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Story:

Tensions are high between the Azca Tribe and the Kingdom of Riverway. A cease fire was declared 100 years ago, but a series of events is threatening the tentative peace. It seems, someone is fanning the flames to bring the war back on full scale...

These are strange times in the Kingdom of Riverway. The King has disappeared without a trace, and the Kingdom's Orb of Power is also missing. Did the King take the Orb and run? Was he kidnapped? Were the Azca's involved? That's what the Captain of the guard, Ethan, intends to find out before the kingdom panics and chaos runs rampant. Unfortunately, keeping the situation contained is much harder than it seems. Ethan will have to learn to trust new allies and find help from unusual sources to learn the truth. Can he stop another war from starting?

The Project:

“Up to Four Players venture into a dungeon. Your mission is to save the King, who was captured by the monsters. You must also retrieve the King’s Orb of Power.”

Wait... What? Well, back in 1982 that's all the story we would get from a computer game. Yet in those times, we didn't care about stuff like that. We were amazed by the awesome graphics the game provided, like this:



Yes, horrible by current standards, but those who played Tunnels of Doom all agree that it was the best in it's day! Now, over 30 years later, this project will bring the game a new look, and most of all, a full length RPG story!

This Tunnels of Doom version features two game modes:
In classic mode, players make a party of 1-4 characters from the Fighter, Wizard, and Rogue classes (selecting from 12 character sprites). Players can choose how many levels the dungeon will have 1 thru 10, but only 4 are actually playable. Players CAN win the game and rescue the King if they select 4 or fewer levels.

In story mode, players have the option of viewing an interactive 7 minute introduction, then chapter 1 begins. During the course of the full game, players will use all 12 characters in various parties of 1-4, as their stories are interwoven into a larger story. For this current work in progress, players will control Alex and Jason as they search a forest dungeon for it's treasure. This is basically a tutorial chapter, and the game ends here. Later chapters will introduce more complex characters and situations.

Game Features:

  • An event driven battle system, more of a simplified Final Fantasy Tactics style.
  • True dungeon randomization. You will never visit the same dungeon twice! The routine creates new random maps every time!
  • A map that draws itself as you walk through the dungeon, so you will never get lost. When backtracking, you can use the map to travel to places you already explored.
  • Loads of treasure, when opening treasure chests the contents spill out on the floor for you to pick up.
  • Unknown Potions! Any potion you find will have random effects, good or bad. Do you take a chance and drink it, or will you get it identified first?
  • Dungeon Dialogues. The characters speak with their given personalities during battle and when picking up items.
  • The Vault. Each level will contain a combination vault that has the absolute best treasure on that level. Guessing the combination wrong may damage your characters, but there are clues to tell you if you are getting warmer or colder.


The finished game is estimated to take 25+ hours to complete story mode, and about 15 hours for classic mode. Right now, players who fully explore story mode can expect to play for 2-3 hours. Classic mode players can expect to spend 60-90 minutes per level.

Progress UPDATE 5/13/2018:
I've uploaded a new version of Tunnels of Doom today. Chapter 2 is only half finished, but it's pretty clear when you reach the current end of story mode. Classic mode can still be won if you choose 4 or fewer levels.

Latest Blog

Tunnels of Doom Version 1.3.1 is out! + Taking a small break.

Hello Everyone,

I'm going to take a small break from Tunnels of Doom (for about three weeks), which I participate in the Seasons of RMN event. The challenge is to make a small game in three weeks based on one of the seasons. So I want to do that while I think about the next phase of Tunnels of Doom.

I released the latest updates early, even though chapter 2 is only partially done. I wanted to add the battle system improvements, the king dialogues, and the boss battle in story mode chapter 1.

The biggest time suck in this update was updating 300 or so maps in the story mode forest dungeon. But I think it looks MUCH better than it ever did before:



Here's the rest of the updates:

Version History - Tunnels_of_Doom_1.3.1 5-13-2018

This is a major update over the previous on from months ago. Story mode Chapter 1 now has a boss battle! The entire forest dungeon has had a facelift with picture overlays and weather. Here's some more updates:

-Game Engine Change. Now the game is on the Steam Version of RPG Maker 2003. (Legal and Legit!)
-Updated the Map Background to 256 indexed color palette, better color and resolution.
-Updated the Level Pictures in the Camp Room
-Rations are now consumable during camp and there's no penalty for turns.
-Camp Title for Riverway Forest.
-Boss Battle in story mode chapter 1
-Weather events in Chapter 1 forest dungeon.
-A notice when you make a critical hit.
-The King appears in the camp room if you have rescued him.
-Auto-Eat Rations once you have 99 or more.
  • Production
  • 1 of 7 episodes complete
  • Waxius
  • AkarithePeanut
  • RPG Maker 2003
  • Adventure RPG
  • 08/04/2017 10:23 PM
  • 09/18/2023 03:55 AM
  • 11/03/2018
  • 46535
  • 18
  • 457

Posts

Pages: 1
This is really cool.

