Take on the role of a dungeon custodian, keeping the dungeon loot-worthy and its dwellers motivated between card-based battles in Mops & Mobs.
If you’ve ever looted a dungeon in a game then you’ll know that they’re meant to be good for precisely one go. However, that’s not actually how it often works, right? In MMOs you might dive into that dungeon a dozen times, other times you might be asked to return only to find it filled with new enemies and bosses. Who, then, replenishes and restores these dungeons? Dungeon Custodians, that’s who. And that’s your new job in Mops & Mobs.
I’ll never forget one of the first times that I sat down with some of my buddies to play D&D. Our characters almost immediately emerged into a dungeon room that was described as ‘well-lit’. We were ready for this moment, in fact, I think that some of us had been waiting for it. Just like that, the entire session was derailed and we were befriending the little chap that was apparently being paid by the town above to keep the dungeons well lit.
That’s not something that’ll happen here, as one of the core responsibilities of your job is that you stay out of sight. In addition to that you’ve also got to ensure that the heroes of the overworld are never made aware that you’re actually running the whole show as a business operation, and you’ve got to keep the décor up to speed and the dungeon denizens happy.
Mops & Mobs plays out a bit like a visual novel, albeit with a little bit of space-by-space exploration (like in classic dungeon crawlers), some silly fetch quests and a quite clever (if silly) collectible card game that you can play against friends and foes alike. The latter is probably the standout for me, although the fact that a lot of the monster residents are juggling with some form of existential dread or self-doubt certainly makes for interesting reading and a reason to keep pushing forward. It’s handy that they’re well-written too, as it sounds as though a lot of time will be spent optimising and decorating their spaces within the halls.
Mops & Mobs is currently in development for PC, Mac & Linux.
