Darkest Dungeon
| Darkest Dungeon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Red Hook Studios |
| Director(s) | Chris Bourassa |
| Producer(s) | Tyler Sigman |
| Designer(s) | Tyler Sigman |
| Programmer(s) | Keir Miron Pierre Tardif Kelvin McDowell |
| Artist(s) | Chris Bourassa Brooks Gordon |
| Composer(s) | Stuart Chatwood |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows OS X Linux PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game, Dungeon crawl, Turn-based strategy, Roguelike |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Distribution | Digital distribution |
Darkest Dungeon is an upcoming roguelike, dungeon crawler video game created by indie developers Red Hook Studios. As the heir of a rich relative that used all of his money to open a portal in search of ancient power, the player is tasked to find the secrets of the darkest dungeon and redeem the family name.
Gameplay
The game is a side-scrolling gothic role-playing game with a turn-based combat system. The player explores dungeons with a four-hero team. While players can only explore with four heroes, they will be able to recruit and manage up to twenty heroes from the local tavern or caravan. The heroes are recruited from 15 different classes each class with its own unique skills and abilities.
Combat occurs in narrow passages which means the party's order is important in respect to the heroes' class and the player's strategy. As an example, a crusader is a good front unit having both high attack and defense values while the plague doctor might be better further behind throwing plague bombs to spread disease and confusion.
Instead of leveling, heroes have "resolve" which will increase as they adventure. Fighting and events will test the hero's resolve and they might develop afflictions if they fail their resolve. This can turn out both positively and negatively creating different set of afflictions for every hero.
While exploring the dungeons, the light of the heroes torch becomes dimmer, which means the dungeons gets more dangerous but yields better loot as well. The player may choose how many torches to bring into each dungeon at the provisions screen prior to each dungeon. Another torch must be burned to restore light. Longer missions contain the ability to have the party camp within the dungeon, which allows the heroes to heal and remove stress from themselves, though it has the potential to cause the heroes to starve if the player has not brought enough food into the dungeon, or has had to consume their available rations prior to camping.
Darkest Dungeon was released on Steam Early Access on January 30, 2015 for Early Access backers, and Steam Early Access on February 3, 2015 for the public.[2]
Plot
The player is an heir to a manor, which underneath, has a portal that attracts evil monsters. The portal is opened by the player's predecessor, and the player is asked by their predecessor to destroy the portal, and defeat the monsters coming out of it.
Development
The game is being developed by a small four man team but started out with Tyler and Chris coming together as friends and talking over a two-year period before they started Red Hook Studios. The game's theme was inspired by psychologically traumatized heroes such as Hudson from Aliens and the soldiers from Band of Brothers who are transformed by the horrors of combat.[3]
The developers decided to fund the game via Kickstarter where it reached its funding goal of US$75,000 within the first two days of the campaign.[4]
References
- ↑ "Darkest Dungeon FAQ". Red Hook Studios. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
- ↑ "Darkest Dungeon Kickstarter Update".
- ↑ "Tyler Sigman Discusses Darkest Dungeon - YouTube". youtube.com. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
- ↑ "Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios by Tyler Sigman :: Kicktraq". kicktraq.com. Retrieved 2014-02-21.