It's great to see more narrative roguelikes, and on the rm2k3 engine, no less. The graphics fit it well, I think.
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
Thank you Kumada!

I definitely like the look of the rm2k3 engine. I really hope you enjoy the game!
Hey this looks interesting. Subscribed!
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
Thanks PhantasmaX!

Even though it's a work in progress, you can still WIN Classic mode if you select 4 or fewer levels, and get a small ending at least.

I plan to update the game every 10-14 days with a stable version, and you won't have to start the game all over again if you move over your save files.

Next version will include:
-Monster Magic Resistance
-Monster Magic Weaknesses
-Varied Monster attacks and special attacks
-Trapped Treasure Chests (Having a Rogue in your party will help avoid these!)
-4 more green potion effects
-Improved game dialogues
-Level 5 with new monsters, a new Armor (something better than Platemail)

I hope you like it!

David.
Playing the game so far. It's nice. My question is..

When you sign the adventurer's log in the shop..is that a reference to a Sierra adventure/rpg series called Quest For Glory?

If so, Nice!
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
author=randy295
Playing the game so far. It's nice. My question is..

When you sign the adventurer's log in the shop..is that a reference to a Sierra adventure/rpg series called Quest For Glory?

If so, Nice!


Hi Randy,

Yes it is! Quest for Glory is probably my favorite Sierra game of all time, with King's Quest V coming in as a close second.

I hope you enjoy Tunnels of Doom. I'm very curious to know if you liked the introduction.
I've played the chapter one.
So far the game is great, I've liked the battle system, it's totally unique, if you see all the other games here.
Hope to see the next chapters. See ya!
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
author=sedenha
I've played the chapter one.
So far the game is great, I've liked the battle system, it's totally unique, if you see all the other games here.
Hope to see the next chapters. See ya!


Thank you Sedenha! I think part of chapter 2 is out there... at least I hope it is! Looking forward to making more updates here soon.
Gretgor
Having gotten my first 4/5, I must now work hard to obtain... my second 4/5.
3420
This looks super awesome! Gonna have to check it out soon!
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
author=Gretgor
This looks super awesome! Gonna have to check it out soon!

Hey Gretgor! I hope you give it a try, and would love to read your feedback!
Gretgor
Having gotten my first 4/5, I must now work hard to obtain... my second 4/5.
3420
Gonna post my impressions in comment form, since, you know, this game is not complete yet. I'd give it a 4/5 in its current state, but I'd rather wait for the full thing before posting a rating.


This game is a quite fascinating piece. It's got some interesting gameplay, competent story and presentation, and some systems and mechanics that must have been hell to program in RPG Maker 2003. It has its flaws, as I mention later in this review, but they are not enough to kill my interest in the whole thing.

Story:

The intro scene is quite fascinating. It starts with a prologue involving two treasure hunters who accidentally awaken an ancient demon and promptly meet their demise. The prologue got me invested, even though it is a bit on the cliché side of things, and I look forward to finding out how it ties in with the rest of the plot down the line.

The game itself starts ten years later, when a young man sets out on a hunting quest of his own with a friend of his. As they are setting up to depart on their short journey, they notice that things in the kingdom seem to be rather tumultuous, as if the higher authorities of the kingdom expected disaster to strike at any moment. The uneasiness is first felt when we visit the castle town, with a sudden increase in security and paranoia, and the tense feeling is made even more pronounced as the two of them see one of the king's most important captains passing by nervously, as if having to deal with a problem of potentially disastrous consequences.

Very little of the story is told in the short chapter of the game that is already done, but it is competently written, and seems well paced. I look forward to what may come in the next chapter.

Presentation:

The visual presentation relies on a mix of FSM assets and RTP, and it is quite competently made. Mapping is good looking and interesting, presenting competent usage of tilesets, charsets are pretty and varied, and the graphics for most things are cool.

Music is good, too. I just don't like how it fades instead of looping, but that's a minor nitpick.

Gameplay:

The RPG side of the game combines traditional RPG stuff like town exploration, NPC conversations and item shopping with this super cool dungeon exploration stuff that are this game's core mechanics, adapted from the classic computer game it takes its name from, which may or may not have been the grandfather of the "dungeon crawler" genre. The dungeons only mode is, as the name implies, only the dungeons.

In the dungeons, you can access a map that allows you to view the places you've been to, as well as set up camp to rest and save. There are items scattered around to help you out, like arrows and food, and basically the entire thing is set up to put you in a survival and exploration mindset, which I find quite neat. Then there's the battles, and that's where things get really interesting.

In certain parts of dungeons, there will be "monster rooms", as in rooms that contain monsters, and in those rooms, the game becomes kinda like a tactical RPG of sorts, with characters taking turns to move around and attack, and all that. Unlike modern tactical RPGs, this game feels a bit like a board game, with battles being restricted to small square regions, and movement being restricted to one square at a time. Ranged weapons allow you to attack any enemy anywhere in the battle area, and melee weapons allow you to attack only enemies you're adjacent to. In order to escape from battles, you need to move every character in your party out of the playing field, and that is basically it. It's a pretty nifty strategic system, and the game actually demands that you play cleverly to avoid failure.

