Idea: A Foddian Megadungeon

You may have heard of "Foddian Games" like Getting Over It or Jump King (named after Bennet Foddy, the creator of Getting Over It). What makes these games unique is that they push you into situations where you have to risk losing all your progress and starting again from scratch. They are deliberately frustrating, but also very satisfying to master.

In Jump King, you leap upwards, propelled by rumours of a smokin' hot babe at the top. Each time you jump, you risk losing your progress and tumbling all the way back to the start of the game. As you leap higher, you meet ruined and broken men, their legs shattered. Seek not the babe, they tell you. She must be only an illusion. A hopeless fantasy. No man can make those jumps and live. 

One of the things that makes this interesting is the way it plays with risk and reward. You have safe areas that act like checkpoints. This area with the fireplace is one example. The floor is solid, so you won't lose your progress if you fall. Reaching this area is really satisfying, and this space feels safe and warm.

Then you get higher up and the game tempts you with this treasure.

If you want the coin this crow is carrying, you have to leap out of your safe zone, into the rain. You run the risk of falling way down, past your safe area, into the drain, losing a whole heap of progress. Can you take the risk? This creates a huge feeling of tension and danger.

So I wonder - could we make a fun Foddian dungeon?

The Tower Of Babel

The wretched fools tried to make a tower to reach God. Some even say they succeeded. Either way, they were struck down and scattered, turned into all manner of hideous beasts, their language split into many tongues so that they could never dare their hubris again. Now desperate men and heathens return to the ruins of that tower, seeking treasure - and perhaps even the fabled Door to Heaven. 

It's a vertical dungeon with a complete and total focus on traversing the environment. Your goal is to get as high as you can. The dungeon is all about climping the walls, swinging on the chandeliers, dangling from grappling hooks, balancing on the rafters, tiptoeing around rotten floors, finding ladders and ropes and secret passages that lead higher. Ultimate verticality. 

Goblin Knave: Fighter

 

Here is another class for Goblin Knave! Click here for the class.

THE FIGHTER

Complexity: Low.

Suggested Ability Scores: Strength, Constitution.

Playstyle: Combat.

If you're interested in the Director's Commentary on what I've done here and why, read on. I have a bunch more of these classes to release so I'll see you next time. 

Goblin Knave: Assassin

 

Click here for the class.

THE ASSASSIN

Complexity: Medium.

Suggested Ability Scores: Dexterity, Intelligence.

Playstyle: Stealthy specialist.

This is a tweak of the GLOG Assassin to fit with the rules for Knave, a fantastic rules-light RPG you can pick up for $3. It refines the class to fit with the Knave ruleset and also adds a reputation system. You can slot the class right into the Knave rules, or use it with any GLOG-compatible system. Click here for more classes and info on the system.

If you're interested in the Director's Commentary on what I've done with the Assassin and why, read on. I have a bunch more of these classes to release so I'll see you next time. 

Goblin Knave: Thief

 

Let's cut to the chase, click here for the class.

THE THIEF

Complexity: Medium.

Suggested Ability Scores: Dexterity, Intelligence.

Playstyle: Stealthy specialist.

This is a tweak of the GLOG thief to fit with the rules for Knave, a fantastic rules-light RPG you can pick up for $3. It refines the class to fit with the Knave ruleset and also adds a reputation system. You can slot the class right into the Knave rules, or use it with any GLOG-compatible system. 

If you're interested in the Director's Commentary on what I've done with the Thief and why, read on. I have 5 more of these classes to release so I'll see you next time. 

ENTITY 02: YOUR OWN SKIN

Human Resources departments across the country grow these parasites in underground labs. Seditious or subversive elements within the workforce are secretly injected using hidden hypodermic needles in their work phones. Soon, your own skin revolts against you. 

A parasite forms in the place between your skin and your muscle tissue. It roams around in there. If it isn't stopped in d6 days, it takes over your epidermis. Your skin swells and falls around you in loose folds, then constricts until you can't move without tearing it. The parasite controls it all from a knot of infected muscle at the back of your neck. Your skin will only go back to normal if you obey its demands.

After being injected with the parasite, you are now legally obligated to repay all costs associated with its care and upkeep. It's all in your employment contract. Killing the parasite or allowing it to starve is a violation of your terms of employment, and you will be fully liable for all damages.

I'm making a video game

You're curled up in front of the fire reading a folk tale on a cold winter's night. Something about it seems so familiar. Have you read this before?

Explore a cosy and mysterious fantasy universe inspired by fairy tales. The old kind of fairy tales, strange and wild, before the edges were sanded off. Warm and comforting, but with parts you don't quite understand, and you don't know if you want to understand.

Make friends with 4 different fairy tale folks. 4 main routes for the Witch, the Toad, the Thief and the Mushroom.

Align yourself with G-d, Death, or the Devil. Choose your godparent and your destiny.

The Thief, the Witch, the Toad and the Mushroom is a visual novel inspired by old folk tales like the original Brothers Grimm. It uses old art from the public domain that I've cobbled together. I've completed a lot of work on it so far and I think I should be able to release it later this year. 

ENTITY 01: DIMENSIONAL TRASH ANOMALY

This year, I'm going to try to make 1 blog post a week. Most posts will be monsters or elements for a pre-apocalypse setting I'm working on called NO-ONE GETS OUT ALIVE. Here is the first monster.

A small government research facility on the east coast has been experimenting with new methods of compressing 4th dimensional space. Boxes that are bigger on the inside, that sort of thing. This promises to open up exciting new opportunities in landfill storage. These hypothetically infinite spaces could store a hypothetically infinite amount of trash, allowing humanity to continue exponentially generating garbage in peace and comfort. 

Unfortunately the department was disbanded due to budget cuts and something inevitably went wrong with the machine. Now the country is plagued by hyper-dense 4th dimensional trash shamblers that lurk in the alleyways and absorb everything they touch. From the outside they appear as jittering mounds of lumbering garbage that glitches and intersects itself at impossible angles. Each one looks different, depending on what type of waste it's been feeding on. In the center, you can see what looks like a miniature black hole. 

The shamblers are programmed to detect Trash Producing Entities and will attempt to grab you on sight. Anyone unlucky enough to make contact will be sucked through into the infinite cosmos of the trash dimension.