I'm not sure whether it's the cheery music, the surreal level design, or just the chance to count cards your way out of an impossible situation, but I cannot recommend the game enough. Whenever I am really upset and think life has dealt me a bad hand, I just take a little chump out for a spin and come back with glory.


There was a major debate that tore the forum apart over some of the new features and whether they make the game impossible, and it may be the preordained fatalism, but I have always adored the battle scars and their abilities to mix things up. I can see they get annoying fast when trying to play the game without losing a man, but in casual play, I urge people to embrace the quirks and take on the impossible. Sure you might die, but that's dungeoneering for you.

This is a fun little game that is not for the faint of heart. You can sit down and spend 10 minutes on it, or spend an hour or two on it. Just depends on what you have the time for...and what you have the courage for!

Hilarious lyrics from the "bard" when anything happens, along with a simple styled combat makes this game entertaining throughout your entire play. Easy to learn, but hard to master!

A must for anyone who enjoys card games OR rogue-lite games!

Extremely fun game to play! Cool graphics, cool dungeon making, nice dialogues, pretty ok item system.. i love this game ! One of a kind on Steam i think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvxAJcBALs

fun game, good time killer between class. 11 hours on record.

I am giving this one a tentative thumbs up. I enjoyed my time with it but found it felling kind of repetitive after not all that long. It has a decent price point and if fun but if you think the gameplay might get old quickly then you might have better options, if the gameplay looks solid check it out.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=762085833

tl;dr: The Guild of Dungeoneering is an intriguing hybrid of a roguelike game and a tabletop card-drafting game. However, it uses card-drafting mechanics that were designed for multiplayer games. In a solitaire game like The Guild of Dungeoneering, these mechanics lose much of their strategic depth. Grade: B

The Guild of Dungeoneering could almost be a tabletop card-drafting game, like Dominion. In card-drafting games, each player has a small deck of cards. As they play cards, they draft more powerful cards into their decks. Since the decks are reshuffled frequently, the new cards quickly become available for play. Nearly every aspect of The Guild of Dungeoneering is handled by cards. It would probably be possible to print out the cards and play it as a tabletop game. However, the game involves so much upkeep that it would probably only work as computer game, where the upkeep is handled automatically. In that sense, The Guild of Dungeoneering is a good example of how tabletop mechanics can be refined and expanded in a digital environment.

The downside of this approach is that the card-drafting mechanics were originally intended for multiplayer games. In games like Dominion, the players adapt to each other’s strategies. They can sometimes bluff or mislead their opponents. There’s no opportunity to use those kinds of tactics in The Guild of Dungeoneering. The monsters have better cards than you do, but they don’t play them intelligently. In that sense, the game often feels like I'm playing solitaire Hearts on Microsoft Office.

In The Guild of Dungeoneering, you guide a character around a series of dungeons, fighting monsters and collecting loot. Each dungeon has a clearly defined objective, like “defeat 1 skeleton” or “find 2 chests.” When you fight a monster, you and the monster play cards on each other. For example, a monster might play “Claw,” which inflicts 1 point of physical damage. In response, you might play “Bash,” which blocks 1 point of physical damage and inflicts 1 point of physical damage. Combat continues until either you or the monster runs out of life points. After defeating a monster, you can choose between 3 loot cards. Each loot card allows you to draft different cards into your deck. For example, if you acquire a Mace, you would add the “Bash” card to your deck. If you already have Bash, you would add “Slam,” which is (theoretically) superior to Bash. If a monster wins a fight, you start over at the beginning of the dungeon with a new character.

You can only carry a certain amount of loot. For example, you can only wear one helmet at a time. When you swap one loot item for another, you add some cards to your deck and remove others. If The Guild of Dungeoneering was a tabletop game, you’d probably spend most of your time adding and removing cards from the various decks. But as a computer game, it all flows very smoothly. The game is also surprisingly well balanced. I win most fights, but it’s often very close. A lot of seemingly insignificant cards end up playing a major role.

