Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2015
This Book Is A Dungeon
Developer Nathan Meunier
Auto-cannibalism. Demonic Seduction. Occult Rituals. Bloodfeasting Worms. This dark, horrific Twine-based dungeon crawler pairs edgy interactive fiction with grisly pixel art and light RPG elements. Navigate this sprawling narrative-driven labyrinth bristling with otherworldly doom. From the Steam store page
189 reactions from 1 source (Steam reviews) · newest Oct 4, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
72
Fresh
136 positive · 53 negative
95% range 65–78%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 136 | 53 | 0 |
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
217 of 300 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Mixed reception: praised for writing and atmosphere, but criticised for lack of saving and slow text.
Many players appreciate the game's writing and atmosphere, describing it as a "fantastic little text-based adventure game with a bit of unsettling dark and gloomy theme" (R1) and noting that "the writing is quite good" (R14). The Lovecraftian horror and pixel art are also highlighted as positives (R22, R23). [1][14][22][23]
However, the game is heavily criticised for its lack of saving and checkpoints, with players calling it a chore to play (R34) and noting that no saving/loading means failing/dying isn't fun but a chore (R7). The slow text pacing is also a common complaint, as one player states "the text is so slow and tedious" (R36). [7][34][36]
Praised writing · atmosphere · pixel art
Criticised no saving/checkpoints · slow text pacing · short length
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 8, 2026. Method
Reactions
60 of 189 · most liked firstPROS: *Decent writing *Interesting environments NEUTRAL: *The white background, which is the vast majority of the screen, is blinding. I got a headache while playing this game, but not everyone will have my problem, so I won't count it against the game in my review. CONS: *No music or sound effects *No saving *No skipping text that has already been seen *Short *Pointless combat *No way to know if a choice will lead to death in most cases *Writing is mostly descriptions of the player's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Game Is A Nevrotic Visual Novel Imagine a young-adult horror book where you'd have to wait to read the next sentence. ... ... ... ... ... Annoying? ... ... ... You bet Even better, the game is based on fails and retries, and on restarting, prepare to have to read it all again at that arbitrary pace. No keyboards allowed: to progress through the story requires clicking hyperlinks (sometimes representing decisions; more often just an alternative to what is achieved by pressing the "enter"…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"You're a fool to trust me, Summoner. Now, I simply cannot waste but a single drop of your blood." This Book is a Dungeon (TBIAD) is a fantastic little text-based adventure game with a bit of unsettling dark and gloomy theme. Expect to die, A LOT, in this game and every choice you make seems like a possible bad ending. That doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing since the game encourages you to try again with different paths each time and hopefully brings you closer to the conclusion. I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is baisically a hyper text choose your own adventure, if that means anything to you. If that doesn't mean anything to you: this game is 90% text screens and clicking on text. If you are expecting lots of RPG elements and pixel art, you will be disapointed. If you don't like reading your games, you will be disapointed. If you expect to read some atmospheric prose and chose how to die in a dungeon, you will not be disapointed. It's really pretty decent. I got it from a bundle, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good god, this game really has no respect for your time! Literally none! It has no checkpoint feature despite badly needing one, it has lots of points where you have to wait for text for no reason, battles are a slog despite having basically no actions, and there's no way to fastskip text. Aside from that, it's just not a good game. It's a lot like a text-based adventure game, with two key differences: 1: You can take far less actions than a normal text-based game. 2: There's a lot of very…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lots of reading and no action whatsoever.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you grew up in the 80's, or even the 90's, you may have a nostalgic fondness for Choose Your Own Adventure books, Dungeons & Dragons, and old text-based RPGs that actually made you pull out some pen and paper to draw your own maps. Very few games attempt to rekindle our memories of these much simpler times, but This Book Is A Dungeon is one of them. It's an interactive digital book where you choose the paths you take, and if they lead you to death then you start back at the beginning; or one…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A relatively okay story overshadowed by straight up awful mechanics: There is no saving, crucial to some parts of the game such as in Chapter 4 (the walls painting), where there is a obnoxious amount of text that has to be clicked to advanced, and at the end of the chapter there are 3/4 paths that lead to death, and even after that, even more random death can occur. For a type of a adventure that might seem it would ramificate into distinct endings, without even having to spoiler it, the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wonder... ... ... ... ...if... ... ... ... ...the dev... ... ... ... ...speaks like this... ... ... ... ...in real life? - - - - - I'd rate this game 1 slowly speaking boring teenager horror book out of 10.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: Thumbs up for the effort, while not necessarily for the game itself. This Book Is A Dungeon is essentially someone's first foray into video games. If you've ever written a game in Python, you can probably replicate this game with ease (sans the graphics.) It took me about 2 hours to complete, which, for 59 cents isn't all that bad of a deal. I would have finished it in an hour or less, were it not for the obligatory, unskippable retreading. As a game it's fairly primitive and that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting... Book to read. I was working on thing like this myself so I know how much work it can take. It's clean line choice way book. Repeat, learn what you do wrong and continue further the story. No sounds, graphic pixel and letters, no much to see, no much to say.