Paper Dungeons

About

Paper Dungeons is a single player role playing game. It was developed by Leslie Valverde and was released on April 20, 2015. It received negative reviews from players.

Paper Dungeons is a fantasy board-game boosted by online content. With the ability to create and share online your own levels, you are up for an infinite replay value! The game is visualized as a classic tabletop board-game with dice and tokens. You can destroy walls and auto-heal as you uncover new dungeon tiles, which widens your choice of moves.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

+18

Skip User Reviews

39%

Audience ScoreBased on 59 reviews

gameplay7 positive mentions

grinding4 negative mentions

The game features a unique gameplay style that combines dungeon crawling with dice mechanics, providing a fun and engaging experience.
There are multiple game modes, including Adventure, Puzzle, and Rogue, which add variety and replayability to the gameplay.
The art style is charming and quaint, contributing to the overall aesthetic appeal of the game.

The game suffers from numerous bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay and lead to frustrating experiences.
Progression is reset with each dungeon, which removes the sense of character development and makes the gameplay feel repetitive and shallow.
The adaptation from mobile to PC is poorly executed, resulting in a clunky interface and lack of essential features expected in PC games.

gameplay
39 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
69%
13%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it tedious and repetitive, primarily revolving around simplistic mechanics and RNG-dominated dice rolling. While some appreciate the addictive nature of the rogue-like elements and the unique magic wall mechanic, others criticize the lack of depth and meaningful interactions, leading to a frustrating experience marred by bugs and quality of life issues. Overall, the game struggles to engage players beyond its basic mechanics, making it feel like a shallow board game conversion rather than a compelling video game.
- “The gameplay is addicting and that helps me overcome the irritation of the bugs.”
- “A unique gameplay style that is very fun.”
- “The one interesting mechanic of the game is the magic walls which make up most of the walls in the game; you can crash through them for a health or mana penalty, which allows you to carve your own path through the floor and find secret areas.”
- “Tedious gameplay to be honest.”
- “But the gameplay is such that you are for all intents and purposes playing the same level over and over.”
- “The gameplay between the three available modes of play quickly become repetitive and boring.”
graphics
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
62%
19%
The graphics of the game have been widely criticized for their simplistic and low-quality 2D vector art, which fails to impress on both mobile and PC platforms. While some users appreciate the cute and cartoony style, many feel that the visuals lack depth and sophistication, making the overall aesthetic feel underwhelming, especially for a PC game. Additionally, technical issues and bugs further detract from the visual experience, leaving players disappointed.
- “This game has a unique art style that is very quaint.”
- “Graphics are cute and cartoony.”
- “I find the graphics cute enough and well done enough to give this game a unique personality.”
- “While there are options to change the resolution for the mobile app, all this does is scale up the simplistic low-quality vector art assets used to make the mobile app, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
- “The mobile app features simple, cartoony 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low-effort mobile apps.”
- “Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing.”
story
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
60%
20%
The game's story is largely considered minimal and clichéd, with many players noting a lack of memorable characters or overarching plot, primarily focusing on gameplay rather than narrative depth. While there are various modes and stages, including a rogue campaign and adventure levels, the humor and story elements are often described as superficial and filled with inside jokes, making it less appealing for those seeking a rich narrative experience. Overall, the game prioritizes gameplay mechanics over storytelling, which may disappoint story-driven players.
- “It has some good sides, like the music running in the back, which is mostly more atmospheric stuff - or the nice hand-drawn sketches in the story.”
- “There's the main adventure mode with the story (called board game), but also a puzzle mode and endless.”
- “It brings back the same feeling I had playing the Hero Quest board game as a kid.”
- “The story isn't something you want to relate to... superficial funny, but no real humor.”
- “The game is story-wise more a jumble of clichés, mostly funny stuff and inside jokes of hardcore RPGs.”
- “Game doesn't really have a story or characters.”
music
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The music in the game is generally described as atmospheric but often repetitive and unremarkable, with some players noting it fades into the background during gameplay. While the soundtrack may not stand out, it complements the game's artistic style, particularly during boss levels where new music enhances the experience. Overall, the music is decent but lacks significant impact.
- “Boss levels in adventure dungeons change up the nature of your path completely with new enemies and a new soundtrack.”
- “With lovable artistry fitted to adventuring music, this game is beautiful.”
- “It has some good sides, like the music running in the back, which is mostly more atmospheric stuff.”
- “Background music is kind of blah.”
- “Sounds and music are incredibly repetitive.”
- “The music and sound is decent but not outstanding.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly in the early stages where it is necessary to unlock new characters and dice sets. The lack of mechanics to limit grinding encourages players to repeatedly defeat enemies, which can lead to an overpowering advantage but may detract from overall enjoyment.
- “Tedious gameplay, to be honest.”
- “It can be a bit grindy in the beginning until you unlock the next character.”
- “The game is entirely based on grinding for new dice sets.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is described as superficial and reliant on clichés, with some moments of funny bugs and inside jokes appealing primarily to hardcore RPG fans. However, the overall experience is marred by frustrating technical issues that detract from the enjoyment, leading to a lack of genuine engagement with the story.
- “The longer I played, the more bugs kept popping up, from the funny but inconsequential (characters getting duplicated, wrong graphics showing for status effects) to the frustrating (all inventory items becoming unusable until I saved and reloaded, characters 'floating' a square above the one they were supposed to be on) to the infuriating (UI not responding to any clicks at all, requiring a force quit, which reset several hours of progress in rogue mode).”
- “Don't get me wrong, the devs had some ambition in this project - but the game is story-wise more a jumble of clichés, mostly funny stuff and inside jokes of hardcore RPGs.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from frequent glitches that disrupt gameplay, leading many users to feel that its high price is unjustified given its instability.
- “Common weird glitches that prevent gameplay.”
- “Considering how buggy the game is, the asking price is very high.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of Paper Dungeons has been criticized as a cash grab by mobile developers, with the game being perceived as a shallow and simplified RPG experience aimed at casual gamers rather than offering depth akin to traditional tabletop RPGs.
- “Paper Dungeons is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it were a real PC game (it's not)... it's a cash grab from greedy mobile developers. While it looks complex and deep, like any RPG should be, it's very shallow. It's not Dungeons and Dragons, it's not Skyrim; it's dumbed down and simplified to appeal to gamers who find D&D and other pen-and-paper RPGs too complicated and just want to play Candyland but with a dungeon theme.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The atmosphere of the game is enhanced by its atmospheric music and charming hand-drawn sketches, contributing to an immersive experience.
- “The music in the background creates a deeply atmospheric experience, enhancing the overall immersion of the game.”
- “The hand-drawn sketches in the story add a unique charm and contribute significantly to the game's captivating atmosphere.”
- “The combination of ambient sounds and visual art style truly envelops you in the game's world.”