Dungeon Sweeper is a refreshing Japanese indie twist on classic Minesweeper

Dungeon Sweeper was released by Japanese indie game developer Setamo on December 13. The Minesweeper-inspired game sees you gradually expanding traditional Japanese-style settlements, rendered in a charming pixel art style. The PC/browser-based game can be downloaded from itch.io for a payment of your choice or as a free-to-play title.  

In Dungeon Sweeper, the aim is to expand a pixel art map by left clicking on small adjacent hexagonal sections of the screen. By opening more sections of the screen, you can expand the world of charming traditional Japanese villages and varied environments. However, dungeons await you under some of the unopened sections. If you accidentally open a dungeon, it’s game over. To avoid the dungeons, it is important to pay attention to the hexagons that have graves on them. Dungeons are always surrounded by grave squares and the number of graves on a hexagon indicates the number of dungeons in the area. This is similar to Minecraft’s number system that alerts you to the mines. It’s possible to safely open a dungeon once you have opened all the surrounding non-dungeon hexagons.  

As you successfully expand the map, your score increases and you unlock new biomes, such as green forested areas and snowy tundra. The final biome will appear once you gain over 10,000 points. The game also has 3 difficulty levels that vary the number of dungeons hidden in the map. Although Dungeon Sweeper is in Japanese, it is easy to play even if you have no knowledge of the language. The developer Setamo describes the game as relaxing and hopes that people will enjoy playing it. 

Setamo is a Japanese game developer who has been sharing their pixel art-style illustrations on X (formerly Twitter) and other sites. They also previously developed a game called “Haikyo Dot” using their artwork. Setamo is currently working on a new game where the player must complete a world using a sliding puzzle-style mechanic.  

Dungeon Sweeper is available on itch.io as a free-to-play browser game or as a download for PC.  

Written by. Verity Townsend based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-12-14 15:30 JST)