This Stardew Valley-like puts you in charge of an MMO studio where you can "playtest your RPG at any time"
Aug. 14, 2024Let’s Build a Dungeon is an upcoming game dev-sim from the makers of Let’s Build a Zoo
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If you’ve ever wanted to play your own MMORPG, the upcoming indie gameLet’s Build a Dungeonshould be on your wishlist. From the developers behind Let’s Build a Zoo, Let’s Build a Dungeon is a management sim not dissimilar to Stardew Valley, but instead of running a farm, you’re running a game studio.
Instead of raising crops and livestock, you recruit and manage game developers, manage development schedules and advertising strategies, and make tough decisions about when to release your project, whether it needs to be delayed, and whether you should “bow to community requests, or stay true to your creative vision.”
If anything, it sounds like Let’s Build a Dungeon could help you sympathize with community managers and engineers working on your favorite live-service game. Developer and publisher Springloaded says you’ll need to manage minute elements of your game like drop rates and enemy stats to make sure players aren’t struggling too much with the XP grind. Even more harrowing, “the more time spent in your world, the happier your investors will be.”
The main goal, as with any MMO studio, is to attract more players by expanding the in-game world and designing new and compelling quests, items, environments, and mechanics. There’s also a strategic element to the management sim in which you’re responsible for negotiating with shareholders, staff, players, and publishers to make sure your studio’s keeping everyone happy.
Creative mode is an open sandbox where you can write your own story, dialogue, and cutscenes, and draw characters and adjust gameplay mechanics from whole cloth. It’s here that you can upload your game into the in-game browser and check out games made by other players online.
If this game lives up to its promise, it could be a genuinely insightful demo of what it’s like to be a game developer. After all, Springloaded says the idea of the game came from a desire to give a “glimpse into our past 12 years of developing games as an indie studio.”
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There’s no release date for Let’s Build a Dungeon just yet, but you can sign up for the yet-undated betahere.
In the meantime, here are all of theupcoming indie gamesto keep on your radar.
After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.
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