It also has a wonderful tone. You adopt the perspective of a lazy, unscrupulous guild master who considers his “dungeoneers” to be nothing more than cannon fodder. When they survive a quest, his apathetic response is priceless. (Though his shtick wears thin after a while, so I’m glad you can mute him.) The graphics consist of cute line drawings that reinforce the feeling of ironic detachment. The vampires are particularly adorable.

I like the character classes. There are 14 different classes and most of them have their own distinct style. For example, Bruisers harm monsters if they fully block an attack. Alchemists are often able to heal faster than monsters can harm them. The Cartomancer class is interesting, since you are encouraged to let your opponent hurt you until you unload a single devastating attack.

You don’t move your character – they move themselves. You can influence their movement by placing monsters or gold near their location. Sometimes, characters will make suboptimal moves if they have characteristics like “Hubris” or “Death Wish.” However, sometimes they make suboptimal moves for no apparent reason. In one of my games, a character had a choice between two rooms. One room had a blessing, gold, and a low-level monster. The other room had a curse. He chose the room with the curse. He then fought a high-level monster and lost because of the curse.

As I said, the biggest problem with The Guild of Dungeoneering is that it’s a solitaire game that uses multiplayer mechanics. The monsters don’t seem to use much strategy, and might even play cards at random. Once I adopted a basic, common-sense strategy, the game became too easy.

Basic strategy:
Avoid monsters that you’re not ready to fight.
Choose loot cards that give you the most powerful attack cards.
If you’re winning a fight, play aggressively.
If you’re losing a fight, play defensively.

Advanced strategy:
Pick cards that give you Arcane, Holy, or Spikey.
Think carefully before fighting monsters that have Burn, Burly, or Bulwark.
Avoid fountains unless there is no risk.

Using this strategy, it’s not uncommon to defeat anywhere from 40 to 100 monsters in a row. By exploring slowly and cautiously, it greatly reduces the risk, but it also makes the game boring. Maybe the game would be more fun if I played recklessly. But I have serious reservations about a strategy game that’s only fun when you don’t use strategy. To be fair, some dungeons can be lethal, depending on your character class. And for some reason, the *second* monster in a dungeon is often the hardest to kill. But I’ve played the game five times now, and I’m not sure that there’s much left for me to learn. It’s not like FTL, which can be played hundreds of times.

The game might be more interesting if there were two players, one controlling the adventurer and the other controlling the monsters. The card-drafting mechanics might become deeper and more satisfying.

Alternately, perhaps each dungeon could be designed so that some character classes do better than others. The player would be given specific details about each dungeon, and would need to think carefully about which character class to use. Another possibility would be to stretch out the “second monster” phase of the dungeon (which is the most challenging phase) by giving out less loot.

Other thoughts

• The low-level characters take on minotaurs and liches, while the high-level characters fight dwarven miners. That’s fine, I guess, but it’s weird.
  
  
• There are some dungeons where you need to complete the objective within a certain number of turns. It’s a good idea, but the implementation is broken. For example, you might have eight turns to move five spaces to the right. If eight turns go by, and you’ve only drawn three cards that have a right-hand exit, you lose. That actually happens from time to time.
  
  
• I love the “Turbo” option, which speeds up gameplay. I wish FTL had an option like that.
  
  
• The characters level up in a really odd way. When they first enter a dungeon, they’re at level 1. By the end of the dungeon, they’re usually at level 4 and have lots of loot. When they enter the next dungeon, they start over at level 1 and have no loot. It help maintain game balance, but it’s unintuitive. Sometimes I forget that a character has suddenly become much weaker.
  
  
• The theme song is stuck in my head. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

I love indie games, card games, roguegames and D&D so this game looked pretty perfect for me. I watched a friend play it for a few hours before deciding it looked interesting and unique enough to buy. If I was reviewing this game in the first few hours, which I see a lot of people have, it would be 100% positive, it takes delving a little deeper to discover some of the flaws.

You choose your class (6 choices progressively unlocked through a gold-based tree) and this gives you your deck of cards (attacks and defense). Each turn you are randomly assigned cards that can include monsters, rooms and treasures. You place these to create a dungeon, and your adventurer (who you don't control), will be motivated to get the shinies. You can build your "deck" of attacks by choosing equipment (much of which is unlocked through the gold-tree).