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Book is a Dungeon is essentially a choose-your-own-adventure game in a horror setting, but it has some rogue-lite elements as well. Everything is done through text with occasional graphics for enemies and other special encounters, and a dynamically updating map as you proceed through the game. It is also very difficult and unfairly so: there are multiple instant kill choice results, so you have to replay to learn to avoid those. Making this a little more interesting is that there appears…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros: Describes setting and events well enough to follow Interesting story Cons: Pointless battling NO checkpoints (you'll have to click, click, click till the cows come home to get back where you were)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to like the game but the text is so slow and tedious. Sometimes I know a choice will kill me but I do it anyways to read the death scene.. however, this will force you to restart from the beginning. The writing is good but it's not worth reading more than once maybe twice, unfortunately that is your fate should you play this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I personally think to make this game more enjoyable would be as easy as adding music or ambient sounds adding some more colour and the ability to save
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cant Play Cause the game delays the text on screen. I'm not talking 1-2 seconds. But longer at a time. FOR EACH SENTENCE. Unfortunately since the core competency of this game was the storybook-like text style this simply does not cut it - each "Room" takes ages to complete - jarring you in and out of the story - I wont go further as this point alone made me not want to play anymore. If it was removed I'd be more than happy to update this review
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I legitimately enjoy the writing in this game but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chore to play. There's no saving, nor are there any checkpoints outside of two very arbitrary ones that can be selected at the start of the game. That means after dying you have to click through a TON of previously read text just to try a new option, and then hope that option doesn't also lead to death because if it does you're going to have to do all that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clicking all over again. It doesn't help that there…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Demonic occult game for all sorcerers on steam!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →why i buy this?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Book Is A Dungeon.. + very interactive for a TWINE + interesting narrative played out uniquely - one of two endings determined only by your last decision - no saving/loading means to see that one last decision you need to replay quite a bit (it's not worth it! YouTube it!) - no save/load also means failing/dying isn't fun but a chore - no quick text skip and the fact that clicking certain text progresses you (which is always in a different spot on the screen) means you can't progress…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Though you can see a DND style map in the screenshots, this is a correct-path-learning text adventure game that should be for free on mobile devices, rather than on steam. Lazy
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's like an ebook with choices. The good thing is the writing, which is actually the only way you have to "play" this ""game"". The narration will instantly immerse you in the story and what's happening in it, but it's also the only thing that you will ever appear to see. Or hear. You won't even have any sound playing in the background in any situation, so you should take care about that for yourself. And what should characterize the gameplay by itself, which is a kind of dungeon crawler…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is a light choose your own adventure game / visual novel mix, where clicking parts of the text moves you on to the next step. The game has 4 chapters, each autosaving at the start, but no way to save in a chapter - if you know what path to take, each chapter is less than 10 minutes long. But there are extra lore elements, puzzles to solve, and possible ways to die, so the gameplay ends up about 2-3 hours if you can tolerate that in one sitting. Because... The good: the game's writing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I heard the game was good so I decided to give it a chance but what I got felt a bit awkward, accidentally screwing yourself over made sense but there were a few times where it was too sudden and with no real checkpoints (other than being able to just completely skip to 'Chapter 2') and no ability to skip what you've already read it almost immediately becomes boring. This isn't even factoring in the complete lack of audio/music in the game. There were also some design choices I wasn't very…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game.. Good story.. Yet it should have some graphics and animations along with some music.. 6/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is incredibly atmospheric, if still needing a little polish. TBIAD is a choose-your-own-adventure in the style of classics like Hell House, where the choices you make are more about trail and error and embracing the game's own fever-dream logic than trying to do the practical thing in a given circumstance. That would be frustrating in a less well-written project, but the narrative in TBIAD is solid. It pulls you along with a sense of immediacy and dread that I haven't felt from a game in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun enough, I suppose. Tediously slow waiting for the text, and while I like the idea behind it... No sound for a horror game? A horrible amount of clicking to get to new stages, or if you die you must click to get back, through the same passages and the same words. A nice concept, implementation is poorly done though. Mindlessly clicking on blue words in the passages, combined with nothing/little to break the monotonous "click" as you try to read further on is just... meh. I like reading.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Greetings fellow gamers! This is Gamer Guy (In a Suit) from the Echo Army YouTube channel! Today I am bringing you a review of the indie text-based CYOA This Book is a Dungeon. This Book is a Dungeon was released on Steam on October 9, 2015 by Developer Nathan Meunier & Black Shell Media. (NOTE: This game was NOT reviewed using a key provided by the Developer and/or Publisher, it was a game I purchased for my own account) Video Review: https://youtu.be/r1q0EiH201c The "Too Long, Didn't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →POV:Looking for dark mode
