Quest Master is a dungeon maker game inspired by the classic Zelda formula that lets you create your own exciting dungeon. Read our review of its early-access build to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Everything We Know About Quest Master
Quest Master Story Plot
In a land far away is the rich kingdom of Aetheria, blessed with serene landscapes and lush full of resources. Underneath its gorgeous exterior lies the Aetherial Veins, conduits of magical energy that extend throughout all corners of the planet. These pockets of mystical power contribute to the existence of the Great Barrier, a magic shield protecting the entire realm from plunging into darkness. However, the fate of the planet and its inhabitants are threatened when a mysterious toxin begins to corrupt these very veins, and monsters start to appear all over the land, sending fear to all of its citizens.
Budding dungeoneers will take on the boots of Lanze, a novice Quest Master who is tasked with creating dungeons in order to protect the kingdom. He is joined by Princess Javelynn and The Rabbit Thief Shiv on an exciting, dungeon-packed adventure to save the world from ultimate destruction.
Quest Master Gameplay
There are two types of gameplay featured in Quest Master. First and foremost is its bread and butter, the dungeon creator mechanic. Unleash your imagination and create numerous dungeons to your liking, ranging from simple and easy to clear to intricate and challenging ones that require some extra thinking to solve.
The dungeon floor is your canvas that stretches endlessly—feel free to add as many additional floors as you desire, or make them as large as possible. And with over seven dungeon themes to choose from as well as a broad palette of interactive items, enemies, puzzle pieces, and decorations to place, not one dungeon will look exactly the same.
Additionally, players can even share their creations for other Quest Masters to play on the in-game public dungeon board, and vice versa.
With that said—you don’t only get to create dungeons to your heart’s content, but also play through them! Quest Masters are not only dungeon masters, but dungeon crawlers too. Slash, boomerang, magic, or bomb your way through enemies and puzzles that dare stand in your way. Test your mettle by traversing through player-built dungeons in either solo play or through local co-op with up to three friends.
While not out dungeon crawling, you can take a break and head on over to the heart of Aetherian Kingdom, Castle Town. Participate in various side-activities and mini-games such as testing your luck with Lucky’s Locks, tending and growing pets over with Gabi, grab some goodies with Papa Claus, honing your skills at the dojo with Master Vu, or have some skill-improving equipment appraised by Gemini.
Quest Master Release Date
Released on May 29th, 2024, Quest Master is now available to be purchased in Early Access on Steam for $19.99 USD. As an Early Access title, it is still in ongoing development. However, the game is set for a Spring 2025 Version 1.0 release, so stay tuned for more updates!
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 Steam |
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| $19.99 |
Quest Master Review [Early Access]
The Indie Zelda That Keeps On Giving
While I’m not often into games such as this, I like myself a good dungeon crawler whenever the need (or rather, want) arises—but admittedly, I don’t stay very long. Hence, when I picked up Quest Master and gave it a go, I was surprised to see that I spent quite a lot of time on it, entranced by both its dungeon creation mechanics and nostalgia-inducing dungeon crawling gameplay.
A Trip Down Memory Lane With Pixel Art And Zelda Influences
One thing players will immediately notice about Quest Master is that the game is heavily inspired and pays homage to the older Zelda titles, especially A Link to the Past, Minish Cap, and Four Swords Adventure. Emphasis on that heavily inspired—many of its player mechanics outside of dungeon creation are similar to the Zelda titles and other dungeon crawlers that came after it, like Moonlighter. As Lanze (or Javelynn or Shiv), you can simply slash your sword, or hold your attack button to charge a powerful spin attack. You dodge by rolling, and can even combine that dodge-roll with a quick slash attack to maneuver around well. Once you get other weapons like the boomerang and the staff, it adds more fun to your combat and puzzle-solving routine. And of course, my favorite part of any dungeon—looking for little goodies hidden in breakable items and bushes. There’s a special kind of joy getting those hidden hearts and items. I can assure you I threw or smashed every single bush, pot, and rock I could get my hands on in-game.
The pixel art is wonderful, and it also very much takes notes from the Zelda series. The adorable, slightly big-headed chibi sprites are reminiscent of the Link from earlier titles, and they look great. The NPCs as well look great, and none of them look exactly alike so far—except the guards guarding the castle, but that’s beside the point. It feels like I’m playing a charming retro game that’s reminiscent of Zelda, but still with its own identity rather than just a straight up clone.
Dungeons, Dungeons, Dungeons Galore!
Its bread and butter, the dungeon creation mechanic, is gorgeous. Even for someone like me with a not-so-creative bone in their body, I had immense fun exploring the level editor and creating my own dungeon, complete with the signals and conditions and what not. For example, you can "program" (in the simplest sense of the word) closed doors to open when all enemies are eliminated from the room, or have a chest fall from the ceiling once you’ve solved the brazier puzzle. There’s a decent variety of choices and items to place in your dungeon, and just enough that you’re not overwhelmed by tons of options. Each interactable item, whether it’s a collectible, a tool, an enemy, or whatnot, can be connected to something else if you set the right conditions. It’s not incredibly hard to do either, and once you get the hang of how things work, everything becomes much more streamlined.
