Paths to Adventure > The Dungeon Challenge

The Dungeon Challenge

Goal: One new dungeon room designed every weekday until an entire 100-room mega-dungeon adventure has been completed.

Welcome to the Paths to Adventure Dungeon Challenge! Over the years, I’ve seen variations of the challenge circulating through the gaming community. With the relaunch of the PTA website, I have decided to toss my hat into the arena as well. The goal, as highlighted above, is clear enough: post one new dungeon room every weekday (Monday-Friday) until an entire 100 room mega-dungeon adventure has been completed.

Come join me on an exploration of my adventure design process, exposed for all to see as I work towards meeting the goals of the challenge. If you decide to take on the challenge yourself, I’d love to hear about it!

Content warning: This adventure explores the cyclical themes of life, death, and rebirth. It utilizes recurring motifs such as the remnants of souls trapped within the dungeon after untimely, sometimes violent deaths. This story also delves into related sensitive topics such as: violence, grief, trauma, and despair.

Game Design Posts

  • Game Design Post #003 — The Stories of the Dead
    I want the dungeon’s trapped souls to share a hidden thread rather than feel random. My approach is to give each group of soulbound creatures its own backstory, while weaving subtle connections between them. As I expand the story room by room, my goal is to reveal an underlying narrative for adventurers to uncover: the…
  • Game Design Post #002 — Title Treatment Design
    Since I have already decided on a title for the adventure, I also decided to create branding for it as well by designing a title treatment. This will help me to set the “vibe” as the adventure design moves forward.
  • Game Design Post #001 — Why are we here? What’s the story?
    So, I’m going to create a mega-dungeon as part of the Dungeon Challenge! Great! So… what kind of dungeon? What has prompted the adventurers to delve into it? I don’t want to create a weirdly disjointed dungeon for the sake of having a hundred rooms. I want to create a story. It needs a backbone;…

Game Development Posts

  • Game Development Post #001 — Creating Dungeon Zone 1
    The first step in getting started on this Dungeon Challenge is to create a blank dungeon map. Rather than trying to design the entire dungeon layout up-front, I have opted to create the maps in sections, each representing a “zone” of the dungeon. These zones will also be used to help me manage game balance…

Daily Room Creation Posts