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a fun game to play if you have the patience for it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really, really like the writing and the atmosphere that this book creates. However, I feel like 4 euros is a bit steep. Also, the fact that there's no way to save makes it pretty tedious, since you have to go through it in one sitting. Which isn't hard, because it's not very long, but it's still pretty annoying. I should mention that in the main menu you can skip directly to the central hub, where you can get into one of the three sub-levels that you have to complete in order to proceed.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Book Is A Dungeon is an old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel with less complexity than one of the Steve Jackson/Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy novels. The developer chose to make a HTML-esque implementation and dump it on Steam. There's a bit of story attached but it's an incoherent word salad not worth reading. What we have here is really one of the worst attempts at making a video game I've seen in a long time. The developer seems to have been incapable of even entry level video…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This isn't a bad game. I personally enjoyed it. But I'm old (over 45) and have patience. The usual STEAM player who enjoys battle royales and MMORPGS isn't going to have the patience for this. Also, it has no save-game states, but the game play is several hours long, minimum, and there are endless permadeaths, so this really could have used, as a bare minimum, a save-game after each Chapter. (There are roughly 4 chapters.) My brother Leo the famous Karaoke Singer would be very upset…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A sentence. Click the blue words. A sentence. Click the blue words. A sentence. Click the blue words. Wait. A sentence. Click the blue words.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This 'game' has no respect for your time. Every sentence appears at a snail's pace, and won't go away unless you click on the blue words. Sometimes this is used to make a choice, but it's usually just padding to the game's playtime. The horrible checkpoints, lack of save feature, and overly cryptic, illogical puzzles make me want to pull my hair out. There are also shoe-horned in battles that consist of you attacking, then them attacking, and I'm pretty sure that they're programed so that you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enticing journey, true bliss through terror incarnate. Sharp writing pierces straight into your sinews.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Basically a choose your own adventure book with a grimdark theme and pixel graphics. The writing is quite good and I've enjoyed my time with it. If you like gamebooks in general and computerized versions specifically, you should give it a shot. The writing is solid and the pixel art evocative. It's much better than "This Book is a Fungus". That stuff is flesh eating and incurable.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting concept but could have executed better through a visual novel engine rather than Twine. There's no saves or the ability to speed through text so if you die, you must go through the whole chapter again and click click click click. This is especially annoying when you have to do 3 chapters correctly in one go. Do two chapters right then fail the last one- you must do the ones you already passed again. Some of the choices feel more like guessing than using logic.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you enjoy lovingly-crafted, twisted and macabre descriptions of your own death, this is the game for you. A text-based Choose-Your-Own-Adventure with occasional illustrations, this game excels in its writing and atmosphere (which variously play with Lovecraftian, psychological and body horror). However, you will die a lot. And while your deaths will be creative, and described in oh so much detail, every death means having all your progress reset. Since the chapters are largely linear in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is not a RPG. This game is mostly text-based, with few pixelated images and a lot of imagination. This game is a dark and grisly one, where you can (and will!) die a lot or worse when you make the wrong choices. This is also the first time I play an interactive text game and love it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty cool game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An engaging Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style fantasy/horror title with charmingly unique pixel graphics. If doing a lot of reading isn't your thing, then this won't be your cup of tea. Fair warning. If, however, you enjoy immersing yourself in a good story, then this is the game for you! There are many different branches to explore, tons of lore, and like any MacVenture title, there are also a lot of ways to die. There's no music, but the game is windowed, so anyone who really wants…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A cool, dark, choose your own adventure horror game. Reminds me of some Lovecraftian style D&D. A save function would have been very welcome but no regrets on picking this one up. Would love to see more of this kind of stuff.