The quirky monsters, attacks, dialogue bubbles and item descriptions are awesome. For example, if you play the bruiser, you're the chavviest chav ever. If you're the cat burglar, you will literally, throw cats. I won't spoil the rest, a lot of the fun in this game is the personality that shines through as you play.

You complete quests which unlocks more rooms in your guild (through gold), you get more dungeons, you complete more quests, and it repeats. Some of the quests are catered towards different classes, so you have to unlock the right classes and figure out what the strengths and weaknesses are and take in the right adventurer, whilst your graveyard piles up with the bodies of the minions who failed. Whilst simple, it can be pretty challenging and you do have to really think about what you're doing.

If I could leave it there, this would be 100% positive - but after the first six hours or so I did feel the game was very monotonous. That's a side effect of the fact that every single dungeon you start again at level 1. After a while you realize you're just playing the same monsters, the same room types, the same abilities from a small card set vs the same mechanics that you start with, over and over in a very repetitive grind. Progression takes a lot of gold, grinding and time, and for me, felt quite slow and stale. The game needs a much larger monster, class and equipment pool if it wants to pull that off without it getting boring by the end and a more interesting set of options and permanent carry-overs to reduce the time you spend grinding as you progress.

The roadmap mentions an "endless mode" with a high score table, which may add some competitive play and certainly a lot of replayability, so I look forward to seeing how long I can survive in that.

My recommendation is still positive because I do think it's a unique idea with a great style, especially the writing, and I did enjoy playing this game a lot - it's just too simplified and reptitive to be taking full advantage of it's potential and that makes me sad. When this comes up on sale or perhaps when patches are added in the future, I think this will be better value.

TL:DR Great basics, tons of potential, very unique and interesting game, can be a bit grindy/reptitive, needs more content. Would still recommend.

First impressions of the game were great. I was excited to play, everything was funny and great to discover - and then it clicked: I already saw everything the game had to offer.

The game mechanics are the same from start to finish.
Do quests, use money to upgrade guild hall, get new equipment, do quests, use money to upgrade guild hall, get new equipment... Sure, this is every RPG-style game, is it not? There's always some *reason* why you're doing this, though. Some end goal. Something to motivate you to continue. Some change in game mechanics. Here? Nothing. It's really a one-trick pony. Do quest, get new equipment, do quest, get new equipment, rinse and repeat.

I found myself bored within hours. There was nothing that captivated me, here. The narrator starts to grate on you singing the same tune at every significant event. You feel no love for your heroes, they die, and are instantly replaced. There's no benefit to keeping them alive longer.

Bottom line, Guild of Dungeoneering is extremely lacklustre.

Guild of Dungeoneering feels like it should have been a mobile game, where you would play a dungeon and come back in a few hours time when your heroes are ready to go again. There's so little meat and potatoes to the game, I'm disappointed.

Just finished the game at 15hrs. Interesting game with innovative system. Still, I had to consider really long whether to say I'd recommend this game or not. In the end, the positives won out.

Something very important you should know before buying the game: despite the misleading name and description, gameplay-wise this game is not a dungeon crawler, neither is it a RPG. It is more like a twist on deck-building card game. If you understand that before playing the game would be a lot easier to play.

• Innovative system.
  Almost every mechanic in the game is card-based, and require you to plan each step of the fight. The ability to build your dungeon and choose your enemies based on your character deck is both challenging and fun.
  
  
• Many character classes with unique playstyle.
  This part of the game is extremely well done. Each class is vastly different from the others, and all of them are very fun to play. The feeling when you finally get to buy that building and test out the new class is trully thrilling. Though I would love to have classes' info available to see outside of dungeons. Right now you have to actually get into a dungeon to see your new class' ability.
  
  
• Neat dark humor and an evil bard mocking your dungeoneers every time you fail. Or win. Or do pretty much anything. His sole meaning of existence is sacarsm.
  
  
• And of course interesting art style. But I guess you can already judge it yourself.

