Drawngeon: Dungeons of Ink and Paper
- May 24, 2019
- DarkDes Labs
"Drawngeon: Dungeons of Ink and Paper" is a short, old-school style RPG with first-person perspective, real-time combat, and grid-based movement. Explore the procedurally generated world of Inkland, including dungeons, caves, forest, and the Mysterious Tower. Choose from three hero classes, each with unique abilities, and engage in surprising discoveries in this hand-drawn world where even items can be consumed.
Reviews
- The game features a unique hand-drawn art style that many players find appealing and charming.
- It offers a good amount of depth with multiple classes, various loot, and replayability through randomization.
- The game is considered a great value for its price, providing a fun and engaging experience despite its short length.
- Gameplay can feel repetitive and lacks sufficient guidance, leading to confusion about objectives and mechanics.
- Controls are often criticized for being clunky, especially when using a controller, which can detract from the overall experience.
- There are reports of minor bugs and balancing issues that can affect gameplay, making it feel less polished.
- gameplay30 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some players finding it repetitive, clunky, and simplistic, while others appreciate its creative elements and unique twists on classic RPG mechanics. Although the game features beautiful visuals and interesting class traits, issues with balancing and progression detract from the overall experience. Overall, while there are enjoyable aspects, many players feel the gameplay could benefit from further refinement.
“Classic RPG gameplay with a neat style.”
“In terms of gameplay and premise, you have all the conventions of modern first-person perspective dungeon crawlers with a couple of unique twists.”
“One of the true indie games, demonstrating strange, unique, and refreshing gameplay.”
“Looks beautiful, gameplay awful.”
“The gameplay is fairly clunky.”
“Gameplay is tedious, boring, clunky and simplistic.”
- graphics28 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 39 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a unique hand-drawn art style and a 3D sketchbook aesthetic that many players find appealing and charming. However, some reviews criticize the low resolution and quality of the visuals, describing them as blurry and poorly made, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite these mixed opinions, the game's creative visuals and aesthetics are often highlighted as a strong point, especially considering its low price.
“Absolutely love the aesthetics!”
“The graphic style of the game is unique and fun.”
“Obviously, I need to talk about the art style; the entire game has a 3D sketchbook aesthetic - I have seen that idea many times before, but this might be the best example of it.”
“Even though the doodle-quality graphics is what initially drew me to this title, they are actually quite poorly made and their extremely low resolution makes everything ugly and blurry.”
“Even though it's cheap, better save your money and if you want something with a similar premise and aesthetics, but done actually right, try Paper Sorcerer or Slasher's Keep.”
“Unique drawn art style, droning ambience and atmosphere.”
- story8 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as cool but notably short, with players expressing disappointment over the lack of meaningful dialogue and quests following the initial tutorial. Overall, the narrative is considered minimal and lacking depth, with little resemblance to traditional RPG systems.
“Following a single tutorial quest to kill spiders, I haven't seen another line of meaningful dialogue or quests.”
“The story is nonexistent, and there's nothing even remotely similar to an RPG system to speak of.”
“Following a single tutorial quest to kill spiders, I haven't seen another line of meaningful dialogue or quests.”
- atmosphere6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is characterized by a unique drawn art style and a moody ambiance, enhanced by digitized monster calls and the sound of lonely howling wind. Reviewers appreciate the effective sound effects that contribute to the overall immersive experience.
“Unique drawn art style, droning ambience and atmosphere.”
“Sound effects and atmosphere are nice.”
“The atmosphere is overall moody, with most of the sound effects being digitized monster calls and lonely howling wind for background sounds.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game offers solid replayability, with playthroughs lasting between 2 to 5 hours and featuring enough randomization to encourage multiple runs. Players can explore different characters and pursue achievements, enhancing the overall replay value.
“It doesn't take very long to play through (maybe 5 hours, tops), but it has enough randomization that it is very replayable.”
“It takes anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to finish without prior knowledge, but it has some replay value through different characters and achievement hunting.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as quirky and clever, with features like the "skill tree" eliciting genuine laughter. However, some elements, such as the ability to eat weapons, leave players questioning whether they are intentional jokes or mere bugs. Overall, the humor is a mixed bag, blending cleverness with ambiguity.
“It's cleverly done and kind of quirky/funny (the 'skill tree' made me laugh).”
“It's cleverly done and kind of quirky/funny (the 'skill tree' made me laugh).”
- music2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game features minimal music and sound effects, with many users noting the lack of auditory elements as a significant drawback.
“The game has no music to speak of, and you can count the sound effects on the fingers of your hands.”
“The game has no music to speak of, and you can count the sound effects on the fingers of your hands.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and boring, often describing the gameplay as clunky and overly simplistic.
“Gameplay is tedious, boring, clunky, and simplistic.”