PAX Aus 2024 Highlight: Matchmaker: Dungeon Heart

Puzzles and queer romance are things I and the rest of the Checkpoint team obviously adore, so Matchmaker: Dungeon Heart, a Match 3 Dating Sim, is a game that caught our attention at PAX Aus. We visited Ghost Moth, the devs behind Matchmaker: Dungeon Heart during PAX 2023 and were excited to chat with them during PAX this year to see what changes have occurred with the game in the last 12 months.

Narratively, Matchmaker: Dungeon Heart sees you play as a character who has died from a great battle to be awoken by a powerful group of creatures called the Lich. Their home, Torkadall, is about to be destroyed by a powerful force and it is up to you to help them grow their forces so that they can defeat the approaching enemy.

To do this, you will have to train the 9 dateable characters using Match 3 game mechanics. The game also provides you with time to get to know these characters and who you want to spend time training. Could it be the huge yet sweet minotaur, or the kind fierce dragon? To find out, Ghost Moth have included a kind of “speed dating” round where you interview and are interviewed by your 9 new friends. You begin as strangers, but with the amount of time and romantic “rendezvous” that you will eventually have with the Lich you will ultimately find your faves and work on building up your connections with them. Will your training sessions turn into kissing sessions? Play your Match 3 board right and they just might!

In regards to the changes that have occurred since the last PAX, the biggest change is that the game was released in Early Access in August of 2024. This was possible due to receiving much-needed funding from Creative Victoria and Screen Australia. What became obvious to me when discussing post-Early Access for Matchmaker: Dungeon Heart, with Haydon Bakker, the game’s designer and programmer, was how open the team is to players about how they are travelling through Early Access.

When you go to the game’s Steam page, you will notice that they are constantly updating players on the patches and changes they have made due to player feedback. Bakker made it clear that they want to be as “transparent as possible” about their Early Access process, even giving players a Roadmap of their Early Access journey. Bakker is also optimising the game for the Steam Deck, something that players have been requesting as the game would work perfectly on a hand-held gaming system.

I was impressed by the way Ghost Moth is so dedicated to listening to their players and making changes based on their feedback. I’m excited to see how the game progresses in Early Access and beyond as it’s come so far in the last 12 months.

Matchmaker: Dungeon Heart is in Early Access and is hoping to release later this year. Check out their Steam page here