Din’s Curse Interview

Indie Game News interviews Steven Peeler on being an indie game developer in general, but specifically on Din’s Curse and its expansion Demon War.

6/ Is there anything that makes Din’s Curse stand out as different among the many RPGs out there?

Oh, yeah, but I’ll focus on just three of the differences: dynamic world, environment interaction, and hybrid classes.

First off the world is completely dynamic. In most RPGs if there is an uprising of Orcs in an area, that’s all there is. The uprising will sit there and do nothing until you decide to go kill them and claim your reward. Personally I think that is just boring. In Din’s Curse though an uprising of Orcs is exactly what it sounds like. There are a bunch of Orcs that are organized and looking for ways to get into trouble. This can be something not directly a threat like declaring war on the Torvas, a major threat like launching an attack on the town you have been sent to protect, or many other possibilities. The longer you take to deal with them, the more likely they will cause more and more trouble.

In most RPGs the environment is just something that looks pretty. In Din’s Curse it tends to be dangerous. There are many traps that can harm you. There are weak parts of the cave like cracks, gas leaks, and areas held up by support beams. Be careful in these areas because cave-ins are possible and very deadly. There can even be pools of water, oil, alcohol, acid, and other liquids that impact you in different ways. Although most of these are dangerous to the player, they can also be used to your advantage. A Lich standing in the middle of a bunch of barrels can be easily dealt with by throwing some flaming oil into the barrels and starting a roaring fire.

And finally most RPGs have a low number of classes. In Din’s Curse you can play one of the 6 (7 with the expansion) full classes or you can play a hybrid class. The idea is that each class has 3 specialties. With a hybrid class you can choose any 2 specialties. You lose out on one specialty compared to a full class, but you can choose any combination you want, even strange combos like a Paladin/Necromancer. With hybrids there are 141 different combinations (196 with the expansion).