D3's next Adventure Time game is a Diablo-inspired dungeon crawler

WayForward Technology's follow-up to last year's Adventure Time game, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW!, is an action adventure dungeon crawler inspired by Diablo, according to its developers.

Made by the same team that worked on 2012's Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage? — an adventure game that often switched into 2D side-scrolling also published by D3 — Explore The Dungeon features a brand new storyline with 3D design, more than 100 dungeons to explore and up to four-player co-operative play.

Speaking to Polygon, Explore The Dungeon's producer Aaron Blean said the game is much bigger than its predecessor and involves more complexity. The game is centered around Candy Kingdom and a secret royal dungeon that Princess Bubblegum uses to hide the worst creatures from the Land of Ooo. When these creatures start to break out of the dungeon, she calls upon Jake and Finn to venture into its depths to find out why and how they are escaping.

Players will be able to take on the role of any of a number of Adventure Time characters. During a demo that Polygon played, we could choose from Jake, Finn, Marceline and Cinnamon Bun, although more characters will be revealed later. The game supports up to four players, and each player will be able to use a character that has different stats and powers, all of which can be tweaked through game tokens.

"Where the first game was strictly a side-scrolling adventure game with a top-down mini-map, kind of like a Zelda 2, this is more of a top-down three-quarter perspective Diablo/Gauntlet-style game," Blean said. "But instead of having this super hardcore 100 hour RPG where you have to min-max everything, we just wanted it to be fun. We also wanted it to have enough meat there so if you were that type of gamer, you could still play it and have the fun you want."

"This is more of a top-down three-quarter perspective Diablo/Gauntlet-style game."

In the demo Polygon played, we were able to spam attacks to get by, but when we employed a bit of strategy and thought about our character's abilities, we were more effective as a team. For example, Cinnamon Bun is a kind of tank character who can take more damage, whereas Marceline is a wizard-like character who can absorb red projectiles from afar. Each character has innate abilities, so when we approached a boss (the Demon Cat with the power of approximate knowledge), we were able to assign Marceline to the enemy's tail because it was shooting out red beams, while the melee characters approached it from the front and sides.

Each character also has an Imagination Meter which, when filled up, can be used for special attacks. Some characters' special attacks wipe the screen of enemies, while others — like Cinnamon Bun — drop food items all over the screen, which could then be picked up by teammates and used to restore health.

"We've got characters who are tanks, we've got a character who shoots projectiles, we've got melee characters and wizard-like characters, and if you play Diablo a lot you will able to spot it — you'll see the strategy and get it right away," said game director Tomm Hulett. "But if you're not into that, you can just get in there and have fun with Adventure Time."

Players will traverse more than 100 different dungeons and there will be several environment types, ranging from the typical gritty dungeon to an ice dungeon to one made of ancient ruins.

Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Windows PC and 3DS this fall.