While Searching for a new Home

11. 29. 2022

Minecraft Dungeons, a dungeon crawler videogame, was developed by Mojang Studios & Double Eleven and published in the UK by Xbox Game Studios. It is a spin-off from the sandbox videogame Minecraft. It was released on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in May 2020 and Xbox Series X/S by Xbox Game Studios in February 2021. Raw Thrills also made an arcade version of it.

Minecraft Dungeons received mixed reactions. Most critics found the game charming and fun, while most praise its visuals and music. The game's simple gameplay and procedural generation were criticized for their lack of depth and short story.

The opening scene tells the story about an Illager named Archie who was driven from his village by his people. He was searching for a new home and was forced to leave every village that he found. Villagers wouldn't allow him to live with them. Archie came across the powerful artifact called the "Orb of Dominance", that gave him magic powers but also corrupted his mind. He was now known as the Arch-Illager and sought revenge on all those who had wronged him. He subjugated many villages with his newly acquired army. The Arch-Illager is a villain who seeks to destroy the heroes and their allies. Players take on the role of heroes, fighting monsters and liberating villages. The players eventually confront the Arch-Illager at his castle and destroy the Orb of Dominance. This frees Archie from its control. Instead of punishing Archie for his actions the players show kindness and forgiveness and quickly become friends with him. The Orb is seen rebuilding itself as the players and Archie leave. The Orb is found by an Enderman, who takes the orb and enters the End. The final scene of the cutscene shows a mutant Enderman climbing out from the portal. After defeating Archie, players unlock new challenges that increase the difficulty and offer better rewards.

Downloadable content

Jungle Awakens takes players to a jungle that has been corrupted and turned into violent monsters by the Orb of Dominance. The expansion ends with the players facing the "Jungle Abomination", a boss before they destroy the Orb shard to free the jungle from its corruption.

Creeping Winter changes the location to an island in eternal winter. The final boss is the "Wretched Wraith", but it's the same premise.

Howling Peaks is the location of the windswept peaks of a mountain. The final boss is the "Tempest Golem". Flames of the Nether is the only expansion that does not have any story elements.
Hidden Depths is back to the original premise and takes players to the murky bottom in an Orb shard-infested ocean. The "Ancient Guardian" is the final boss.
Echoing Void concludes the Orb of Dominance storyline. It sees players travel to the End to destroy all shards, face various monsters, and finally meet the "Vengeful Heart of Ender", the final boss.

Development

Mojang began to think about other games that could be added to the Minecraft universe, after the success of Minecraft. The original idea for the game was to be a single-player dungeon crawler game, inspired by The Legend of Zelda series for the Nintendo 3DS. These elements were altered or removed as the game developed. The development team discovered that multiplayer features made the game more enjoyable after they added them. Mans Olsen, game director, said that the game was inspired both by Torchlight and Diablo, as well co-operative first person shooter games such as Warhammer: End Times: Vermintide, and Left 4 Dead.

The main challenge for the development team was adapting the gameplay of dungeon crawlers like Diablo into Minecraft. Mojang had no special abilities for Minecraft characters so they had to come up with alternatives to the character classes that are usually found in those games. Mojang decided to create weapons and armor that could be enhanced by enchantments. This would allow the player to express their creativity through customization.

Mojang also wanted to make traditional dungeon crawl games more accessible. Olsen noted that while other games in the genre are approachable to a certain degree, they are often games with very deep, interconnected system. They wanted to make it "super easy" to get into Minecraft Dungeons and "instantly familiar". To focus on the core experience of dungeon-crawling, the team decided not to allow crafting or building. The team created options to increase the difficulty of the game, which would reward more experienced players with better equipment and secret content for playing on more difficult difficulties.

Minecraft Dungeons were first announced at the Minecon live streaming event on September 28, 2018. E3 2019 saw the release of a video showing gameplay.

Release

The game was released with several DLC (downloadable content) expansion packs. Each pack added new dungeons and weapons, artifacts, and items. Jungle Awakens was the first expansion. It was released July 1, 2020. It was followed by Creeping winter on September 8, 2020, Howling peak on December 9, 2020 and Flames of the Nether (February 24, 2021), Hidden Depths (May 26, 2021), Echoing Void (July 28, 2021). Along with the Flames of the Nether update, an Xbox Series X/S optimized version was released. Minecraft Dungeons: Echoing Void released on July 28, 2021. Minecraft Dungeons Ultimate Edition was released that day with all 6 DLCs as well as access to all Hero Pass cosmetics.

Mojang unveiled an arcade version of the game in March 2021 that was associated with collectible cards. It was officially licensed by Mojang and Microsoft and was created jointly by Play Mechanix, an entertainment company Raw Thrills, and developer Play Mechanix. The gameplay was transformed into a beat-em up format similar to Golden Axe. It was first seen at Dave & Buster's restaurants in May 2022.