Dungeon Souls is one a growing number of games that either accidentally or purposefully allude to FromSoftware’s Souls series with its titles. Other culprits include Titan Souls and Twin Souls, the former of which is no accident, while the latter is coincidental.
But Dungeon Souls shouldn’t be perceived in negative light due to its name. It’s an exciting and challenging action-roguelike and it certainly doesn’t need a Souls comparison to be worthy of interest.
Siliconera caught up with the game’s creator Mike Studios to talk about the title, but also discuss what makes a good action-roguelike game, and how Dungeon Souls is getting on in Steam Early Access.
First off, it has to be asked, did you mean to allude to FromSoftware’s Souls series with the title? What was the thinking behind the title Dungeon Souls?
Mike Studios: Prior to naming the game to Dungeon Souls, I consulted April Poland, Dungeon Souls’ Executive Producer and Mike Studios Co-Founder/Project Manager to discuss about what name will fit for the game. At first, we were choosing between two titles: "Dungeon Heroes" or "Dungeon Souls." However, we found the word “Heroes” as too obvious. We wanted to add a mysterious element into the game so we named it Dungeon Souls. In the beginning, we did not like the game to have an impression that it will be just about fallen heroes in the dungeon. We wanted to add cognitive challenges for the gamers and by adding sensibility (pertaining to the player’s choice of character and tactics) about the game.
After several meetings and brainstorming (regarding the plot, characters, and levels), we were convinced that Dungeon Souls was the most fitting title. We really did not think of how the title will make an appeal. We were just focused on the design, plot, levels, and characters with their specific abilities and personalities. During our regular meetings, we made sure that we always come up with new ideas to add into the game which we have taken more seriously to dig in more into the deeper side of the game story. This why we added the word “Souls” so that it will not be perceived to be a cliché.
Why did you decide to use procedural generation instead of, say, hand-making each dungeon?
I decided to design a procedural generated dungeon because it adds more flexibility compared to static level designs. Procedural generated dungeon offers more opportunities to add more levels and make the game less boring. One good thing about procedural generation is its randomness where the game can be easily balanced and to managed. 
Could you theorize as to what makes a good action-based roguelike game? And how does Dungeon Souls’s design fit into that?
There are three things that I consider important that makes a good action-based roguelike game. First, is the aesthetics of the game, which I have been very passionate about—pixel art designs. Me and April would spend hours discussing all elements to add into the game and researching its relevance to the story. Each character, level, item, and everything in the game has been thoroughly researched and designed in order take the pixel artwork into a different level. I made sure that the designs are realistic in such a way that it becomes attractive. I also want to show more the details to make it playable and readable for the gamers as during playthrough gamers should feel the ease and have fun.
Another factor is the game story/plot, by allowing players to choose their preferred characters with unique abilities and personalities against enemies. In order to add excitement, I have thought of designing cool items, enable players to collect a lot of loots, and learn new strategies. In conjunction to this, we added cognitive challenges into the game by creating a game story aligned to the mystifying elements of the game that will unlock characters, reveal secret levels, expose unique items, and the unknown final level to add more suspense into the game. Then making levels procedurally generated is also important because it allows player to feel that they have to discover a new level.
You say that some parts of Dungeon Souls are inspired by Nuclear Throne, Risk of Rain, Overture, BitVenture, and Shoot First. Could you be more specific – which parts?
As a big fan of the aforementioned games, Dungeon Souls’ art style was inspired by Nuclear Throne while the loot and items came from Risk of Rain. I was also enthused by the fun factor of Overture and Bitventure. Also, the rolling boulders were from Shootfirst and the Redeemer was from Spelunky.
Could you explain the differences between the six playable characters? Are they intended to offer different playstyles and, if so, how?
Each character has different abilities and playstyle. For example, if you chose the barbarian, you will need to be close enough to hit the enemies. The downside is that it can be risky for the barbarian when there are a lot of enemies. The Archer is a range class; she can hit enemies from a distance. What this means is that you do not have to get too close to the enemies. If you were able to use her other abilities, you can hit enemies all at once.
However, she has a small amount of health compared to the barbarian which makes it too dangerous when you are surrounded by enemies–you should really keep your distance, to be safe. Among the characters, the thief was the fastest and also a mid-range class. She can turn invisible to escape from hordes of enemies. The disadvantage is that she has less amount of health compared to the archer which makes her vulnerable to enemies. The warrior is a lot similar to the barbarian, but has a greater defense and can clear out rooms so easily.
How are you finding the Early Access process so far? How is it getting feedback from players? Have you made any significant changes due to feedback and, if yes, what were they?
At first, we didn’t really know how the community will like the game, but we are truly pleased on how it turned out. Our team has spent so much time in order to bring a fun and exciting game. As we value the community’s participation, we made sure that we incorporate as much as we can by listening to their suggestions and by taking their comments with consideration. After getting a very positive feedback on Steam and also from the press, we have felt even more motivated. For this reason, we realized that having an open environment allowed us to easily reach out to the community as well as to take constructive criticisms from notable critics. 
In fact, there have been a lot changes made since our release and there is an overwhelming support from the community that we are thankful for. This is why we have taken the time to pay attention to them. One very significant feedback was that to retain the elements that made Dungeon Souls different from other games, not to be afraid to take challenges (such as the elements added from the games mentioned as inspirations) and most importantly to consider community’s/critics’ perspectives as baseline to continuously improve the game. Hence, the results of our previous and future updates are from the contributions of the community as well as our team effort.
How do you plan on incorporating multiplayer in Dungeon Souls?
Honestly, this is another challenge for our team to incorporate the multiplayer feature because we have to think of cross-platforms/multi-platforms. As much as we wanted to advance our development while we are on Early Access, we still have a lot of updating to do and the multiplayer feature will be implemented for the full version and that will take a while for us to fully implement it.
Do you have any other plans besides adding more items, traps, characters, and enemies for when you expand upon Dungeon Souls? Different dungeon types of game modes, for example?
Yes, definitely. While the final level has not been done yet, there are still more characters, enemies, and items to be added. These vary on how the game story will end so everything will adjust as soon there is a new feature added. The community is also very active so we may also incorporate their suggestions if need be (especially when an issue/bug has been found). 
What’s your current launch projections for Dungeon Souls – when will it be out? Do you think it’d be possible to bring it to any other platforms at some point?
The full version will take a while, but we are aiming to advance the game development to get off Early Access. What this means is that we wanted to resolve issues/bugs as much we can so that we can move on to the next phase of the development. In terms of OS platforms, recently we have just uploaded an update making it available for Linux users. We are working now on making it available for Mac users and other platforms as well.
