Back to the Dungeon with You!

Submission for the Pirate Software - Game Jam 15!

Back to the Dungeon with You! is a first-person dungeon crawler where you are tasked with looting the personal dungeon of a famous alchemist for any materials that he requests of you.

Game Design Doc

The Game

An alchemist demands that you venture into his dungeon and bring back needed materials. Defeat monsters and scavenge for whatever the alchemist requests. The dungeon will consist of 3 biomes, so the player will need to discover which monster drops what items. There will also be hidden power-ups that help the player stay alive.

Theme Interpretation

‘Shadows and Alchemy’ - A shady alchemist’s shop is too good to be true. Little do the townsfolk know, a poor soul is forced to retrieve all the best ingredients from the alchemist’s personal dungeon. But watch out, for in that very dungeon, monsters lurk in the shadows!

The Alchemy theme is pretty self explanatory; there is an actual alchemist who directs you in the game. The Shadow aspect of the theme is interpreted as ‘working in the shadows’ and ‘what lurks in the shadows.’ As the player, you are forced to live out your days working behind the scenes to keep the alchemist’s livelihood afloat. He is banking off your hard work. On top of that, monsters are lurking behind every nook and cranny, including the shadows themselves.

Art

There are a lot of great assets on the internet that capture Castlevania’s gothic spirit. Anokolisa on itch.io has great “Vania” packs that serve as a basis for this game’s graphical theme. We want something that reminds us we are in an oppressing dungeon. While classic Castlevania games are typically sidescrollers, this kind of pixel art is more than enough to give this genre a new perspective while maintaining the original feel of those NES games.

Audio

For the music in our retro-themed game, we decided to use instruments that evoke a chiptune and 8-bit vibe, reminiscent of classic games like Castlevania. The soundtrack features a blend of fun, nostalgic chiptune instruments paired with darker harmonic elements to create a unique contrast. The dungeon exploration track is intentionally dark and brooding to reflect the perilous task of retrieving ingredients for the alchemist. Meanwhile, the “safe place" track is brighter in tempo and texture, while retaining the subtle dark harmonic undertones to remind players that they may be safe but they aren’t free from the alchemist’s grasp.