Inspiration and Trivia

Inspiration

Dungeons and Dragons

The core mechanic of this game, random "dice" rolls, is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Almost every random element is governed by a random number generator between 1 and 20. This mirrors the famous 20-sided die (d20) often seen in DnD games. In addition to the numbers, many rolls involve a special effect when either a 1 or a 20 is rolled.

Rolling 1Rolling 20
Room selection"Unlucky" room (-5 HP)N/A
CombatCatastrophic defeat (-5 HP)Dominating victory (+20 gold, +5 EXP)
RunningFatal wound (death)N/A
TreasureSevere damage from trap (-5 HP)N/A

After listing these out, I realized I didn't include many bonuses for rolling a 20. Sorry adventurers!

Dungeon Crawler Games

"Dungeon crawlers" and the like have been a somewhat niche, but consistently represented genre in video games.

The game I thought about the most was Darkest Dungeon. I was really tempted to put some quotes in reference to it, but I thought that they may have been too Lovecraftian for this simple dungeon. Thankfully, my game isn't quite as difficult as Darkest Dungeon (although there was one time I rolled 1 on room generation 3x in a row and died immediately...).

Darkest Dungeon
A battle in Darkest Dungeon. As its name suggests, the main gameplay involves exploring dungeons. The game is strongly influenced by Lovecraft, featuring twisted monsters and eldritch beings. Darkest Dungeons is highly RNG-based - a stroke of misfortune and you may find your carefully-raised characters wiped out.

Other dungeon crawlers I thought about included: Etrian Odyssey, Rogue Legacy, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc. This is nowhere near a comprehensive list of good dungeon crawlers. In fact, it only includes games where the majority of gameplay takes place in dungeons.

Etrian Odyssey
A battle and map from Etrian Odyssey DS. Etrian Odyssey is a classic RPG series with a long history. The games themselves are very light on story, focusing more on mechanics and old school RPG gameplay. A main feature of the series is drawing your own maps. Add on unforgiving battles and roaming boss monsters and you have a recipe for a game for experienced dungeon crawlers.

Dungeons are an important component of many RPGs and MMORPGs. Some RPGs include: Legend of Zelda, Pokemon (Mystery Dungeon), Fire Emblem Echoes, Bloodborne, etc.

In addition, almost all MMORPGs include some form of dungeon exploration (e.g. Mabinogi, Runescape, Dragon Nest, etc.). Mabinogi was actually the original inspiration for this game. Each dungeon has this main entrance, and the basic structure is composed of monster rooms and treasure rooms.

Bloodborne
A chalice dungeon in Bloodborne. Traditional dungeon crawling isn't exactly a core component of Bloodborne, but dungeons do exist in the game. I was also feeling the eldritch influence when making this page and I needed something to fill space in a desktop layout, so here it is.
Mabinogi
A dungeon entrance in Mabinogi. When the game was first released, a large proportion of content was focused on dungeons. Every dungeon was randomly generated, with monster rooms, treasure rooms, and boss rooms. As the game aged, dungeons fell to the wayside, largely replaced by newer content.

List of inspiration

  • Games
    • Mabinogi
    • Darkest Dungeon
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Etrian Odyssey
  • Manga, Anime, and Light Novels
    • Overlord
    • Dungeon Meshi
    • Sword Art Online
    • The Rising of the Shield Hero
    • The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor
    • etc.

Trivia

Unlucky rooms

There were originally going to be more variations of the unlucky room, apart from the current pit of spikes. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I decided my time would probably be better spent studying for the midterm. Here were some potential rooms:

RoomReference
Pit of spikesN/A (it's just a pit of spikes)
FOE (°д°)Etrian Odyssey/Touhou
Ambushed by foul invention!Darkest Dungeon
Roll into a pitDark Souls

Detailed Rules

I wrote a set of detailed rules before noticing the length limitation on the assignment. I didn't want to discard everything else, so here it is.

Earning gold

There are two ways to earn gold: defeating monsters or opening treasure chests. The amount of gold earned from monsters depends on the difficulty of the monster

Navigating the dungeon

The dungeon contains three room types: monster rooms, treasure rooms, and "unlucky" rooms. You will advance to a random room by pressing the continue button after taking an action in the current room.

Combat

When you encounter a monster, you may choose to fight or run. If you choose to fight, you must roll higher than a number that depends on the difficulty of the monster. As you level up, it may become easier to defeat enemies you previously struggled against.

The consequences of losing a fight also depends on the monster level. The difficulty of running from a monster is constant, but turning your back to the enemy can have fatal consequences.

There are four different levels of monsters. As you gain experience and venture deeper into the dungeon, the chance of encountering a dangerous enemy increases.

Treasure

Monsters aren't the only thing that can be found in a dungeon. Many adventurers are drawn to the dungeon, lured in by the promise of treasure. If you're lucky, you may find gold and rare healing potions in treasure chests. However, all that glisters is not gold. Many treasure rooms conceal dangerous traps, which may prove fatal to a clumsy adventurer.

Leveling

You will gain experience as you brave the trials of the dungeon. At certain experience thresholds, you will level up, improving your hardiness and combat ability. Each level you gain increases your maximum HP by 2 and reduces the required combat rolls by 1. Leveling up also heals you completely. Try to keep an eye on your HP and EXP when making decisions!

Ending the game

The game can end in two ways: death or retreat. When you hit 0 HP, your character dies and the game immediately ends. Alternatively, you may decide to retreat from the dungeon after clearing a room.