We’re working on a review for Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy, so I got in touch with Nomad Games to talk a bit about the game’s development. Come check it out!
PS4Blog: Good morning! Thank you for joining us today. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers by telling them a bit about yourself and your work?
Good morning! No problem at all. My name is Carl Jackson, and I’m the Design Director at Nomad Games, which means I get to work on fantastic games with fantastic people all day! At Nomad Games, we pride ourselves on creating great experiences that people are used to having on a tabletop, but on digital formats. Playing tabletop games is great, but you cannot always get your friends together for a game, or might not have the tablespace, so we allow players to take their favorite games on the go with them or even play them online against people from all over the world!
PS4B: Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy is ready to go on Nintendo Switch. How would you describe this release to someone who’s never heard about it?
The Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were first published in the 1980s by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, co-founders of Games Workshop. These books have sold millions in the decades since the first one was released and are still seeing new releases even now. The gamebooks pit YOU as the hero, challenging you with difficult decisions and dangerous combat as you embark on epic quests across many varied fantasy worlds. One of the most famous and notorious Fighting Fantasy gamebooks is Deathtrap Dungeon. Set in the world of Allansia, Deathtrap Dungeon sees you attempt to navigate the most devious traps and riddles ever devised in a race to the dungeon’s exit against five other challengers. Only one will emerge victoriously and claim the prize!
The book was a huge success, and the setting was used again later in two further books – Trial of Champions and Armies of Death.
Our game, Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy, recreates the experiences of these three books and gives players a whole new way to play through the amazing stories. Difficult decisions await in these branching narrative adventures. The books are famous for being very challenging, but we’ve given players a better chance in our game by introducing Rogue-like elements, meaning that when you die, you keep hold of any experience and items you’ve gained, and go back to the dungeon entrance to try again. You will learn the best paths through the dungeon as you die and try again, getting further each time by using what you’ve learned.
As well as playing through the main stories, you will also have a Creature Codex to complete, plus many Player Titles to unlock as well as a murder-mystery to solve!
PS4B: How long did it take to develop the Nintendo Switch version of this collection? Where there any particular hurdles or challenges you had to overcome?
It has taken several months for us to make this game for the Nintendo Switch, and it has been a great console to develop for. Getting the control scheme feeling right was the biggest challenge we faced as we want players to be able to experience Fighting Fantasy on the big screen as well as via handheld mode using the touchscreen. A huge challenge for our testers was to make sure that all paths the players could choose to take were working correctly, as there are literally thousands of choices and options available, so no two playthroughs are ever the same.
PS4B: Any plans to bring other Fighting Fantasy books into the digital video game realm?
We do have more books up our sleeves, so it’s certainly an exciting possibility to get more Fighting Fantasy gamebooks onto the Nintendo Switch. Hopefully people will love this game as much as we’ve loved creating it!
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have today. Would you like to add anything else before we go?
Keep your eyes peeled for more of our games on the Nintendo Switch very soon – Mystic Vale and Talisman: Digital Edition!
