Bloodwood Dungeon
Nimavoha Interactive · 2024 · RPG, Adventure, Interactive Fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure, Minimalist
PC
Positive83% · 12
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About Bloodwood Dungeon
Bloodwood Dungeon is a text-based adventure game. Simple, gamebook-style battle and inventory management are combined with a branching story. Atmosphere and dialog are important aspects. You will explore Bloodwood, a place of legend shunned by most. Its abandoned ruins are waiting to be explored, and its dungeons and caves are ready to reward you or swallow you up at a moment's notice.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2929130/extras/isThisGameForYou2.png
Give Bloodwood Dungeon a go if the following statements ring true when you play RPGs or adventure games:
* You like to read, as opposed to just skimming the text
* You like your fantasy to be dark, mature and gritty rather than a funhouse of goblins, elves, knights and trolls
* You put large emphasis on story, coherent world building and atmosphere
* You like an epic dungeon crawl now and then
* When you spend lots of time optimizing your stats or tinkering with your inventory, it feels like a necessary evil that you could do without
You should probably skip this game if your gaming persona is better described by this list:
* You love stats tinkering and finding optimal combos
* You love replayability and "finding all the endings"
* You have an attention span not suited to long swaths of text
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2929130/extras/gameplayMechanics2.png
The main game loop is exceedingly simple, and purposely so: the player reads what happens, and then gets to choose from a small number of actions to progress the story. Most locations can be revisited and fast travel is available through a map.
There are just four stats parameters to consider: hit points, strength, armor and fighting prowess. That's it. In addition, the protagonist keeps an amount of gold and some items, including weapons.
The fighting system is turn-based, like everything else in the game. Despite the rudimentary battle loop using RGN in the style of old gamebooks, there is sometimes room for tactics.
A started session is associated with just one save slot, meaning permadeath in theory. In practice, this is circumvented through an in-world mechanism that is akin to the bonfires of the Souls games.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2929130/extras/InspiredByGamebooks3.png
Bloodwood Dungeon is heavily inspired by the gamebooks that were so popular in the eighties. One of the most appealing features of this form of solo adventuring was the small scope: rarely did these books consist of more than 500 situations in which to choose from a small number of actions so as to further the story. The battle system and inventory management were rudimentary and designed to be mastered immediately. That way, the action could start right away.
The meticulous tinkering with inventory items and stats optimization so popular in games these days... there was rarely much of that.
And even though the interactivity was low with today's standards, the reader/player still had the illusion of agency, of having the power to affect the miniature world conjured up within the gamebook's pages.
Bloodwood Dungeon strives to recreate that feeling.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2929130/extras/isThisGameForYou2.png
Give Bloodwood Dungeon a go if the following statements ring true when you play RPGs or adventure games:
* You like to read, as opposed to just skimming the text
* You like your fantasy to be dark, mature and gritty rather than a funhouse of goblins, elves, knights and trolls
* You put large emphasis on story, coherent world building and atmosphere
* You like an epic dungeon crawl now and then
* When you spend lots of time optimizing your stats or tinkering with your inventory, it feels like a necessary evil that you could do without
You should probably skip this game if your gaming persona is better described by this list:
* You love stats tinkering and finding optimal combos
* You love replayability and "finding all the endings"
* You have an attention span not suited to long swaths of text
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2929130/extras/gameplayMechanics2.png
The main game loop is exceedingly simple, and purposely so: the player reads what happens, and then gets to choose from a small number of actions to progress the story. Most locations can be revisited and fast travel is available through a map.
There are just four stats parameters to consider: hit points, strength, armor and fighting prowess. That's it. In addition, the protagonist keeps an amount of gold and some items, including weapons.
The fighting system is turn-based, like everything else in the game. Despite the rudimentary battle loop using RGN in the style of old gamebooks, there is sometimes room for tactics.
