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Minecraft Dungeons is an action RPG for everyone

Microsoft and Mojang and preparing to unleash a blocky dungeon crawler that aims to take the franchise in a fresh direction.

Chris Jarrard

June 12, 2019 1:58 PM

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Since its inception way back in 2009, Minecraft has carefully maintained a balance between offering a fully-fledged creative experience and a survival RPG. Some players prefer to build, while others play to explore and seek a PvE challenge. Minecraft Dungeons, the new series spin off, aims to learn heavily into the conventional action RPG tropes, while preserving the classic Minecraft aesthetic. We got a chance to speak with Mojang about the process behind making a Minecraft action RPG and attracting a different audience to the genre.

At first glance, it’s impossible to miss the Diablo influence on Minecraft Dungeons. From the camera perspective, to the randomly generated areas, and wealth of items, the team at Mojang wears their influences on their sleeve. Unlike Diablo and other games in the genre, Minecraft Dungeons does not offer pre-made classes, instead opting for builds based around armor.

Rather than being confined to a single approach, players can change their build on the fly by simply switching armor types. It will be possible to go from a tanky damage absorber to a mage-type in a snap, allowing multiple ways to deal with problems. There will be no talent trees and elemental affixes are bound to the various weapons, simplifying the design so that things are easy to pick up and understand for players new to the genre or even younger adventurers.

Minecraft became a license to print money thanks to its wide appeal. Expect Minecraft Dungeons to carry on that tradition when it arrives early next year.

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Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.