Dungeons of Dredmor Interview

If you want to hear about Gaslamp Games’ rocky start (including some frankly disturbing bits), what was the originally planned development cycle for Dungeons of Dredmor, what was cut before release and more, you’ve come to the right place as the folks at DIYGamer had a chat with Gaslamp Games’ Nicholas Vining, Daniel Jacobson, and David Bumgart that covers just those territories. Here’s a snip:

DIYGamer: So speaking of the lengthy development process, as we all know some features get cut. Was there anything that was supposed to get in Dredmor but ultimately had to be left out?

Dan: Oh god, so much

Nicholas Vining: Oh, yes. All sorts of things.

D Baumgart: Scrolls, for starters. We’ll have to put those back in at some point.

Dan: Good thing, we may have been sued.

Nicholas Vining: Our scrolls are more elderly than your scrolls. Although, apparently, Mojang got an indictment, so now they can sue us!

Dan: The dungeon was [also] actually initially slated to be 20 levels

Nicholas Vining: And there were branches. And cannon-traps.

Dan: We realized through testing that it was. just too long.

D Baumgart: There was talk of factions. Not sure how serious that talk was.

Dan: We were stretching our content too far.

Nicholas Vining: Yeah, pretty much.

D Baumgart: A few skills got the cut Veganism, Demonologist, Animal Hunter.

Nicholas Vining: Potions were done, and re-done again, and then re-done one more time. We’ve had a few different systems for some things.

D Baumgart: We actually cut all 6 original magic schools and replaced them with the current 8 in the month or two before beta.

Nicholas Vining: Because, you know, we’re crazy.

Dan: There was also a whole mess of iteration on the UI.

D Baumgart: Oh god, the UI.

Dan: The original interface was actually a Sierra style with an eyeball cursor.

Nicholas Vining: Well, it was an evolution.

D Baumgart: The player portrait in the bottom was in, then out, then back in.

…

Nicholas Vining: Note the programmer-drawn Mushroom. And whatever the heck is going on there on the bottom. Actually, I drew the potion too.

D Baumgart: When I came on, I basically redid all the art aside from the hero and monster sprites.