A started session is associated with just one save slot, meaning permadeath in theory. In practice, this is circumvented through an in-world mechanism that is akin to the bonfires of the Souls games.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2929130/extras/InspiredByGamebooks3.png
Bloodwood Dungeon is heavily inspired by the gamebooks that were so popular in the eighties. One of the most appealing features of this form of solo adventuring was the small scope: rarely did these books consist of more than 500 situations in which to choose from a small number of actions so as to further the story. The battle system and inventory management were rudimentary and designed to be mastered immediately. That way, the action could start right away.
The meticulous tinkering with inventory items and stats optimization so popular in games these days... there was rarely much of that.
And even though the interactivity was low with today's standards, the reader/player still had the illusion of agency, of having the power to affect the miniature world conjured up within the gamebook's pages.
Bloodwood Dungeon strives to recreate that feeling.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
If I could pick a "mixed" rating for this game, I would. Some of its glaring issues might be too much for certain players, especially those unfamiliar with old-school text-based RPGs. The writing is decent for the most part - simple and to the point, but not overly expository, so it rarely overstays its welcome. There is some world-building, though it never goes very far or becomes particularly engaging on its own. What keeps you interested is more about what isn't being said - the mystery of it all - rather than the details presented outright. That intrigue is just enough to keep you going through the game's short ~2-hour runtime. Most quests boil down to thinly disguised fetch quests, with only one correct way to complete them. The music starts off fitting and atmospheric but quickly grows stale due to its simplicity and lack of variety. I don’t have strong feelings about the AI-generated images. While the style suits the game's tone, many of them are difficult to appreciate. Character portraits are serviceable, but the scenery images are uninspired at best and distracting at worst, sometimes pulling me out of the experience rather than enhancing immersion. The U…3 found this helpful
A classic CYOA experience that provides a simple story set in a vague, yet promising, setting. Combat is unfortunately boring and often bogs down to pure RNG when there are no options to gain or lose tactical advantage. There were a couple of instances where your choices in a fight actually mattered, and I wish that mechanic was expended upon. Also, AI was used, which truly sways my review in the negative direction, but the developer seems to care and is working on making the game wholly AI-free, and that by itself is a great plus. Combined with the great atmosphere and the feeling of enjoying a digital gamebook, I would recommend giving "Bloodwood Dungeon" a try.2 found this helpful
I love a good indie, but this was a letdown :( Looking past it's unfortunate reliance on Gen AI art (which, admirably, the dev appears to be in the process of patching out), the gameplay here is sadly pretty shallow. One would expect a game styling itself after RPGs and CYOAs to have at least a few choices with some weight to them; Bloodwood has, by my count, one. An early game encounter with a sick goblin was the only time i was offered a choice with distinct outcomes that had any impact on my story or the game-world. Additionally the combat is entirely RNG based, and since there are no equipment choices beyond "bad sword, slight better sword, good sword" the inclusion of combat seems to be a decision made entirely to pad the runtime. Without it, most players would breeze through this in under a half hour. If you're looking for a version of this concept done exceptionally well I'd highly recommend Moral Anxiety's game Roadwarden.1 found this helpful
I don't usually leave reviews for games I've played; I should change that, but I wanted to leave a review for this one. It's a good game if you've been looking for a CYOA like the old adventure books. It's nice to have something like that digitally, and I had a fun few hours playing through this game, figuring out, and enjoying the story. A few typos here and there, but nothing that took me out of the story. It's got a great ambiance and sense of place. The reason I wanted to leave a review is that I'm actually really appreciative that the developer changed their mind on using generative AI images and is replacing them with ones commissioned from an artist. Acknowledging a mistake is one thing, but setting about to correct it instead of defending the choice is sadly a rarity. I bought and played the developer's other games that appealed to me, and i've left wishlisted the ones yet to come and am more likely to prioritize them. I don't know. It just meant a lot, you know? It helps that they're good games, heh.
Im not so much into fantasy but I played through the story, and liked it overall. It was like a fairytale. It has a very old-style interface that I found a bit clunky. Some confusing loose ends, like Hanufi and the sick goblin. When I found the save points everything got much easier. The best thing I found to be the simple but effective descriptions.
An adventure RPG that is largely text driven. The reliance on text forced me to use my imagination and I enjoyed that very much.
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