Blocky Dungeon, the Tetris-Style Dungeon Crawler RPG heads to Steam this summer

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-07-01 13:51 (JST)
Translated by. Matthew Parker

The Venice-based Indie Developer SquareDev announced on June 30^th that their Dungeon Crawling Puzzle-RPG Blocky Dungeon would be seeing a release on Steam this summer. The beta version of the game is currently available on itch.io and things are looking good for the release of the finished product, which they are aiming for sometime around the end of the summer.

Blocky Dungeon is a Dungeon Crawling Puzzle-RPG that combines the falling puzzle block mechanics of Tetris with elements of a turn-based RPG. The player creates the dungeon by moving, spinning and placing falling blocks; which become the dungeon’s pathways. In between placing block pathways, the player can switch to take control of a Knight to take down monsters and collect items to clear the dungeon.

The gameplay consists of switching on the fly between the Tetris-style part where the dungeon is created, and controlling the Knight to clear said dungeon. In the puzzle part of the game, you create the dungeon while also considering how best to clear the block pathways. Meanwhile, the dungeon’s exploration primarily comprises of fighting monsters and procuring items to proceed.

The game makes use of the unique above-mentioned mechanics, but the rules of the game itself are quite simple. Each stage has its own set of quests, such as: defeat 5 enemies or clear 5 lines, and finishing these quests will spawn an exit inside the dungeon, which completes the dungeon when reached. On the other hand, if the Knight’s health hits zero or the blocks pile up beyond the top of screen, then it’s a game over.

The Knight that the player controls has a health and stamina bar. For each step the Knight takes, his stamina is reduced by one. If his stamina is completely depleted, he can’t move again until another block is placed or a stamina potion is collected. Health can also be restored by collecting health potions. By defeating monsters, the Knight also gains experience points. With enough experience points, the Knight levels up, which increases his maximum health and stamina, making it easier to explore and fight even more.

On the other hand, the monsters that appear in the dungeon move two spaces whenever a new block is placed. Of course, this means that they will attack if the player is nearby. However, when moving the Knight through the dungeon, the monsters don’t move, but will still counterattack. Aside from attacking them directly, it’s also possible to get rid of monsters along with the block pathways they are on by clearing lines. Stronger enemies begin to appear the more lines that are cleared, which is also important to be aware of.

In addition to the aforementioned mechanics, the game also features several items including hammers that the Knight can use to create pathways freely and keys for opening treasures, as well as various stage and monster-related gimmicks, such as monsters that attack other monsters. Version 0.75 is currently available on itch.io, but one of the features that will be available in the retail Steam version will be the ability to customize the look of the player character.

Blocky Dungeon is planned for a Steam release this summer. Version 0.75, which is currently available on itch.io features a partial Quest Mode as well as an Endless Mode.