Slime To Kill: The Dungeoning Demo

The Dungeoning has chosen a rather large crowd to lose itself in. Stop me if you've heard this one before - procedurally generated platformer rogue-like-like with pixelly graphics, perma-death and lots of loot. Three or four years ago, The Dungeoning might have been the only person at the party wearing that particular hat and we'd all have gone 'coo' and asked if we could have the next dance. Now, it's one of the most popular hats in town and The Dungeoning would have to show some seriously slick moves before I'd consider joining it for more than a swift Foxtrot. If you'd like to take it for a spin, a demo is available.

As I was playing the demo this morning, John was chopping his way through the full version of the current alpha release (available through Desura and itch.io We both came to the same conclusion - The Dungeoning is a perfectly acceptable example of its type but, for the moment at least, there's little to make it stand out from similar games. It needs a hook and it may find one later in development.

Developer Nick Donnelly created the game "in between playing Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 being released", and the perma-death twinned with a slightly persistent world may well be a nod to the Souls series. Fleshing out that aspect, and leaving the player with an expanding pool of knowledge of the dungeon that transcends individual characters' lifetimes, could make the dance worthwhile.

A tangent.

There are a lot of Slimes in The Dungeoning and that set me to thinking. When did you first encounter a Slime? Even here in the Realm of the PC, I wouldn't be surprised if some people had first been exposed to the dungeon-dwelling globs while traipsing through a Dragon Quest game, but the correct answer is Wizardry. That's where DQ's creators scooped their Slime from after all.

They're an odd opponent but easy to draw and animate, I guess. I'd rather fight a Slime than a rat, and exploding goo opens up the possibility of some lovely particle effects.

As far as 3d Slimes go, I always liked the Wizardry VIII variant. The translucence could not disguise the presence of previous adventurers' bones trapped within. At least that's how I remember them.

Was Slimer a Slime? And, wait...is Slimer the spiritual remnant of a human being? There are many theories. Perhaps all Slimes, whether they're in The Dungeoning or Wizardry, are the snot-bound souls of the dearly departed. Think about that next time you pop one for an experience point and a cufflink of +1 acid resistance.