Popup Dungeon is a unique game that will be a rogue-like RPG experience, while adding in strategy and creativity over weapons, characters, enemies, and more. Currently on Kickstarter and on Steam Greenlight, the game by Triple.B.Titles seeks to give players the the feeling of playing an old school RPG that “popped-up” out of the game board. The paper-esc graphics, combined with the effortless and seemingly limitless things that can be created definitely add to this feeling and seek to create a gaming experience like no other.
Recently, I talked with Enrique Dreyer, the artist and designer of the small team of three. Triple.B.Titles, is actually a family operation, consisting of Enrique, his brother Paul, and Enrique’s wife Courtney. Though the team is small, they are well on their way to making a splash in the gaming industry.
One of the first things that I wanted Enrique to tell me about is the creation system. It’s pretty large–—players are able to make their own heroes, create skins for their heroes, give their heroes custom abilities and weapons, and have their heroes fight custom monster. Me, being a terrible artist, wanted to know right off the bat if I could easily create a cool skin for my hero, or if he would be stuck looking like a bunch of scribbles.
“What we plan on doing is having some very basic sort of options that you can put together,” said Enrique. “For instance, if you want your character to have a t-shirt or a jacket or jeans, or if you want him to be in armor or you want him to be in futuristic armor, these sort of things are in-game character customizations. But, the creation of skins is something that can be done in Photoshop, it can be done however you want outside of the game, and then imported. We don’t want to limit artists in anyway, while still making it possible for people that are not artistically inclined to make a character that somewhat resembles them. It will be similar to a Mii, a Nintendo Mii.”
It looks like even people with no artistic ability at all will still be able to make characters that look nice. And for those people with skills in Photoshop or other art software, you will even be able to make skins out of photos of yourself, making your character as life-like as possible. Of course, if you don’t want to put any effort into character making, that’s okay too. There will be a conglomeration of different pre-made characters to choose from to get you started. Or, download some user-generated content. The cool thing is that it is totally up to you.
When it comes to creating other things, like weapons or abilities, it seems like a pretty straight-forward process as well. Players of Popup Dungeon will be able to make abilities based on values that they get to input themselves. For example, players will be able to pick the name, the effects, the look, the range, the activation cost, and so on. They can add fire damage, ice damage, electric damage, and so on, depending on what you like best. These abilities can then be applied to weapons, to create interesting things like fire-swords or and ice-spear.
Then, players can use their newly created weapons for combat. Combat works in a way similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. Enrique explained it a bit further.
“As soon as you encounter an enemy, you are counted as in combat. You get to deploy your troops within the area, and then you get to start right there, you don’t move anywhere else…. Outside of combat, you can just move around freely and explore…. Once you’re in combat, movement costs action points, just the way skills cost action points.”
It seems pretty straightforward, and anyone familiar with strategy/RPG games probably knows a thing or two about how this is going to work. One of the cooler aspects of combat that is a little different from other games out there is the environment. Players will be able to hide behind tables or shelves, blocking themselves from enemy attacks. However, these objects are all destructible.
A fireball might completely burn the chair you were hiding behind to dust, or an axe might chop that table in two. These features add more fun and strategy to the gameplay, as players will have to pick their locations wisely. Multiplayer gameplay will also be available for Popup Dungeon. Triple.B.Titles plans to add both online multiplayer and hotseat multiplayer.
While Popup Dungeon isn’t out yet, it is doing well on Kickstarter and has recently been Greenlit by the Steam community. The game is looking to come out on Windows, Mac, Android, Linux, and iOS. A new Wii U stretch goal has been added as well.
Popup Dungeon’s Kickstarter page can be viewed here. And if this game sounds fun, Triple.B.Titles has another game currently out called Ring Runners. You can check out the space game here. Keep a lookout for more news on Popup Dungeons.
Published: May 9, 2014 02:55 pm