I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jeff Dehut, the creator of the dungeon crawling game Pocket Dungeon Quest. Jeff's background in graphic design and photography has helped steer him in his current roles as Game Designer, Artist and Animator - he is a busy man and is even busier since launching the first expansion to PDQ on Kickstarter, Don't Go Alone. Have a look at the interview below!
I started working in Games as an Artist and Animator for a small company who was just getting started in the industry. After about a year and a half they were really struggling and let a bunch of people in their App Dept go, I was one of them. So it was at that point that I started working freelance as a Game Designer and Artist.
Have you always had a passion for table top games?
Oh yes. I have always loved games of all kinds. I was probably more influenced by video games though. I had an original Gameboy and played Tetris quite often. I used to draw ideas I had for board games and video games in my sketchbooks.
How did you come up with the concept for PDQ?
The idea came from thinking about the differences between tabletop games and video games. Since I had just come from designing levels and characters for mobile games I wondered if it was possible to bring video game concepts to a tabletop. It turns out that you can, and it is very enjoyable in my opinion. Also, I have always loved fantasy, and I love drawing cute, cartoony characters. So naturally, when it came time to make a theme for my game that is the direction I chose.
'Don't Go Alone' is your first expansion for PDQ, tell us a little about it.
The whole idea behind Pocket Dungeon Quest is making a play on video game concepts and converting them to work on a tabletop. So, with Don’t Go Alone I wanted to continue that theme. What this expansion is all about is equipping the Heroes of PDQ with better Gear that will aid them as they crawl through the Dungeon in search of the three Relics. Don’t Go Alone also opens up some new gameplay mechanics which will allow me to expand the Pocket Dungeon Quest universe even more in future updates. I have a lot of ideas and I hope I get a chance to implement them!
Your illustrations for PDQ are great, did you have any artistic influences when you studied as a Graphic Designer that inspired you to create these images?
Growing up I loved comic books and cartoons. Batman was my all-time favorite hero, so I was definitely influenced by those types of things. I wouldn’t really nail down a specific artist that I always looked to. I had a lot of really great teachers going through Highschool and College that really helped shape my technique and style. I think my education in Graphic Design really helped me to see my illustrations in their most simple forms and really brought out the cartoony aspects even more.
Do you have a favourite hero to play as in PDQ or a favourite monster?
I love playing PDQ with all of the Heroes for different reasons. My favorite Hero to draw is by far the Warrior, though the Archer is a close second. I love their costumes in particular and usually play around with drawing them in different ways. Haha, my favorite Monster is one that isn’t in the game…yet. He is coming in Don’t Go Alone as an added Monster Pack. He is a play on the Beholder from DnD and he’s just so cute!
What are your favourite games of all time?
Oh boy. There are so many. Tabletop games; Smallworld, Catan, 7 Wonders, Power Grid, King of Tokyo, then classics like Water Works, Chinese Checkers, many Playing Card games. As far as video games go; Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls games, Borderlands 2, Diablo 3, and I could go on because I am always finding new games that are great for different reasons.
How was your experience at Gen Con 2015?
GenCon was amazing. I got to meet the team from AdMagic who are my manufacturers. They are a great bunch of cool people, and very helpful to someone just getting started in the Indie Board Game industry. I was demoing my game pretty much the whole time so I didn’t get to walk around and see too much, but what I did see was very impressive. Lots of great cosplay costumes, lots of great games, and just a bunch of great people having a good time playing great games.
If you had to go delving in a dungeon, what three items would you bring along, and why?
A torch to see by, a sword to swing at all those monsters, and a nice leather purse for all the precious gems I would find. (:
Jeff Dehut
Thanks, Jeff! You can check out the Kickstarter for Don't Go Alone here
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