Dragon Riddler · published
Although Dragon Riddler still very much flies under Steam's radar, I know I've created something unique and fun. I just haven't quite figured out how to shape it into an adventure game yet.
With this major update, which skips several version numbers due to architectural changes, I'm continuing this journey, hopefully in the right direction.
Dragon Riddler has been criticized for making it very hard for players to build long words. Even though this was by design, and there were several ways to work around the limitation, it occasionally led to frustration when players couldn't submit an awesome word simply because their hero didn't have enough Energy.
I've found a way to improve my original idea, and it's so simple that I'm confident you'll agree: letters beyond the hero's capacity simply lose their tier values. That's it. These letters cannot harm the opponent or provide the usual defense, there are two important benefits: first, they let you submit a great word, and second, if the hero still has some Energy, these letter clashes won't automatically result in Life loss.
Potions are much more potent, and I've also adjusted opponent stats, Gate seal endurances, and boons. I haven't simply made the game easier; I've adjusted several mechanics to provide a better player experience.
Also, when the hero retires (rather than dying or fleeing), the final score now receives a bonus based on the hero's XP. After all, XP is a good measure of how powerful the words you can build are.
Those of you who play on a Steam Deck will be pleased to learn that text sizes have been increased, improving legibility.
I'd also like to casually mention that I've managed to port the game to mobile devices. This is a particularly challenging technical undertaking in its own right, and I'm seriously considering releasing Dragon Riddler for Android and iOS in the future, although I haven't made a decision or announced anything yet.
I've seriously optimized the word database system, not only radically reducing its memory requirements but also enhancing performance. I don't think Dragon Riddler was slow to begin with, but during the mobile port, I learned the hard way that certain mobile devices can actually run out of memory. (I never thought I'd see that happen in 2026.)
The character sheets, especially the Life and Energy readouts, have been slightly redesigned and improved.
I've also redesigned the Combat Stance selector button to make it more intuitive.
When a character evades by submitting no word, the evasion is now explicitly shown.
Boss fights now have their own letter themes and a larger Shared Letter Pool, allowing more high-tier letters to appear.
A "Victory" screen now appears after every encounter (combat and Gate), showing how much XP and Gold was gained, along with other stat changes.
The game now offers daily challenges instead of weekly ones. It's a small change, but since a demo adventure typically takes about 10—30 minutes, playing every day makes for a nice workout for the brain. It can help improve vocabulary, too, and make you more attached to the game. Bwahaha!
Although Dragon Riddler is already pretty stable, I've squashed some incorrect behaviors, and made the code more robust for future updates.
I hope you'll like these changes. Let me know your thoughts.
Thank you,
Sandor