Blog post #1: Why Dungeon Synth (part 1)?

Why Dungeon Synth?

To make any sense of what attracts me to Dungeon Synth, I will have to ask you to go back in time with me. Bear with me; it’s going to be a long trip, but you’ll quickly find a couple of recurring themes, and I promise it will be well worth reading. Some parts might even resonate with you.

Part 1: Childhood

I have always had a vivid imagination. Without trying to sound too melodramatic, I can safely say I was often the odd kid out. I was not unpopular in my early childhood, but many kids had difficulty following my train of thought. Can’t say I blame them; it’s hard to keep up with a child with an ADD brain (it’s extremely fast when it’s triggered, and it’s agonizingly slow when you can’t find the buttons). I felt like an outsider in a mild way, but an outsider nonetheless, more so because of health issues I had to contend with.

As I gradually outgrew the eczema and once I was able to become a little more active, I discovered a different form of media which would boost my imaginative mind greatly and which would have an even greater effect on me: PC games. Growing up as a young kid with an Apple as a home computer and a Sega Master System II as a console, pc or video games were tricky to come by in the early to mid-Nineties in our family (limited choice). However, there were some which stood out in those formative years which would leave a lasting impression on me, and would allow for my first real experiences related to literary fantasy (in a way).

The first was the legendary real-time strategy game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. What drew me in as an eight-year old was the visceral combat (blood on a screen is cool when you’re young, right?), but I stayed for the rich worldbuilding.  I saw Orcs, Elves, Goblins and many other fantastical races and creatures for the first time. I was spellbound, despite understanding less than half of the story because of language barriers (more notably so because the extensive manual was in French). The excellent OST helped quite a lot. At the tender age of eleven, I wrote my own stylized fan fiction of several of the important characters players come across during the campaigns. As you can imagine, these stories were childish and incoherent, but it was nevertheless very important for what would later become my primary creative outlet; writing. It was the first time I felt truly immersed in a fantasy world, which will become very important later on.

The second childhood milestone related to fantasy was actually a series of pc games; the original Exile trilogy (also known as the Avernum series) published by indie developer Spiderweb Software. I only owned shareware versions of these three games in my childhood, but I played them to bits as far and as much as I possibly could in what were essentially demo games. These are party-based PC RPG’s with turn-based combat, vast open worlds, and original worldbuilding backed up by a delightful writing style courtesy of creator Jeff Vogel himself. The promise of pure, almost innocent adventure these games offered (despite their dark undertones) remain at the unchallenged top for me even to this day. To jump into a world and go on an adventure was the highlight for me on many Sunday afternoons, despite having way less selling points than a hit like Warcraft II. The top-down graphics were barebones, music was non-existent, and its sound and visual effects were rudimentary. They did have two important thing in spades: freedom and dungeons which would turn my group into veritable heroes. These were the first RPG’s I ever played, and I still return to Exile III: Ruined World from time to time; it’s a fantastic game in what it tries to accomplish. In fact, the entire series is a collection of gems in an obscure subgenre of PC-gaming (Apple fantasy RPG’s). But I digress. 

What sets these three experiences apart from later years is that I enjoyed them alone. None of my friends played these games. My older brother dabbled a bit in Warcraft II for a time, but I can’t really take that into account because of age differences between the two of us. I was truly in a realm of my own. This gradually changed when I went to high school and college. This part of the story is for another time. This may sound a long-winding explanation, but I assure you all will be made clear in part 2. ;) Until next time!