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Hi! I'm Bart Bonte, a Belgian independent game designer and bontegames.com is where I blog about new interesting browser and mobile games. My own games are all in the left column (or at the bottom of this page on mobile). More info about me and my games on bartbonte.com.
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January 30, 2025

dragonsweeper [browser]

Try to clear the bord in the roguelike minesweeper adventure Dragonsweeper by Daniel Benmergui. Make sure to read the monsternomicon first!

35 comments:

Zoyciteyouma said...

Unless there's a gimmick I'm missing, it seems over reliant on dumb luck. The idea's good but it feels like it starts out on the worst difficulty level.

Anonymous said...

It's not as bad as you think. The start does rely on luck to give you something that's easy to explore, but past that, certain monsters will always appear in a specific pattern, and monster locations are always revealed when you die, so dying a few times to learn how they operate can really give you a leg up. Also, experience earned overflows into your next level, so if you exhaust your HP down to zero (naked) before you click a heart or level up, you can maximize the amount of exp you earn. You can beat the dragon without clearing the board, but clearing the board will require doing this.

eszterencs said...

First I almost left this game after a few minutes, I thought it was way too complicated, based too much on luck, no clear rules, I don't understand the whole thing, but fortunately I read the comments under the game and I deicided to give a second chance to this game. And I figured out very soon that this game is really enjoyable! :-) It is partly a strategic game, partly counting and logic, really worth to spend some time on learning it! Great work from the developer.

Blog said...

Fantastic! Same as Eszterencs, i first give up, and then read the comments on the page, and what a game!! Thx.

Lighty said...

I agree with the other comments, I too thought this was too difficult at first, but I persevered. There is a small amount of luck required to clear enough board to find hearts, but other than that you can work out most positions. Use the book too to see how many of each monster are left (it does update). Now trying to completely clear the board, but it's not easy.

Anonymous said...

I don't get it, i always run out of health after a while

collie said...

I was waiting for you to post this one, quite the game no? I've already gotten 303 a while ago but what a ride, I love the way it makes no sence but then makes total sence till you start to learn the way the game "thinks". super fun

Lighty said...

@anonymous you have to be a little lucky to start finding hearts to refill your health until you have enough (gold?) to upgrade which also replenishes your health. Choose your battles wisely and right click (multiple times if needed) to mark what you know.

Anonymous said...

Pretty fun. Is a little luck reliant, but there is strategy. The one tip I'll add is if you know where enemies are, it's better to explore out a bit in areas without unknown mines to try to open the map up more and more

Anonymous said...

i beat it twice in a row. its not dumb luck its strategy and logic. figure out the patterns by studying the board after you die. its trial and error before you learn its secrets

Arlyo2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I see various ways of winning.
1) Simply killing the dragon.
2} breaking all walls.
3) marking everything correctly
4) killing every monster.
5) combo of above items.

Meblin said...

What is the logic of the "?"

Anonymous said...

after I finished it at 303 a few times I started shooting for the lowest possible score (kill the dragon fast as possible) not sure the how low it can get but I'll figure it out sooner enough

Anonymous said...

it's a lot more than luck, but luck is part of it, the monsters follow patterns, you learn it, it's awesome. It's good to be bold in the first 4-5 clicks, if you don't get lucky early it's not worth it

Anonymous said...

there's a monster in the field of question marks that creates the question marks, I'f you kill it the questions become numbers, BUT BE WARNED other things can be hiding there too

Xexus said...

303 !!!

Anonymous said...

This game is so addictive once you figure out the patterns!

Xexus said...

Seems there's a new update, dragon is 13 now, and starting with only one orb

recidave said...

and there is a 9 "monster" now

TheAdmiralM said...

Patterns I've seen thus far:

Romeo and Juliet always face each other horizontally, equidistant from the dragon.
Rats face the column with the king. If the rat is sitting up the king is in that column. Defeat him to reveal all the rats.
? blocks mean a purple one-eyed creature is near.
The purple wizard is always on the edge of the board, surrounded by purple slimes.
The gargoyles always face each other.

Anonymous said...

In addition to the patterns above, I've noticed that the minotaurs always look towards the chest they're guarding (only one chest per minotaur and it's always just next to them), and they have a different expression if you opened the chest

Anonymous said...

correction: they don't facet the chest, but there's always one in a case around them

eszterencs said...

I like less the updated version, because it based more on luck, especially at the beginning, many times I have to make a blind guess, and many times I have only too high value monsters available. If I got through 3-4 level ups, it is okay usually. I think having a nine value monster combined with the slower levelling up, it makes really hard (many times impossible) for safe guesses. I hope there will be another update or or an option to choose which version to play. (Downloadable version is not working on my computer.)

Frobisher said...

I think the new update is closer to the design intention. The previous version could be solved with very little knowledge of the underlying patterns — for instance, the only patterns I relied on were the gargoyles and the position of the slime mage. In this new version, the start puts a lot more pressure on deduction that comes from this hidden information.

Of course, if you don't know those details then it feels like dumb luck, but the game needs to do that in order to make you look for patterns.

TheAdmiralM said...

There is NOT a Minotaur around the mimic.

TheAdmiralM said...

The minotaur faces away from the chest they're associated with.

TheAdmiralM said...

Finally! 352! Came so close to clearing the board.

Anonymous said...

I'm torn on weather I like the update or not, I had mastered the old version and it became a mindlesss time waster, now I'm not having as much fun re-learning it, BUT it is as good or better than the older one, but I'm old and hate re-learning..... so in conclusion I have no opinion, I'm gonna do a few rounds, still haven't killed the dragon since the update

Anonymous said...

they actual look away from the chest before you find it, then they look at it angry, PLUS it's not a guarantee there wont be a mimic and a chest right next to eachother, I've made that mistake a few times.

Anonymous said...

Just got 364, one little brick wall with one hit to die sitting there taunting me first time I finishedthe new version. This realy is a great game, so satisfying to finally catch that little knome bastard

eszterencs said...

This game is somewhat addictive, I still keep playing it. :-D It got another update, with some slight changes. I discovered even more rules, which helps, I missed some of them earlier. And the monsternomicon has a second page, I haven't noticed that earlier either, it offers some missions. I wonder how long can this game surprise me with something new. :-)

Anonymous said...

Jack and Jill are always an equil distance from the center on the same line, he's 3 from the center she's 3 from the center

TheAdmiralM said...

How far they are from the center varies, but they are always equidistant yes.

TheAdmiralM said...

Finally hit 365!

 

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