Hinterberg, a town in the Alps, had been a beautiful, if quiet, tourist destination before the appearance of 25 magical dungeons made it a world-renowned attraction. “We love when games give you interesting places to explore, places that feel real and that you can make your home for a while,” Microbird Games explains. “From the start, we wanted to make something that has a lot of classical ARPG elements but is set in a place that’s grounded in reality. We felt that the central European Alps are also an interesting vacation destination that not everybody might be able to go to, so we really liked the idea of our game offering a holiday experience there.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg splits its days into four parts: morning, noon, evening, and night. Within those portions, you do everything from exploring dungeons and battling monsters to solving puzzles and building relationships. It’s an interesting mix, not to mention the contrast between the relaxing vacation theme and the action-packed schedule available, but as we found in our own experience with the game, these disparate parts meld together very nicely. “Dungeons of Hinterberg is indeed a relatively large game for a team of nine people. It was always particularly important to us that all parts of the game should fit together in a meaningful way, and that the overall experience is not only meaningful, but above all else, fun!” Microbird Games says.
“For example, we paid a lot of attention to ensuring that all magical abilities can be used for both combat and puzzles. The rewards you get when forging friendships with other characters all influence the dungeon crawling aspect in a meaningful way — for example, you might get new skills, unique items, or unlock small gameplay systems. If a dungeon ever feels too challenging, you might consider spending some more time socializing, and unlocking some helpful abilities that way. It was definitely a challenge to connect all these aspects and to tweak and iterate until it was all working together, but I think it definitely adds a ton of depth and also fun to the finished game!”
You have four biomes to choose from when deciding where to spend your afternoons. “Each of them comes with its own distinct visuals and vibe, but they also each offer different sets of spells that the player can only use in that particular environment,” Microbird Games explains. “It was important to us that the spells work great for both combat and for puzzles and that they feel different from biome to biome. For instance, the alpine mountain pasture environment comes with dungeons that are mine-themed, and the spells that go along with that are a very heavy exploding wrecking ball and a metal ball and chain. Whereas in the forest, your spells are wind-themed, such as a controllable whirlwind with which you can pick up objects or yourself.”
Microbird Games continues, adding, “But we also really like to shake up the game’s mechanics in some dungeons quite a bit — for example, one of our later dungeons is loosely inspired by ‘Monument Valley’ and will have you figure out how to reconfigure rooms with variable gravity in an almost Escher-style isometric perspective.”
In the game, Hinterberg sees an influx of tourists and adventurers after the appearance of dungeons and magic, including “professional slayers, influencers, and casual tourists that are looking for a family-friendly opportunity to slay some monsters. There’s also the locals, some of which are excited for their town to be the center of everyone’s attention, while others have a more critical view of mass tourism.” Of all these, there are over 15 NPCs who we can work on building relationships with — as Microbird Games says, “way more than will fit into a typical playthrough, so you’ll have to decide who you want to hang out with, either based on how you like them or on what perks you’ll get for deepening your friendships with them. Relationship rewards can range from stat upgrades like more HP or dodge stamina all the way to unlocking entire gameplay systems, such as armor upgrades, the photo mode, or a combo counter.”
If you’re wondering how Dungeons of Hinterberg’s time portions work, Microbird Games has explained it in full: “Every morning you start with a breakfast on your terrace, and pick which biome you want to go to today. Every biome has about 5-7 dungeons. Not all are accessible from the start, and the game is rather non-linear in this aspect: players will have freedom to pick which dungeon to enter next, and will find themselves returning to previously visited biomes as they see fit.” In the afternoons, you head to one of these overworld biomes, where you can explore, chat to NPCs, and relax at one of the game’s lovely scenic spots (which also help improve some of your stats). Then, of course, there are the dungeons themselves, packed full of monsters, puzzles, and loot.
In the evening, you head back to Hinterberg, to shop, make upgrade to your gear, or sell what you’ve found, before picking your main activity for the evening. “If you feel like relaxing on your own, there are also many options, including a boat ride, spa, or cinema visit, that will boost your stats. Back in your hotel room for the night, you will have some time to think about the day’s experiences, and maybe watch some TV or enjoy a good book before going to bed — just make sure you have enough energy to tackle the next day!”
The gorgeous village of Hinterberg itself was inspired by Austrian towns that the team visited between 2020 and 2021 when brainstorming the game. “Places like Hallstatt, which is so picturesque that the Chinese have actually created a life-sized copy of the town in Guangdong; or Bad Gastein, which is layered into a mountain much like Hinterberg, and whose grand hotels ooze with old monarchy charm.”
Dungeons of Hinterberg’s eye-catching visual style, meanwhile, easily stands out in all the trailers and images shown before launch. “Founders Philipp and Regina are both big fans of stylized art in media, be it cell shading in other games like Zelda, or animated movies like Into the Spiderverse,” Microbird Games says. “We also read a bunch of graphic novels and studied the visual styles of various illustrators. For a small studio, it obviously also makes sense for production: working with stylized assets can allow you to use more efficient processes and pipelines.
“For Dungeons of Hinterberg, our main goal was to create expressive worlds: realism or level of detail were less important to us than evoking a certain mood, impression or feeling in the players. A limited but strong color palette is a very helpful design tool as well and also allows us to create very visually distinct biomes and dungeon settings.” This definitely comes across in the game, which has beautiful and striking places to explore, as well as an interesting contrast between a strong feeling of relaxation and the chaotic dungeon exploration.
We loved what we’ve played so far, and you can check out more info about that in our Dungeons of Hinterberg first impressions. If you’re interested in hearing more from the development side, check out what Microbird Games had to say about how Xbox achievements “should never be grindy”.
