🕹️ Where to Play
Original Platform
Overview
Ian Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon is an action-adventure video game developed by Asylum Studios and published by Eidos Interactive for PlayStation. It is based on the adventure gamebook of the same name (the sixth in the Fighting Fantasy series) written by Ian Livingstone, and published by Puffin Books in 1984.
Trivia & Facts
Though the game's 3D engine is very similar to that of Tomb Raider, another Eidos-published game with a development cycle which overlapped that of Deathtrap Dungeon, the two games were developed in isolation.
Livingstone said the character Red Lotus was created as "a combination of all the girls who have caught my eye over the past 20 years.
Comic books have had a big influence on her creation." Deathtrap Dungeon was first publicly shown at E3 1996.
Overall, there are only three words for this game – bad, bad, bad." Edge said the PlayStation version "isn't going to seriously challenge Tomb Raider 2s dominance of this genre, but it is a solid, playable and well-designed fantasy romp that will at least pass the time until Lara Croft's next appearance", and later said that the PC version was "certainly worthy of attention".
Ian Livingstone was heavily involved in determining the game's level design and art style.
The aesthetics and atmosphere are manifestly inspired by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose ruins drawings fascinated Ian Livingstone.