🆑 🙅🏽 🧜🏼 What do you need to create a good dungeon in RPG? 👩‍👩‍👧 ↙️ 🐅

First you need to answer the question of what is a dungeon?

I will not delve into this topic, but simply use the definition from the third edition of the D&D Dungeon Master (DM) manual :

The concept of "dungeon" is very vague. A dungeon is usually underground, but there may also be aboveground dungeons. Some DMs call dungeons any places where an adventure takes place. Here we will call a dungeon a closed, clearly defined space, consisting of meeting places with enemies connected in a certain way.

I like this definition, it is very well suited for both desktop and computer RPGs (which I will call CRPG in the future). But what is a good dungeon?

This may seem obvious, but a good dungeon in CRPG should fit the game. For example, I like the huge intertwined spaghetti dungeons from Daggerfall :

They correspond to the game, because in Daggerfall the player moves fast, there are such ways of moving as flying, climbing, swimming and teleporting (thank God that there are teleporters), and meetings with enemies are rare and will end soon. Thanks to the camera from the first-person view, the movement seems very convenient, in the classic Doom style .

If such a design were used in Final Fantasy IX with its slow movement, slow turn-based battles, constant random enemies and a fixed camera, then this would be unbearable. The same applies to games where the movement is tied to the map grid, for example, to Legend of Grimrock , or where a large group of characters move, for example, to Baldur's Gate .

Likewise, the Latria Tower from Demon's Souls is a terrific dungeon, but it would most likely be crap in a desktop or even isometric CRPG, because in many ways its splendor is associated with the movement of the hero in 3D space.

Again, this sounds like evidence, but think about how much this differs from the situation in desktop RPGs.

There is a whole industry of indie publishers selling "system independent" dungeons and campaigns that can be played by any RPG rules, from D&D to GURPS, Warhammer, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun or even Toon .

And at the same time, imagine how you can play in the dungeon from Assassin's Creed: Odyssey for Shepard from Mass Effect , who does not even know how to jump. There are simply no tools for exploring the world of Odyssey in Mass Effect . And there is no DM that can say "well ... just drop d20 and try to get 14 or more." In the toolboxMass Effect has only the ability to press A to see a cutscene with a climbing Shepard. How boring.

That is, the CRPG dungeon is inherently connected with the “verbs” available to the player - can he jump, climb, sneak, fly, teleport, swim, attack enemies from afar, break locks, break objects, avoid obstacles, communicate with NPCs, push objects, etc. d.

Obviously, the design of the dungeon is affected by the position of the camera, the style of the battle, the size of the group of characters and skills, but even elements like UI can radically change the structure of the dungeons. For example, in the 80s there were no in-game cards in CRPG, so you had to draw your own cards on paper - graph paper was even sold with some of the CRPGs.

Since designers knew that players sketched every step, they often placed traps to return or teleport a player back without warning them! By the time the player realized that he was not where he was expecting, he had to erase half of the card and try to figure out where everything went wrong.

This was a traditional challenge in most 80s CRPGs like Wizardry, Might & Magic, Dungeon Master, Bard's Tale, and the Gold Box series, which were first-person RPGs. But similar difficulties would not work in isometric RPGs or in third-person games, and they disappeared when in-game cards appeared.

Think about it: the change in the UI has greatly changed the way dungeon design and progress in CRPG!

So, while there are many dungeon design resources available for desktop RPGs such as JohnnFour's 5 Room Dungeon , Kent David Kelly’s book trilogy , or this excellent dungeon map article , it’s much harder to find something similar about CRPG. If you are creating a first-person RPG as useful as desktop information, Luke Macmillan’s article on line of sight in FPS may be useful , but this article will be practically useless when developing an isometric RPG.

Therefore, in the second part of the article we will look at some really excellent dungeons and try to figure it out, thanks to which they became so wonderful. I hope we learn something new in the process.

So here is my personal selection of awesome dungeons:

Shurugeon Castle (Wizards & Warriors)

When you enter the castle with ghosts, a ghost of the knight D'Soto appears and reports that the demon captured the castle. The demon is in the throne room, which you can easily reach, but it is immortal and immune to all your attacks.

In the process of exploring the castle in search of clues, the narrator describes the most important rooms and scenes, and the demon constantly mocks you and sends his minions to destroy you. Soon you find the squire D'Soto, who is fighting with you and reports that he found a way to kill the demon: you need to collect five items and perform a ritual. He gives you one of the items, the other four you need to find by fighting the undead guard, solving the puzzle, finding the hidden passage and exchanging with the vampire (you can also steal the item from him or kill him) - these are the main “verbs” of the game’s interaction.

This is a classic "game" design of the dungeon, but it is extremely well implemented and fully utilizes the potential of a video game - the paths to the dungeon are interconnected and it seems to be a real place, while remaining very "tactile" - you need to cross the ditch, lower the drawbridge, press the switches, use elevators, jump from the roof, use objects to open secret doors and use other interactions that, thanks to the FPS-style control and camera, feel just fine.

