperium at 1:25 AM on February 13, 2010

I used beholder until I got a fire dragon, fire dragon until I got a thunder dragon, and never turned back. My boss was an Iron Knight, and I unlocked a kraken.

There are some 2x1 creatures above the dragons; I'm curious about them and might use an unlock on them if I keep playing.

My favorite character is the dire baby.
posted by painquale at 11:42 AM on February 13, 2010

The 2x1 creatures are, as you might expect, snakes. Can these be found anywhere in the game, or do they need to be manually unlocked?

The enemies in each area aren't random... it seems like there are various classes of enemies (like yeti, the undead, animals, eyes, spacemen, elementals, ghosts, etc.), and although it's random which enemy within a class you'll face within a level, the placement of enemy classes is determinate. This is handy, for if you've already unlocked, say, all the undead creatures, you can skip over that one tower that contains them. The level you most want to see is the one with a narrow pit at the beginning you need to fall down... there's a room in that level you can fly up to that contains the rare characters in the final two rows of the character selection screen.

I'm missing the first few characters in the fourth row, which makes me think that there's a class of enemy's tucked away in some level somewhere that I have yet to find. Who are these guys? Where are they? I'm also missing the characters after the cyclopses other than Yoda, and everyone in the third-last row other than Polly. Are these classes hidden somewhere?
posted by painquale at 12:25 PM on February 13, 2010

I got Santa! He's in the last row. He throws presents that do one damage.

I used an unlock on those characters in the forth row... they're elves. Plain elves, not high elves or anything. But they aren't in any levels as far as I know.
posted by Mister Cheese at 1:29 PM on February 13, 2010

Warning: One of the characters in the last row (2 left of Santa) is "Naija" (?). With attacks of Slash, Potion, and Splash. Using potion always freezes the game for me. It's not a huge deal, as you can just reload the page to start the level over, but if you had managed to unlock a character before trying that attack, you'd be pretty pissed!
posted by Rock Steady at 1:35 PM on February 13, 2010

Ah yeah, in the comments section of the Rock Paper Scissors page linked above, the author says that certain character classes aren't in any of the levels. Elves and gremlins, I guess (Yoda's in the gremlins group.)

It sounds like he'll update the game to put those classes in.

The bottom-right character is Cthulu. He sucks though.
posted by painquale at 1:49 PM on February 13, 2010

Ooh, I unlocked Link, then tried to play as him and was killed by a bunch of Yeti.
posted by subbes at 6:16 PM on February 13, 2010

I unlocked a Koi. Its one ability is "splash" which is about as effective an attack as you'd imagine it to be. Also got a "walrus with legs" which looks suspiciously like a dog.
posted by juv3nal at 6:40 PM on February 13, 2010

I second the Cthulu sucks comment. I used my unlock on that panel (before reading the comment), suspecting something glorious. The ancient god looks pretty cool (as far as one can in flixel land) but he lacks any serious puch.

Great game though.
posted by vantam at 1:46 AM on February 14, 2010

Nthing Cthulu sucks. I got him as the end boss my second time through, and he went down in one hit.
posted by burnmp3s at 2:28 AM on February 14, 2010

New levels posted! I just got a Blue Squad Sniper.
posted by Mister Cheese at 3:50 PM on February 14, 2010

I love the egg you get now after defeated a dragon (attack: Hatch!)
posted by reynaert at 4:18 PM on February 14, 2010

there's a room in that level you can fly up to that contains the rare characters in the final two rows of the character selection screen

And if that room appears to be empty, you've found the Invisible Man. That was evil.
posted by reynaert at 5:07 PM on February 14, 2010

Hahah, cool! After killing an enemy as a wurm, you transform into a drake. Defeat an enemy with a drake and you become a dragon. I think there might be a bug, as I went from red wurm to red drake to blue dragon. Perhaps I am not up to date on dragon biology.
posted by Mister Cheese at 9:13 PM on February 14, 2010

BTW, if you're playing as the Ent King, it doesn't seem to be able to hit enemies right next to you. Which means the only defense the Ent King has is to entangle and RUN!

Which is kind of a lame Ent King, if'n you ask me.
posted by darkstar at 9:15 PM on February 14, 2010

Aw man, I already spent two unlocks on those swat team guys. Oh well.
posted by painquale at 11:23 PM on February 14, 2010

I think I enjoy looking at the characters more than the actual game. Nifty, nonetheless!
posted by ignignokt at 12:58 AM on February 15, 2010

Got them all! Why I bothered, I don't know.
posted by painquale at 8:52 PM on February 15, 2010

THE DIRE BABY ROBERTS IS COMING FOR YOU SOOOUUUUUUUUUULS!
posted by Eideteker at 7:10 AM on February 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh man, turning high-def mode off was amusing. Until I got controlled by Cthulhu and then killed by elves.
posted by subbes at 7:52 PM on February 16, 2010

Ah yeah, in the comments section of the Rock Paper Scissors page linked above, the author says that certain character classes aren't in any of the levels. Elves and gremlins, I guess (Yoda's in the gremlins group.)

They appear to be included now. Haven't found Yoda yet, but have cleaned up on elves, gremlins, "green squad" and "blue squad" guys.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 8:03 PM on February 16, 2010

I caught them all. Pokeman can suck it.
posted by Eideteker at 9:32 PM on February 16, 2010

Necromancer the best regular character by miles. Decent rapid-fire missile, self-heal, and summoned creatures to do most of the fighting for you. Melee attacks seem to be pretty useless since enemies have to be positioned very precisely in front of you to be hit.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:59 AM on February 18, 2010

Melee attacks seem to be pretty useless since enemies have to be positioned very precisely in front of you to be hit.

The Staff attack, especially from flying characters (such as the Birdman Tribe Leader) is extremely effective. It can take out a dragon in around 1/4 of the time any one of the other dragon's main projectile attacks can. The only trouble I had swooping around with my Birdman was those stupid colored cubes, but their attacks are relatively easy to avoid if you know to be looking out for them.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:02 AM on February 18, 2010