Corridor Bit: The Dungeon

This week I completely finished all of the Dungeon Tiles needed to play Corridor. There are 25 tiles, each a variation of a pathway, intersection, room, or turn. To navigate throughout the dungeon, the player will choose a door to enter, draw a card, and connect the new tile accordingly. I've tested this many times and there are countless ways the dungeon will be set up. This "randomized" dungeon system, along with other card-drawing aspects and several functions of the games that require die rolls will hopefully make the game replayable again and again with fun, new results every time.

The dungeon contains many monster icons and item icons, each random every time because they require drawing a card out of a deck of many cards. Some games may be inherently harder than others simply out of pure bad luck, and visa-versa.

There are also locked doors on several tiles, making an element of strategy when it comes to rationing use of key items.

The dungeon can be any size as far as the tiles permit, but any given level only requires a Boss Tile and a Staircase Tile. (More on that later) If the dungeon tiles are all spent and there are still open doorways, there are little "cave-in" boulder tabs available to block them up with. Furthermore, if there is no Boss Tile or Staircase Tile and the rooms all lead to dead ends, there are "passageway" tabs that can be discovered in the game that can lead to the rest of the dungeon, not connected with the main crawl.

I'll let you know more this week! I'm making progress!

Corridor Board Game Bit: Origins

Hey all,
I've been working a bit too hard physically lately to think of anything to write about. I kind of just haven't been in the mood either. I guess two English writing classes took a lot out of me. But that doesn't mean I've stopped working on projects altogether!

Right now I'm busy resurrecting a game I made up in my childhood called "Corridor." The first version of the game was called "Dungeons of Doom," and later it came to be called "The Hero," but in Brazil I thought of the name "Corridor" that suits it a lot better.

Actual pen-and-paper proto-"Corridor" game in progress.

The game is loosely based on the old DOS game "Rogue" from my brother Redge's and my childhood, and we played it mainly on pen and paper. The game was purely imaginitive, consisting of a stickman dungeon crawling through various rooms to complete a specific goal. At its primitive form, it resembled a heavily simplified, visual version of Dungeons & Dragons.

The game was playable anywhere and conveniently portable; All that was needed was a sheet of paper and a writing utensil. As time went on, Corridor grew in complexity. Beneath the dungeon map on the paper itself, a panel was added at the bottom of the page that included an inventory, stats menu, and later, even an paper-doll equipment section and a status monitor. Despite recurring enemies such as Ghosts, Ogres, and Stone Dragon Heads, each game was completely different and rules changed constantly.

Eventually, effort was made to publish several sheets of uniform, recurring items, weapons and creatures. This manual contained as well a selection of "runes" which were used in a sort of "socketed" item system, each representing a real Norse rune of the Futhark. Eventually this system was discarded, but many items remained in the cycle of Corridor gameplay.

My goal is to now take what I know of this enjoyable game from my childhood, and much like Space: The RPG and The Childhood Spore Project, resurrect it and transcend it into something more widely accessible and organized. The rethought version of Corridor will feature a dice-based combat system, a randomized dungeon generator, a class-driven skill system, and much more! I may even make expansion sets to it if it goes well. And of course, I'll keep you updated here on my blog!