(For the best viewing experience, please read the original copy of this post on Shatteredpixel.com)
On this day, 10 years ago, I released Shattered Pixel Dungeon v0.1.0. This tiny initial release was my first serious attempt at gamedev and was distributed to maybe 50 people on the Pixel Dungeon subreddit.
Fast forward 10 years and Shattered is my full-time job, with roughly 5 million combined downloads and roughly 150 thousand combined sales over several platforms. Even after all these years, more new people are discovering Shattered now than ever before, and the updates I make are getting bigger and better.
Join me for a quick walk down memory lane, and for a preview of something very exciting that's yet to come...
Ten Years Of Updates Visualized
In the last ten years Shattered has received 11 major updates, 36 minor updates, 124 patches, and hundreds more beta releases and internal revisions. I've already done a lot of writing about the gameplay content of these updates, so instead I'm going to go over some of the biggest visual changes that Shattered has had over the years!
(If you’re only interested in what’s new, feel free to skip down to the next section)
Music
Firstly, before we get into the visuals, here’s some music to listen to. Shattered received new remastered music in v1.0.0 by Kristjan Haaristo, replacing the original tracks from Pixel Dungeon. While the replacements where a stylistic change, they are much grander, higher fidelity, and have been expanded on since v1.0.0 as well.
The main menu theme is above, and the in-game theme is below, old on left and new on right.
Game Icon
Shattered’s icon went through some early iterations before settling on the current gold and green chest design, and refining it from there.
The chest icon was always iconic to Pixel Dungeon, so staying in that theme was an obvious choice. The vast majority of Pixel Dungeon versions use a chest with changed colors, and I like to think I started that trend.
Title Screen
The title screen starts with a simple torch recolor, and then porting the glowing effect added in Pixel Dungeon v1.7.5.
Keeping the unchanged ‘Pixel Dungeon’ title for so long seems silly in retrospect, but back in the early days Shattered wasn’t really considered to be its own distinct game.
Over time I did add a proper unique title graphic though, and eventually overhauled the buttons as well.
Shattered’s original main menu just needed four big buttons, but as I’ve added more and more functionality to the game it became necessary to redesign and expand the main menu. Every screen that the main menu goes into has been substantially changed or totally overhauled as well.
Hero Select
The first and second hero select UI were unchanged from the original Pixel Dungeon (v1.7.1 and v1.7.5). Eventually I moved the UI into a window and tried to add better hero info, but then redesigned the entire UI again when adding hero splash arts! Shortly after releasing on Steam I also made an expanded verison of this UI for desktop users:
The story here is all about the splash arts, done by Aleksandar Komitov. I always wanted to include more fully detailed images of the heroes, like you might find in the title screen of a classic computer game. The splashes have been important both for those hero details and for Shattered’s visual identity, I try to use them in promotional material whenever I can.
In-Game Visuals
The game screen started out with simple changes, first with additions from Pixel Dungeon v1.7.2, and then a design change that swapped one of the toolbar buttons for four quickslots total.
Moving up to four quickslots was a direct response to Shattered’s growing complexity. With new usable items (most notably artifacts) and big improvements to existing items, players really needed quick access to more items at once.
Later on there were more small improvements and additions to the UI, plus one big change to the environment visuals in v0.5.0. Desktop users also got a big interface change in v1.2.0 with a dedicated large-screen UI (pictured below). Mobile users got a quickslot swapper in v1.3.0, an attempt to get them up to 6 slots to match with desktop users.
The largest change to overall game visuals was easily v0.5.0. Changing the game’s walls to be raised instead of flat was a big visual adjustment that a lot of people felt unsure about at the time, but now can’t do without.
The shape of the levels themselves was also totally overhauled in v0.6.0. If you’re curious about the v0.6.0 changes you can read these two blog posts, which were actually the first long-form blog posts I ever made! part 1, part 2.
If you’re interested in more details on Shattered’s history in general, consider reading more of the posts here or check out the in-game changelog. If you want to go even deeper, you could take a look at my archive of old Shattered releases, or old Pixel Dungeon releases (Android only). These archives go all the way back to the first version of both games!
For now though, let’s move on to what’s to come…
New Graphics!
Looking back on how the game has changed visually, you might notice one detail that’s pretty absent: the actual direct game visuals themselves! Most in-game visuals from Pixel Dungeon are unchanged by all the updates over the last ten years, with the notable exception of v0.5.0.
That might be changing soon though… I’ve been working with artists and gathering feedback behind the scenes, and I'm finally ready to announce some very exciting visual improvements I have planned for the game! These changes are focused around improving the in-game pixel art while staying true to the game’s existing style. This is a big undertaking, and today I’ve got lots of early WIP art to show off!
(You can click/tap on any of the following images to see a zoomed in version. Many of these images compare the existing visuals to new ones, the old version is always either above or to the left.)
Items
Most of the game’s T2-T5 melee weapons are shown above along with a sampling of thrown weapons. The emphasis here is to try and keep the item’s sihouette similar while improving the shading to add details or better convey shape. You’ll see that approach a lot in the various art samples here.
Various other items are shown above with similar improvements. Some changes are very mild, while others deviate a bit more from the original design. We’re generally more willing to play with an item’s silhouette when it feels like a justifiable improvement.
Terrain
While v0.5.0 did give the game a new 2.5D art style, it largely just remixed the existing wall visuals, rather than using new ones. Shown above is a first attempt at adjusting the wall visuals with new texturing and bolder outlines to better take advantage of the 2.5D style.
Above is a bigger shot, showing an entire sewer level with improved walls and other potential additions. The game currently re-uses generic terrain visuals quite frequently, which leaves a lot of room for detail improvements.
Characters
Here are a few prospective enemy improvements, ranging from very mild shading additions to pretty expansive adjustments. Many of the game’s character designs are quite iconic, so it’s important to try and preserve that where possible, while also improving detail, shading. and shape.
Of course characters have animations, so here are a few examples demonstrating those as well! A lot of the game’s existing animations are pretty stiff or minimal, so there is a LOT of oppourtunity for added detail and flair here.
Not all characters are enemies though, the heroes could do with some improvements as well! The hero sprites are probably the most iconic in-game visuals, so getting this right is really important. The potential payoff is creating in-game visuals that more closely match with the splash arts, and better convey each character within the game world.
…And lastly, we’re also considering making more dramatic changes to enemy designs in a few specific cases…
Please keep in mind that all of this is WIP and I am actively looking for feedback, please let me know what you think! Obviously it's impossible to make everyone happy, but taking in and responding to feedback is the best way to ensure the new art is as good as it can be. There's still a lot of work to be done before any of this appears in-game, and none of the art shown here is final.
Thanks so much for reading, and for playing! The enthusiasm from Shattered Pixel Dungeon’s players is the reason why it’s been able to grow so much over the last decade. Thank you so much, whether you’ve been around since the original Pixel Dungeon or just started playing today.
I’ve not got any firm times for when the art shown here will appear in-game, but expect to hear more about it in the future as development on Shattered continues. As for v2.5.0, Shattered’s next regular update, I’m still hoping to get another blog post and beta out in about 2 weeks. As always, if you’d like smaller incremental updates about Shattered’s development you can subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter, or follow me on Mastodon!