Well, here I am again. Last October, after spending over a year developing a demo that I wasn’t happy with, I started designing and developing Dungeonmancer.
The starting point was simple, and it seems to have guided me throughout the entire process. Well, I played a lot of Balatro and Slay the Spire last year. I had this idea that I should try mixing a little RPG with some kind of oracle, something with good random potential, that would put the player in this situation of “I’m going to risk getting a better solution in exchange for the answer I already have”. I tested the idea with dominoes, dice, coins, and cards. Well, it seems there’s no oracle more powerful and capable of random interactions than a good old deck of cards. What if there were more than one deck? What if the decks were small and each party member had their own customizable deck? What if I mixed D&D with poker? At that point, Dungeonmancer was born and already had a clear path: I wouldn’t need to search for the game during development; it somehow came into full existence inside my head —I just needed to bring it into the real world.
As for the music and sound effects, I went for crispier textures that are closer to analog tones, bringing a nostalgic ’80s/’90s vibe to the game. I like these tracks; they feel like songs made by the band Rush, played within the game Loop Hero. In some strange way, that was exactly what I was looking for.
Anyway, I hope you can play the demo and enjoy the many character classes and items the game already offers at this point. I look forward to hearing about builds I never imagined and feedback that can help the game reach its full potential. There are over 60 classes and more than 150 items that help make each run very different from the others. Leave your feedback, and, of course: please, be polite and kind. There’s no need to be a complete jerk at any time, especially if you’re playing a free Brazilian game that just came out of the oven. I hope you enjoy the game!