by charlie » 09 Feb 2013, 13:09
I'm probably not the best person to contribute to this discussion because I disagree with some of the DK game design in principle.
I didn't like that you could just dig most places unless the blocks were immovable. Simple, yes, but it leads to template game play and there's no hard choices. You just dig big rooms. There's no tactical motivation or otherwise. I guess keeping some creatures apart was the benefit, but that was about it. The only consequence of digging a large area seemed to be it took the imps a while to seal it off.
I didn't like that you sealed off your dungeon either. That's daft. So these adventurers can dig through mountains but some pesky dungeon wall holds them up?
In my ideal dungeon building game, you start off with a cave or a partly-built disused dungeon. There is a path to the surface. You have to send out parties to gather food and wood (I would make resource management a key part of the game) and it becomes a balancing act; you send out too many/big raids and the locals start to notice. I'd have day night cycles for that purpose too. (I know you get to feed some creatures in DK but it's a throwaway feature, just so you can kill chickens really.) You could just build with the resources you get in the dungeon but they'd be very limited (and food scarce).
With a path to the surface, you'd have to build in defenses. Doors (basic obstacles) and traps would be key. This makes it more TD like in a way, because you can't just wall out the incoming forces, nor will they just break in at a random point. Then there becomes a benefit to making mazes or secret entrances, etc. (Of course, a long route to the exit hampers returning raids; traps need disarming etc. Secret entrances can circumvent this but an experienced adventurer will find them.) Dungeon design becomes an important feature rather than just plopping rooms wherever.
In this kind of game, there'd be a trade off to rapid expansion vs slow build, a balancing act where you manage the size of your dungeon vs it's population - if you build it too big without enough creatures to defend it, a small party could roam in and attack the heart. If you build it too rapidly, a big adventure party will come knocking on your door. You could have regular passers by (curious children or travellers) and you have to make a judgement call whether to kill them or let them explore in the hope they'll turn back before spotting that its a dungeon. (Of course, if you try to kill them and they escape... trouble!)
The end [future] goal would be multi-level dungeons that repel a significant attack (capture a King's crown?) then become notorious adventurer destinations. /pie-in-sky
