Desktop Dungeons
Encyclopedia
Desktop Dungeons is a single-player adventure video game
developed and published by QCF Design. As of August 2011, the game is still being developed, but the publisher is making a beta available to customers that pre-order the game. In the game, players navigate a dungeon filled with monsters before battling a final dungeon boss. The game has qualities of a puzzle as players must find the best methods to use items, spells, and upgrades to reach the final boss without losing too much of their character's health. Desktop Dungeons has been compared to a roguelike
but with condensed gameplay. Desktop Dungeons received an award for Excellence in Design at the 2011 Independent Games Festival
. The game is run in a web browser using the Unity plugin
and only available for Windows
and Macintosh
, but the developers plan to have versions for the iPhone
and Android.
with sessions taking only 10 minutes to play. Players choose a race and class for a character before sending them into a randomly generated dungeon. After completing dungeons, players are rewarded with the ability to unlock new character classes, starting weapons, and bonus dungeons. Players can worship different deities at altars, who then bestow upon the worshipers a set of rules which benefit the player if they are followed or harm them if they are not.
Video game modders can create tilesets for the game which changes the appearance of the dungeon. Derek Yu
, the creator of the video game Spelunky
, created one such tileset which the developers of Desktop Dungeons decided to use as the default appearance for the game.
. Rodain Joubert says that he began development of the game in January 2010 after having played many roguelike
games and then reading a manifesto written by Edmund McMillen
, the creator of Super Meat Boy
and initial character artist and animator on Braid
. The alpha version of the game was written using Game Maker
, and one of the major changes to the game during the alpha development was the ability to worship gods at altars which affected the course of a dungeon run.
The beta featured a significant graphical upgrade from the free alpha version and included a new tutorial system, changes to character progression, player inventory, and an adventuring locker to store items between dungeon runs.
s writer Alec Meer praised, "Desktop Dungeons is now easily the game it always deserved to be." The game received an award for Excellence in Design at the 2011 Independent Games Festival
. The game was listed at #3 in Gamasutra
's Top 10 Indie Games of 2010.
game titled League Of Epic Heroes after playing the beta version of Desktop Dungeons. Farraro announced League of Epic Heroes in an internet post in October 2010 and stated, "To give credit where credit is due, League is based on the core gameplay of Desktop Dungeons." League of Epic Heroes uses the same mechanics, character classes, spells, and progression system as Desktop Dungeons, but none of the graphics, sound effects, source code, or other game resources. Farraro contacted QCF Design on November 12, 2010, with information about the game he was creating and claiming that the game was not a clone. Despite QCF Design's request that Farraro not release the game, League of Epic Heroes was released in the Apple
App Store on November 23, 2010. As of January 2011, QCF Design had not taken any legal action against Farraro but had sent a letter to Apple
, the distributor of League of Epic Heroes, detailing the similarities between the two games. The game has since been removed from the Apple
App Store.
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
developed and published by QCF Design. As of August 2011, the game is still being developed, but the publisher is making a beta available to customers that pre-order the game. In the game, players navigate a dungeon filled with monsters before battling a final dungeon boss. The game has qualities of a puzzle as players must find the best methods to use items, spells, and upgrades to reach the final boss without losing too much of their character's health. Desktop Dungeons has been compared to a roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
but with condensed gameplay. Desktop Dungeons received an award for Excellence in Design at the 2011 Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
. The game is run in a web browser using the Unity plugin
Unity (game engine)
Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity's development environment runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and the games it produces can be run on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360,...
and only available for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
, but the developers plan to have versions for the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and Android.
Gameplay
The game plays as a condensed roguelikeRoguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
with sessions taking only 10 minutes to play. Players choose a race and class for a character before sending them into a randomly generated dungeon. After completing dungeons, players are rewarded with the ability to unlock new character classes, starting weapons, and bonus dungeons. Players can worship different deities at altars, who then bestow upon the worshipers a set of rules which benefit the player if they are followed or harm them if they are not.
