Springloaded 🖱 Let's Build a Dungeon

Introducing Let's Build a Dungeon, a true-to-life game dev simulator coming to PC & Xbox! 💻 Manage your game studio 🖌 Develop and build an MMO 🎮 Entice players into your game 💰 Profit? Find out more during the @Xbox Gamescom stream on Aug 21 👀 Wishlist below and pls RT ♥

Here's a closer look at some Piglonian character sprites from Let's Build a Dungeon #pixelart #gamedev

Slowly regretting the decision to stream wearing the helmet from our Steam capsule artwork

Our game dev sim meets RPG builder is launching later this year and we are EXCITED to share more details with you soon 👀

Thank you to @orbitalpotato for sharing a closer look at the Let's Build a Dungeon demo! You can check out the full video below. Listed as their most anticipated tycoon management game 🥹 youtube.com/watch?v=Ahs9z3…

LET'S BUILD A DUNGEON Manage a game studio making the world’s greatest MMORPG. Hire designers, coders, and testers, create a fantasy world, then welcome hundreds of virtual players. You can even play the game you create. youtube.com/watch?v=Dpa8E4… #IndieFanFest #IFFrecap

@coffeeincozy_ Thank you for sharing 🥹🙏

Sometimes, a game concept is so simple that it takes a second for your brain to fully process it, and that’s exactly what happened when I discovered Let's Build a Dungeon by @SpringloadedDev , a game where you manage a game… inside a management game ⚔️ When I first watched the trailer for Let’s Build a Dungeon, it immediately reminded me of the time I discovered RPG Maker back in high school. At the time, it almost felt like discovering a treasure map to the holy grail of teenage gamer dreams. Not the kind with a big red X on it, but the kind that leads straight to a thought I’m pretty sure many of us who grew up playing way too many games have had at least once. "What if I make my own game?" And that, was the beginning of months spent toiling away on everything that comes with making a game. Which, as it turns out, is a terrifying amount of everything. Designing worlds. Creating items and skills. Writing dramatic dialogue for NPCs. Inventing characters with extremely complicated backstories (or at least what I hoped were complicated enough). Coming up with enemies and deciding just how difficult they should be. Basically discovering, the hard way, that solo developers are very much a one-person army, because there is just so much to do. Of course, if you’re wondering how that whole story ended, I don’t think you need to wonder too hard. There’s a reason I’m here writing about games and making gameplay videos instead of actually developing one, after all. So imagine my surprise when I saw that Let’s Build a Dungeon is seemingly here to help me realize that long-forgotten dream, except this time in the form of a game that lets you make a game… inside a game. Which, now that I'm writing it down, sounds suspiciously like the plot of Inception. Except, well, instead of dream layers, you’re dealing with the chaos of running an MMORPG game studio. That means suddenly becoming HR for your own company by deciding who to hire, trying to make sure deadlines are met, and desperately hoping the studio earns enough money to actually pay everyone. You also get to sort through player feedback that definitely does not look suspiciously like Steam reviews, attend meetings like a responsible studio head… or pretend you have absolutely no idea what a meeting is and spend the time designing your own dungeon instead. Which, in my defense, feels perfectly reasonable considering the game is literally called Let’s Build a Dungeon. And of course, if you decide that dealing with the capitalism side of running a studio simply isn’t for you, the game is more than happy to help you ignore it by letting you jump into Just Build Mode or Creative Mode instead. Although, judging purely from their names, I’m fairly sure most of us would still need a moment to figure out what the difference between the two actually is. Well, from my understanding, Just Build Mode almost plays like a deck-builder, where the goal is to turn your RPG into the next big hit. To do that, we need to choose from different asset packs, stack marketing boosts, and basically use every advantage we can to push our very own game toward becoming the one everyone ends up playing. Creative Mode, meanwhile, is a dangerous mode for me personally, because it immediately makes my brain start coming up with ten different game world ideas that I absolutely do not have the time, energy, or talent to build. It lets us write stories, craft dialogue, design characters, and tweak gameplay systems until everything feels perfect, or until we suddenly realize we have spent three hours adjusting one tiny mechanic. And honestly, no matter which mode you choose, I think each of them will still let you experience just how chaotic game development can be, which might actually be exactly what Let’s Build a Dungeon is going for. I mean, take it from me and my little joust with RPG Maker back then. Even that small experiment was enough to convince me that making a game is no small task. If most games have difficulty levels ranging from novice to merciless, then “game developer” would probably sit somewhere around merciless (maybe even slightly above it), dangerously close to settings like “Are you absolutely sure about this?” and “Good luck, you’ll need it,” complete with a pat on the shoulder and a reassuring thumbs up. Of course, those difficulty settings may not officially exist, but I have a feeling many developers know exactly what they would feel like. That’s why I hope that through Let’s Build a Dungeon, more people will be able to develop something too. Maybe not necessarily a game (although if you do, congratulations!), but at least a deeper appreciation for games, the people behind them, and the slightly terrifying amount of work that goes into making them. Let’s Build a Dungeon is expected to release sometime this year, but if you are curious enough to see how chaotic making a game can be, there is already a demo available on Steam that you can try! 🔗 Steam link in the comments! Maybe I will not be developing a game of my own anytime soon since I am still perfectly happy being a player for now. But at the very least, Let’s Build a Dungeon lets me revisit that old high school dream — just this time without the merciless difficulty setting ✨

Gotta build fast

Character Creator & Conversation Editor Introduction! 👇👇👇👇👇

Thank you for all the positive reviews of our Steam demo 🥹 We left it up after Next fest so there's still time to try it!

Get a closer look at Let's Build a Dungeon's Creative tools in our recent developer streams. The VODs are saved on our Twitch channel: twitch.tv/springloadedso…

A closer look at some of the concept designs for our new in-menu artwork. It was fun trying to summarise each game mode into just one image. These are some of the sketches for Just Build Mode, along with the final design.

Excited to share more of Creative Mode with you all when we're ready to release Let's Build a Dungeon! It's already been so cool seeing everyone's game designs in the demo, but there's so many more tools to come.

Character sprites made by our dev team this week in the Creative Mode demo! (You can still try it on Steam)

What would you like to be able to control when making your own games in Let's Build a Dungeon?

Vote to implement Chicken Mask DLC in Just Build Mode for a quick revenue roost. I mean boost. 🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔

You can currently save 60% off Let's Build a Zoo as part of the @GamesAid Steam sale! Build a cute zoo AND support a great cause, as we're donating a % of each sale to Games Aid.

Thank you to everyone that played our Next Fest demo. We had tens of thousands of new players which is crazy! We're leaving the demo up for now, so if you didn't get a chance to try all three game modes, there's still time 🙏

@BricksHans Coming later this year!

@SpringloadedDev When Release ?

There's lots of new stuff in the Let's Build a Dungeon Next Fest demo! - Draw your own character sprites - Free build in Creative Mode - Write your own quests - Design character portraits - Play the game you make

New Next Fest trailer let's goooo! 🖥️ Run your own studio in Campaign Mode 🏘️ Focus on cozy world-building in Just Build Mode 🖌️ Develop your own game in Creative Mode