About 8 years ago, a boy loved playing Dungeon Rampage on Facebook. After the game was taken offline, the child decided to bring it back. Today, he is 18 years old and about to re-release the title on Steam.
What kind of game is this? Dungeon Rampage was playable on Facebook between 2012 and 2017. It was a simple dungeon crawler that could be played with multiple players.
What did it mean for the boy? The Greek Angelos Mako was a huge fan of the game as a child. He played Dungeon Rampage for about five years. The game helped him, among other things, through his parents’ unpleasant divorce.
Whenever his mother and father fought, he would go to the next room and play Dungeon Rampage. Unfortunately, one day in 2017, he discovered that the game was no longer available on Facebook.
The ten-year-old was devastated. Today, at 18, he recalls his first reaction:
I couldn’t comprehend it. I couldn’t understand why this happened. But even at that moment, I told myself that I would find a way to bring it back. I had no idea how, but I had a dream.
Angelos Mako in conversation with PCGamer
Eight years later, that dream has almost come true.
The first steps were difficult
How did the boy proceed? Angelos was still in school, so his plan had to wait for a while. Over the next few years, however, he came across a Discord server that was also working on a remake of Dungeon Rampage.
Angelos became part of it and took the lead when the work was progressing slowly. Today, he admits that he knew very little about game development back then.
Another problem suddenly arose: What if the original developers punished the remake for copyright infringement?
Angelos managed to reach the creative director of the original on LinkedIn. Through him, he contacted the CEO of the original development studio, presented his project, and was surprised to receive the license.
This marked the first major step. But the real work was just beginning.
Where is the original code?
What happened next? The 18-year-old got in touch with various developers of the original Dungeon Rampage. Among other things, he received design elements and graphics from them. However, the original code of the game was nowhere to be found.
Angelos once again feared that the project was failing. It wasn’t until he spoke to the last developer of the original who was still available to him that things changed. This developer told Angelos that he had saved the code on a laptop. However, the device was at that time in possession of his 7-year-old daughter.
Fortunately, the child had handled the laptop well, and the code could be secured.
Once again, Angelos contacted the developer Gamebreaking Studios via LinkedIn. Although their CEO was initially skeptical, he listened to the 18-year-old’s plans and eventually agreed.
Nothing stands in the way of the launch
Dungeon Rampage was to be funded through Kickstarter. About 52,000 euros were raised in the campaign. Thus, the actual development could begin, which was initially particularly technically challenging – after all, the code was not very fresh anymore. Nevertheless, the work was ultimately successful.
The Facebook page was updated, and a sales page was set up on Steam. Over 100,000 players have already added the game to their wishlist, according to the CEO of Gamebreaking Studios. Dungeon crawlers are very popular on Steam, just as the success of another title shows.
When exactly Dungeon Rampage in its new version will be released is still unclear. The price is also still open. It is certain that there will initially be an early access phase. Old and new fans can already try a demo.
This will particularly please those who played the game earlier on Facebook. And of course, Angelos Mako, who was finally able to fulfill his dream. The demo of another game is causing excitement for MeinMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen: The predecessor of a demo on Steam made me appreciate a hype genre, though I despise it
