Dungeon Crawler Carl Officially Returns In One Month

Published Oct 21, 2026, 12:30 AM EDT

Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. 

Dungeon Crawler Carl fans are counting down the days for Matt Dinniman's ninth book, currently planned as a two-volume release with the working title The Beautiful Place. The next book will finally take readers to the twelfth floor and take them into the home stretch for the long-running LitRPG series that's become a cultural phenomenon in recent years.

Fortunately, despite what could be a fairly long wait, Dungeon Crawler Carl fans have a lot to look forward to in the meantime, including a highly anticipated Deluxe Edition of the first book in November that will feature an original Q&A between Princess Donut and the author. Further, Dungeon Crawler Carl is returning in a completely new format in November with the upcoming release of the official role-playing game and Unstoppable.

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Unstoppable is a new deck-building game from Renegade Game Studios that lets players experience the deadly World Dungeon firsthand, either on their own or alongside another crawler in a two-player co-op mode. Built on designer John D. Clair's existing Unstoppable system, the standalone adaptation puts players in control of Carl or Princess Donut as they battle monsters and try to reach the next staircase.

Players customize their decks through a card-crafting mechanic involving sleeves and interchangeable cards. Improving your abilities also makes the floor more dangerous, recreating the escalating stakes of the novels as the party descends each floor. The core game covers the first three floors, with both single-floor Arcade sessions and a Campaign mode that carries certain upgrades between floors.

Looking beyond the core release, there are two expansions also planned to drop in November. Iron Tangle brings the notorious fourth-floor subway system into the game with new bosses and upgrades, while Crawler Chaos adds playable characters including Katia, Imani, Prepotente, etc., alongside options to create a custom crawler.

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The new game is the result of an extraordinary joint BackerKit campaign for Unstoppable and the official Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG, which literally broke crowdfunding records on the website. By the time the campaign ended in May, the project had raised more than $13.29 million from 55,972 supporters, becoming BackerKit's most-funded game ever.

If you missed that crowdfunding period, Renegade is accepting preorders for Unstoppable at roughly $60, with Iron Tangle and Crawler Chaos available for $25 each. Crowdfunding fulfillment was scheduled to begin in October, ahead of a wider retail rollout planned for late November.

Arriving alongside it is the official tabletop role-playing game, which offers a more open-ended experience for groups interested in a D&D-style adventure in the World Dungeon. Its $55 Starter Set covers the first two tutorial floors, complete with introductory rules, pre-made characters, maps, and dice. Meanwhile, the $65 Core Rulebook focuses on floors three through five, with more than 300 pages detailing character creation, spells, monsters, loot, and other essentials.

Between these two tabletop experiences and the Deluxe Edition, there's no shortage of ways to revisit Dinniman's unique LitRPG universe while fans wait for the eventual release of The Beautiful Place, which the author recently teased with a few additional chapters. Both Unstoppable and the new tabletop RPG offer fans an opportunity to experience the Dungeon Crawler Carl universe in a brand-new way, and will be enough to tide many longtime readers over, at least for a while.

Dungeon Crawler Carl