Popup Dungeon is a roguelike dungeon crawling role-playing game, which is nothing new — but this one includes a customization tool that enables players to modify the game’s characters, weapons, abilities, and enemies. Developer Triple B Titles successfully raised $100,000 through a Kickstarter campaign in 2014 and entered pre-alpha in December for backers. Today, it’s revealed new gameplay footage including how its creation tool works. Triple B and publisher Humble Bundle are aiming to release the full game at the end of this year or early 2019 for PC.
As its name might suggest, Popup Dungeon has a charming papercraft aesthetic. Triple B’s inspiration for it came from tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons, and it pays tribute to that legacy with a “Dungeon Master mode” where one player becomes the Wizard. In that role, they guide the party’s adventure, controlling enemies, determining where they go next, and adjusting the difficulty of the gameplay by adding challenges such as a countdown clock. Out of the Dungeon Master mode, the Wizard is the primary “antagonist” in the game — challenging and helping players as a supernatural figure who wishes to test humanity’s mettle.
The papercraft look of the game also makes it easier for players to create their own characters. They can use a 2D template of a hero or weapon, and it will “fold” so that it looks 3D in the game. Characters’ abilities in the game appear as playing cards, and players can choose a ready-made particle effect or sound to play when a spell is cast. They can also import their own special effects.
“The quality that makes many of our favorite tabletop games so appealing is the open-ended capacity for creativity,” said Triple B cofounder Enrique Dryere in an email to GamesBeat. “Now, I’m not saying that a little studio like ours is going to create a video game with as much breadth of creativity as there is in pen-and-paper games like Dungeons & Dragons, but we’re doing our best to allow you to do anything you can imagine within tactical RPG combat.”
Above: An example of the character creation template in Popup Dungeon.
Though Popup Dungeon is inspired by tabletop games, it’s also hoping to alleviate some of the paperwork that comes with pen-and-paper pursuits — namely, math and note-keeping. Dryere says that’s why they decided to create a video game, which would be able to take care of things like random number generation.
“We wanted to make sure our creative system also removed as much of the tedium as possible,” said Dryere. “Players can focus on the look, sound, and gameplay of their abilities and other creations; the system will take care of balancing and AI implementation. Our goal is to combine our favorite aspects of tabletop and video games into one experience that can be shared online with friends living in other cities.”
The family-run studio Triple B is still tweaking what the maximum party size will be, but players will be able to join together through local or online multiplayer — or control the entire party by themselves. It’s also unveiled a number of pre-made tile sets, which are themed dungeons that include a post-apocalyptic city, feudal Japan, a steampunk airship, a space ship, and a haunted house. Players will have to use the tile sets to construct their dungeons, and they won’t be able to create their own — at least at launch. However, Dryere says that players will be able to import the community’s creations.
“There are several hundred usable items and prop assets in the dungeon tile set and thousands across all tile sets,” said Dryere. “More importantly, the creation systems make it fast and easy to create more enemies, characters, items, and abilities. Hopefully, by the time you tire of our creations, there will be a near inexhaustible supply waiting for you on the Steam Workshop.”
Popup Dungeon’s modification tool riffs on something that communities have been doing for their favorite games for ages. Folks have created custom StarCraft maps, Star Wars mods for Mount & Blade, and tool tips for Stardew Valley to personalize their gaming experience. Triple B is hoping that its in-game creation tool will make it easy for its players to do the same thing.
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