Interviews: Trendy Entertainment - Dungeon Defenders

Yesterday we brought you new Dungeon Defenders screenshots with the promise of an exclusive interview letting you know more about this upcoming PlayStation Network title. We recently interviewed Trendy Entertainment's Philip Asher about what players can expect from this colourful dungeon crawler.

Movemodo: Firstly, please introduce yourself and your role on Dungeon Defenders.

Philip Asher: Hey! My name is Philip Asher and I’m the Marketing Director for Dungeon Defenders.

MM: Dungeon Defenders is an original hybrid of two different genres: tower defence and action RPG. Can you explain to our readers how this blending of the two genres together works?

PA: The goal of each level in Dungeon Defenders is to protect a certain number of Eternia Crystals. There are two phases of combat, the build phase and the combat phase. In the build phase you work with up to 3 other friends to plan your defences. Each class has different traps, auras, and towers which can be placed together to provide an excellent defence. Then you start the match. Wave after wave of enemies attack and you and your friends must defend the crystals. It’s here where the action RPG aspect comes into play. Each class has different attacks, alt-attacks, and abilities they can use to slaughter their foes.

Furthermore, players are still able to place more towers and upgrade or repair existing defences. The match ends when all enemies have been defeated or the crystals fall. Oh, and that’s not mentioning all the loot to picked off of enemy corpses, levels to be gained, weapons to be upgraded, etc! There’s a whole ton of customizability for characters, which will be persistent across matches and possibly certain systems as well. When you level up you can place points in any characteristic of your character, be it speed, tower-rate-of-fire, attack strength, tower-health, invisibility, etc.

MM: The game’s watercolour/cartoon art style is unique for this genre. What inspirations were behind this choice of art style?

PA: The art design in the game is heavily inspired from a World of Warcraft style aesthetic. We wanted to create a game which was in-depth enough for hard-core rpg and tower defence players, but still playable (on lower difficulty settings, mind you) and visually pleasing to all audiences.

MM: Each different character class in the game offers a gameplay style that is unique to its class. Can you elaborate on what makes playing with the different classes unique?

PA: Each class plays entirely differently. For example, the huntress uses ranged weapons. Not only do her weapons have an ammo count (and you have to reload), but her towers are trap based (proximity mines, etc.) and her abilities involve skills like invisibility and piercing shot. This plays completely different from the squire class, which has mechanical traps; For example, the squire can use barricades to block off and funnel enemies through a choke, whereas the huntress must be more devious. Of course, when playing co-op you will have to use all of the character’s abilities to successfully defeat your enemies.

MM: We’ve been informed that the game uses a loot and level-up system common to most dungeon crawlers. Can we expect a deep levelling system and massive amounts of loot in Dungeon Defenders?

PA: Yes, an incredibly deep system. There are multiple tiers of items to be found, sold, and traded. Players can use mana to upgrade these weapons further by increasing their stats, adding elemental damage, etc. The character (and pet) levelling systems are equally in-depth; you can increase your character’s statistics on a per-stat basis.

MM: The game features a campaign mode. How does the game’s story change while playing with the different character classes?

PA: The game’s story is the same across the various heroes. The story involves all four heroes traversing the dungeon together, so the best way to experience the game is through 4-player co-op. Speaking of which, we support local and online drop-in, drop-out 4 player co-op!

MM: We’ve caught wind of the inclusion of pet tag-alongs that can be levelled and even traded to friends. Can you please give our readers more information on these pet tag-alongs?

PA: Yep, there are different pets all of which have different abilities. For example, there’s a fairy that’s able to heal you at various intervals, an imp which shoots fireballs, etc!

MM: Multiple game modes are available in the game. What game modes are available, and can all of the modes be played in online multiplayer?

PA: There are a ton of game modes, I’ll list of a few of them here. The main mode is the campaign mode. This involves fighting through all the levels (and waves); there are cinematics to tell the story, and it can be played with up to 3 friends. Furthermore there are survival modes (which involve surviving for as long as possible), challenge modes (which offer unique twists on existing maps), and a pure strategy mode which removes the action-RPG aspect of gameplay.

MM: PlayStation Move has been incorporated into Dungeon Defenders. Move is obviously a great fit for the tower defence genre, but with Dungeon Defenders being an action RPG/tower defence hybrid, how has Move been utilized in the game?

PA: It’s actually one of our preferred ways of playing the game (as you can see from the CES footage). Really, just imagine playing any 3rd person action game with the PlayStation Move: that’s how our game plays. It definitely makes the game more immersive.

MM: Was Move incorporation planned from the start, and what hurdles were faced when incorporating Move to the game?

PA: It wasn’t planned from the start, but it was something that was relatively easy to implement and something we’re really glad we did.

MM: Post-launch DLC has been confirmed. What can we expect in the future DLC?

PA: No comments on this yet, sorry!

MM: When do you expect Dungeon Defenders to launch on PlayStation Network?

PA: Once again, no comment. As soon as we know we’ll let everyone else know too!

MM: Lastly, is there any more information that you would like to give our readers while they wait for Dungeon Defenders?

PA: I know this website is primarily based around PlayStation Move, but our game incorporates a ton of other PlayStation specific features as well including 3D and possibly some cross-platform support.

Thanks to Philip Asher for his time and stay tuned for more Dungeon Defenders coverage in the coming weeks!