Why Has Dungeon Maker Slipped Your Mind?
Over at the Game Design Advance blog, which is actually an NYU class weblog, apparently, there's a long, fun post extolling PSP game Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground, which sneaked out late last month to mixed reviews and almost total obscurity, but looks like it's worth checking out.
He explains of the XSeed-published title: "Have there been any other games which involve building your own levels, piece-by-piece, and then stalking through them yourself to hunt for monsters and treasures, Gauntlet-style? I think not. Sure, there’s been titles like Molyneux’s Dungeon Keeper which allowed players to design levels and attract bait NPCs, but they didn’t allow you to actually jump in and roam around those levels yourself." [Feel free to point some out now, of course.]
He also has some interesting comments about how Grand Theft Auto could benefit from the game's concepts (!): "After riding along with Dungeon Maker for a month, I think that the Rockstar people could learn a lesson or two from this game, albeit in small ways– if you’re going to build a criminal empire, after all, wouldn’t it be fun to actually build a few things for real? I mean, you’re in organized crime, for crying out loud!... Crime can be a big boost to a city’s economy (just look at Miami in the 80’s), so wouldn’t it be interesting if you could try to legitimize yourself as a kind of Donald Trump and erect skyscrapers across the landscape?"
Comments
>> "Have there been any other games which involve building your own levels, piece-by-piece, and then stalking through them yourself to hunt for monsters and treasures, Gauntlet-style?"
Demon Stalkers on the C64 let you do that.
Posted by: Adam V. | July 18, 2007 4:28 PM
I've been wanting to try out this game since the moment I discovered the ads.
The concept is just fascinating, basically turning the RPG dungeon crawl around on itself, like some underground Oroborous.
Posted by: J Arcane | July 18, 2007 4:45 PM
Loderunner - which I played also on the C64 - let you build your own levels and play them, as well.
Posted by: jane | July 18, 2007 5:18 PM
"Sure, there’s been titles like Molyneux’s Dungeon Keeper which allowed players to design levels and attract bait NPCs, but they didn’t allow you to actually jump in and roam around those levels yourself."
you could posess monsters in the dungeon -- flyers, crawlers, etc -- and control/explore your place from their perspective.
Posted by: eric c | July 18, 2007 5:51 PM
RPG maker for the PS1 also let you build a Japanese Sprite Based RPG from the ground up pixel by agonizing pixel...
Posted by: jpcooper43 | July 18, 2007 7:00 PM
you should read/link tim's review of it...he's been espousing its virtues to me for some time.
http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=211
Posted by: bsheffield | July 19, 2007 12:56 AM
Great Caesar's ghost! I didn't know we had actual readers out there! And here I thought it'd be the "Snatcher" articles that'd get noticed. Sheesh!
Posted by: Bob | July 19, 2007 7:25 AM
zomg!
Posted by: Noah | July 19, 2007 3:12 PM
Dungeon keeper allowed you to see the dungeon from inside, but it didn't allow you (or a friend) to attack the dungeon. It would have been perfect if one player could control the dungeon and the other one controlled the heroes.
Posted by: clef | July 23, 2007 12:50 AM
Neverwinter Nights
Posted by: Capt_Poco | September 9, 2007 7:55 PM