Not only do you create dungeons, but you can also play them! While the dungeon creation aspect is indeed fun even for someone like me who has no penchant for bringing life to creative liberties, I’ll leave those to the experts—the rest of the community! At Early Access, players have access to over 3500(!) community-created dungeons. Some take as short as five minutes to accomplish, while others are incredibly detailed and can only be completed within or over two hours according to their descriptions. There’s no shortage of dungeons to complete in this game, and its player base, albeit small (as an indie game), seems very active. More than using the level editor, I’ve sunk most of my time into my attempts (keyword is attempt) at completing the player-made dungeons. Even with the evidently small catalog of things to put in their dungeons, creative minds really made it work and created something enjoyable and challenging.
A Well-Oiled Machine With Little To No Bugs
Something I would like to point out is that despite being a game where community input is pretty much the backbone, it’s incredibly well-polished. Perhaps one can owe that to the admittedly limited options in terms of interactive items and enemies present, but no matter how crazy you design your dungeon, it all blends together seamlessly. It’s incredibly satisfying to feel like a game developer or designer putting your dungeon together, and then playing it through to see that it’s running smoothly like butter. The level editor is well-integrated into the game, and personally I didn’t run into any problems whether I was building my own dungeon or testing my mettle in another player’s dungeon.
Additionally, according to the game’s roadmap posted on the Steam store page, they’re planning to even include a "full featured overworld maker" which brings the level editor to the surface. It’s exciting to see how much more fleshed out these level editors and upcoming surface editors would be once the full version is released and beyond.
No Trace Of A Plot Just Yet
It looks and feels like a dungeon crawler-RPG, yet for now there’s barely anything about the story and how your dungeon creating activities ties up to anything else in the greater scheme of things; for someone who appreciates a good narrative, I was hoping for even a little lore. I still don’t exactly understand how engineering monster-packed, treasure-filled dungeons will help save the planet from its imminent doom but perhaps those are questions saved for when the single-player campaign is released in the full version.
However, it would have been nice to get a semblance of the game’s world and more about the Kingdom of Aetheria early on, to get a sense of the game’s overall story. I found out that there was a story from the game’s Steam page, but nothing in-game—not one NPC tells you anything, nor are there any books to read despite there being bookshelves. But then again, it’s mainly marketed as a dungeon maker, and not exclusively a linear dungeon crawler.
Learning Everything On Your Own
Another minor gripe I had with the beginning of the game is that there’s basically no tutorial once you start. Upon waking up, Gramma tells you that the Quest Master is asking for you and that you should head on over to the workshop. Once there, he tells you to go get a sword and some fighting skills from Master Vu over at the dojo. Okay, a simple fetch and skill quest—easily accomplished. Upon returning to the Quest Master, you can then finally ask him the golden question; "How can I make my own dungeon?" to which he replies…"Check out the map on the table right next to me!" with joy. Examining the map afterwards just takes you directly to the dungeon creation screen, and you’re left to fare for yourself.
But then again, it’s a minor gripe. There’s fun in blindly playing around with the dungeon builder and subsequently, a sense of accomplishment learning how things are put together as you randomly place things all over your growing dungeon. I’m not going to lie though, I thought there’ll be a little more guidance from the Quest Master himself telling you how to make a dungeon—after all, you’re a NOVICE Quest Master, supposedly tasked to save the world…but I guess the Quest Master job is a long, lonely, and hard one.
Nevertheless, as it is on Early Access and the single-player campaign is still in development, a tutorial session and perhaps a quest log may be in the works for the epic solo journey.
The Best Of Dungeon Crawling And Creating In One—So Far
Even at Early Access, Quest Master is already a well-built game in itself for those who love dungeon crawlers and would be interested in creating their own dungeon masterpiece. I’m not exactly sure how the plot of a looming destruction will come into play with the dungeon-making mechanic, but I’m superbly excited to see how it all ties together once the full version with the single-player campaign and the overworld editor comes in spring of this year. For now, I’ll just have to hone my dungeon crawling skills with the community-made dungeons while eagerly waiting. It looks, feels, and plays like a very promising game with a lot of ambitions based on its roadmap, and I'm looking forward to what they will deliver in the future.
Game8 Reviews
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Quest Master Product Information
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| Title | QUEST MASTER |
|---|---|
| Release Date | May 29, 2024 (Early Access) |
| Developer | Apogee Entertainment, Julian Creutz, Skydevilpalm |
| Publisher | Apogee Entertainment |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Indie |
| Number of Players | 1-3 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Quest Master Website |
