Christian Wolfertstetter on Dungeons

Christian Wolfertstetter on Dungeons

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Dungeons is a upcoming strategy/simulation game developed by Realmforge Studios, and published by Kalypso Media. We got the chance to chat with Christian Wolfertstetter at Realmforge.

Dungeons is a upcoming strategy/simulation game developed by Realmforge Studios, and published by Kalypso Media. We got the chance to chat with Christian Wolfertstetter at Realmforge.

Christian Wolfertstetter: Hi, my name is Christian Wolfertstetter and I am Creative Director at Realmforge Studios.

Christian Wolfertstetter on Dungeons
Hooked Gamers: Good day. I’m very happy that you’re taking the time to answer these questions and I hope you’re all doing well. I know that a few of the guys back at HookedGamers were very excited with what they saw at GamesCom and now it’s time to let the people know what’s unique about Dungeons.

Christian Wolfertstetter: Hopefully, we can clarify that! :-)

Hooked Gamers: From what I can tell, it seems that contrary to normal dungeon based games where you play as a single daring hero who faces the horrors of the dungeons alone, you now play as a dungeon lord who must entice A.I. controlled heroes with treasure troves leading up to their climatic deaths. Is there anything you would like to add onto that?

Christian Wolfertstetter: You summed it up quite nicely.

Christian Wolfertstetter on Dungeons
We all know what it's like to be a hero, enter a dungeon, kill monsters, pick up loot, and so on. We all did it in a couple of Action-RPGs. So I guess it was time to change sides and build our own dungeon.

You can't kill the heroes from the start but rather wait in the darkness until they are happy because of loot, fights, etc. That's because happy heroes have more juicy soul energy and that is what an evil dungeon lord really desires!

Hooked Gamers: Dungeons bares an obvious resemblance to the 1997, Dungeon Keeper, as well as its sequel, and so this question was bound to arise, are any of the developers working on Dungeon related to Dungeon Keeper at all, and If not did you draw inspiration from that series.?

Christian Wolfertstetter: There's no relation to the developers of Dungeon Keeper (sadly!). Our basic idea was to make a game that tries to explain why dungeons are like they are in many Action-RPGs. Why is there loot lying around, why are the monsters always hard but beatable for the hero, …

What we came up with was Dungeons. Of course, we all played DK 1 and 2 and drew some inspirations from it. But it was never the intention to make a clone but rather follow our own vision.

Hooked Gamers: Dungeons has a truly unique resource system, in that you must torture the hero’s you capture for their soul energy, but to what end? How do you use this energy and what purpose does to further your dungeon development?

Christian Wolfertstetter on Dungeons
Christian Wolfertstetter: First of all you have to entertain the heroes, before torturing them! Entertain 'em and then drain 'em as we say.

Soul energy is important to the player because it allows him to upgrade several things and so on. The most important aspect is that you can use it to build prestige gimmicks which give you prestige.

Prestige is quite important to you as it is a requirement for new building options but also makes your Dungeon Lord mightier. As the game goes on, the heroes increase in level. To still have a chance against them you need prestige so that your Dungeon Lord becomes stronger as they do.

Also prestige gimmicks have a big influence on how heroes wander through your dungeon. With many of those gimmicks to see, heroes stay happy and don't think much about attacking your dungeon heart. If there are no prestige gimmick at all, they will become somewhat bored and after a while start to take a shot at your heart.