When you set up a camp in a dungeon, you get a little dialog box where you can eat rations to recover health, talk to your buddies about stuff (still not implemented, unfortunately) and save the game. It's cool enough, but has some flaws (more on that later).

Given that rations are limited, the player's ability to heal between battles also is, meaning strategic resource management and intelligent battle behavior are favored, making for some potentially fascinating survival gameplay. Not only that, the game also throws in some cool classic RPG stuff, like scrolls and potions having unknown effects until you take the risk to use them, and trapped chests that do damage when opened. There's lots of cool stuff here.

Overall, this game is a fascinating dungeon crawling experience mixed with more traditional RPG stuff and an interesting battle system. Oh, it'd be remiss of me not to mention there are randomized dungeons here. Randomized dungeons! In an RM2K3 game! And they don't suck! That must have taken a lot of work to make.

There are problems, however, which hold this game back quite a bit:

- Using the map is kind of cumbersome, since it has to teleport us out and then back in, making it quite slow.
- The ration consumption option in the camp menu does not tell us our current HP, nor does it tell us in advance the amount of rations necessary to take our heroes back to full health, making it quite annoying to use sometimes.
- Healing fountains being dependent on luck is a bit of a D-move, if you get what I mean.
- The one dungeon contained in story mode is trivial, not a lot of thinking is necessary for survival. The on-your-toes survival feel only really comes into play in the "dungeons only" mode, which rocks.

Overall:

This game is pretty neat. The amount of work it must have taken to get everything working here is quite cool, and the ideas it works with are pretty cool as well.

The flaws I pointed out are mostly easy to solve, and hopefully they will be, so this game can be as good as it has all the right to be. In its current state, I'd give it a 4/5, which could be a 4.5/5 or even a 5/5 depending on how the game develops from here on out.
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
author=Gretgor
Gonna post my impressions in comment form, since, you know, this game is not complete yet. I'd give it a 4/5 in its current state, but I'd rather wait for the full thing before posting a rating.


Wow Gretgor! I'm really glad you liked it! Your feedback really made my day too, because I was starting to think that no one was going to watch the intro :)

I'm proud of the random dungeon generator.. it truly is random and not a pick of created maps, and you're right that was a lot of work.

The fountain is taken from the original game, which would randomly heal or hurt you. I might rethink how that works... maybe just full party heal. Drinking unidentified potions can also be bad for you!

I really want to finish the story mode (with 5 total dungeons), and the intent is to get dungeon only mode up to 10 levels and include Dragon enemies, like the original game... but THAT would make for a LONG survival game.

Thanks for letting me know about the problem areas too.. some of those I can fix. My challenge will be finishing the story... well.. cause I didn't write it all out first (Cardinal Sin!).

I appreciate you playing it, Gretgor!

By the way... what was your party make up in Dungeon Only mode?
Gretgor
Having gotten my first 4/5, I must now work hard to obtain... my second 4/5.
3420
I liked to play with two fighters, one wizard and a rogue. I usually ran out of scrolls because I'm a colossal idiot, but it was fun.
So far I only played the story mode:
I can see the huge effort put in the game, there's a LOT of options to change gameplay but some things didn't make it for me like the menu opening when you press the cancel button when choices are given ( Canceling it opens it again) and some other minor stuff (like the delay between some actions.)

The dungeon experience is really nice, the mapping is good and it's really AWESOME that you made a functional tactical rpg for fights huge fan of that i'm very impressed!

I played until you start playing with Ethan. I'll continue playing some other time :)
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
author=brawnie
So far I only played the story mode:
I can see the huge effort put in the game, there's a LOT of options to change gameplay but some things didn't make it for me like the menu opening when you press the cancel button when choices are given ( Canceling it opens it again) and some other minor stuff (like the delay between some actions.)

The dungeon experience is really nice, the mapping is good and it's really AWESOME that you made a functional tactical rpg for fights huge fan of that i'm very impressed!

I played until you start playing with Ethan. I'll continue playing some other time :)


Glad you like it so far Brawnie! You've only got a little bit left to go before you reach the point where I hit a wall. Keep going and you'll see some interesting graphics right after you leave the castle...

I think you'll also like Classic Mode... play on Easy, 4 Levels, and have a party of 4 (two fighters, one wizard, and one rogue).. Much different experience!!

Enjoy!
author=brawnie
So far I only played the story mode:
I can see the huge effort put in the game, there's a LOT of options to change gameplay but some things didn't make it for me like the menu opening when you press the cancel button when choices are given ( Canceling it opens it again) and some other minor stuff (like the delay between some actions.)territorial io
The dungeon experience is really nice, the mapping is good and it's really AWESOME that you made a functional tactical rpg for fights huge fan of that i'm very impressed!

I played until you start playing with Ethan. I'll continue playing some other time :)

The story mode is really interesting.
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