This article is one wall of ass kissing text, be prepared. Dungeon of the Endless and why I consider it one of the best games ever made. It’s addicting and fun, but why? What is the underlying structure that makes it such a masterpiece? This article will focus more on the game’s design than execution, because I consider game design and fundamental structure of a game a lot more important than the polish, content and features. You can always renovate a derelict house built on strong foundations, but even the most beautiful mansion will subside if built on muddy grounds. Some of my favourites in terms of game design are Braid, To the Moon, Spelunky, Starseed Pilgrim and Portal.



The main three things Dungeon of the Endless gets right:



- Pacing



- Risk versus Reward



- Emergent complexity



Let’s talk about pacing and why it is important. The human mind craves variety and has limited concentration. This is why action movies do not consist of 93 minutes of car chases and shooting. Every action sequence is followed by a buildup of tension until it explodes into action again. Games can do this in different ways. RPG’s typically have dungeons interspersed with towns in which you catch your breath and prepare for the next travel. Shooters (Call of Duty excluded), have that satisfying sound of silence to signify the end of battle after which you explore until the next shootout.



Dungeon of the Endless is a three course meal consisting of the planning phase, the defense phase and the crystal phase. In the planning phase there is time to breathe. We can spend minutes theory crafting about which door to open, where to position your hero’s and which modules to build. This contrasts with the defense phase, which starts after we open a door and waves of enemies begin to spawn. It is possible to pause and think, but every action has to be perfectly timed and combined with the others. We move around our heroes to make sure all survive while defending our modules and crystal. The crystal phase is a third phase, the run for your money when you decide that every next door opened will cost you more than you gain. These three phases work because of the reasons mentioned earlier: variety, time to relax and dramatic buildup.



The next group of things Dungeon does right is the risk-versus-reward mechanics. These are evident in multiple choices: exploring versus diving, operating versus moving and saving versus spending. Exploring more rooms will grant you more resources, but at every door we have to ask ourselves a question. Will holding of waves of enemies cost us too much food to heal our heroes, science to reset their cooldowns and industry to replace our modules? If this is true, it is surely better to go deeper. Operators pose a second risk-versus-reward mechanic. Keeping them stationary gains you more resources, but moving them around might provide better defensive capabilities. The third dilemma is spending your resources versus saving them for the next levels. All invested industry is, like dust, effectively lost when you move to the next level. Thus we must consider… Do we hold out more rounds and thus gain more resources if we build more modules? Or do we save and start on the next floor with a head start? This mechanic is ingrained in the game on so many levels. Building more expensive versus basic modules, building resource gathering versus defensive mains. The generator adds another layer of depth here.



The third aspect Dungeon of the Endless excels in is emergent complexity. There is so much depth to this game, it’s unbelievable. What module to research? What hero to hire? What hero to level? Which resources to expend? Do we rather lose modules, heal our heroes or invest science to reset cooldowns? Do we fight with Joleri, losing dust in the process? Do we buy these items or do we save? Furthermore, did you know the following are legit strategies? changing items on heroes mid fight to change their stats, buying all items from the dust merchant while another hero is carrying the crystal because power is not of importance anymore or juggling heroes in and out of a room to make the monsters walk around aimlessly. Okay, so the possibilities are… Endless. Why is it emergent though? Because we have to wrap your own mind around the game to come up with new solutions. Heck, it is not even necessary to delve deep into these decisions and learn advanced strategies to have fun in this game. Settings and pod choice influence difficulty so much that you can easily be effective while thinking about nothing of the above.



All in all, it is exquisite that a game nails all these points in game design. I do not know how to write a conclusion so this article just ends he…



TLDR; Be a smart man and at least read the legit strats.