Dungeon Keeper

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Dungeon Keeper

Developer(s)	Bullfrog Productions
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Release date(s)	July, 1997
Genre	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M)
Platform(s)	PC

Dungeon Keeper is a PC strategy game released by Bullfrog Productions in July 1997. The game puts the player into the role of the "dungeon keeper": instead of valiantly storming a dungeon like a hero, killing monsters and taking the treasures, the player builds the dungeons, recruits the monsters, sets the traps, and fends off the (computer-controlled) heroes that regularly attempt to come in.

Contents

1 Interface

2 Concepts

3 Bestiary

4 Multiplayer features

5 Followons

6 External link

Interface

The game interface is reminiscient of normal real-time strategy games: using your mouse, which is represented in-game as a hand, you can interact with a bar on the left-hand side of the screen, which allows you to select which buildings to build and which spells to cast. Rather uniquely, you can use the hand to pick up creatures and objects in your dungeons and carry them around, which allows for tactics such as gathering an assault force in your hand and dropping off everyone as soon as you have established a beachhead at the place of attack.

The other feature of the hand is to allow you to slap things: creatures will hurry up when slapped, chickens in your Hatchery will splat very satisfyingly and traps will be triggered. If you are of the opinion that the prisoner in your Torture Chamber isn't being appropriately treated, just hit him a couple of times yourself.

The map is divided into (mostly invisible) rectangles: an arbitrary amount of numbers of monsters can be on any rectangle, but only one trap, part of a room or similar. A smaller part of the map is shown as a minimap in the top left corner of the screen.

The level selection screen [1] (http://www.maximumwall.com/gsm_jeux_1/data/71/11dungeon_keeper_105.jpg) also shows the programmers' love of detail: at the beginning of the game, you face a fictional, idyllic country, divided into roughly 30 regions. As you progress through these regions (each of which represents a level), the areas you have conquered will look ransacked, twisted and evil. On completing the game, the whole map will look like the country had been moved from Earth to Hell.

Concepts

You begin each level with your Dungeon Heart, which represents your own life. If it gets destroyed, you lose the level. Along with your heart, you are given a couple of imps, which are your generic work force for all dungeon activities: they can dig tunnels into the surrounding soil, capture enemy rooms and Portals, mine gold and gems, set traps, and even attack when desperate (for example if the Dungeon Heart is under attack). And if you think they're not working hurriedly enough, you give them a slap and they're eager to continue.

You then need to set up a basic infrastructure: Lairs for your monsters, a Hatchery, where chickens, which serve as food for the minions, are bred, and a Treasury where you can store the gold the imps mine. After connecting your dungeon to a "Portal", monsters will arrive. The types of monster that will arrive depends on the rooms uou have, and how large they are, for example the Bile Demon requires both a Lair and a Hatchery of at least 25 units. As the game progresses, you are allowed to build further rooms, such as:

The Library, wherein your creatures (most often Warlocks) can conduct research in order to gain you better spells, traps and doors.
The Workshop, which allows your creatures (usually Orcs and Bile Demons) to produce traps and doors.
The Temple, which allows you to sacrifice creatures to the Dark Gods; the combination of sacrifices determines the results, some will be positive, others negative.
The Training Room, which your creatures go to (or can be forced into) in order to gain experience, which makes them stronger and sometimes grants new spells to be used in combat.
The Torture Chamber, the favoured room of the Dark Mistress, and also a place in which you can attempt to convert captured enemy prisoners.
The Graveyard. Your imps will drag corpses to this room, where they will decompose, and once enough bodies have done this, a Vampire will rise and join your fighting force.
The Prison, where enemy creatures will be taken when rendered unconcious in combat, from where you can decide what to do with them.

An interesting detail of the game is that some creatures in your own dungeon do not get along well with each other: you will often see Flies and Spiders fighting, or a Horned Reaper randomly attacking any creatures in its path. Of course, the game features an overall acceptable amount of micro-management; it does not require you to care for the sanitary needs of your minions, for example.

The goals on a level are pretty straightforward: they will generally be along the lines of eliminating the heroic force, or destroying all other Dungeon Keepers on the level.

Bestiary

Of course, a game like Dungeon Keeper needs its creatures. Here are the creatures one can see in the game:

Beetle: This creature will be one of the first inhabitants of your dungeon, as a consequence is weak and easily defeated.
Bile Demon: A legless fat creature that uses his flatulence and flails attached to his horns to attack enemy forces.
Dark Mistress: These beings give a new definition to the term iron maiden. They are dressed like women from the S&M scene and take an extreme delight in attacking their enemies and subsequently torturing them in the torture chambers, and indeed will while away spare time using the services of the room on themselves.
Demon Spawn: The closest the game has to a basic fighting creature. One of the first monsters that you will see, and given enough training will evolve into a Dragon (on some of the single player levels this transformation is disabled).
Dragon: A strong monster with researching capabilities, and with training a wide array of spells.
Fly: This natural enemy of the Spider will automatically scout any available area.
Ghost: When a victim is killed in the torture chamber, they will rise from the dead as this creature.
Hellhound: A lava-resistant two-headed dog that will wander around your dungeon searching for enemies, in a similar way to the Flies.
Horned Reaper (Horny): The strongest monster there is. The Horned Reaper is a demon wielding a very large scythe and has definate anger management issues; he will pick fights with friend and foe alike.
Imp: Unsalaried minions who take no breaks, working ceaselessly to carve out your dungeon and keep it working.
Orc: Average fighter with guarding capabilities.
Skeleton: When a prisoner dies they rise as a skeleton. These creatures will automatically pick fights with Bile Demons.
Spider: Arachnid creature with good fighting skills that dislikes Flies.
Tentacle: This creature likes water around your dungeon.
Troll: At his best in your workshop creating traps and doors, and only mediocre in combat.
Vampire: Powerful creature that gains immortality; every time it dies it comes back to life in its lair having lost 2 levels. If it is level 1 or 2 when it dies the death is permanent. Is proficient with both spells and close combat. Does not like Warlocks.
Warlock: The archetypical spell casting humans with evil intentions. These men research new spells for you and are also devastating spell-casters, extremely useful in battle when backed up by close quater creatures. They do not like Vampires.

Multiplayer features

Dungeon Keeper was a game of the fairly young generations of multiplayer games: it does have basic networking capabilities, but is, in comparison to current strategy games, very limited with its options:

It does not feature any kind of multiplayer network mode that can be played over the Internet.

Followons

The Deeper Dungeons is an expansion pack that was released in November 1997. It features about 30 new levels and an improved artificial intelligence for the enemies.

Dungeon Keeper 2 is a sequel released in June 1999. It featured an entirely new game engine that natively supported hardware acceleration, Dungeon Keeper (the original) supported Direct3D via an alternative executable, but not out of the box. DK2 also used fully 3D models for the creatures and enemies, rather than sprites.

Evil Genius is similar to the Dungeon Keeper series.