Ancient Dungeon is a rogue-lite dungeon crawler that found success on Kickstarter last year. It’s aiming for launch sometime “soon,” developer Eric Thullen says, arriving on both SteamVR headsets and Oculus Quest in early access.

In a Kickstarter update, Thullen says its latest version (b0.9) is the last substantial update before its early access release, something which is slated to arrive “in a few months,” Thullen says.

Like all good rogue-lites, Ancient Dungeon drops you into a vast dungeon with the damnable penchant for having constantly-changing pathways. And just as the new trailer below promises, you’ll be able to engage in physical combat by swinging swords, throwing knives, and shooting arrows. Enemy mages, skeletons, mimics—it has the whole lot.

There’s also plenty of other recognizable dungeoning classics too—find hidden treasure, battle through deep pits, dodge lethal traps, and smash every pot and crate along the way.

“All dungeons you encounter in your playthrough are randomly generated and filled with traps, secrets, semi-bosses and tons of different kinds of loot.” Thullen says in the game’s itch.io page. “The deeper you go the more dangerous the environment and the enemies will get.”

You’ll encounter several types of dungeons: the Overgrown Dungeon features tons of vegetation and plant-based enemies, and the Infernal Dungeon is all about fire-based baddies.

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“But not all of your runs will encounter the same dungeons as there are multiple paths that you can take to get to different and hidden places,” Thullen says.

If you’re curious to jump in, you can actually play the beta for free on all supported devices. Check out the most up to date beta on Oculus Quest via App Lap. You can also play the beta with SteamVR headsets here.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Alex

    can’t wait !!

  • DjArcas

    Climbing down a chain in VR? :barf:

  • MeowMix

    Played it a few months back on the Quest2 (sidequest and Applab), it’s still kinda rough. But the potential is there so hopefully they really ramp up on the polish.

  • ymo1965

    A bit too pixely for my tastes. Game though looks interesting.

  • Wait a minute… coming soon to what? I have it on App Lab already

    • R3ST4RT

      Coming soon to the actual oculus store so we can purchase it and support the developer I would imagine.

  • On of the best games for atmosphere that I’ve ever played in VR. The fog and sounds and music design really make you feel like you’re slugging through a massive, dark dungeon. Love it to bits!

    • Barbara Lee

      Mary this-past month I collected $19562 through working on pc at home in my spare-time..(w1096) I figured out to do it by spending some hours in whole day consistently-computer.(w1096) it’s very nice and any of you definetly can get this. >>> https://linkzip.me/mIrfM

  • Jonathan Winters III

    It’s pretty amazing to be in a pixellated dungeon actually.

  • JB1968

    TBH Looks like a free quest(no pun) in REC Room

  • JustNiz

    Wake me up when someone finally releases a VR dungeon crawler that doesn’t have crappy cartoon/minecraft graphics…

    • HindsiteGenius

      Be open minded and give it a shot. It’s actually quite atmospheric in VR.

      • Bakterius

        I have Morrigan, VR dungeon knight + some others with cartoon graphics… but i think its enough… i need games like

        The Mage’s Tale, skyrim vr, witching tower (good game but short..), Soul Scathe (after some patches and optimalizations..)..

        We need lots of quality games for new players.. but new player look at screenshot and you cant explain him in vr is relative fine..

        • HindsiteGenius

          Again keep an open mind and try it as it is a free until release. All those games are good looking and I agree Quest needs deep AAA eye catching games, but this one hits far above its weight.

          This is a roguelike(lite) and this developer is very active. I think this is the perfect art style for a VR roguelike. The graphics are immersive as hell in VR. Also the lighting is spot on and better than most AAA games. It is atmospheric as hell. The best games of all time in this genre are ASCII graphics so the Minecraft plus Souls graphics style makes sense. Also the scope of this game is already far beyond Morrigan, and VR dungeon knight.

          People all over the world are still playing Nethack to this day, but this game is less ambitious(unfortunately) but also far more accessible. The physics are great as well. If this dude keeps it up and maybe open it up like Nethack the game will do very well indeed. Even at this state the game is a very unique winner!

          • Bakterius

            Sure, i want try this game. But still, i think, better graphics will help.. Little remind me TES Arena on my 14″ CRT and this game has great atmosphere too :-).

    • Toto_Dot

      Blame the Quest. It has a Mobile Phone Chipset SOC, and devs seem to be aiming for that as the base hardware for VR. Sad, really, especially when a PC has infinitely more power at their disposal.