dungeon.club — Digital Aesthetic Direction
This document captures the shift from the analog/binder aesthetic (see rpg-loyalty-system-creative-direction) toward the new dungeon.club brand identity: a computer-terminal, early-internet, virtual-world feel. These influences inform the product name, tone, copy conventions, and UI language.
Brand Name
dungeon.club — stylized lowercase, dot included. The dot is load-bearing. It signals a domain, a filesystem, a protocol. Not a loyalty program. A place you log into.
Aesthetic References
.dungeon (John Battle / snow)
Source: https://snowttrpg.itch.io/dotdungeon
A tabletop RPG written and formatted like a filesystem. Section headings are filenames: Welcome.txt, Connection.status, Game_over.exe, Do_something_cool.info. Underscores replace spaces. Extensions signal function: .txt for lore, .exe for actions, .dll for abilities, .info for reference, .status for state.
What to capture:
- File-system naming for UI sections and page titles. “Character Sheet” becomes
char_sheet.info. “Quest Log” becomesquest_log.txt. “Adventure Log” becomesadventure_log.txt. - The
.prefix (.dungeon,dungeon.club) as an intentional, computer-native naming choice — like hidden directories, like protocols, like domains. It’s not decorative. - Minimal, high-contrast layout. White background, black text, thin rules. No gradients, no drop shadows, no decorative chrome.
- The game feels like it lives inside a computer, not on a table.
Guilded Youth (Jim Munroe)
Sources:
- https://jimmunroe.net/games/guilded-youth-a-text-game-with-ascii-animation.html
- https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=1dytdvtbgxuwfx0h
A text adventure about teenagers hanging out in an online BBS dungeon in the early 1990s. ASCII animation. A “pretty green monochrome” BBS interface inside a contemporary frame. The game is about presence, community, and the feeling of a place that lives in a computer.
What to capture:
- The emotional register: earnest, melancholic, warm. Not ironic retro. Genuinely about what it felt like to have a place online.
- The BBS/terminal palette: soft greens, monochrome, high contrast. Can inform dark mode, kiosk mode, or accent color choices.
- The restraint of interaction: simple commands, limited options, clarity over density.
- The dual-layer structure: a retro skin over a contemporary system. The kiosk especially should feel like logging into a terminal.
Naming Conventions
These conventions apply to UI copy, page names, and section headers — not to code identifiers or URL paths.
| Old | New |
|---|---|
| Dungeon Books Guild | dungeon.club |
| Join the Guild | join dungeon.club |
| Welcome to the Guild | welcome to dungeon.club |
| Guild Hall | the hall / guild_hall.info (TBD) |
| guild card | member card / dungeon.club card |
| Character Sheet | char_sheet.info |
| Quest Log | quest_log.txt |
| Adventure Log | adventure_log.txt |
The .dungeon file extension convention is an option for section headers and empty-state labels — use sparingly and only where it adds flavor without confusion.
What This Is Not
- Not ASCII art everywhere. The references use ASCII strategically (animation moments, kiosk idle screen), not as wallpaper.
- Not monospace body text. The pixel font and terminal feel belong in headers, labels, and kiosk UI — not paragraphs.
- Not a complete departure from the analog/binder direction. That layer still informs the content (character sheets, stat blocks, quest boards). The computer aesthetic is the container — the game world is a virtual dungeon you log into, and the binder lives inside it.
Synthesis
dungeon.club is a place you log into. The store is the guildhall; the app is the terminal you use to access it. The aesthetic speaks computer (domains, filenames, protocols, terminals) but the content speaks fantasy (classes, quests, character sheets, levels). The tension is the point — it’s a dungeon that runs on a server.