Sometimes you can find them on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter Ideas that are simply brilliant. One of them was Tom Brinton, who offers a kind of roll-and-write dungeon crawler with “Paper Apps DUNGEON”. His concept: Procedurally generated dungeon adventures. In other words: every game block is unique. The “swarm” has long since pushed the campaign to success.
A dungeon crawler for your pocket, that's Tom Brinton's idea for a crowdfunding project. It doesn't need miniatures or heaps of material: the focus is on a pen, a dice - and a game block, which is actually the highlight of the whole story. Pen-and-paper “to go” is well received by the fans: the campaign is on the way to exceeding the targeted financing amount of almost 800 euros by 5.000 percent.
Unique Blocks: Every dungeon is different
Tom Brinton has already convinced around 2.200 supporters of his idea, and the campaign will run until February 2nd. The inventor of the smart pocket game has already generated almost 41.000 euros. There is a clever idea behind a small spiral pad: procedurally generated dungeons invite players to embark on unique adventures. What is offered - in a visually slimmed-down, but handy version - is what you know from dungeon crawlers. You roll a six-sided dice that determines your movement, you move through the dungeons and interact on your straight path with the objects that are touched by the pencil line.
Designer Tom Brinton prints several triggers on the blocks: monsters, treasures, teleporters. You don't even have to do without character progression with this pocket-sized pen-and-paper: Players buy items in shops when they find them. Heroes enter the game statistics for their dungeon adventure on their own notebook page. Tom Brinton makes it unmistakably clear. Dying is part of every adventurer's business.
There is some technology behind the idea, but not much. With the help of software, the designer generates the dungeons and game environments, which are then simply sent to a printer. Procedurally generated game worlds are considered to be the gold standard for hack-and-slay adventures in the field of video games: Again and again, players are thrown into completely new, randomly generated environments that are enriched with monsters and treasures.
You have to do without a story in the pure solo game. You think of them yourself if necessary. The pledges are also attractive in terms of price: a notepad including pen and dice costs five US dollars. If you invest more money, you get more blocks, pens and dice and not a little more bling-bling. The delivery will take place in April 2021. The Campaign runs until February 2nd.
