Dungeon block outs (Patreon)

Mostly just working on the layouts and a few extra rooms for these 2 dungeons.  The top image is going to be the frog's lair and the bottom image is going to be one of the mines in the hills bordering the swamp.  

I'm trying to figure out a bunch of stuff with the frog dungeon.  Like seeing if a grid based tileset structure can feel like it has enough variation and not feel like it's the same few rooms copy pasted everywhere.  So far it's been a lot faster to plan and assemble the layout.  Dropping in rooms and hallways is really faster and easy and there isn't the worry of scaling and rotating rocks and pieces to make sure all the gaps in the walls are filled.  But it also doesn't have the same "organic" feel as assembling caves from large individually scaled and placed rock chunks.  

The plan is also to script out a number of events and triggers for the frog dungeon.  The usual stuff where a gate slams down over the doorway the player just entered through and the lights dim right before an encounter.  

Oh the other dungeon related thing, I've been going back and playing a bit of Daggerfall and looking at their dungeons and the dungeons in Morrowind.  I kind of like how it's possible to get lost and turned around in them?  I think something was sort of lost in the move to Skyrim like dungeons where the path is mostly linear and loops back to the entrance.  Don't get me wrong though, this design is super convenient and respects the players' time very well.  But dungeons don't have that same massive feeling from earlier games.  

So what I'm thinking so far is that I'll keep the main "required" sections of a dungeon straightforward, relatively well lit, and with a clear path.  For player's that don't want to get lost or turned around, or need to carry a torch or have a spell for light, or have a pencil and paper nearby to map things out.  But then there can be a chunk of the dungeon that if the player really wants to dig in and explore there will be winding confusing dark tunnels and multiple levels with no clearly defined end point.  There might be lore elements tucked away but I'm thinking these deeper dungeon areas will be mostly exploration and combat focused and won't have any primary story elements in them.  

This also brings up the question of back tracking through the dungeon.  I was thinking of adding something like scrolls of town portal from Diablo or Almsivi intervention from Morrowind.  Spells and scrolls that if the player does get lost or is pressed for time they can have a spell that will teleport them to town.  This also sort of lets the player decide on their level of "toughness" for dungeon delving because then they won't necessarily have to carry those spells or scrolls.  

Yeah, so just some initial thoughts for dungeons.  The plan is to extend the frog dungeon down a few levels and test out these ideas and see what people think and see how time consuming they are to make.