Designer of Minecraft: Builders & Biomes teams up with Munchkin artist to create drawing game, Doodle Dungeon
Ink-credibly evil intentions.
Put pen to paper to create an evil lair in Doodle Dungeon, a board game created by Ulrich Blum - the designer of Minecraft: Builders & Biomes - with art from Munchkin illustrator, John Kovalic.
From deadly traps to vicious monsters, being a hero delving into dungeons is unpleasant enough that it’s tempting to switch sides and become the villainous overlord instead. Doodle Dungeon enables players to experience things from the perspective of an architect and manager of the dungeon, designing the traps and placing the monsters in anticipation of an unfortunate visitor.
In a similar fashion to Boss Monster, Doodle Dungeon allows players to create their own lair with the goal of making incoming adventurers’ lives very hard. The beginner board game starts with the players taking turns to draft cards - which can contain traps, treasures and monsters - until fourteen cards have been taken. Then, players use these cards as a blueprint for their dungeons, either using the stencils provided with the game or drawing freehand, to craft the different aspects shown on their cards with a pencil and paper.
When the players have completed their dungeons, they then pass them to the person adjacent to them, who draws the route they feel a hero will take through the maze. Players then get their dungeons back and must use the tools at their disposal - the various cards they’ve drafted - in order to prevent the invading hero from killing their monsters and taking their treasure. Should the players want to interfere with their opponents, they can choose to use their drafted cards to aid the heroes making their way through the other players’ dungeons.
If the player is struggling to hold back their target hero, then they can spend gold to upgrade their traps or monsters - making them even more formidable opponents against trespassers. When all the invading heroes have either made it out of the players’ dungeons, or otherwise perished, then the players check how much health their hero has, how many monsters are left alive and how much gold is remaining. Whichever hero has the most points by the end of the game is named the winner.
Besides designing both Doodle Dungeon and Minecraft: Builders & Biomes, Blum is known for co-creating the dice-rolling game Divvy Dice and designing the wine making board game Grand Cru. Kovalic apart from illustrating for Munchkin and Doodle Dungeon, has also contributed to the art for the hidden role game Love Letter, as well as the beloved party game Cash ‘n’ Guns.
Doodle Dungeon is set to be released by German publisher Pegasus Spiele later in 2021.