PAX East is always a one-of-a-kind event, granting those who go the chance to see the latest indie games being released or being worked on. As some of you reading may remember, Kitfox Games recently had a Kickstarter for the game Boyfriend Dungeon. I first learned about the work being done on the game during PAX East 2018 from Victoria Tran who happens to be the Community Manager of Kitfox Games. While at the time only a teasing trailer had been released, I was very excited to learn and hear more about Boyfriend Dungeon; I enjoy dungeon crawlers and this title looks to be a new take on the genre.
While the Kickstarter itself was successful, raising $203,970 out of a $49,126 goal, it’s easy to see that the team was ready to show off more of the game at this year’s PAX East, rather than b-roll footage like last year. During the event, I got to sit down and play a bit of Boyfriend Dungeon to see how the game plays and how it compares to other dungeon crawling adventures. From my hands-on demo, the game feels quite simple and only featured a small fraction of the full game. Even so, a lot can change as it’s still a work in progress.
To kick off the demo, I was given the option to pick my pronouns (He/Him, She/Her, They/Them). I think this is a great design choice as the game presents the player character with an identity they can relate to or role play with.
The main concepts at work in Boyfriend Dungeon has players exploring a city and in-game dungeons which could range from a mall and possibly other locations that have yet to be shown or announced.
During your adventure, you’ll find weapons and unlock their persona, which is a human form of a weapon as you’ve seen in the trailer featured above. An example being you find a blade during your exploration of a dungeon. This weapon in-game happens to be a very energetic and straight forward character that you can now start texting, spending time with to help you and its stats. When you get into the selection of a dungeon you’ll get to spend time with your weapon to increase levels, get new items and to have them like you more.
I did ask for information on how big the maps and dungeons will be, but at this time the work being done on the game is quite early. Even so, the build being shown off shows that we’ll be seeing tons more leading up to its full release. The art style of the game is really gorgeous and has me looking forward to the new areas, the characters we’ll be meeting and the enemies we’ll be meeting. The controls to the game are quite straight forward, as you’ll need to just worry about moving over the rooms and not being hit by the enemies in the current dungeon. As you progress further into the dungeon you’ll see items heal yourself and helping you on your way. In the demo, it did seem like the dungeons went on for a while and felt like it was endless. While this might not be something in the final game, it wouldn’t be bad to have endless dungeons as a game event to get better training and increase your relationships in-game.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed Boyfriend Dungeon as a game. Its release date hasn’t been set just yet so, for the time being, we’ll need to wait for Kitfox Games to release more information as well as future trailers and gameplay. On top of this, Marooners’ Rock awarded Boyfriend Dungeon a Writers Choice award. Keep an eye on Marooners’ Rock for more PAX East 2019 coverage.