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tremendous chore of a game that will make you repeat the whole thing again and again everytime you die at purely trial and error decisions with no rhyme or reason. There is no excuse for making you repeat the chapters you've completed given that they're closed entities. The setting and writing are dark and vivid enough to do their job, but can't outweigh the absurdness of the repetition. Oh and also there is the "combat" where you just click a button an ungodly amount of times until the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Book is Not a Game. As a fan of interactive fiction and "choose your own adventures" I found myself having very little actual choice in this incredibly short story. Combat is literally just a time waster with the only ONLY option being attack, saving does not exist due to an engine limitation, and death forces you to repeat unskippable text over and over again. Also, that nice music in the trailer? It also doesn't exist due to engine limitations. Even though the story and art had some…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Book Is A Dungeon is a short but good interactive story to read through. When I first started playing I thought this was going to be like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books, sadly it turned out that it was exactly like the bad ones: ther is only 1 exact way to do everything, every other option results in death. This was mostly an issue early on where I had to play the intro time and time again to actually make it through it alive but thats mostly due to me trying to find out…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The writing is decent. It managed to disturb me at times, which is not easy. It's a bit less subtle, less refined and Lovecraftian than I anticipated it to be and instead more in the direction of in-your-face gore and horror. But it works. The most disappointing thing is perhaps how quickly immersion is lost. The first attempt is atmospheric, but only the first. There are plenty of ways in which to die while learning the choices by trial and error, and having to click through so very many…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is FAR TOO SHORT to warrant a 6 euro price point. However, if you get it at a discount for 1 - 2 bucks/euros it's a pretty good experience. The good ------------- - Writing and atmosphere. The writing is pretty good and motivates to imagine yourself in the character's place. The bad ------------- - WAY TOO SHORT - Needs more checkpoints -> This leads you to replay some parts over and there is no option for skipping text... - Combat is pointless. It's basically a dice roll.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was almost sick the first time I died, what an amazing reading experience. Not for all people, but definetly for some!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun choose your own adventure book. Considering it has more depth than the goosebump ones from back in the day that were $6. And currently $2 on google play. Getting this on sale for $1 was a great deal. :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is right up my alley. Lovecraftian entities and monsters, great depiction of environment and good story. Pros: +good story +good art +great environmental description and setting +some great puzzles Cons: -battles are kind of... pointless, I hope this gets improved or removed from the game mechanics -some parts of the game are unfair or too repetitive (4W) -it is a bit too short I would recommend this game to whoever enjoys Lovecraftian horror, text adventures and such. Lack of music…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An interactive fiction done right. Lovecraftian horror story with just the right amount of graphics (but no music). The environments are engaging and with careful planning, you can avoid most if not all of the "many possible deaths." It could have used a bit of music or at least some sound effects. I wish it there were more games set in this universe, because a lot of work obviously went into it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has offered one of the most eerie, surreal, nightmarish and unnerving sensations given to me by any game or horror writing. It's done greater than most works of Lovecraft or King I've read. It's a kind of nervious, anxious uncertainty of every action's consequence and result mixed with the lack of sound and hand-holding that leaves you hanging on every last word as if they could be the last you read if you make the wrong move. I spent a good long while in this game in an…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One Sentence Review: Not a Bad Choose Your Own Adventure "This Book Is a Dungeon" is a well-written but short work of interactive fiction. The screen shots makes it look much longer than it actually is. There's light, unimportant combat reminiscent of ZORK except more favourable to the player, and a wide variety of ways to do yourself in. Once you read the prologue, you can skip right to the Dungeon and Gallery -- the starting point and half-way point of the actual adventure. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →morbid tale strange experiences deathly visages melting mind progressive clicks paper rustling increasing challenge remembering talents forgone conclusions repeated pain blinding schemes wandering trials proton 10.0-4 GNU/Linux
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not Recommended
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool and unique. Not totally my style but it's pretty fun if you like Choose Your Own Adventures and dungeon crawlers.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wonderfully sinister. Enjoyed all my deaths and the one ending. I wish it were less tedious to replay to experience all the details. I would've done a few more options to see what was on the other side if it were easier, but at this point I'm bored with it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice This Book is A Dungeon 8/10 Heisen
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A simple but very addictive little game. Story with great potential, which could be used as a prologue for a wide variety of game books. + catchy, exciting story + simple but sufficient UI - lack of any sound or music - no saves Well done, carry on!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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