Dungeons are one of the most beloved aspects of RPGs, yet one of the lowest rated aspects of Archmage Rises. With the start of the New year, I decided to dig in and renovate the dungeon system. This has been on my mind for 2 years, so I have a lot of accrued ideas collected for the big day. Top of the list is increasing theme and variety of the dungeons.

I started to explore what could be done with the current system, and even while making significant enhancements, I came up empty with reaching the goal. I contacted Rogier the artist to talk through some ideas when he dropped a bomb:
”What if we rendered the dungeons in 3D?” *

This video is our exploration of that concept.

Doing 3D dungeons will probably take longer to architect and implement (8 weeks?) than the time I had planned to enhance the current system (4 weeks), but I think the quality of the visuals will be significantly improved. But it isn’t without risk, this is definitely new ground for Rogier and I.

What do you think, should we pursue the 3D dungeon rendering?

Join the conversation on Steam.

* Note

I want to be real clear about one thing: this is not real-time 3d movement through the dungeon like Skyrim or Eye of the Beholder. It’s the same “narrative” approach of showing a location and allowing the player to make a choice of where to go next and then seeing the next location.