Diving Into Dungeons

Close Encounters is taking up most of development time these days – or, more specifically, expansion content for it. I’ve talked a lot about that recently, so today I want to change topics a bit. Let’s talk about a project I am currently thinking of as “Crypt Encounters”.

Crypt Encounters is, as you might imagine, based on some of the same concepts as Close Encounters. However, where Close Encounters features squads of sci-fi troopers battling giant bugs, Crypt Encounters features individual fantasy heroes battling undead skeletons. It’s a change in focus from squads to individuals, and in theme from sci-fi to fantasy.

You might think that this is a derivative of Close Encounters, and in some ways you’d be correct. There are some similarities – the tile-laying exploration is the same, our heroes are still assailed by numerous enemies, and the limited actions for each player are similar. Conceptually, I began work on it after starting work on Close Encounters, so the sequence fits there too.

It plays out rather differently, though. The shift in focus to individual heroes allows players to identify much more with their characters, and people tend to get more invested in them. The themes are a bit different too – one of the choices I want players to make in this game is risk vs. reward. They can always choose to explore a bit further, delve a bit deeper into the crypt, search for a bit more treasure. But doing this also increases the amount of peril they face, and they don’t just have to get in – they have to get out with their loot too! I’ve also changed many of the mechanics, especially about combat and special abilities, to better focus on individual heroes than teams or squads. This changes the types of tactical choices the players have to make. I may talk more about the design principles I have in mind for this some other time, because it’s an interesting subject.

Obviously enough, Crypt Encounters is not under active development right now. I still want to bring it to light, but for now it’s pretty much on hold while I focus on Close Encounters. For quite a while, though, Crypt Encounters was my main development focus. In fact, for a long while it looked like that was the game which would be produced, while Close Encounters would remain nothing more than a good idea! Probably why that changed is a blog topic for another time, I think.

Anyway, the point of all this is to show that I don’t just think about Close Encounters these days. There are still other projects getting consideration, and maybe someday we’ll be diving into dungeons as a break from battling bugs!