Origin

What if a crossword puzzle was the size of a mansion? Each lettered cell would be a room, connected by hallways that you could walk through to explore. This was the random thought that struck me quite a few years ago. It sounded like a game concept opportunity.

After making a few classic roguelike-style games, the obvious next step was to look at a crossword as a dungeon layout. And thus, Crossword Dungeon was born.

The critical design challenge was to find a day to make the crossword mechanics balance well with the dungeon crawling mechanics. Why would someone want to play Crossword Dungeon over a standard crossword or dedicated roguelike? The hook that I arrived at was to make solving a room level-up the other rooms connected to it. The more of the crossword that you solve, the harder the dungeon gets. You might want to face more challenging encounters before they level up, but you might not have enough clues to know the word yet. Each mechanic confounds the other. This was the piece I needed to get started.