In the game, the player uses the keyboard to navigate a party of thirteen adventurers, including one elf and one dwarf, through the dreaded Totmacher Castle dungeon consisting of four randomly generated maze levels, which are connected by pits and stairways.

The player collects treasures as they progress through the dungeon and may encounter traps and other menaces, including monsters and sorcerers.

[2]: 40 Although reaching the exit is relatively easy, the game uses the treasures collected during the adventure to provide a final score.

[2]: 40 Initially, Clardy gave away copies of the game to members of his local user group, the Apple Puget Sound Program Library Exchange; their enthusiastic reception encouraged him to add more features and, after completing a follow-up game using the Apple II's high-resolution mode, Wilderness Campaign, in December 1978, packaged both games together for a commercial release under Synergistic Software, the company he founded with his wife, Ann Dickens Clardy.

[4]: 42–43 Gregg Williams reviewed Dungeon Campaign in 1980 for Byte, calling it one of his favorite games for Apple II.