Dungeon Architect

"The heroes returned. Again. I've scheduled a performance review." — Gerald, Skeleton MBA, Dungeon Operations Division

You are the villain. Heroes raid your dungeon to steal your treasure — place traps and monsters to stop them, then kill them on the way out before they escape with the gold. 14 waves, 3 difficulty settings, 11 hero types, and 16 defensive tools. Fully local, single-player, no internet required.

How the Game Works

The dungeon has a looping path: heroes enter through the gate on the left, wind through the dungeon to the treasure vault on the right, grab the gold, then follow the return corridor back to the entrance. They only truly escape after completing the full loop. You have to stop them on both legs of the trip.

Difficulty

Choose from three difficulty settings on the main menu before starting. Wave 1 is identical across all three — the gap opens from wave 4 onward and becomes dramatic in the final waves.

Plan Phase

• Select a tool from the left sidebar, left-click a tile to place it
• On-path tools (spikes, boulders, doors, lava) go on the lit stone corridor
• Towers and monsters go on empty tiles beside the path — they attack automatically by range
• Hover over any tower to preview its attack radius
• Right-click a placed tile to sell it for a 50% refund
• Hit ⚔ Send Them In when ready

Wave Phase

• Heroes spawn one at a time, staggered 1.5 seconds apart
• When a hero reaches the treasure vault they grab the gold — watch for the 💰 indicator
• You can still place and sell tiles during the wave — react as you watch
• Kill a gold-carrying hero for a +25g bonus on top of their normal value
• Gerald provides commentary. He has opinions about your performance.

Results Phase

• Review how many heroes escaped with gold (the metric that matters)
• Pick one of three upgrade cards: unlock a new tool or take bonus gold
• Upgrade card gold scales with wave number (80g on wave 1, up to 200g+ on wave 14)
• If the treasure HP hits zero mid-wave, the wave ends immediately

Hero Classes

Heroes scale in HP every wave via the hpMult system — wave 1 is the baseline, later waves multiply base HP. Values below are base HP (wave 1).

Tier 1 — Waves 1–7

Tier 2 — Waves 8–10

Tier 3 — Waves 11–13

Tier 4 — Wave 14

Your Arsenal

Defenses persist between waves — you're building the dungeon over all 14 waves. Unlocked-at-start tools are available immediately; Tier 2 tools unlock via upgrade cards.

On-Path Traps

Placed on the corridor — heroes walk directly over them.

Off-Path Towers & Monsters

Placed beside the path — attack automatically by range.

Unlocked at start

Tier 2 — unlocked via upgrade cards

Synergies Worth Knowing

Ice → anything with slow damage — ice slows a hero so every nearby tower gets extra attack windows.

Iron Door → Spike / Lava / Dart cluster — heroes slow to 40% inside, spending far longer in the kill zone.

Cursed Idol → everything — place an idol early so all downstream towers deal 45% extra damage to cursed heroes.

Shadow Stalker + Gargoyle — the stalker doubles damage on returning gold carriers; the gargoyle always targets the most advanced one. Cover the return corridor with these two and gold rarely makes it out.

Vampire Bat + Cleric/Paladin counter — a bat drains max HP so healer effectiveness shrinks each second. Pairs with towers that deal sustained DPS.

Cave Troll + chokepoints — the troll hits everyone in range simultaneously. Place near doors so a full group bunches up together.

All 14 Waves

Tech Stack

Project Structure

src/
├── game/
│   ├── constants.js      All game data: tiles, tools, heroes, waves, difficulties, path
│   ├── simulation.js     Per-tick hero movement, trap/tower/status interactions
│   ├── sprites.js        Animated draw functions for every hero and tile type
│   └── pathfinding.js    A* with per-hero terrain weights (used for plan-phase preview)
├── store/
│   └── gameStore.js      Zustand store — state, actions, simulation loop, difficulty system
└── components/
    ├── App.jsx            Phase router (Menu → Plan/Wave → Results → Victory)
    ├── MainMenu.jsx       Title screen with difficulty card selector
    ├── GameScreen.jsx     Main layout: HUD + grid + sidebars
    ├── DungeonGrid.jsx    Canvas renderer + mouse handlers
    ├── ToolPalette.jsx    Left sidebar: tool selection
    ├── BattleLog.jsx      Wave sidebar: hero HP bars, event log, Gerald commentary
    ├── HUD.jsx            Top bar: gold, treasure HP, wave counter, difficulty badge
    ├── ResultsScreen.jsx  Post-wave summary + upgrade card selection
    └── VictoryScreen.jsx  Final screen after completing all 14 waves