Dicey Dungeons Halloween Special

Terry Oct 31, 2020 3 Comments

Happy Halloween! What an absolutely horrifying year it’s been.

Haven’t been updating the blog much recently – not really much to say I guess! I did a Ludum Dare entry earlier in the year that I’ve been meaning to clean up a bit and post, but that aside, I’ve mostly just been working on Dicey Dungeons updates and our upcoming ports (will have more to say about that very soon, I hope).

Today I wanna post properly about one of the more unlikely things I’ve worked on: The Halloween Special for Dicey Dungeons! Here’s a great video of Retromation playing the first episode of it last year:

Dicey Dungeons had a pretty crazy launch. You know that gif of a burning car driving across the finish line? I relate to that. I feel like it was only in the last three months of development, as we were wrapping up, that I really started to figure the game out on a deep level. There was a period, just after the last alpha, when I was working on the the Parallel Universe episodes, where *everything* clicked. I felt like I was on fire. One year on, my only real regret about Dicey Dungeons is that I didn’t cut more of the early stuff from the game before release.

After launch, when the dust settled, people on the team started talking about wanting to make some Dicey Dungeons content – a DLC. It was a new idea for me: after VVVVVV, I absolutely didn’t feel like making any more platformers. After Super Hexagon, I didn’t feel like making any more action games. But after Dicey Dungeons? I was well up for it.

So, we made the Halloween special, and I think it’s our team’s best work.

With the adrenaline rush of launch behind us, everyone on the team was punching at their best. Everyone brought their A-game: Niamh’s spooky soundtrack is absolutely killer, Marlowe’s Halloween costumes for the baddies are fantastic, and Holly’s script has some of my favourite jokes from the whole game. And I’m damn proud of the work I did: the Inventor and Witch episodes in particular are the very best episodes I’ve made, out of the entire game. When it all came together, I was so, so proud of this dumb thing. I know it’s just a weird Halloween tie in for a game that’s not even horror themed, but we put so much energy and love into it.

I guess I was *maybe* a little bit disappointed that it didn’t get more attention, but ahhhh what can you do? I think people maybe just didn’t even expect it to be interesting – people see seasonal DLC and think it’s just like, a gimmick. Fair enough.

So, probably I’m never doing this kind of seasonal thing again – I just don’t think it’s for me. If we ever do another DLC for Dicey Dungeons, I want it to be something that stands on its own, and has its own identity.

Anyway! It’s Halloween again, so give it a try, if you haven’t already! Here’s a guide to launching it from within Dicey Dungeons. Go check it out!