• There's no tutorial.
  Ok, actually there's one hint for what you should do at the first turn of the game, and that's it. You have to figure out how the game works yourself. Took me 4 hours before I got a rough grasp of the game. And the last hour before realization was very, very discouraging. You have to be patient and figure out things with trial and error.
  
  
• No possibility to improve weak classes.
  Although each character is unique, the lower-tiered classes are a lot more powerful than their earlier counterparts Mainly because they have more starting health, which is quite important in this game. And there's no way to upgrade character in this game, meaning you will practically have only 5 choices for the endgame, which is a watse. I really love the Bruiser class but it's at the 1st tier so it get shadowed pretty soon.
  
  
• A lot of a lot of a lot of small, irritating UI bugs especially with pop out windows and click handlers, and occasional game freeze.
  And I don't mean this as toilerable. This is the main reason why I considered giving this game a "Not recommended".
  
  
• The game feels like a beta test version
  Several screens seem to be just there to be a place holder. For example you have a guild building where you can choose where to build each room/hall, and... that's all. You have an entire screen that doesn't really serve any purpose other than listening to its music.
  
  
• No end game content.
  After you clear the game you don't even have enough money to buy all buildings for the guild, and yet you can't go back to cleared dungeon. Meaning once you clear the game it's the solid end. Expect a 15 hours game for 15 bucks.

In the end I would recommend this game if you:

• Enjoy deck building card games and had experience playing them in real life. Many effects and buffs/debuffs in this game are not tracked, which is not something players of digital card games are used to, and will lead to miscalculation and frustration.
  
  
• Want to enjoy an indie game that focus more on gameplay quality than quantity.

Don't play this game if you:

• Prefer a simple, easy to jump in game. Prepare to spend at least 4 hours to understand what the game's about. You can see that most of the bad reviews are at around 3 hours of gameplay. I myself struggled at the 3rd hours mark too. Heck, that conveyed such strong messages that if I were the developers I'd do something about it immediately, but what am I to say, I can't even design a decent card game.
  
  
• Have low toilerance for semi-finished game. The game is lacking in content AND contains a ridiculous amount of bugs. They aren't game breaking bugs but they are irritating nonetheless.

Wow. Really, wow. Wowies. Wowzers. I did not expect this. This is a game that will force my review to be as blunt as it gets. I expected a simple Pen-and-Paper game that would allow me to kick back and reminisce of the old days when adventures on paper were actually fun. I got surprised big time. I watched some youtube videos of this game but none of them prepared me for what it represents.

A TL;DR Intro to Guild of Dungeoneering:

So, this is the Guild of Dungeoneering, who tries to rival the best guild ever who has the best stuff, the best people and the best intel. In short, you form a guild with the intent to show them who's better. Sadly, the people who join you will be rougher than the average... And that's put mildly... unless you, Sir/Madam, are good enough to show them the way.

What way? Well, it may be a way to glory, losing few people and actually showing the Ivory League guild who's the BOSS. Or you may send them to senseless deaths times and times over till the end of days. Everything goes. In the end, you will prevail.

So, let's take a look at what the game does well and what poorly.

THE GOOD:

