David Brevik Interview

After announcing the Closed Beta for his upcoming survival RPG It Lurks Below, David Brevik has been making the rounds talking about his projects old and new. There was an exhaustive IGN Unfiltered video interview a few weeks back, and now there’s also this Gamasutra interview that draws plenty of parallels between It Lurks Below and one of Brevik’s earliest games, the original Diablo. For example:

“I think the thing that drew me in the most was the play experiences I had while playing other survival games like Don’t Starve, Rim World, and Terraria,” Brevik says. “I really enjoyed trying to create a base, growing food, and in some cases, building a community. When I started thinking about creating a new game, I knew that I wanted to take a lot of my previous experience and add something new and interesting to it, so crossing it with these survival aspects seemed like a fun fit.”

These elements turned out to be a comfortable fit with the developer’s love of the RPG loop he’d used with Diablo.

“After getting the prototype working, I put in some of the new survival mechanics to my well-established RPG loop I’ve used many times and it worked even better than I thought it would,” says Brevik. “I think that breaking up the action with a return to your base and taking the time to farm, harvest, and do other activities is an important respite to the constant exploration and action of the netherworld. It creates a unique balance that has a relaxing, soothing effect on the game.”

Diablo’s horror-inspired mood, with its gloomy world and dungeons filled with frightening monsters, would also be reflected in the developer’s new work.

“The ambient sound is creepy. The monster grunts and calls are scary. It is dark, and you can’t see. These are all done on purpose. I love horror. I watch horror movies, play horror games and I’m most captivated when a game has that unsettling feeling,” says Brevik.

“What makes a game interesting to me is when the monsters are in the dark. When they come out of that dark spot and surprise you. When you can’t see what you are up against until it is right upon you. It is important to me to have a horror element because the monsters and your overall task should be scary. This is a terrifying adventure you are on and you are up against demons. It isn’t meant to be a light-hearted romp through grassy fields.”

Don’t know about you, but I like the sound of that. I still consider Diablo’s atmosphere to be unrivaled in the action-RPG genre and I’m curious to see how this new project turns out.