Of all the dungeons on this list, Shurugeon Castle is the most “standard”. I put it first, because I consider it a great example of dungeon design, for which you do not need high-quality writers, creative concepts or special game mechanics.

Sen's Fortress (Dark Souls)

Dark Souls level design has become legendary, and Sen's Fortress is the game’s most iconic dungeon. Much has already been written about it, and I would like to add only one thing: I consider it the best example of using 3D motion in RPGs.

Yes, structure, enemies and secrets are great, but the basis of the dungeon is fighting and maneuvering the character, avoiding traps, falls and attacks that can push you down.

Despite the penchant for third-person cameras and action, the deliberate use of 3D movement is rare in RPGs: control is often very awkward, and fatal drops are annoying. Remember how you were given a jetpack in Mass Effect: Andromeda , but there were only simple areas with platforming in the game, which immediately saved you when you fell.

Sen's Fortress requires the player to carefully position and maneuver, not only to explore the world, but also as an integral part of the battle in the dungeon.

Level 1 (Ultima Underworld)

It is striking that UU not only invented three-dimensional RPGs and immersion simulators back in 1992, but also did it in such high quality. At this very first level, there are various encounters with enemies, logical puzzles, keys to look for, leverage pressed, a river with a strong current to cross, secret areas, lore fragments and clues about future difficulties, two different paths to the next level, as well as several residents with whom you can communicate, including two warring factions of goblins. The player can choose one of the parties, ignore them, or simply kill all!

A very remarkable feature of the UU levels was that they were essentially three-dimensional playgrounds. The levels are very open and non-linear, so you can do the most necessary and go to the next level, or continue the study to find completely optional difficulties and areas. Curiously, due to the openness of the game cards, the active use of physical interactions and platforming, they seemed much more like additional tasks in Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie than traditional side quests in RPG.

The game even has elements of metro-diving - you can study spells such as walking on water, levitation and flying, and then return to previous levels for further research. I repeat, all this was in 1992, before the advent of Doom !

Kaguragawa District (Generation Xth: Code Hazard)

This is my personal little-known favorite. Although dungeons are not that important in western RPGs, there is a whole DRPG subgenre in Japan based on the extremely old-school 1980s Wizardry design.

In these games, the only safe places are cities where you can relax, buy equipment and even improve your level. The player picks up a batch of characters, gets as deep as possible into the dungeon, and then desperately scrambles back to return to the city for recreation. Each time, the player tries to move a little further, while maintaining enough resources to return.

Therefore, the dungeon and encounters with enemies are designed to deplete the player’s resources (HP, spells / mana and healing items) until he dies or is forced to return to the city. The main point of the game is resource management and multiple expeditions (similar logic is used in Darkest Dungeon ).

Generation Xth (and its remake of Operation Abyss ) develop this idea by offering players a huge dungeon with four different entry points - from the north, south, east and west, so that the actions performed by him in one part will allow him to advance in another part, sooner or later reaching the center .

This is another example of how dungeon design rules are not universal in CRPG. In this great article The Alexandrian speaks of "design dungeons jaquay», which uses methods of the famous designer Jacques Dzhennell. One of these tricks is the existence of several entrances to the same dungeon, so that different parties go through the game in different ways, and a group of characters can escape from the dungeon and try to take a different route.

Typically, this approach is incompatible with the CRPG logic, because video game players expect that you can fully explore the dungeon in one go - imagine that in order to advance in the game you have to repeatedly enter and exit the Dragon Age dungeon. But this works in DRPG, because such mechanics are already part of the basic gameplay cycle.

Cosmic Cube (Wizardy IV: The Return of Werdna)

Wizardry IV is one of the most challenging games in the world, but it also deserves the honor of being called a surprisingly innovative game. In it you play as Werdna - the last boss of Wizardry I of . At the beginning of the game, he is imprisoned at the bottom of the dungeon and must call the monsters as members of his party in order to fight his way out of the dungeon, killing travelers and heroes along the way.

In the 80s, dungeon levels were limited to a square grid of approximately 20x20 and 32x32. As the name implies, the Cosmic Cube extends the concept of the dungeon and represents three interconnected floors that need to be explored as a single level. The player constantly moves up and down through teleporters and traps - and often this happens without his will!

This game got to my list not only because of its historical value and influence, but also because it became the most complicated and most significant example of the dungeon. The card shown above looks intimidating, but you need to remember that the game did not have an autocard. The player had to independently examine it with a pencil and paper. In addition, the game was released in 1987, that is, there were no online cards either.

Glow (Fallout 1)

Fallout 1 became a revolutionary RPG for many reasons, and one of them was Glow - a radical departure from all previous types of dungeons in CRPG.

The player sends the Brotherhood of Steel to the Glow, not expecting him to survive this journey. He heads south-east, moving away for many miles from all other areas in the game, until the world around him turns into a hellish landscape on which only death is enough for his death. Upon arrival, the player sees a crater created by a nuclear warhead. It is in this crater that he has to go down.

