What Is A “DRPG?” (And Why I’m Making One) – The Crawl

Hi i’m brendan hesse and this is the crawl a series about game design and development as many of you know my next game is a first person exploration based game heavily inspired by classic dungeon crawler rpgs in the last episode of the crawl i said

I was going to talk about why i decided to make a dungeon crawler but first i think it’s worth defining exactly what i mean when i say dungeon crawler specifically i’m referring to a niche sub-genre of role-playing games known as drpgs that’s short for dungeon rpgs i don’t necessarily mean

Action rpgs like diablo or path of exile while diablo and path of exile are arguably more synonymous with the phrase dungeon crawler these days and they share the same dna as drpgs they’re not quite what i’m going for now i don’t blame you if you haven’t heard the drpg acronym before

It’s pretty much only used by fans of this obscure and highly specific style of rpg but they’re easily identifiable once you know what they are the earliest rpgs were directly inspired by dnd and other tabletop role-playing games these games were being made as far back

As the late 70s hot on the heels of the dnd craze but it wasn’t until the 80s that the genre hit its stride thanks to games like ultima and wizardry these games had a massive impact on the entire gaming industry influencing not just jrpgs but action adventure games like zelda

First person shooters and a lot more i won’t go into the full historical significance of these games for that i would recommend the video how rpgs invaded japan by mark brown of game maker’s toolkit but suffice it to say that at some point these early rpgs started evolving beyond their early

Forms they made the jump to home consoles with the original dragon quest fantasy star and final fantasy introducing a much more accessible form of role-playing games to a broader and generally younger audience these jrpgs or japanese rpgs became increasingly focused on story and characters taking place in bigger and more varied

Settings computer rpgs or crpgs and western rpgs as they’re now known double down on their complexity with bigger worlds more systems and more to do than just putts around caves and dungeons however there is a small but hearty crop of rpgs that have stayed true to the simple

Dungeon crawling roots of those early rpgs those are the drpgs now why would i want to make a drpg well it mostly comes down to what i want to accomplish with my game i prefer games that emphasize mechanics over story where players are encouraged to explore both the game’s systems

And its levels on their own those qualities aren’t exclusive to dungeon crawlers by any means but it’s almost always the experience these games offer so obviously it would make sense that if that’s what i want to play that’s what i want to make the rpgs are role-playing games

At their most focused and often most difficult they strip out vast overworlds and sprawling narratives and usually take place in a single town where you shop recruit kill party members take on quests and actually that’s about it the rest of the time you’re in the dungeon whether that’s one dungeon

Or many dungeons the point is 99 of these games task you with exploring challenging labyrinths filled with monsters traps secrets and tons of loot as someone who usually enjoys exploration and gameplay over story and dialogue i appreciate how games like say etrian odyssey deliver a system driven experience

Without long cut scenes or exposition dumps that’s not saying that i don’t love me a good rpg storyline mind you it’s just sometimes i want to grind through enemies not dialog boxes in that regard drpgs are kind of like roguelikes but often with less randomization and usually no permadeath so

Play-throughs feel more consistent the original rogue was definitely a dungeon crawler and in fact most modern-day roguelikes still are so there’s plenty of cross-pollination between these two genres in fact due to the popularity of both the original rogue and wizardry in japan the drpg and roguelike genres were much more popular there

Than in the west at least until indie devs and kickstarter brought about a renaissance for both styles of game over the last decade or so still it’s uncommon to see many games coming from western developers that stick to the classic formula more often you’ll see games going for a souls-like or

Rogue light style if they’re trying to be a hardcore rpg rather than trying to be etrian odyssey the dark spire etc there are plenty of exceptions however such as grimrock star crawlers or even darkest dungeon something i like about all of these games is their use of narration rather

Than cut scenes to explain what happens when you run into say a trap or a mysterious object while exploring they play more like a tabletop session in that regard it’s an opportunity to let the player use their imagination adding an extra layer of immersion to the experience at least i feel

It also gives developers a chance to present complex events or puzzles to the player even if they don’t have the budget or scope to render everything in game as someone who’s making a drpg myself i find that encouraging and honestly kind of a relief that’s not to say these games look bad

Many have incredible art and great level design but most use tile-based graphics for the dungeons with hand-drawn or pixel enemies backgrounds and character art while that may look simpler than the massive aaa open world rpgs like the witcher 3 i’m actually really into it personally i’m more confident as an artist and

Gameplay designer than i am as a programmer or 3d modeler anyway so using static character art and building corridor based levels out of a handful of tiles is much easier than creating large realistic environments or animating tons and tons of characters basically what i’m saying is drpgs are expected to have a limited

Presentation story and mechanical complexity and instead focus on art level design gameplay and immersion which are things i’m much more comfortable with anyway that said i don’t want to sell drpg short they’re still difficult to make and the best push the boundaries of the genre and introduce new novel gameplay ideas

But my game won’t be doing that i’m keeping it tightly focused and drawing from tried and true systems as much as possible i may experiment with ideas when they make sense but i’m trying to stay focused and honest with myself here ultimately i’m more interested in creating a specific vibe for the player

Through art and interesting level design than i am in creating the next great battle system or innovating on rpg skill trees or something like that and actually in that regard i think my skills and background can introduce some novelty to the dungeon crawler genre as much as i love playing drpgs the

Truth is very few of them appeal to me aesthetically i’m a big fan of dark souls the elder scrolls and even lord of the rings but in general i well i don’t really like western medieval fantasy and that’s what 99 of drpgs are and i get it that’s what the old school

Games did but i’m more of a sci-fi dude i like halo mass effect alien no man’s sky and most importantly to me metroid hell even science fantasy like star wars xenoblade chronicles and fantasy star that all appeals to me visually much more than say the witcher in fact i don’t even

Like the witcher 3 simply because i just couldn’t get into the world it’s a good game it’s just not my thing if there’s fantasy that i do like i find i’m more inclined towards japanese takes on fantasy stuff like zelda final fantasy dragon quest maybe it’s because i grew up with

Nintendo and anime but i’ve always found japanese fantasy to be more palatable than western fantasy who knows why i guess i just like alien planets and starships more than castles and dwarven mines for whatever reason point is i’m not much of a fantasy guy which makes it hard to really vibe with

Most drpgs sure there’s stuff like star crawlers which is excellent by the way and a bunch of great shin megami tensei dungeon crawlers that take place in full-on sci-fi settings but that’s kind of it at least when it comes to sci-fi drpg specifically so i guess the other reason i decided to

Make a drpg is because i want to make a game that i wish already existed i can’t be the only one who wishes there were more drpgs that feature a sci-fi setting so i’m gonna make one even if it’s bad truthfully what i really want to make is

A game that plays more like metroid prime mega man legends or dark souls those are all far more complicated games with action-based combat that require much more work to create however that metroidvania level design isn’t far off from what many dungeon crawlers offer at some level anyway

So instead of trying to make my own take on metroid prime i’m instead going to attempt to make a drpg with metroid-inspired level design will i pull it off who knows but that’s the goal so yeah that’s why i’ve decided to make a dungeon crawler rpg but because i’m going for that

Metroidvania level design that’s where my early development work has been focused on almost entirely so in the next episode we’ll talk more about this metroidvania level design philosophy and my own process for how i’ve been planning out the early version of my games environments So You