Dungeon Runners is a medieval fantasy, occasionally satirical, MMORPG developed and published by NCsoft. The gameplay is similar to the Diablo series of games.

Development on the title first began in 2001 as Trade Wars: Dark Millennium. The game was based on the early computer game series of the same name and originally featured a science-fiction setting. It later became Exarch in 2002 and was scrapped for some time until it resurfaced in 2005 with its third and current development team as Dungeon Runners. Dungeon Runners entered the closed Beta phase in May 2006, and a game trailer was exhibited at the 2006 E3 convention. Open Beta began in December 2006, and Beta accounts could be acquired via an invitation from an existing player or through the NCsoft website. On May 24, 2007, the game officially went live.

Much of the original art was conceived by comic-book artist Joe `Mad` Madureira. As of 13 August, 2008, the parent NCSoft company in Korea has decided to cut 21 members of its staff in Austin, TX due to the company`s overall decreasing profits. Out of the 18 member team which developed Dungeon Runners, only 5 of the original developers remain.

The Dungeon Runners client software is free to download and play. Free gameplay is unlimited (no playfield or activity is closed to free players), but an optional USD $4.99 monthly membership fee grants access to additional features that greatly enhance gameplay. Additionally, users can purchase the game for $19.99. The boxed game comes with 6 months of membership as well as a "Bling Gnome". Although described as an MMORPG, the game world is almost entirely uniquely instanced for each party of players. Towns are the only areas where large numbers of players can see each other. The game is geared toward solo play to make the game as accessible as possible for all players. For players who wish to group, the dungeons scale dynamically based on group size and composition.

Dungeon Runners has implemented a classless system (see Classes, below). NCsoft has released statements on the Dungeon Runners website describing new features to be released via patches over Summer 2007. A patch released at the end of June 2007 introduced voice chat and variable game difficulty settings (individual players and groups can increase or decrease the challenge level of NPC opponents). Later patches introduced arena style team PvP and increased the number of characters per account to three. One of the most acclaimed patches was the update coined "The Heave" that introduced the first player summon "Chill Bill", and a new high level dungeon. This update patch was very well received by the gaming community and is considered by many to be one of the game`s best updates.