If life is a series of jokes, then my extraordinary experiences over the past year with Luyện Ngục in particular, and life in general, can be seen as one of the interesting examples of that.

Luyện Ngục - Hero Training

Over a year ago, I gave up my position as a Marketing Manager at one of the leading businesses to venture into new challenges with a startup, simply because I felt the need to break free from the old safe shell. However, the relationships soon fell apart, and I found myself thinking that I would have to "sit still" for a long time.

If you have read my first articles, you will surely remember that the primary reason I started this blog was from that situation.

But 5ATM.Art didn't mature yet, and I joined another business upon the invitation of an old friend. Of course, being a relatively poor person according to modern standards, I went to work and then abandoned 5ATM for another period of time.

You know, you can't help but invest your energy into those who are willing to pay you monthly because they believe you can help them in some way.

It wasn't until about six months ago that work started to get into gear, and I began to have time for personal projects again. Unfortunately, my choice at that time was not to become a critic at 5ATM but to be a creative person with Luyện Ngục - a roguelike game built from the open-source code of Pixel Dungeon.

Firstly, let's talk about the link. I hope you can have interesting experiences with the game from any platform:

If we deeply explore the flavor of conspiracy theories, the essence of Luyện Ngục lies in the idea of a novel that has been in my mind for the past 5 years, called Huyết Sử - a novel.

In Huyết Sử, I want to build a parallel world inspired by (but not limited to) the Trịnh-Nguyễn conflict period. In this world, King Lê plays the role of a deity, Lord Trịnh represents the imperial dynasty, Lord Nguyễn leads the Southern Freedom Alliance - those who once rose up against the Empire to liberate the Gods but have now forgotten their mission, the Mạc Clan is described as the non-human world led by the Demon Lord. After ruling for nearly 400 years, Lord Dragon Turtle's time to leave the mortal realm has come. Before passing away, he left behind a small legacy for his successor, to destroy the Seal of the Chessboard, freeing the Wrathful Demon and the Wooden Star Heritage.

Moving on to the main plot, the entire village of the protagonist is destroyed by a demon called Chằn Tinh. The new deity of the world, Nguyên Quân, who is also the mentor of the protagonist, decides to imprison the protagonist in Luyện Ngục. The main purpose is for training, but also to keep him cool-headed and restrain his burning desire for revenge. Without power, revenge is just an illusion.

Luyện Ngục - Hero Training

Furthermore, does the image of a hero wielding an axe to defeat Chằn Tinh remind you of anyone?

Legends:

See details at Legends of Luyện Ngục

Gameplay

I will gradually update information about the gameplay and everything you need to know when playing Luyện Ngục in future posts. But in this article, let's just give an overview!

Luyện Ngục consists of a total of 26 floors, divided into 5 areas: Ruins, Green Forest, Cave, Desert, and Deathland. Each area has its own story, unique space, and different (cute) monsters.

To win the game, you must explore each floor, fight enemies, collect materials, upgrade equipment, and try to survive amidst the numerous traps outside and the hunger within.

Remember that while you're still alive, the game allows you to continue at any time. But when you fall, the dungeon will be automatically reset, and you'll have to start over with everything completely random, from the map to the performance of items. The game won't let you die in vain, but it's ready to temper your "snowflake" soul with a challenging and "impossibly soul-like" style.

Controls

Simply tap anywhere on the map, and your character will move or attack there.

Additionally, you can zoom out of the game screen to observe the map, pan the camera to look around or rotate the screen for a better horizontal view.

To add a quick-use item, tap (or hold) the quick-use slot at the bottom, and your inventory will appear for you to select a quick-use item.

The game's UI also provides two important tools: a magnifying glass icon for you to assess the situation you're facing, and a wait button for health regeneration. You need to hold down the wait button; otherwise, it will skip a turn.

I have received feedback about the need to add analog controls to the game's interface to make it easier for everyone to navigate the dungeon. However, after considering it for a while, I have decided not to implement it in the near future. The reason is that I want you to drag the camera and then tap on the screen to move anywhere. Through this, you will gain a better understanding of the map on each floor, think more about your movement strategy, and have more time to search for survival support.

If there are still many requests, I think I will include them in version 2.0.

Graphics

I won't hide the fact that 90% of the character images I used are from MapleStory. We have 4 main characters belonging to different classes, all customized from Maple Studio's character creation system. Most of the monsters are also taken from Maple Studio, but there are about 12 other monsters that I modified from external sources to make them friendly and suitable for young players. I also drew two additional characters, a fruit tree, and a guarding tower, but they are all simple.

Anyway, I defend myself by saying that it's difficult to do everything alone. And even though I took them from other sources, it still took me nearly half a year to adapt and edit them to fit my product.

Thanks to Maple Studio for everything.

The in-game item icons are partly taken from free sources for indie games, and the other half is self-drawn. I never thought that drawing simple icons would take so much time...

That's it for now! These are the basic information about the game. I will gradually update these in future articles.

For now, goodbye and see you again.