Board gaming as a leisure activity has been around for millennia, a social activity nearly as old as civilization itself. These ancient games ranged from deceptively simple to remarkably deep, despite their abstract nature, and the fact that the vast majority were played with stones or rudimentary carved pawns and whose board may have been nothing more than the dirt-caked ground itself. Yet despite these basic elements – because of them even – gaming spread across continents and cultures, providing entertainment to audiences for generations.
Board games as we think of them didn’t develop until the 20th century, when a mix of economics, industry, and technology allowed for mass production with all the delicious production trimmings that audiences adore. Board games nowadays are positively stuffed with cardboard chits, wooden cubes, meeples, minis, plastic pieces, and a cornucopia of cards. We’ve reached a point where even the boxes themselves are tricked out with fancy paints and coatings. Games have come a long way since Go, though their intrinsic appeal hasn’t changed all that much.
The tradeoff to all of this advancement, however, is that storing them has gotten more challenging than a pouch of stones or pewter. From plastic bags, to fancy inserts, to foam core cradles, storage has become an important aspect to their care and treatment. Increased value and complexity means there’s a lot more pieces to worry about. Whether it’s to protect fragile components, increase its longevity, or because doing so is anathema to quickly setting up and playing again later, one thing nearly all gamers collectively cringe at is the idea of sweeping everything loosely into the box and closing the lid.
Which makes sense. After all, you can’t just dump their contents onto the table and immediately start playing.
But…but what if you could? And what if that were the game’s exact purpose?
Well ponder no further, because that’s precisely what you get in Dungeon Drop, the devilishly clever cube-based dungeon crawler by Phase Shift Games. In this quick and concise game, players are loot-loving adventurers navigating their way through a labyrinthine dungeon trying to scoop up treasure and avoid dangerous monsters. And assembling this maze is as simple as taking a handful of colored cubes and dropping them onto the table.
No, really.
With black cubes representing dungeon pillars, players take turns forming triangular connections between these points to form “rooms” and collecting all of the cubes in that space. Some cubes are good, adding to your treasure hoard. Other cubes, being monsters, are bad, and do damage to your hero. Heroes also have race and class abilities that can help you gather additional cubes or manipulate relocate cubes on the table. After three brisk rounds of plundering the dungeon deeps, the hero with the most valuable treasure pile is the winner.
Dungeon Drop is fast-paced, lightweight, and provides an intriguing spatial-based take on the dungeon crawling genre in an amusing ‘so simple why didn’t I think of it’ quality. Possessing many of the same qualities of games of with some creative modern design twists, Dungeon Drop reminds us that games don’t always need to be vastly complex and complicated to be enjoyable.
So tip your favorite cube-pushing Euro upside down and dive into a dungeon crawl of bite-sized proportions with your very own copy of the game!
Yes, from now though March 8th, 2020, you can check out the contest details and enter below. Just follow the entry form and proceed with the contest. The more of these entries you do, even if just one, you still have a better chance than not entering at all. Of course you’re welcome to do that too. But your odds of winning drop to zero. No pressure or anything.
The Cardboard Republic, in conjunction with Phase Shift Games is giving this game away strictly for entertainment purposes. This act is not a paid endorsement by Phase Shift Games or any other entity. This contest is open to individuals only. Staff members of The Cardboard Republic and Phase Shift Games are not eligible to participate. For winners outside of the Continental US, the publisher reserves the right to request they cover part or all of the shipping costs.