Popup Dungeon

Popup Dungeon

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Make your own adventure!?
By bigcat
How to make a little adventure using Popup Dungeon's Create Mode. Nothing fancy just getting you started in your own creative process.
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Getting Started
Choose the CREATE Card to begin.
Scroll down and select GAME.
Select CREATE NEW.
NAME your adventure. I went with 'Paper Cuts'.
Add a pointless or meaningful description. 'Random Adventures of Possible Humor' was mine.
SAVE AS NEW so you don't loose your vast accomplishment.
Go to IMAGE and SELECT. Pick Clouds-and-Crows as a picture because why not.
Now click on EDIT GRAPH.
Right Click on the blue graph looking paper and select ADD Node and then CAMPAIGN.
Click on the rounded rectangular thing I am going to call a Node. It says CAMPAIGN.
Name your new campaign. I called mine, 'Biscuit'.

Summery, 'Paper Cuts' is the name of my whole 'Game', while 'Biscuit' is the name of a campaign that people can play. You can add other campaigns later.
First Scenes
Double Click on your Campaign and you will be whisked into your campaign's creation flow chart which doesn't yet flow.
ADD NODE and choose STORY.
This is the first card people will see when they start your adventure.
Click on the Node and pick a name like The Camp.
In the description box type a clever description like "Exhausted you wander into a forest camp that looks empty. You have been on the trail for daze and the warm fire calls your name. This is odd because you haven't been introduced."
Next to IMAGE choose SELECT and choose Forest Camp Loc. This is the picture that will appear on your first card.

Now add another story node and drag it just a bit to the right of your first node. Left click and hold your mouse on the green output tab of your first node and connect it to the purple input tab on your second node. Now the second node will come after the first one.
Name this node Who is That? and use the description, "As you sit down next to the fire, you hear a strange groan. A moment later a man stumbles out of the forest and blinks at you. He seems confused but mostly harmless."
Select the picture Brevik-Forest.

Now let us test our masterpiece. Click the X on the upper right.
Now SAVE and OVERWRITE.
On the upper right menu choose MAIN MENU.
Find your game and campaign and start it.
If things have gone well you will find a thrilling two screen adventure!
Talk To Me
Go back into your game, choose edit graph and Biscuit.
Now ADD NODE and pick DIALOGUE GRAPH. As before drag it a bit to the right of your other two nodes and connect node 2 to node 3.
Click on your Dialogue Graph and give it a name like 'Rumpled Man'.
Give it a description like 'He looks at you and blinks repeatedly. He is either sending out high speed morse code or he has been eating the wacky shrooms again.'
Pick a picture. I went with Brevik-Forest again which won't win any style points, but we are pretty limited.
Double Click on 'Rumpled Man' or whatever you name this node.
A new graph paper appears.
ADD NODE DIALOGUE.
Under SPEAKER select BREVIK.
Type in some sterling dialogue like 'Biscuit!'
On the right under the sound editing window thingie choose SELECT and pick 'Brevik Sad Whine'.

Add 2 mode dialogue nodes to the right of 'Biscuit!'. Stack one a bit higher up than the other. We are going to cleverly have 2 dialogue choices for the player! Connect the green output tab to first one and then the other of the 2 new green input tabs.

Click on the top node and by SELECTION TYPE pick PARTY LEADER.
Add DIALOGUE, 'What are you on about?'
For the sound pick 'Zanfadel Hum Questioning'.

Click on the bottom node and again pick Party Leader.
Type 'I'm kind of hungry too!'
For the sound pick 'Zinfandel Agree Uncertain'.

Add another dialogue node and connect both outputs to the input of this node.
Pick Speaker Brevik.
Have him say 'Please, Please find my Biscuit!"
Give him the 'Brevik Plead' sound.

X out, save and try it again. Did you get a thrilling dialogue where the player had the illusion of making a choice that mattered remotely?
Chose Me!
Go back into the Edit Graph and Double Click on 'Biscuit!'.

Now we are going to add 3, count them 3, Story Nodes. The should be nicely stacked with the first one up high, the second one center next to the dialogue node we just did and the last one below the other two. Now connect the dialogue node output to all three inputs.

Name the top story node 'Ignore'.
Description, 'Forget the crazy man. you take a much needed nap.'
Picture, Bedroll Sleep.
Sound, Snore.

Name the middle story node 'Help'.
Description, 'Mission accepted! You are off to fight your way through hordes of monsters to assist this needy fellow mostly human.'
Picture, Forest Path.
Sound, Walk Away Gravel.

Name the bottom story node 'Ask More Questions'
Description, 'Maybe actually knowing what you are doing is the better part of valor.'
Picture, Q Mark Smoke
Sound, Mandolin Silly.

Whew now we have a lot of choices. X, test, etc...
More to follow
If I figure out anything like flags, victory and the agony of de feet, etc... this guide, so called, will continue.
4 Comments
Lanosa 3 Apr, 2021 @ 10:21am 
It's a nice starting for an adventure. This guide just need some type of nodes:
1. Fight (a node which will take the player to a map where they need fight enemies with their party)
2. Challenge (a node which will make the player roll the 20-sided dice) and, after that, a node for success, and another for failure.
sam_hdude526 9 Nov, 2020 @ 10:37pm 
This was a great start the only problem was some things have become outdated, for example, you don't need to save and quit out of the creator any more, you now have an option in the right click menu to "Save and Run" which saves the adventure, runs it (with the last party you had if it can based on the created adventure) and then when test run is done takes you back to the creator.
DocStockman 19 Aug, 2020 @ 3:01pm 
Outstanding, can't wait to get some time and play around with making my own campaign for my son to play!
xX[NEMO]Xx 19 Aug, 2020 @ 12:19am 
Excellent start. Just what I was looking for to get me going.