Uber Geek Games released Dungeon Adventure on Xbox Live Arcade a couple weeks ago. It is a classic ASCII dungeon crawler with global leaderboards and customization support. They were nice enough to answer some questions for us about the game.
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Question: How did the idea for Dungeon Adventure come about?
I randomly came across this neat little game called Rogue while browsing the app store on my iPhone. I became pretty much addicted to it - I've always been a fan of RPGs, but I'd never before played one with a literally infinite amount of replay value, where no two games are ever the same. I thought with some graphical updates and a simpler control scheme, a Roguelike would be a perfect fit for XBLIG.
Question: Could you describe Dungeon Adventure for anyone who hasn't seen it?
It's a top down, turn based dungeon crawler, with completely procedurally generated dungeons. That means that each time you play it, it's a whole new adventure!
Question: How large was the team that created Dungeon Adventure and how long did it take to develop?
One person, me! I worked on it on and off in my spare time for about 9 months, from about March 2009 to late December when it was put into Peer Review.
Question: When you first set out to make Dungeon Adventure was it always planned to be a Roguelike style game?
Oh yes. As I explained earlier, Rogue was my primary inspiration for the game. I did tone down some traditional Roguelike elements to keep it simpler, so it wouldn't scare off non-hardcore gamers.
Question: Looking back on Dungeon Adventure what are the things that you are most proud of?
Probably the balance of the game. That part took the longest to get right, since depending on if you race through floors to the stairs or explore every nook and cranny, you can have vastly different stats and loot at the same level. I wanted to make sure it was still challenging without being frustrating, regardless of your play style, and I think it succeeded. I'm also very pleased with the level of polish throughout all of the UI - I had several extremely helpful playtesters who pointed out where I forgot button prompts or when a menu didn't behave properly!
Question: Was there anything you were hoping to get into Dungeon Adventure that did not make it?
I would have liked to have had an overworld to tie the dungeons together, and maybe ranged weapons. Most things, such as a deep magic or skill system, were intentionally left out so that the game could be picked up quickly, without having to read a 100 page manual first! Dungeon Adventure has gotten a very positive reception, so a more involved sequel wouldn't be out of the question either.
Question: Now that Dungeon Adventure has released are you planning another Indie game?
Definitely! I've had an Avatar game cooking since last summer, which should be finished in time for DBP10. I also have a few prototypes lying around that I'd love to turn into full XBLIGs at some point.
Question: Can you give us some tips or hints for Dungeon Adventure?
The game starts out pretty easy for the first 1-3 levels. Use this time to fully explore each dungeon, so you'll have as high of stats as possible for the harder levels. After that things start getting progressively harder as more enemy types are introduced, and after level 15 or so the game basically just wants you to die! (as a fan put it on the game's forums) The trick to staying alive after that is to keep teleport scrolls on hand (they usually teleport you into the room with the staircase, which is great for a quick escape) and stockpile food and healing potions. Try to keep your options open if you have to fight - nothing is worse than getting backed into a corner, or trying to flee down a corridor and running into more enemies!
Question: If you could change or enhance one thing about Xbox Live Indie Games as a platform what would it be?
That's a tough one, since compared to the App Store or PC game portals, we have it pretty good already. I would say the biggest improvement that could be made is more promotion of the channel, especially on the Dashboard; there have been a couple for "Best of 2009" or "New Year's Resolutions" but they're few and far between. There's always advertisements on the Dashboard for the latest XBLA games - why not sprinkle a few XBLIGs in there, or just have a big tab that says "check out the latest independently developed games!" that links directly to the XBLIG section? There are over 10 million LIVE subscribers now, so the fact that the top games only get - 400k-450k downloads over several months (going from this thread http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/45585.aspx) means that only 5% of Xbox gamers know it exists!
Dungeon Adventure on Xbox Live Arcade a couple weeks ago. It is a classic ASCII dungeon crawler with global leaderboards and customization support. They were nice enough to answer some questions for us about the game.
