'' is a like a hero, killing monsters and taking the treasures, the player builds the dungeons, recruits the monsters, sets the traps, and fends off the (computer-controlled) heroes that regularly attempt to come in.
The game interface is reminiscent of normal , represented in-game as a hand, to interact with a bar on the left-hand side of the screen, allowing him to select which rooms to build and which spells to cast. Rather uniquely, the player can use the hand to pick up creatures and objects in the dungeon and carry them around, allowing for tactics such as gathering an assault force and dropping off the creatures ''en masse'' once a Beachhead has been established. Giving the player this ability has been criticised for being unrealistic. It removes from the game the strategic element of the player slowly deploying and advancing his forces when he can just pick up and drop his units anywhere on his part of the map at will.
The hand also allows the player to "slap" objects and thereby interact with them: creatures will hurry up when slapped, chickens in a Hatchery will "splat," and some traps will be triggered. Prisoners in the Torture Chamber can thus be treated with a hands-on approach.
The main game view is in isometric perspective. This view can be zoomed and rotated. The player also has the option of possessing one of his creatures, and seeing the dungeon from that creature's first-person perspective.
The map is divided into a grid of (mostly invisible) rectangles: an arbitrary number of monsters can be on any element of the grid, but only one trap or room section. A smaller part of the map is shown as a Minimap in the top left corner of the screen.
The world map demonstrates the programmers' detailed work: at the beginning of the game, the player is allocated one of the 20 regions of a fictional, idyllic country. As the player progresses through these regions (each of which represents a level), the areas previously conquered will appear ransacked, twisted, and evil. On completing the game, the whole map will look like Hell .
The represents the Dungeon Keeper's own life. If it is destroyed, the player loses the level, and must re-start. Along with the heart, the player begins with a small number of and Gem s, set traps, and even attack when desperate or threatened. Slapping the creatures forces them to work faster for a while, but removes some of their health.
Once the Imps are busily working, the player must then set up a basic s, which serve as food for the minions, are bred), and a Treasury for storing gold. After connecting your dungeon to a " Portal ", monsters will arrive. The types of monster that will arrive depends on the rooms you have, and how large they are: the Bile Demon, for example, requires both a Lair and a Hatchery of at least 25 units. As the game progresses, the player moves along a technology tree, unlocking further rooms, such as:
- The Library, wherein certain creatures (most often Warlock s) can conduct research in order to upgrade spells.
- The Workshop, which allows creatures (usually Trolls and Bile Demons) to produce traps and doors.
- The Temple, wherein creatures are sacrificed to the Dark Gods . Different combinations of sacrifices lead to varying outcomes (some will produce positive effects, others ominous omens). Creatures dropped in the temple (though not sacrificed) are cured of Disease, Chicken and Scavenging effects.
- The Training Room, which allows creatures to gain experience, making them stronger and sometimes (depending on the creature type) giving them new spells to be used in combat.
- The Torture Chamber, the favoured room of the Dark Mistress and also a place where captured enemy prisoners may be converted. Also, if a captured enemy is tortured to death, they become ghosts under player control.
- The Graveyard. Imps will drag corpses to this room, where they will decompose. Once enough bodies have broken down, a Vampire will rise.
- The Scavenger Room, vampires work there to scavenge other vampires on the map but if there are no others, the portal attraction rate will go down causing disaster. Any creature may work in the Scavenger room to attract other creatures of their type from enemy Keepers. The other Keepers may also Scavenge creatures off of you.
- The Prison, where enemy creatures will be taken when rendered unconscious in combat' and if an enemy starves in a prison they will serve their captors as skeletons.
The dungeon has a fleshed-out Ecology : some creatures are natural enemies. Flies and Spiders are often found at odds with one another, while a Horned Reaper may randomly attack any creatures in its path. The Horned reaper does have one natural enemy though. If a lord of the land is seen by the Horned reaper, the horned reaper will, without any sort of regard for his allies, or his health, for that matter, rush straight at him. At the same time, warlocks find it incredibly annoying if other races are cashing in on their research time, which often ends up in them attacking.
The goals for each level are fairly straightforward: they generally fall along the lines of eliminating the heroic force or destroying all other Dungeon Keepers on the level.
A game such as ''Dungeon Keeper'' is reliant on its creatures:
- Beetle: This creature will be one of the first inhabitants of the dungeon. As a consequence, it is weak and easily defeated. It is also lazy, spending its free time sleeping or eating.
- Bile Demon: A fat, legless but tough creature that utilises his flatulence and Flail s attached to his horns to attack enemy forces. These creatures will automatically pick fights with Skeletons. The only creature in the game that knows Fart. It is immune to poison gas and cannot be blown by the Whirlwind move due to its extreme weight.
- Dark Mistress: These beings are dressed like Dominatrices and take an extreme delight in attacking their enemies and subsequently torturing them in the torture chambers. Indeed, they will while away spare time using the services of the room on themselves. They don't like Samurais and will fight them if the keeper has converted any samurais to his side.
- Demon Spawn: The "grunt," a basic fighting creature. One of the first monsters available to players; given enough training, it will evolve into a Dragon (on some of the single player levels this transformation is disabled). Picks fights with Hellhounds.
