The newly released spinoff-game Minecraft Dungeons adapted the sandbox world of Minecraft to the dungeon-crawling RPG genre. To maintain player interest across the entire span of their new game, developer at Mojang introduced several new gameplay and design principles to minimize frustration with the grinding and looting reward cycle of their game. Some of these mechanics are more effective than others, but on the whole, Minecraft Dungeons does a solid job of keeping its players excited about what's coming next.
The sandbox game Minecraft is entertaining for the same reason buckets of Legos are fun: block-based construction gameplay lets players build nearly anything their minds can imagine. Players logging into a Minecraft server can build mighty castles, mine shafts that lead to the center of the earth, detailed monuments, and even raise virtual libraries with shelves of uncensored text that people in authoritarian countries can access for free, just as Reporters Without Borders did.
The plot of Minecraft Dungeons – exploring dungeons to defeat the evil Arch-Illager – facilitates a Roguelike co-op experience similar to the Diablo franchise, where teams of up to four players descend a multi-layered dungeon, fighting off iconic Minecraft creatures like Zombies, Creepers, and Endermen while looting weapons and items with various spectacular enchantments. Dungeon-crawling RPGs like these are famed for having high-replay value, but also sometimes criticized for being overly repetitive. How, then, does Minecraft Dungeons retain the positive aspects of dungeon-crawling while avoiding its more negative connotations?
Minecraft Dungeons Encourages Players To Experiment
Unlike the original Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons isn't a sandbox game, but a dungeon crawler where players defeat monsters, gain loot, and craft unique character builds. To reward player creativity as they do in Minecraft, the developers of Minecraft Dungeons introduced mechanics that encourage players to make "OP" character builds in Minecraft Dungeons through equipment customization and experimentation. In place of character classes like warriors or wizards, players change roles by changing the armor, weapons, and artifacts in their main inventory slots. Certain weapons and enchantments have good synergy, and the right combination of items lets players perfectly counter the abilities of certain enemies.
Minecraft Dungeons Gives Dungeon Levels Unique Themes
Like vanilla Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeon's levels are both scripted and procedurally generated. Areas vital to the story retain the same architecture, enemies, loot, and NPCs, while the remaining levels are procedurally generated, containing different passageways, enemies, and types of gear to loot. The danger of procedural generation is that certain levels can start to look the same after a while. Past the first few unremarkable levels, Minecraft Dungeons introduces more variety into their various Dungeon floors, with themes like desert and forest, and the addition of gameplay relevant map features like jump pads or switches that trigger traps and laser beams.
Grinding In Minecraft Dungeons Should Never Feel Boring (Or Necessary)
Some people enjoy grinding, taking satisfaction in the process of leveling up or seeking out special equipment to perfect their character build. Other people find grinding to be personally dull, a chore they have to get done before moving on the meat of the game. In general, the release version of Minecraft Dungeons strikes a good balanced between rewarding people who choose to explore every nook and cranny while not punishing those who want to press ahead.
The random nature of loot drops in Minecraft Dungeons can sometimes lead to scenarios where one player winds up with suboptimal equipment, or the newest batch of loot makes a player's preferred playstyle out of date. To counter this tendency, the developers at Mojang deliberately kept the difficulty level of Minecraft Dungeons on the low end, keeping their game accessible to new players while letting veteran players stick with suboptimal builds they enjoy.
The development videos for Minecraft Dungeons betray the enthusiasm the programmers at Mojang have for their latest title, and how determined they were to release a polished product that rewarded creativity, player co-operation, and replay. As long as they keep steadily refining the premise of their title with patches and new content post-release, the developers of Minecraft Dungeons will have a dungeon-crawler that won't grow old anytime soon.
Source: Ars Technica