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I've been working on a Dungeon Crawler Framework for Unity.
It's basically a collection of systems for building a grid-based dungeon crawler — dungeon generation, characters, inventory, items and loot, enemies, spells, saving, etc.
I've recently released it on the Unity Asset Store, but I'd really like to get some feedback from people who know and enjoy this type of game.
I'd be happy to give a few free copies to anyone here who would like to try it out and tell me what you think. I'm especially interested in what you feel is missing or what could be improved.
I'm hoping to keep developing it, so feedback from people familiar with classic dungeon crawlers would be really useful.
So it's like, a bunch of resources to make your own dungeon-crawling game (basicall a map editor) but not actually a game in itself? I mean, I do like making maps if it's not all complicated and stuff, though I'm somewhat tentative about any newly-made stuff because so many people just seem to be using AI these days to generate all the art and stuff instead of getting actual people to do it.
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Ameena, self-declared Wordweaver, Beastmaker, Thoughtbringer, and great smegger of dungeon editing!
Yeah, exactly — it's a framework for making your own dungeon crawler game, not a finished game. It provides tools and systems for building dungeons, managing parties, enemies, items, spells, etc.
Haha, Claude is an AI assistant. I was just joking about your comment about AI — I promise it didn't build the whole framework for me.
P.S. Yeah, definitely French. Very helpful guy, though.
The whole thing came from a human brain. AI was used like a spoon for eating soup. A spoon didn’t grow on a bush either, yet it still serves humans. Same with AI. So, are we going to talk about AI, or about the framework?
Well I was just trying to find out whether this thing was actually fully human-made or whether the art and stuff was just thrown together by a computer after a few type commands. If it's legit then it sounds interesting but I can't help but be a little wary of someone who joins a forum and the first (and only) thing they post is "Hey, check out this thing I'm planning on charging money for!" without making a proper introduction or any reference to the subject this forum is about (excpt vaguely and indirectly in that their product is conected to that genre of game). I'm not trying to be rude but there is a lot of AI garbage out there now and we've also had plenty of "I'm definitely a real human, look at my super generic posts" accounts join (and get subsequently banned) recently.
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Ameena, self-declared Wordweaver, Beastmaker, Thoughtbringer, and great smegger of dungeon editing!
I think you've misunderstood the intention of my original post a little. I wasn't asking people to buy anything. I was offering free copies specifically to people here who know dungeon crawlers, because I wanted feedback and suggestions for improving the framework. The Asset Store link was there simply so people could see what I was talking about.
As for the AI concern, I've already explained my position on that. I don't mind using AI as a tool, but the framework itself wasn't generated by typing a few prompts into a computer.
Anyway, I'm happy to talk about the framework itself if you're interested.
I meant that your original post only implies that you're here to develop something you want to sell, and not to actually engage with the community about the games this forum is about. You also still haven't said whether the art was actually made by a real person or not.
I do like map editors and stuff, like being able to build a world/dungeon or whatever is fun, if it's easy enough to do. I've been playing Barony again lately and would like to try and make a dungeon or two in its map editor, but it looks a bit fiddly and complicated so I haven't properly tried anything yet. I think the best and most intuitive/helpful map editor I've ever used was the one for Heroes of Might and Magic III. Okay so that's not specifically for building dungeons (well, one of the Towns types is a Dungeon, but that's not quite the same thing ), but still. I'm also kind of interested in map-builders for potential use in like, DnD or whatever, but I've not played/run any of that for a few years now (and a dungeons-only map editor wouldn't be enough).
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Ameena, self-declared Wordweaver, Beastmaker, Thoughtbringer, and great smegger of dungeon editing!
I’m coming here with a dungeon editor, giving away vouchers so people can actually try it for themselves. So at this point I’m basically taking the loss, not making a profit — I’m doing it to get feedback and let people see what I’ve made. Yet you’re still attacking me and have a problem with the fact that I’m trying to sell something.
Do you do this everywhere? Go into a vacuum cleaner store, find the manufacturer, and start questioning them about whether they’re really interested in the vacuum cleaner community or whether they just want to make money?
You can get a voucher, try the editor yourself, and tell me what you think. If you don’t like it, that’s perfectly fine. But I really don’t understand why the fact that I’m selling something I spent a huge amount of time creating is such a problem for you.
And if you still have a problem with your dungeon, just ask Claude. I’m sure he’ll find a solution for you.
And just to be clear, I didn’t use AI to create the artwork for the framework. More importantly, the framework doesn’t dictate what artwork the user uses anyway — the user creates and supplies their own graphics and assets.
I’m happy to answer any genuine questions about the framework. If you want to discuss dungeon building, I’m here. But I’m not going to respond to personal jabs or pointless accusations.
I'm...not attacking you? I'm trying to find out what you're about because you're a completely new random stranger who's wandered in here without even mentioning the main subject matter that this forum is about. Most new "members" we seem to get these days are AI/spambots rather than people actually interested in playing/talking about DM and its associated games.
