Developer Springloaded has revealed a host of updates coming to its game-dev simulator, Let’s Build a Dungeon, and one is a “playable parody”.
It’s called Buddyland, and it’s “a fully-playable parody that solidifies Let’s Build a Dungeon as a true-to-life simulation of the games industry”, explains the developer. Revealed at Summer Game Fest’s Southeast Asian Games Showcase, the team, says it “invites players to ask themselves what it really takes to develop a successful indie game.”
Buddyland is a crafting-focused, monster-catching survival game that features as part of Let’s Build a Dungeon’s campaign mode. Players act as both CEO and game designer of their own development studio and will be faced with various pitches, proposals and moral choices.
The proposed development of Buddyland is just one example of Let’s Build a Dungeon’s branching narrative and features a fully-playable experience, heated discussions with external partners and an ongoing risk of falling into legal hot water. Browse the ‘Younify Game Engine Asset Store’ and make decisions that could make or break your game studio, including the opportunity to create a monster-catching survival game… WITH GUNS.
James Barnard, CEO at Springloaded said: “Running an indie studio and making games can be really crazy. We’re all too familiar with headlines about legal challenges being faced by game developers across the world, with disagreements dragging through the courts and communities choosing sides online.
The accompanying online discussions often raise the question of what it means to make a successful game, and that’s something we want to explore in Let’s Build a Dungeon. There is no definitive answer, but it’s something that indie developers have to think about all the time. Every decision we make in game development has a consequence, and we want to share these experiences with our players. Buddyland is one of the ways we’re giving players the opportunity to make their own moral decisions in the shoes of a games industry CEO, with the chance to see exactly how things play out.”
Here’s some of the key features:
- Playable parody experience within Let’s Build a Dungeon
- Build and explore a fantasy world alongside mysterious creatures called ‘Buddies’
- Survival gameplay featuring monster catching, farming and crafting
- Gather resources to avoid running out of food
- Morality choices impact the fate and success of your game studio
Springloaded also revealed Just Build Mode at Summer Game Fest, which invites players to work alone or as part of a team to build the perfect MMORPG, without the full responsibilities of running a game studio. In this streamlined game mode, the focus is on the joy of creation and shared decision making, rather than delving into the details of studio management. Without the intricacies of the main simulation campaign, this new mode makes building a world together and seeing virtual player numbers rise easier than ever.
Let’s Build a Dungeon is coming to PC.