Video game modders can create tilesets for the game which changes the appearance of the dungeon. Derek Yu
Derek Yu
Derek Yu is an independent game developer, game artist, and blogger.While he may be best known for his early work on freeware titles such as Eternal Daughter, Yu continues to make games...
, the creator of the video game Spelunky
Spelunky
Spelunky is an indie action adventure game created by Derek Yu and released as freeware for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. The player controls a spelunker who explores a series of caves while collecting treasure, saving damsels, and dodging traps. Version 1.0 was released on 1 September 2009,...
, created one such tileset which the developers of Desktop Dungeons decided to use as the default appearance for the game.
Development
Desktop Dungeons is developed by a three-man team in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Rodain Joubert says that he began development of the game in January 2010 after having played many roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
games and then reading a manifesto written by Edmund McMillen
Edmund McMillen
Edmund McMillen is an American video game designer who is known for his unique visual style and innovative gameplay design, as well as his emphasis on the importance of careful level design and rewarding difficulty curves.-Early life:...
, the creator of Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy is an independent video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes and developed by Team Meat. It is the successor to McMillen and Jonathan McEntee's October 2008 flash game Meat Boy. Super Meat Boy was released on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in October 2010, on...
and initial character artist and animator on Braid
Braid (video game)
Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer Jonathan Blow. The game was released on August 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. A Microsoft Windows version was released on April 10, 2009. Hothead Games ported and released the game to Mac OS...
. The alpha version of the game was written using Game Maker
Game Maker
GameMaker is a Windows and Mac IDE originally developed by Mark Overmars in the Delphi programming language. It is currently developed and published by YoYo Games, a software company in which Overmars is involved...
, and one of the major changes to the game during the alpha development was the ability to worship gods at altars which affected the course of a dungeon run.
The beta featured a significant graphical upgrade from the free alpha version and included a new tutorial system, changes to character progression, player inventory, and an adventuring locker to store items between dungeon runs.
Preliminary release and reception
Although the game has not been released as of August 2011, the preliminary reception among critics based on the released beta version has been generally positive. The game is available for pre-order which allows users to access a beta version of the game while it is in development. A Special Edition of the game is also available for pre-order which includes extra quests and character classes. An Exclusive Edition pre-order of the game was also sold for which customers would have their names mentioned in the game as well as in the credits. With the changes made for the beta version, Rock, Paper, ShotgunRock, Paper, Shotgun
Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a UK-based PC gaming blog written by Alec Meer, Jim Rossignol, John Walker, and previously Kieron Gillen and Quintin Smith. Rock, Paper, Shotgun launched in July 2007. In 2010 the website partnered with Eurogamer...
s writer Alec Meer praised, "Desktop Dungeons is now easily the game it always deserved to be." The game received an award for Excellence in Design at the 2011 Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
. The game was listed at #3 in Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
's Top 10 Indie Games of 2010.
Cloning controversy
Eric Farraro, developing under the pseudonym Lazy Peon, created an iPhoneIPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
game titled League Of Epic Heroes after playing the beta version of Desktop Dungeons. Farraro announced League of Epic Heroes in an internet post in October 2010 and stated, "To give credit where credit is due, League is based on the core gameplay of Desktop Dungeons." League of Epic Heroes uses the same mechanics, character classes, spells, and progression system as Desktop Dungeons, but none of the graphics, sound effects, source code, or other game resources. Farraro contacted QCF Design on November 12, 2010, with information about the game he was creating and claiming that the game was not a clone. Despite QCF Design's request that Farraro not release the game, League of Epic Heroes was released in the Apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
App Store on November 23, 2010. As of January 2011, QCF Design had not taken any legal action against Farraro but had sent a letter to Apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
, the distributor of League of Epic Heroes, detailing the similarities between the two games. The game has since been removed from the Apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
App Store.
External links
- DesktopDungeons.net, the official homepage
- Desktop Dungeons wiki, a wikiWikiA wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
provided by the publisher - Desktop Dungeons Alpha, available as a free download from the publisher