And I have said a few times that I like map editor stuff, like I'm kind of interested in your thing but I wanted to make sure it is actually a thing that a real human has put effort into making rather than just putting a bunch of prompts into a bot and selling what comes out the other end.
If the user has to make their own art, does this framework thing come with the means to do that? I'm not entirely sure what is included. Any map editor-type-thingy I've used before has been an extra program alongside a full game, and the editor is like an extra thing for people who want to make their own content. But as this is just the map editor on its own, there is no existing content to add to/edit...? If there is no art then...what do the walls and monsters and stuff look like? Is there a thing to produce that within this framework thing, or does it require the user to have an existing art program and all that as well?
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Ameena, self-declared Wordweaver, Beastmaker, Thoughtbringer, and great smegger of dungeon editing!
I took a look at the Unity page which explains it better, Ameena. It's basically a Unity developer tool for spinning up dungeon crawler type games quickly without having to build everything from scratch. (Unity is a game development engine if you're not sure what that is).
Anyone using this framework would still need to provide their own resources on top of it. Which is fine for a Unity developer, as that's what they would be expecting. But it's not for someone like yourself looking to perhaps build a complete coherent dungeon that you could play properly out of the box. You'd need Unity experience first to be able to get anything useful out of it.
This is a drive-by-advert trying to find niche users (Unity developers) within the niche of those interested in making their own dungeon crawlers. So it's relevant in so far as there might be some users like that lurking on the forum. It doesn't have anything to do with Dungeon Master specifically, other than the fact it's replicating ideas that DM established.
As a moderator, I'll allow it due to those connections, but it does fall very close to edge of what we'd normally consider spam. I'd prefer something a little more community spirited as a first post, but such is the way of things these days.
Thanks for the questions — this is exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for.
The framework already has documentation and several YouTube videos showing what it includes and how the different systems work. It's worth taking a look at those, as they show the framework's capabilities much better than I can explain in a single forum post.
Just to clarify: the framework already includes what I call a gameplay loop — you can launch the game, play, save and load your progress, die, and return to the main menu. So the whole thing is already playable, although it still needs improvements and further development. It also includes a built-in dungeon/map editor, which allows you to create and customize your own dungeons.
As for the artwork, the user needs to provide their own assets. The framework is primarily a tool that provides the systems and mechanics needed to build your own dungeon crawler. So it can be used as a foundation for creating your own Dungeon Master-style game, with your own dungeons, monsters, artwork and other content.
I'm also offering free vouchers to anyone who would like to test it. So I'm not expecting someone to buy the framework just to give me feedback. You can get it for free, try it out, and at the same time help me develop it further — tell me what works, what doesn't, what's missing and what features would be useful to you.
And for full transparency: I've been developing this framework for about five months with Claude as an AI development assistant. It isn't a case of simply pressing a button and having AI produce a framework. Before anything is implemented, there is a lot of designing, experimenting and iterating involved — deciding how things should work, how the different systems should interact, and how the overall architecture should be structured.
Building something like this is genuinely difficult. I'm not an advanced programmer, and without AI assistance I probably wouldn't have been able to build it. Claude is a very important tool for me, but it doesn't magically create the whole framework. I still have to decide what I want to build, test different approaches, make decisions about the architecture and functionality, find problems, test the results and keep iterating.
I'm also not able to test everything by myself. I know the framework from the inside, so inevitably I can miss problems that would be obvious to a new user. That's why I need people who can look at it from a completely different perspective.
That's the main reason I'm looking for testers. Not just to find bugs, but to find out what people who actually want to create their own dungeon crawler need from a framework like this.
The framework is a commercial product — of course I need to make a living and be able to continue spending time developing it. But at the same time, I want people who are genuinely interested in this genre to be able to try it for free and have a real influence on its future development.
If anyone here knows Dungeon Master and similar games and would like to test it, I'd be happy to provide a voucher. That's exactly the kind of feedback that would be most valuable to me.
I've heard of Unity as I know it's used to make games, since I see the logo (or at least the name, usually on a loading screen pre-main-menu) on plenty of games I've played. That's basically all I know about it, like I don't know if it needs programming knowledge or anything. The word "framework" keeps being used but I'm still not entirely sure what that entails. If I need to know how to do programmy stuff or there's no intuitive interface or whatever, then I'd probably be useless at trying to use it anyway, much though I like making cool maps and stuff. I was able to use the RTC editor back in the day to bodge together some basic stuff, and even tried doing a few pics for like, character portraits and a couple of items and stuff, but never really got further than that.
The last sentence of the latest post seems a bit weird - "If anyone here knows Dungeon Master...". You know this is the fan forum for Dungeon Master, right? If we didn't know it, we wouldn't be here (and some of us have been here over twenty years!) .
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Ameena, self-declared Wordweaver, Beastmaker, Thoughtbringer, and great smegger of dungeon editing!
), but still. I'm also kind of interested in map-builders for potential use in like, DnD or whatever, but I've not played/run any of that for a few years now (and a dungeons-only map editor wouldn't be enough).
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