Playable Palworld parody, “Buddyland”, to feature in Let’s Build a Dungeon

Have you always wanted to be sued by a legendary video game developer? Well, now you can, in one of two new modes announced for forthcoming game development management simulator Let’s Build a Dungeon. As part of Summer Game Fest’s Southeast Asian Games Showcase, developer Springloaded announced two modes, one of which will definitely raise eyebrows.

The first of the two announcements is Just Build Mode. Just Build Mode strips away the management simulation from Let’s Build a Dungeon and streamlines the experience. In the default game, players will deal with the stressful realities of game development. Alongside their game design pursuits, they need to handle everything from staffing to marketing to ensure their team stays afloat.

Just Build Mode removes those ‘real world’ problems, letting you and three friends focus on the creative elements. But this isn’t a god mode. Just Build Mode features a deck-building mechanic, where you vote on what new assets become available as development progresses. Limitless creativity can certainly be enjoyable, but these guardrails seem to aim to offer some structure to what would typically be a freeform mode.

The tools available here look quite powerful, and it’ll be interesting to see how elaborate the in-game games can become. Given that the management genre is divisive, I think for plenty of players this will be their primary mode. Either way, I can imagine the right group of friends having a great time approving predatory DLC over free updates for their hordes of virtual players.

The other mode Springloaded revealed is certainly on the stranger side.

In Let’s Build a Dungeon’s campaign, you’ll be asked whether or not to pursue a pitch to create Buddyland. Buddyland is, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, a crafting-focused monster-catching survival game with guns. Developing Buddyland comes with the risk of legal action, which could spell disaster for your budding independent studio.

While there are no points for guessing what might have inspired Springloaded here, although they claim any resemblance is purely coincidental, this isn’t just a marketing gag. Buddyland will be playable within Let’s Build a Dungeon. Given the short snippet shown in the trailer, it looks to be quite a fleshed-out experience to boot. Springloaded is certainly brave to poke the Ursaring, given the ongoing real legal dispute between Palworld developer Pocketpair and Nintendo.

Let’s Build a Dungeon is set to release on PC and Xbox, but if you can’t wait to try the wonderful (and stressful) world of game development, a demo is available now.