Interview with Aleksandar Saranac - Dungeons of Light and Darkness

Hello! Welcome back to the PNP News! This post is part of a series of interview that I'll be conducting with game designers who are participating in board game design contests on Board Game Geek. Today, I'll be interviewing Aleksandar Saranac who designed the game Dungeons of Light and Darkness for The 2016 Solitaire Print and Play Design Contest.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your gaming history?
I am solo gamer - playing solo bordgames, wargames and RPG. I keep the blog about my gaming that can be checked at this link: www.battreps.blogspot.com. As I have PHD in Statistical Process Control, I am the one good at designing mathematics for the games. I guaranty that my games are balanced. Graphic, on the other hand, is my week side.

What is your favorite PNP game?
I play a lot PNP games. This includes Civilization in my pocket, Inspector Moss 2: House Arrest, Micro Rome, The Lord of the Rings: The Adventure Deck Card Game, etc.

How did you first discover PNP design contests?
I can't remember. I participated at the first Solitaire PNP contest in 2011, and from then on I am entering my games to the contest every second year more or less.

Could you describe your game from a thematic point of view?
Dungeons of Light and Darkness is a dungeon crawler. Your explorer will enter ever-changing underground labyrinth in the search of the Fountain of Knowledge. Labyrinth is basically empty - there are no monster in it, no traps. But light and darkness within it play tricks on explorer's mind, enough to drive him mad and forever lost.



Could you describe your game from a game mechanics point of view?
Dungeons of Light and Darkness is push your luck dice and tiles placement game. You roll the dice and use the results rolled to place new tiles to the dungeon or to turn the light on in some dark part of the dungeon. But if the luck is not on your side, you will be left with the odd dice that will bring darkness your way, and you will have to move around or you will be forever lost in the underground.... There are some similarities to game Escape: Curse of the Temple, but only to a certain point...

What were your design goals with the game?
As I have already mentioned above, the initial idea for the game came to me after playing Escape: Curse of the Temple. Actually, I didn't like that game so I wanted to design something with the same theme and similar mechanics that will better suit the style of a game I would like to play.

How long have you been working on your game?
I started working on this game in April this year. I was able to create components rather quickly thanks to the great free on-line Pyromancers.com Dungeon Painter software. This solved my graphic knowledge issue.

Finish the sentence: “If you like , then you’ll probably like my game” and perhaps let us know, what the similarities and differences are.
Inspector Moss 2: House Arrest, winner of the 2011 contest. Theme and game-play are different, but it falls under the same dice and tiles placement mechanics.

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