For those readers who are interested in roguelikes, I felt I should call attention to the Kickstarter campaign for Dungeonmans, a new graphical roguelike in development by games industry veteran Jim Shepard. There’s just about two days left on the campaign, and Dungeonmans still has to raise another $3000 or so to reach its $35,000 goal. The game has a silly vibe similar to Dungeons of Dredmor but takes place on a huge continent with a world map and many dungeons. But the real draw is that the various adventurers you will control (the titular Dungeonmans, and yes there are female Dungeonmans too) are all students at the newly founded Dungeonmans Academy, and their successful adventures can go towards improving the Academy and bestowing advantages upon future Dungeonmans. This type of persistent progress in a game with permadeath proved very popular in the recent roguelike-like Rogue Legacy (yet another game I haven’t had time to play yet) and it looks to be used to great effect here as well.
If you’re not convinced, there’s a pre-alpha build available to play right now. I spent a short time with it (actually, with the previous version) and liked what I played. It’s certainly on the simpler side as roguelikes go but it’s also still in pre-alpha and I’m sure it will be fleshed out tremendously if funded. If you’d rather just take a look without having to download anything, Craig Stern over at indierpgs.com posted a 1-hour gameplay video with commentary. Check out the pre-alpha and/or videos and see if you want to pitch in for this one.
