Playing For Keeps: Dungeon Defenders
Diablo 3 wasn’t quite as shiny and pony-strewn as some people were expecting, so it’s making this place seem a little grim and gothic at the moment. Time for something incredibly colourful and chaotic. So here are two developer diaries for upcoming 4 player co-op tower defence action RPG Dungeon Defenders. Not my description, but the description of developers Trendy Entertainment. There’s a LOT going on in these videos, the first one in particular, and I’m not sure I caught everything first time through. I did get a Torchlight meets Magicka vibe, although without the sadistic unfortunate friendly fire of Magicka and with an added build phase. Take a look.
Not only is there a lot happening on screen, there’s a lot happening behind the hacking and slashing as well. Levelling up, distinct classes, pets, crafting and loot are all there, and there’s a fully formed build phase as well, which is handily covered by this second developer diary.
Dungeon Defenders was announced back in August of last year but is nearly ready for release and is confirmed for PC, XBLA and PSN. Guess which one might be getting it late? That's right. PSN. It'll be on Steam and XBLA on October 19th, but not only will it arrive at a reasonable hour on your PC-machine, it also promises full and proper support for the capabilities locked within. Hopefully this includes all the control and graphical options you'd expect but, beyond that, it means mod support robust enough to allow total conversions, either at launch or soon after.
The game will also have its own online matchmaking system (DRM-free) to help players find sessions compatible with any mods they are running.
Adding a full scale looting and levelling layer to a tower defence game seems eminently sensible to me. But then I am a big fan of both looting and levelling. It could add an extra layer of involvement and make me stick with the thing. That plus mod support is reason enough to plant this firmly on my radar.
There are more PC exclusive features to be revealed, say Trendy, and I’ll be finding out what those are before release. Also worth a quick mention is the price - the game will be on Steam but is already up for preorder at Gamersgate for £6.29. Lovely.