- Dragon: A strong monster with research capabilities and, with training, a wide array of spells.
- Fly: This natural enemy of the Spider will automatically scout any available area, revealing sections of the map to you.
- Ghost: When a victim is killed in the Torture Chamber, they will rise from the dead as this creature. If a Ghost is killed in the Torture Chamber, it will rise from the dead as a Ghost with full health and happiness.
- Hellhound: A lava-resistant two-headed dog that will wander around the dungeon searching for enemies, similar to the Flies. The Hellhound picks fights with Demon Spawn (but not Dragons).
- Horned Reaper (Horny): The strongest monster in the game, but very difficult to manage. The Horned Reaper is a Demon wielding a very large Scythe ; he will pick fights with friends and enemies alike.
- Imp: Unsalaried minions who take no breaks, working ceaselessly to carve out and keep the dungeon working.
- Orc: A monster of average strength with guarding capabilities.
- Skeleton: When a prisoner dies, they rise as a skeleton. These creatures will automatically pick fights with Bile Demons.
- Spider: An Arachnid creature with basic fighting skills that dislikes Flies.
- Tentacle: This creature finds its home in watery areas around the dungeon.
- Troll: A prolific trap and door creator in the workshop, the troll is only mediocre in combat.
- Vampire: A powerful creature that has gained immortality; every time it dies, it returns to its lair, having lost a level. If it is level 1 or 2 when it dies, the death is permanent. Is proficient with both spells and close combat, and has the fastest self-healing in the game at level 10. They do not like Warlocks.
- Warlock: Spell-casting humans with evil intentions. These men research new spells and are also devastating spell-casters, extremely useful in battle when backed up by close-quarter fighters. They do not like Vampires.
Heroes are the natural enemy of the Keeper; often one of your objectives is to defeat and invading Hero force or destroy their Dungeon Heart. Heroes are convertable with the use of the Torture Chamber and the use of healing (either feeding chickens or using the spell Heal), or by using a hidden spell found in some levels.
- Fairy: Extremely weak but with a wide array of spells.
- Giant: Few spells and the slowest creature/hero in the game but also one of the strongest. The Giant relies on the brute force of its club.
- Knight: Once a Lord of the Land is converted to the Keeper's cause, he becomes a Knight. Very strong and a good fighter.
- Sorceress / Priestess: A more well-rounded version of the Fairy, capable of withstanding much more direct combat but with what some would consider to be a weaker array of spells.
- Samurai: A strong, fast and fierce warrior. Will fight Dark Mistresses on sight.
- Thief: Evolves into a Knight once trained past level 10. Otherwise, a fairly weak and pointless hero.
- Archer: A moderately weak hero who fires arrows. Can be hard to defeat due to their propensity to use Speed on themselves and back away whilst firing arrows and spells.
- Wizard: The most proficient spellcaster in the game, these can often take out creatures much stronger than itself owing to being the only creature or hero able to both freeze its opponents and heal itself.
- Barbarian: Good fighter with few skills.
- Avatar: Easily the strongest underling you will ever have, you only ever fight these on the final level. With the attacking strength of a Horned Reaper and a defense more than three times any other creature or hero, and with healing capabilities and freezing spells, its is a formidable opponent, and it is inadvisable to fight an Avatar without a team of at least ten very strong creatures capable of healing. Once killed for the first time he will be resurrected by his hero followers and the Keeper will fight the final battle, where large groups of heroes attack at once, including another Avatar. It is possible to convert the first Avatar instead of killing him, therefore enabling the two Avatars to fight it out while you deal with the rest of the army. Unlike other creatures and heroes, Avatars cannot be killed by boulder traps. The Avatar is, curiously enough, The Avatar (player character) from the '' Ultima '' series; in ''Dungeon Keeper'', his appearance is based on that of the Avatar in '' Ultima VIII ''.
''Dungeon Keeper'' was created when Multiplayer games were fairly young: as such, it does have basic networking capabilities, but is fairly limited as to its options:
It does not feature any kind of multiplayer network mode that can be played over the Internet .
'' is an . It features about 15 new levels and an improved Artificial Intelligence for the enemies.
'''''. It featured an entirely new game engine that natively supported Hardware Acceleration , ''Dungeon Keeper'' (the original) supported Direct3D via an alternative executable, but not out of the box. DK2 also used fully 3D models for the creatures and enemies, rather than sprites.
''
was never actually released. However, on some Dungeon Keeper 2 CDs, there was a trailer showing the features of Dungeon Keeper 3, amongst them above-land battles. One member of Bullfrog stated on his personal website that Dungeon Keeper 3 was going to be named: 'War for the Overworld'. This project was discontinued because (according to Ernest W. Adams one of the developers) Bullfrog had decided not to do any other RTS of any kind. There is also strong speculation at the time (which still continues to this day) as to whether this was a move by Bullfrog or EA.
'' is similar to the ''Dungeon Keeper'' series.
- On full moon days a secret level is available
- Capturing the Lord of the Land brings you a bonus screen after finishing the level
- Hounds aid the decomposition of bodies in a Cemetary
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