Deathtrap Dungeon (video game)


Ian Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon is an action-adventure video game developed by Asylum Studios and published by Eidos Interactive for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows in 1998. It is based on the adventure gamebook of the same name written by Ian Livingstone, and published by Puffin Books in 1984.

Gameplay

The game is a third-person action-adventure, with the player taking the role of an adventurer, who at the invitation of a wizard explores a series of dungeons and must overcome both monsters and traps to find riches.

Development

Ian Livingstone was heavily involved in determining the game's level design and art style. The aesthetics and atmosphere are manifestly inspired by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose ruins drawings fascinated Ian Livingstone.
Though the game's 3D engine is very similar to that of Tomb Raider, another Eidos-published game with a development cycle which overlapped that of Deathtrap Dungeon, the two games were developed in isolation.

Reception

Deathtrap Dungeon received "mixed or average", according to review aggregator GameRankings.
Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it one star out of five, and stated that "The flaws in the game continually distracted us from the fun parts. Overall, there are only three words for this game - bad, bad, bad."