For years, I am ashamed to admit that Dungeon of the Endless was one of those strange games I loved much more than I actually played. I longed to play it though, to be good at it - nobody is actually good at it - or at least to truly understand it. I was drawn in by the stylish French sci-fi, the elegant, elongated pixel art, this El Greco futurism with a brutal tower defence twist. But I felt frozen out. And now I'm finally in, I don't really know why I was so afraid. I think I was probably fretful about being overwhelmed, but in Dungeon of the Endless being overwhelmed is actually the central thrill.

I see that now. Today, Dungeon of the Endless has finally arrived on smartphones, which means that this bewitching game will have a huge new audience to win over. The port is not bad, I think - it's the game I remember, with all the DLC, but I should warn anyone else like me with long-sightedness: the text can be pretty small and I can struggle to make out the more frantic action.

Nonetheless I think there has been love spent here. Dungeon of the Endless is a game about exploring deadly underground mazes, to first find the exit to the next area and then get your crystal from the starting position to the exit. You control a handful of characters who auto-attack anything in the current room they're in, but even with auto-attack, I was still worried about fiddliness. Selecting characters can be fiddly on a touchscreen, and how would the game handle Dungeon of the Endless' two signature moments, opening a door to somewhere new and possible horrid, and lighting a room once you've cleared it out?

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Developer Amplitude Studios' Endless series of strategy games, including Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 (but minus its predecessor, for reasons which will later become clear), is free to play on Steam until next week.

Amplitude's free weekend, which coincides with the launch of new expansions for Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend (titled Penumbra and Symbiosis respectively), runs from today, January 24th, until Monday, January 28th. During that time, the aforementioned Endless titles, plus Dungeon of the Endless, will be available to play for nowt.

That's not quite the end of it, however. Pretty much the entirety of Amplitude's back-catalogue is currently discounted on Steam, meaning that you can continue your strategic adventures for significantly less than the usual price once the free weekend is over.

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Amplitude Studios' splendid Endless series of strategy games - which comprises of Endless Legend, Endless Space and its sequel, Dungeon of the Endless, and an assortment of DLC - is having a free weekend, and it's underway now.

From today, August 2nd, until 6pm on Monday, August 6th in the UK, all of Amplitude's Endless games are available to download and try for free on Steam. Of course, if you want to continue playing after the event ends, you'll need to fork over some cash.

However, should you be sufficiently swayed toward a purchase, all titles and DLCs are discounted on Steam during Amplitude's free weekend. The Endless Space Collection is 1.49, down from 14.99, Endless Space 2 is 11.89 instead of 34.99, Endless Legend drops from 22.99 to 5.74, and the normally 8.99 Dungeon of the Endless will set you back 2.24.

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