10-year-old Angelos Mako loved Dungeon Rampage, a simple Facebook game that had the player hack and slash their way through procedurally-generated dungeons. Fun as it was, it distracted him from troubles at home and offered an escape—until it was unceremoniously shut down. Unlike traditional games, those played on social media platforms are designed to be ephemeral money-makers, and often disappear when maintenance costs outweigh revenue. But did Mako move on? He did not.
He spoke with Jason Yeung, the original creative director, who said that the attempt to remake Dungeon Rampage was a cool project, but that he needed to speak with Mike Goslin, who had run Rebel Entertainment, the original Dungeon Rampage developer. One thing led to another: He spoke to Goslin on the phone, who then introduced him to the CEO of the parent company—and he got his license agreement.
Mako was ecstatic. Only one thing brought him back to earth: "Because I started from scratch again, we didn't really have a game," he says. So he talked with all the developers of the original game that he could find. The original lead artist got him some art source files. But no one seemed to have the code.
He spent eight years dreaming, researching, organizing fans and ultimately getting the rights to Dungeon Rampage from its original creators, and is now relaunching it. It's in early access at Steam.
"Because Dungeon Rampage is an older game (it launched on Facebook in 2012), it needs to be updated to 2025 standards. The core issue we're focusing on is rebalancing the game's progression system from the original freemium model to a one-time purchase. This means the game needs to feel complete, fair, and fully enjoyable without relying on artificial difficulty spikes and punishing paywall mechanics. In order to find that balance, community feedback from Early Access is essential – and will allow us to launch sooner than if we were working alone."
That pairing—"faithful to the original while replacing all the money-muching stuff with a normal progression model"—sounds like an excellent design pattern.
Previously: Old Adobe Flash games preserved by Flashpoint Archive
