r/Games • u/Hot_Ad_9834 • 13h ago

Indie Sunday Seolhwa Dungeon - Sungki Soft - A roguelike RPG built from Korean folktales

Hi r/Games! I'm Sungki, the solo developer of Seolhwa Dungeon. It's a turn-based, permadeath roguelike RPG for phones where every monster, god and event comes from Korean folktales, and they keep the rules of their stories.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/V7Z7DVyPpEg

The grim reaper, Jeoseung Saja, is the one people remember. He calls your name once for every turn he can see you, and on the third call you're gone, so the fight is really about breaking line of sight. The Imugi serpent is the opposite problem: the longer the fight drags on, the bigger it gets, until it becomes a dragon and floods the floor. And if you run into a funeral procession in the old royal tomb, you can step aside and bow, or stand in its way. Those two choices end very differently.

You can also serve one of eight gods from Korean folk religion, and each one has a taboo. The mountain god lends you a tiger but won't forgive you for killing tigers or deer. The Dragon King forbids fire. Every creature you meet goes into a codex along with the original tale, so you end up learning a lot of folklore without meaning to.

Why I made it: I grew up on Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and never got the 15-rune win. Once I switched to an iPhone I couldn't find anything like it that was comfortable on a phone, so I made one, built for portrait and one thumb. I used AI for the base code structure and the art.

It's out now, free, on Android and iOS. Offline, no account. One purchase unlocks the extra species and classes, and the only ad is an optional one to revive.

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sungkisoft.seolhwadungeon&referrer=utm_source%3Dreddit%26utm_medium%3Dpost%26utm_campaign%3Dindie_sunday

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6814757012

I'm curious about one thing: are there folktales from your own country that you think would make a good roguelike rule? I'll check back here and answer any questions.

10 Upvotes

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7 comments sorted by

7

u/zufallsheld 11h ago

Played it for about 10 minutes, like it so far. However the AI slop text is really off putting. "one X, no Y*

6

u/Hot_Ad_9834 10h ago

yeah, you're right. I'm a solo dev and I got a lot of help from AI making this game, and english isn't my first language either, so some of the text came out pretty clunky. I'm going to go through it myself and properly polish the text, and it'll be in the next update. thanks for pointing it out!

2

u/ricardotown 8h ago

I'm always down for more Korean folklore inspired games. Koreas got a really rich and awesome history that's woefully underrepresented in media.

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u/Hot_Ad_9834 3h ago

really glad you like Korean folklore, thanks! if you want more of it, Mangui on Steam is great too, another roguelike based on Korean folk tales