Help

Welcome to the help page! Having problems installing the game? Encountering an error message? You're in the right place! This page aims to provide easy to follow guides to resolve any issues you may be facing. Alternatively, you can report a bug by using this tool, however please only do this if you're certain your issue can't be fixed using one of the methods listed below.

The upper section of this page consists of guides, tips and tricks to help you get up and running. If you're facing issues with the game, click here to jump to the troubleshooting section 'When things go wrong'.

Getting up and running:

To download and play the game on Windows:

Head over to the Downloads page, and click "Download for Windows". Wait for the file to download, then extract it's contents. Run the file named "DTDSetup.exe", and let the installer guide you through the remainder of the process. (If you receive a message that reads "Windows protected your PC" when running the installer, please refer to the section below under "When things go wrong"). Congratulations, you've now installed DeathTrap Dungeon and it's ready to play! To find it, simply click on the start menu and search for DeathTrap Dungeon.

To download and play the game on Linux:

To download the game on Linux, head over to the Downloads page, and click "Download Source Code (All Other Platforms)". Wait for the file to download, and extract it's contents. Next, open up a Terminal window, and navigate to the directory the game files were extracted to. Next, make the game file executable as per your distribution, then simply run the program with "./main.py".

Install dependencies:

DeathTrap Dungeon does not rely on many external dependencies, except for Pygame, which allows the game to play audio. If you don't see a message when you start the game about Pygame not being installed, then you can skip over this section.

If you do see a message like this, however, you may want to install Pygame to be able to hear sound in-game.

Installation on Linux:

Firstly, make sure you've got root privileges and can install software. The Pygame library is available in the repositories of most linux distributions, and can simply be installed using your package manager. Below are a few of the most popular examples:

$ su

OpenSUSE / SUSE Linux: # zypper in python3-pygame

Fedora / RHEL: # dnf install python3-pygame

Arch Linux: # pacman -S python3-pygame

Ubuntu / Debian: # apt-get install pygame

If your operating system is not listed, please read the documentation provided by your distro.

After running the command, you'll be prompted for your password. Wait for the packages to install, then logout and log back in. Start DTD as you normally would, and you should no longer see the message about the missing dependency!

Converting Save Data:

After upgrading to a newer version of DTD, you may notice that your save file is replaced by an "[INCOMPATIBLE]" indicator. Don't panic! This is completely normal, and your save data is still okay; it just needs to be converted before it can be loaded.

Why does my save file need to be converted?

As new versions of the game are released, changes can be made to the save format. These changes are made to improve the game, and can completely alter how the data is saved. This, of course, leads to an incompatibility; the newer version of the game is expecting the save file to be the same as the format it saves in, however older versions of the game that use different save formats were not designed with this in mind. This is where the conversion process comes in, it allows you to upgrade to a newer version of the game, and retain your saved progress by converting it to a format that can be understood in the newer version.

How do I convert save data?

In order to convert your save file, select "Load Saved Game" from the main menu, then select the slot marked as "[INCOMPATIBLE]". A message will appear, which reads something like "Save Data needs to be converted before it can be loaded in this version of the game. Continue?" (The wording of this message may vary, depending on which version of the game you're running). Simply select "Yes", this will load the Save Data Conversion Utility, and the conversion process will begin. From here, simply wait for the process to complete (this may take a while, depending on your hardware and other factors). Upon completion, your save data will be ready to load!

When things go wrong

When things go wrong:

There are a number of things that could go wrong whilst installing and playing DTD. Don't give up hope yet! It's very likely that whatever problem you're facing is outlined here.

DTD v2.9.5 or earlier crashes as soon as it is launched (Windows 10 or later):

When launching the Windows version of the game on Windows 10 or above, an error message may very briefly appear before the game crashes. This is an issue caused by a change in the way permissions are handled in recent Windows versions. A fix has already been implemented for this in DTD v3.0.0, however if you're not comfortable running the beta you can also use the source code version of DTD v2.9.5 to bypass the issue.

"Windows protected your PC" error message when launching the installer on Windows:

When running the installer on Windows 8 or newer, a scary looking popup appears stating that Windows protected your computer from a harmful program. This is due to an intrusive feature called Windows SmartScreen that debuted in Windows 8 that was likely designed to force people into using the Microsoft Store to download software. Because of this, certain programs that don't hold a certain certificate trigger this warning.

You can safely bypass this by clicking "More Info" followed by "Run Anyway". If you have any doubts at all about the validity of my claims and want to double check that DTD is in no way harmful, the game is open source, so you can check through the source code and see for yourself that there is absolutely nothing malicious in the code.

"Unable to access audio data" error message:

This error appears when the game can't access it's audio files, and most commonly appears in the source code version. However, it can appear on the Windows version too. If you're using the source code version, make sure the folder named 'sfx' is located in the same directory as the game, and ensure the name hasn't been changed. If you're still seeing this message, try reinstalling the game. If you're using Windows and you see this error message, it's almost always caused by a corrupt download. This can be remedied by uninstalling DTD the same way you would with any other program, and then reinstalling it from the downloads page.

"Missing Dependencies" error message on Windows:

This error message is triggered when certain files that the game needs in order to run on WIndows cannot be located. To remedy this error, uninstall the game, download a new copy from the downloads page, and reinstall it again. This error can also be triggered if you're running the Source Code version on Windows. If this is the case, ensure you're running the Windows Version.

"This system does not appear to support Standard Graphics Mode, so Basic Graphics Mode was automatically enabled" error message:

This error is exclusive to DTD V3.0.0 or later, and occurs as a result of the Flow theme (the default visual style in this version of the game) not being able to display. This is caused when your computer can't render the advanced characters used to form the UI. If you are seeing this message on Windows, ensure your display drivers are up to date. If you are running the Source Code version of the game through an IDE, try a different IDE.

Unable to convert save data:

This issue generally arises if you upgrade an older version of DTD to a much later version. This occurs due to the Save Data Conversion Utility (the tool built into the game responsible for converting save data) losing support for certain save file formats that older versions of the game used. The workaround for this issue is to download an older release of the game from here under the "Older Versions" section. Try to download a version that is slightly newer than the release you are upgrading from (for example, if you were running DTD V2.5, try downloading DTD V2.8). Convert the save data in this version of the game, and from here upgrade to the latest release and then try to run the conversion process again.

"bash: ./DTD.py: usr/bin/python3^m: bad interpreter: no such file or directory" message in Linux terminal:

This is a fairly common issue that mainly affects Ubuntu based distributions, and can be fixed by installing a package named 'Dos2Unix'. Please see this link for further details on the use of this package.

Unable to install simpleaudio through the game or manually (2.6 or earlier only):

Please note, this has been fixed as of DTD V2.7. To download a newer version, head on over to the Downloads page.

This is another common issue, and affects users on all platforms. When attempting to install simpleaudio, either through the game or manually, the installation results in a lot of red text, along with a message reading "Command errored out with exit status 1". This can usually be fixed on Windows by installing Visual Studio, however this occurs due to a bug with SimpleAudio, and so cannot be resolved as easily on other platforms. The easiest way to bypass this issue is to upgrade to the latest version of DTD, as the SimpleAudio module is no longer required to enable audio.

The game takes a long time to start:

If the game is taking a long time to start up, this is usually caused by a weak connection to the internet. To fix this, disable Automatic Updates by selecting "Options" on the main menu, then selecting "Update Settings". Next, select "Automatic Updates", and select "Yes" when prompted to confirm if you'd like to disable the option.