Kotaku: Dungeon Runners

Dungeon Runners Dead by the End of the Year

Owen Good — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:00:00 EDT

It's a "crap sandwich" - bad news between two slices of nice - says Dungeon Runners' producer. While the game goes dark New Year's Eve, they'll try to throw as many bones to its fans as they can until then. More »

NCsoft Lays Off 21

Brian Crecente — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:20:00 EDT

Today NCsoft confirmed to Kotaku that they are indeed laying some folks off from their Austin offices. More »

Bling Gnome Pays Visit with Golden Offering

Brian Crecente — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:00:00 EDT

The Bling Gnome, which sounds like such a great idea in virtual practice, leaves a lot to be desired when discovered squatting on your kitchen counter late Sunday night. There's nothing that could get me to pluck that reticent gold coin free from its housing, even if it were real. Borderline unsafe for work pics on the jump. More »

Dungeon Runner's Gold-Excreeting Bling Gnome Spotted

Brian Crecente — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:30:28 EDT

Starting in June people who pick up the box copy of Dungeon Runners at a store will get an in-game Bling Gnome. More »

Dungeon Runners Heaves Up New Content

Mike Fahey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:40:38 EST

NCsoft's free-to-play hack and slash game Dungeon Runners is getting another update, only this time it isn't a full blown "Chunk" expansion - merely a "Heave" - there's that trademark highbrow Dungeon Runners humor for you. New content includes Balzack's Barrow, which is a new dungeon for players 55 and up, an NPC snowman named Chill Bill *groan* available at level 30 that helps players fight enemies, and a visit to Townston by Shivery the Incorrigible Snowman, a victim of dungeon warming that gives players a special quest while telling them they were adopted. 51 new quests, new armor sets, new mythic items, a two-handed ranger rifle and some general interface tweaking round out the update.

"I think that Dungeon Runners players will find these new features, especially the snowmen as being pretty cool...literally," said Stephen Nichols, Dungeon Runners' producer.

Well that's some relatively mild hype. Pretty cool? I mean...oh wait...I get it! Snowmen! Cool! Hahahaha! I'm going to go cry now. Hit the jump for the full press release and more frosty screenshots. More »

Dungeon Runners Blows Chunk 2

Mike Fahey — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:20:21 EST

NCsoft's free to download, free to play MMO Dungeon Runners has just received its second content update, Chunk 2, which changes the face of the game for non-subscribers completely. Areas and items previously off-limits to non-paying customers are now open for all, thanks to the introduction of the in-game advertising Mark Wilson reported on back in October. The ads will be seen during loading screens as well as in a banner that sits upon the screen as the main game is running. Paying members will have their bank pages increased from one to three and won't be plagued by advertising. Both paying and non-paying players will be able to enjoy the newly implemented item trading system and combat system refinements. Personally I think NCsoft is missing out on major ad revenue by restricting advertisements to loading screens and the banner. With its tongue in cheek, self-referential humor, Dungeon Runners is the one game that could get away with a +5 Sword of Pringles Fever. More »

NCSoft Signs In-Game Advertising

Mark Wilson — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:40:35 EDT

NCSoft has just signed a deal with in-game advertising firm Double Fusion regarding its free games Exteel and Dungeon Runners. So, yes, ads are coming. While my heart realizes that in-game ads are the devil, my head knows that companies might as well be paying to accurately depict a virtual Times Square or baseball stadium. But in a fantasy MMO like Dungeon Runners—mind you I've never played it and avoid all MMOs like a fat guy in a sleeveless tee on a mid summer day—Pepsi billboards won't assimilate quite so cleanly. Since some of the advertising is said to be "around game," hopefully players won't need to battle hordes of goblins hopped up on Vault and Pixie Stix. More »

Dallas Snell on NCSoft's Future Direction

Maggie Greene — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:00:23 EDT

Free to Play has an interview up with NCSoft's 'Director of Business Development,' Dallas Snell, on Dungeon Runners, the free to play model, and NCSoft's future direction. The main topic is Dungeon Runners, as it's one of the few games in the NCSoft lineup that has a free to play component (and the subscription aspect may be scrapped in the future). But they're not just looking a subscription models and how to revamp them - they're contemplating grander things: More »

Dungeon Runner's Next Big Thing

Brian Crecente — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:00:31 EDT

Free-to-play dungeon crawler Dungeon Runner is expected to get its next big update this week. I chatted briefly with lead designer Mark Tucker earlier today about what we can expect to see from the update, labeled Chunk Number One. More »

Dungeon Runners Impressions

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 14:00:06 EDT

Dungeon Runners almost didn't make it out the door. Originally shelved, NCSoft brought on a team of developers—the fourth to work on the title—to massage the existing assets into a game that would support the payment model NCSoft had decided was worth giving a try: give the game away for free, but charge a modest five-dollar fee for additional functionality like stackable items and the most powerful weapons. More »

NCSoft's E3 Line-Up

Brian Crecente — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:00:39 EDT

Joining the ever-expanding list of publishers bragging about their showing at the upcoming E3, NCsoft announced that Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, Aion, Guild Wars: Eye of the North and Dungeon Runners will be among their titles. Hit the jump for the full release with descriptions. More »

PVP, Voice Coming to Dungeon Runners

Brian Crecente — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:00:07 EDT

Between now and next month's E3 Expo Dungeon Runner, NCSoft's free-to-play online dungeon crawler, is getting some major updates. More »

NCSoft Launches Dungeon Runners

Mike Fahey — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:20:47 EDT

NCSoft's first free to download and play online game has launched, as Dungeon Runners today opens up to the general public. The game is a dungeon crawler that plays like a light version NCSoft's own Guild Wars, only with more cartoony graphics and a very quirky sense of humor - in the opening area there is a merchant who sounds like Krusty the Clown who cracks jokes about ren faire geeks. Players meet up in central hubs and then journey into instanced areas to take a swat at evil. More »

Clip: Dungeon Runner Beta Test

Brian Crecente — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:06:50 EST

I somehow missed this, but a few weeks ago someone uploaded some gameplay footage from the beta of free instance-based Dungeon Runners. Looks kinda like Diablo meets World of Warcraft. Brian Crecente More »

IGDA Helps Sacked NCSoft Employees

Brian Crecente — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 18:55:39 EDT

Kain Shin, a volunteer with the Austin chapter of the International Game Developers Association, dropped me a line to let me know that the local chapter of the association is trying to help out those fired from NCSoft's Austin office. More »

NCSoft's E3 Line-Up

Brian Crecente — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 08:00:34 EDT

The E3 06 details are rolling in, the latest comes from NCSoft. The MMO company will be showing off Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, Aion and some Guild Wars stuff. More »

Dungeon Runners Beta Opens For Signups

ataylor — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 17:22:27 EST

Dungeon Runners from NCSoft has quietly (well, they told us) moved into preview to signup mode tonight (GMT)! More »

NCSoft's Dungeon Runners Screens

lsmith — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 15:20:34 EST

Dungeon Runners Screens" alt="Click here to read NCSoft's Dungeon Runners Screens" src="http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2006/02/dungeonrunning-thumb.jpg"/>

This once-secret project that NCSoft is working on has surfaced via screenshots at 4Gamer. I first saw them over at Fires of Heaven only to see a couple clicks later that Kotaku editor Brian Crecente had them up at his Rocky Mountain News blog Free Play. More »