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(1 edit)

Here's my review of The Dungeon of Darkwood:


If I understand the game correctly, it seems to be mostly a proof of concept or demo of a randomized dungeon crawler script. The script produces a dungeon with four randomized levels, on map encounters, and random loot. All other features of the game, like the small town and short story, seem to be mostly intended to give some context to the dungeon produced by the script.

Visuals: For the most part, basic stock graphics are used in this project. There are some simple, nice looking cutscenes that convey the story well. The windowskin and fonts are a good choice. There is good use of the tinting effect to produce the "cursed" atmosphere (maybe a *little* heavy on the tint, but not terrible).

Audio: Decent music choices. There's not a lot of story or emotional ups-and-downs so music played only a small role.

Gameplay: Since the game seems to be mostly intended to showcase the random dungeons, that's what I'll focus on. The random maps consist of small rooms connected by narrow corridors. There is a smattering of random on-map enemy encounters spread throughout the map. There is also the occasional bit of loot. You spawn on a randomly placed staircase and navigate the dungeon to find the next one. You can use the staircase to return to town or any previous dungeon level. Another script feature shown in this game is the ability to insert certain predetermined quest-related events into the dungeon levels.

Eventing: Nothing spectacular here, just some basic dialogue, miniquests, chests, and on-map encounters. I like on-map encounters and this script facilitates using them in your game.

Combat: Standard RMMV combat engine. Even if this game is just meant to showcase the dungeon script, it is presented as a game in itself and could use some combat convenience scripts to improve the player experience. I liked the Rally skill and think it was very smart to include as an example of a useful mechanic in a dungeon-crawler.

Story: short but well-written. Serves its purpose.

Overall, even though parts of the game were barebones, it was enjoyable and I'm more inclined to consider a dungeon-crawler script in future projects after seeing it in action.

Thank you so much for your lovely review! While I had originally intended to use a script to randomize the dungeon levels, due to the time constraints I opted to use RM eventing instead. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to accomplish. (Although, there is heavy use of script calls inside the event processes.)

I'm glad you understood the game for what it was, and I do agree with you that the combat is quite barebones given the nature of the game. For my next project I'll make sure to focus more on the combat interface.

Thanks again for playing and taking the time to review!