{"id":98944,"date":"2022-10-16T18:48:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-16T18:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/i-played-a-video-game-about-a-dungeon-in-purgatory-filled-with-nihilistic-adventurers-and-then-i-wrote-this-article\/"},"modified":"2022-10-16T18:48:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T18:48:09","slug":"i-played-a-video-game-about-a-dungeon-in-purgatory-filled-with-nihilistic-adventurers-and-then-i-wrote-this-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/i-played-a-video-game-about-a-dungeon-in-purgatory-filled-with-nihilistic-adventurers-and-then-i-wrote-this-article\/","title":{"rendered":"I Played a Video Game About a Dungeon in Purgatory Filled With Nihilistic Adventurers and Then I Wrote This Article"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the last nine years or so, Damien Crawford has been making games they don’t think people would want to play.<\/p>\n

Crawford is the sole developer and head of Cannibal Interactive. They’ve made over 20 games through the label, most of which have been released primarily on itch.io. They came to game development after several years of struggling to fit into other jobs such as fast food and mundane government work. A relationship falling through and a need to cut loose from parental support eventually pushed them to try something new.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought if I failed the safe path, then what do I want to do? And so I started making games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their first project, Legend of Moros, took two and a half years, and did not do well \u2013 not even $100 in release day sales. So, on another contrarian whim, Crawford spent a month making a game they thought no one would want to play; an \u201catrocious\u201d (their words) RPG where 99 characters band together in a single fight, all piled in on one side against the enemy. In addition to the absurd gameplay, Mighty 99 had a \u201chorrible memory leak issue\u201d that made it impossible to get through three full turns.<\/p>\n

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But, to Crawford’s astonishment, something fascinating happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got feedback, most of it negative, but people were playing it. And they were detailed notes sometimes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of no one playing a game they thought people would want to play, people were playing Mighty 99 \u2013 even if they didn’t like it. But that was enough for Crawford. They revamped Mighty 99 into a more playable version entitled \u201cI Have Low Stats But My Class Is ‘Leader,’ So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord,\u201d and then kept making more games like it. Games with tons of characters, unwinnable scenarios, and humorously lengthy titles. <\/p>\n

Crawford refers to them as \u201cmaximalist RPGs,\u201d and examples include: \u201cMy Older Sister Left The Computer So I Got On & Found Myself Trying To Coordinate A Raid In A Game & I Don’t Play MMO’s\u201d, \u201cIt’s Six Random Characters and a Single Floor Dungeon, That’s the Whole Game,\u201d and \u201cThis Is A First Person Dungeon Crawler That You’re Speedrunning At An Event.\u201d They also released, earlier this year, Damien Crawford’s Golf Experience 2022 \u2013 where you play a golf game as someone who has only the most basic understanding of golf, including not being able to tell how far away the hole is, apply any spin or curve to shots, or even see where the ball goes after it’s hit. <\/p>\n

That may seem absurd, but over the years Crawford has developed a following based on their absurd games, even leaning into it as part of their identity (see their Twitter handle \u201cTheWorstRPGDev\u201d). But after nine years of making games no one would want to play, Crawford has come back around to making something that they hope people might want. With the help of a team and publisher Strange Scaffold, they’ve just released Purgatory Dungeoneer. Or, \u201cMy Grandpa Died And All He Left Me Was This 1 Dungeon In Purgatory Filled With Nihilistic Adventurers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It got feedback, most of it negative, but people were playing it. And they were detailed notes sometimes!<\/p>\n\n

\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Crawford tells me that their shift toward slightly more conventional game development came about because they had a story they wanted to tell, and knew if people weren’t interested in finishing their game due to gameplay nonsense, they wouldn’t get to see the whole thing. Purgatory Dungeoneer, then, is an RPG about retired adventurers who arrive in a guild hall the player inherits from their grandfather, with a dungeon attached. The player takes the adventurers through the dungeon in parties of five, helps them shake off their adventuring cobwebs, and eventually, offers them space to confront the deep-seated trauma they’ve developed through their years of fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m bored with how fantasy often portrays trauma because it’s usually the one or two same things,\u201d Crawford says. \u201cAdventuring isn’t something a sane person would just go out and do one day\u2026And so it felt like that was an important set of stories to tell. A lot of them have similar origin points and end points, but the way that they get there is very different. That was a fun writing exercise for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purgatory Dungeoneer has an overarching story revolving around the Guild Hall and its inhabitants, including a few NPCs who help you manage it, which will take most players about 10-15 hours to finish. But if you want to see all of its character stories, you’re in for a much longer haul. There are 420 different characters, each with their own race and class combination complete with unique strengths and weaknesses in battle. All of them have their own stories, which are told through Remembrance missions \u2013 Purgatory Dungeoneer’s version of sidequests. You’ll have to dig into at least a handful of these missions to see the game’s end, but there are so many characters you could easily finish Purgatory Dungeoneer while avoiding over half its cast.<\/p>\n

Playing through Purgatory Dungoneer myself, I almost didn’t believe that every character was designed deliberately, rather than procedurally-generated. My Guild Hall initially only had a handful of members, but with each mission I undertook, more would arrive, filling its rooms and tables with new friends like Raz the Angel Healer, Terhi the Woad Guardian, Awinita the Lizardfolk Guard, Rufaro the Minos Lancer , Myfanwy the Fairy Druid\u2026I could go on. Crawford tells me the enormous variety of class and race combos was inspired by lots of other RPG and fantasy settings, especially Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and 2011 roguelike Dungeons of Dredmor.<\/p>\n