1. The music and soundtracks: this is the most unique soundtrack I have heard to date, turning the bland background sounds into a bard-like storytelling. Whoever thought of that must be showered with gold. For reals.
2. The artwork: the game completely and thoroughly kicks back to the olden times when you could create adventures on pen and paper and make them fun through roleplaying, storytelling and jokes and jabs.
3. Good character class variation and your own guild to improve, build and create as you feel like.
4. No adventure is ever the same, because:
4.1. You choose your hero from a number of classes.
4.2. You choose your dungeon layout.
4.3. You choose the enemies you fight.
4.4. You actively participate in the action.
4.5. You do your best to fight your battles as best as possible.
5. This is not a game to keep you glued to your PC. You can play for a bit, take a break, and come back to it. The game will not lose anything from its charm.
6. The game creates stories from the gameplay. If you have been following my reviews, you would know that I love this about a game. Be it for a win or a loss, you get a mission or a playthrough that makes you go to the forums and share. That in itself is a huge plus in my eyes.
7. Good enemy variety, all of them with separate skills and setups.
8. Talking about skills: skills = cards. So you play cards to win encounters and use them to the best of your ability. The enemy plays a card and then you counter and try to win. SImple, yet engaging.
9. Ironman: there is a very select type of games that are worthy of an ironman experience and this one is certainly one of them. You do not get to save and load and fool the RNG.
10. Humor: plenty of jokes, jabs, easter eggs and pokes to various cultures, franchises and... let's generalize, popular stuff is to be found in this game.
11. A game that doesn't take itself seriously: this is one if the things that sells me out in a game. I love games that are jokingly frivolous and put a smile on my face. This one did it - many a time, even as I was losing horribly.
12. Tons of loot: another thing that I love about games. Loot. It is improving with difficulty, and it is worth taking.
13. Strategic decision win missions: while I said that I love frivolous games, I also love seeing my decisions amount to something. THis game does it for me.
14. Commanding a rag-tag army of dungeoneers and sending them to their demise has never been more fun for me.
15. Just like in real life, you can do everything right and still lose or get an unfavorable outcome.
16. The game has more depth than it looks.
17. And they even added animations, something that I, personally, did not expect.
18. A single play-through takes over 7 hours even if you know exactly what you're doing (barring luck falures, wins, etc.), meaning the game is good value for the money.

The BAD. Hold on to your knickers, people, cause the BAD is a lot. However, I would be so bold as to urge you to look at the BAD subjectively. Please decide for youself what's actually good or bad for you.

1. Steep learning curve. The game is easy to pick up but expects you to play it for a good amount of time in order to learn its quirks.
2. The game is frustratingly punishing. Winning a mission is not always a factor of character build and player skill.
3. If you are the type to get easily aggravated, frustrated, or flat out ♥♥♥♥♥♥ off at what happens on the screen, this game is not for you.
4. Your adventurers forget everything they did in the previous dungeon and start at level 1 every single time... But that's not all: they also completely lose the gear hey got from the last run. Now I, personally, think that they just get so happy for being alive in such a punishing game, that they get so horribly drunk in the city tavern and pass out and someone steals their gear and returns them to first grade. I blame it on the Ivory League. Them freaking cheaters.
5. RNG can screw you big time. It can even lose you a mission. This may happen so often, that it will force you to ragequit or dub the game as an downright infair, so much so that you might shelf it.
6. You will ragequit many a time, especially if you have a short fuse.
7. The game doesn't present much in terms of graphical and aesthetical fidelity for our modern age.
8. There are no RPG elements of any sort that many people would expect from this type of game.
9. There is no multiplayer. No co-op or LAN or anything.
10. Difficulty ramps up very quickly. If you don't know the quirks of the game, you might find yourself over your head in no time, which results in lost missions.
11. Some classes are need revamping and balancing, as they are better than the others.
12. So easy to lose a fight and the mission as a result.

And now, the conclusion. I will make it very plain and simple.

You should buy the game if:
- you're a casual gamer
- you like in-game humor that puts a smile on your face
- you can accept the game for what it is - a parody to dungeoneering
- you like games that you can play for a bit every now and then when you feel like, but still return to them and have just as much fun as before
- you like jokes, jabs and pokes to various cultures and franchises
- you like card games
- you like skill based games
- you like challenges
- you like ironman games
- you like experimenting
- you don't care about losing, but enjoy learning from experience and adapting as a result

You shouldn't buy the game if:
- you are a very serious gamer that expects a huge value from a purchase
- you have a short fuse and get frustrated easily
- you dislike the random number generator
- you ragequit a lot
- you expect a game that will get you glued to the pc for days on end
- you dislike games with a huge learning curve
- you don't like seeing your minions die for the greater purpose

So why would I recommend the game?
I would recommend it because it is the right game for me. I love games that have lots of humor, don't take themselves seriously and put a smile on my face. This one did it - even as I was losing horribly. It never made me feel bad for it and always had this jovial feeling of letting me fool around with it - be it with additional classes, options, and avenues of advancement. I was enjoying myself regardless of what was happening, and I believe this to be one of the most important factors in a game.