Desktop Dungeons Interview

QCF Design’s “streamlined” roguelike Desktop Dungeons has been gaining quite a bit of popularity lately, so the guys over at Gamasutra took the opportunity to quiz creator Rodain Joubert about its development, the team’s plans to expand its content and graphics, the possibility of porting it to other platforms, and more.

JH: Let’s talk a bit about Desktop Dungeons, then. How did you come up with the idea for the game?

RJ: In a sentence, I’d describe the idea as stemming from my love of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup married with an inability to commit myself to long sessions of roguelike gaming. I’m a big fan of the idea that you can get a lot of gaming value out of much shorter sessions and “casual” experiences.

JH: It is true that most of the major roguelikes tend to be fairly long games.

RJ: I was also suitably inspired by Edmund McMillen’s article on game development do’s and don’ts at the time, and decided that I’d really just create the sort of game I’d love to play, using a lot of the lessons outlined in the DCSS philosophy.

Of course, it turned out to be barely anything like the game I claim inspiration from, but I reckon it’s the thought that counts. 😛

…

RJ: With regards to where it goes from here: I’m currently working for a South African indie studio, QCF Design, and the crew there have some pretty big plans lined up for a good and proper version of Desktop Dungeons with a nicer name, nicer graphics and more polished design in general. You know, the sort of stuff that people may actually be willing to pay for. We haven’t decided on a final platform just yet, though we have some ideas. At the same time, I’ll be looking to improve the freeware version that’s currently being developed in Game Maker.

JH: I think if you took the game just as it is and put it on the iPhone you might find yourself with a hit. And it seems to me like the game is really made for the iPhone interface.

RJ: iPhone is one possibility! We’re already keen to see how 100 Rogues does on release.