Darkest Dungeon Interview

RPGWatch has published an interview with Darkest Dungeon’s developers Red Hook Studios, which includes a good number of questions on the game’s design and crowdfunding in general. Here’s a snip:

RPGWatch: Were did the idea or inspiration for the game come from?

Red Hook Studios: We wanted to take the beloved dungeon crawling genre and look at it from a different perspective. We thought it’d be a fun exercise to deliberately avoid the most fundamental assumption that many of these kinds of games make. Namely, that your hero is a mindless avatar who is completely fine with a lifetime spent crawling around in the dark, fending off murderous hordes of awful creatures. We want to create a game about flawed, human heroes not immutable killing machines.

…

RPGWatch: Roguelikes often have permadeath, and generated dungeons will your game follow the same pattern?

Red Hook Studios: Yep we’ve got both those things. Death is something players will have to get used to. You’ll manage a roster of heroes, like X-Com, so when one or two pass away, you’ll want to sub in some qualified replacements. As far as dungeons go, not knowing whats around the corner is integral to our experience, so we’ll be making use of procedural content, peppered with some set-piece encounters.

RPGWatch: What do you think is the best the best, or most unique feature of your game?

Red Hook Studios: Two things, actually I think our Affliction system really helps us stand out in the dungeon crawling genre, and I think our side-view rank based combat is really fresh and strategic.

RPGWatch: I’m sure you answered this question before, but Could you talk a little bit more about the camping system?

Red Hook Studios: Camping essentially represents a respite from the trials of dungeoneering, and provides players an opportunity to mitigate some of the corporeal and psychological damage done to their party. In the dungeon, camping can occur in most rooms (once any threats have been dealt with). Heroes have specific camping skills which can only be used in this phase of the adventure things like ‘bandage’ and ‘encourage’ are available to all hero classes, while more tactical and powerful skills are restricted on a class by class basis. The Plague Doctor, for example may have ‘Leeches’, a risky all-or-nothing heal. For his part, the Highwayman can steel his own resolve by polishing his flintlock, but while it benefits him, there is no gain to the party as a whole. Players are limited by ‘rest points’, and will have to carefully consider which camping skills to use.