Dungeon Maker

Dungeon Maker (known as Master of the Monster Lair in North America) is a dungeon-crawling RPG where you play as Owen, a 12-year-old boy who finds a talking magic shovel and must design a dungeon to lure monsters away from his town South Arc. Gameplay involves creating and expanding dungeon layouts with rooms, passages, traps, and spawns in a grid-based editor, then entering the dungeon each day to fight incoming monsters in turn-based battles (up to three foes per encounter) using your party of Owen, Gloop the slime, and Kate. Defeat monsters to gain loot, craft food recipes for leveling up attributes, and defend the city from a Devil Prince's invasion. The story is light-hearted with cute characters, absurd humor, and monster-hunting adventure; what makes it stand out is the unique dungeon-building mechanic allowing players to customize their lair for strategic monster attraction and endless replayability on the Nintendo DS.