The glow is best passed blindly, not knowing what awaits you. At the first level, the player finds only corpses, including a soldier of the Brotherhood in power armor and a holodisk, on which is written a description of the nightmares he encountered below. As you move down, radiation intensifies, there are more and more corpses, and the terrible soundtrack of Mark Morgan keeps the player in constant tension.

At the bottom there is a computer and a broken generator. If the player fixes the generator, he can turn on the computer and learn many secrets about the world of Fallout and the emergence of super mutants. But at the same time, it includes security robots - one of the most dangerous enemies in Fallout 1 , because of which the climb up again begins to resemble a nightmare. Unless a player uses his science skill to turn off a security system - after all, it's Fallout .

Ocean House Hotel (Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines)

Bloodlines starts with turning a player into a vampire. His first task is to deal with some hooligans, using the full power of his newly acquired dark skills. The second quest is completely opposite - the player needs to get into the hotel with ghosts, which makes you feel vulnerable and weak.

The hotel resembles a ride-ride around the house with ghosts, creates a tense atmosphere, gradually telling the story of the murder and scaring the player in every possible way - from visions of ghosts to bloody graffiti. And all this is combined with research in the style of immersion simulators: the player crawls through the ventilation, climbs the elevator shafts, collects keys and gradually opens the way forward.

Bethesda has tried several times to use a similar haunted house design in Fallout 3 and 4.by creating the locations of The Dunwich Building, Dunwich Borers and Museum of Witchcraft. The huge difference in quality between them shows how skillfully the Ocean House Hotel is implemented, and how much too strong Bethesda’s attachment to battles limits the range of sensations that a player can experience.

Vault 11 (Fallout: New Vegas)

Shelter 11 could be the story of Arthur Clark, but this is the level of a video game. He became one of the best examples of narration through surroundings in video games, telling a complex, tragic and ironic story that a player must recreate by studying the shelter and the few notes scattered around it.

This is even more impressive when you recall that this unique dungeon uses the same tools and resources as other standard shelters that can be found in modern Fallout games . This is analogous to creating To The Moon in RPG Maker , only at the AAA level.

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Firkraag’s Maze (Baldur’s Gate II)

Baldur's Gate II is often referred to as the RPG with the best enemy battlefield design in the world, and this dungeon demonstrates it with a very concentrated series of battles.

Entering the dungeon, you are ambushed by orc archers, the only way to get to them is to find two secret doors and unlock them while the orcs shoot at you. Then the fun continues with the troll, werewolves, contemplator, genies, vampires, golems, huge, rival adventure party and, finally, the dragon. A huge dragon with many layers of magical protection.

And this is not just a set of interesting battles - almost all of them require special tactics. For the trolls to stop regenerating, fire or acid is required, protection against magicians is necessary against magic, golems are extremely resistant to spells and weapons below +3, and so on. All this forced players to use a full arsenal of spells, items and equipment, which avoided the “one tactic for all situations” trap that many RPGs suffer from.

Ultimecia's Castle (Final Fantasy VIII)

A truly crazy dungeon at the end of the game. As soon as you get into it, all the abilities of the characters disappear - you can not cast spells, use items, summon assistants, apply limit break, revive friends and even save the game! The only thing you can do is attack.

To regain abilities, you need to explore the castle and defeat eight bosses, each of which unlocks one ability. The castle resembles the surroundings of a survival horror game, and some bosses are hiding behind puzzles, to solve which you need to divide the game into two parts.

At this point in the game, Ultimecia implements its cunning plan to compress time, and this explains the appearance of 50 random monsters from all previous areas of the game. The level of each of them is random - even among bosses! You can meet Tiamat Lv 1 as a boss, and then Tonberry Lv 100 as a random monster.

Is such a system balanced? Absolutely not. Has it become a unique and memorable way to complicate the end of the game? Absolutely yes.

Durlag's Tower (Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast)

Durlag was a wealthy and powerful hero dwarf, he built an inaccessible tower to protect his family and treasures, but then became insane. Its giant tower is divided into two main parts - the tower itself, consisting of four levels, prepares the player and serves as an introduction, and five underground levels show what really happened and contain the main part of the adventure.

The history of the tower is interesting, as are the puzzles and NPCs contained in it. The premises are very diverse and inventive, containing opponents such as archers standing on tiled platforms filled with traps, endlessly multiplying slugs or a chess game in which enemies are transformed when moving around the board.

This dungeon is intended for the end game party (and for the experienced player), and therefore requires respect. Traps are set at every step, fights with enemies are fierce, if you do not approach them wisely, and to solve puzzles you need to pay attention to the lore and the inhabitants of the dungeon. It can be annoying, but there are many moments of insight in it. Great

games in the Infinity engine, especially Icewind Dale I and II, have great dungeons. But the Durlag's Tower stands out among all of them and can be considered the best “traditional" dungeon RPG in the video game, because its content is not only great, but also enhanced by the way the Durlag's Tower makes the player dive into it and fully enjoy it.

What do you need to create a good dungeon in RPG?