Minecraft Dungeons

Unlike Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons does not feature mining or building. Instead, it is a hack and slash-styled dungeon crawler, rendered from an isometric perspective. Players venture through procedurally generated and hand crafted dungeons filled with randomly-generated monsters and also deal with traps, puzzles, bosses and finding treasure. Areas are divided into levels rather than being open world.

There is no class system; players can use any weapon or armor they wish. The game includes four-player local and online multiplayer.

Minecraft Dungeons is set in the same fictional world as Minecraft, known as the "Overworld". It consists of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes referred to as "blocks"—representing various materials, and is inhabited by both peaceful and hostile mobs. Unlike Minecraft, the game features a linear, story-driven campaign and cutscenes.

The opening cutscene tells the story of an Illager named Archie, who was driven away by his people. While searching for a new home, he was forced to leave every village he found due to the Villagers being scared of him. One day, Archie stumbled upon a powerful artifact known as the Orb of Dominance, which granted him magic powers but also corrupted him. Now known as the "Arch-Illager", he sought vengeance on all those who wronged him, and subjugated numerous villages with his newly acquired army, composed of creatures such as Redstone Golems, other Illagers, and Pillagers.

Minecraft Dungeons was developed by Mojang Studios for the Xbox One, Windows 10, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch using Unreal Engine 4. Console ports were done by Double Eleven.

With the continued success of the original Minecraft, Mojang thought about other possible games that could bring something new to the Minecraft universe. Experimenting with different ideas, the game was originally meant to be a single-player dungeon crawler, inspired by The Legend of Zelda series, for the Nintendo 3DS. However, as the game began to take shape, these elements were changed or removed. For example, after adding in multiplayer features, the development team realized that these changes made the game more fun. According to game director Måns Olsen, the game was inspired by Diablo and Torchlight, as well as co-operative first-person shooters like Warhammer: The End Times – Vermintide and Left 4 Dead.

Minecraft Dungeons received mixed to positive reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received fair approval, being recommended by 47% of critics. Critics generally found the game fun and charming, complimenting its visuals and music. Some were divided on Dungeons' simplicity and the procedural generation system used to generate loot and dungeon layouts.

Most reviewers were critical of the game's short story mode and perceived lack of depth. Shacknews called it "a fun, laid back dungeon crawler for friends to get into."