An Update from Redhook

Hello Everyone!

The past month has been incredible.  We have been absolutely blown away by the support that Darkest Dungeon has received.  On behalf of the team I want to thank you for making the game a success.  We have been watching Twitch, YouTube, reading forums (our own & Steam’s) constantly since launch, sharing in your feedback, debates, rage and victories.

We set out to make a game that challenged some of the established RPG conventions, and were hopeful that players would ‘get it’, and you have!  We are deeply humbled and grateful for your support and will work tirelessly to provide you all with an exceptional Early Access experience.  Bugs will be squashed, balanced will be toyed with, content will be added, your heroes will die.

Where are we at?

Shipping the game, supporting the launch, attending GDC and SXSW have been our focus since releasing the game on Feb 3.  We even managed a few days off here and there (Saturday and Sunday, most notably!) to rest and recharge after the gruelling hours of December and January.  We’ve been as aggressive as possible tracking down crash bugs, providing technical and backer support, and generally trying to make ourselves as reachable and responsive as possible.

Now that the initial flood has subsided, we will be shifting our focus to making forward progress on the remaining content and features, driving toward our 1.0 release.  We’re excited to get started!

What does Early Access look like?

Please note this is not an official roadmap or schedule!  Anything I’ve written here could change!  We are actively working on our roadmap,and will release it as soon as we feel that it is realistic and reliable.

Overall Philosophy:  

Our approach to Early Access is two pronged.

• On one hand, balancing, tuning, bug fixing and general quality of life improvements will be trickled into the build on an ongoing basis.
• Content patches, on the other hand, will be bundled, themed, and less frequent.  We want to make these into notable events – something to get excited for!

Regarding Balance:  

Expect things to change.  Heroes, Monsters, Progression, and the Economy will be tweaked, tuned, nerfed, buffed, and generally played with throughout Early Access.  We will experiment as liberally as necessary, and we encourage you to post constructive thoughts, observations and discussions.  Your feedback will be invaluable as we work to refine the Darkest Dungeon experience!

Forums:

There are many more of you than there are of us!  We ask that you please understand  we simply cannot maintain an active role in every thread both on our own website forums and on Steam’s discussion boards.  That said, we read almost everything!  The constructive debates around balance, stress, progression, and relative hero power scaling are exactly the reason we wanted to do early access.  Rest assured that even if we aren’t commenting on your feedback, we are watching carefully for trends and throughlines around which we can develop an action plan, if necessary.

Content:

So what’s coming?  A lot.  Here are just some of the highlights:

Misc:

• Hero color variants
• Town Events
• KS Backer-designed Trinkets, Monsters, etc

Playable Classes:  

• Man at Arms
• Arbalest
• Houndmaster
• Merchant
• Lord Tier, KS backer-designed class (available to all players – see KS page)

Additional Bosses:

• Weald Boss: The Brigand Barricade
• Ruins Boss: The Gibbering Prophet
• Warrens Boss: The Formless Flesh

The Cove:

• Full set of themed Monsters
• New Curios (Interactive Objects)
• Cove Boss 1
• Cove Boss 2

The Darkest Dungeon …?

The Darkest Dungeon, essentially the full endgame, will only be released at 1.0 launch.  You will have to complete several quests in the Darkest Dungeon, and in so doing, you will progress the game’s story.  Darkest Dungeon missions will test even your most battle-hardened veterans, and are non-retreatable!  You will succeed and survive, or die trying – the ultimate challenge awaits!  Don’t ask for any more details on it, cause that’s all we’re ever going to say 🙂

Once again, on behalf of the Darkest Dungeon team – Tyler, Keir, Brooks, Pierre, Powerup Audio (Jeff and Kevin) and myself (Chris) – I want to thank you all for your passionate support and enthusiasm for our project.  Until next time, snuff your torches and bring an extra shovel – we’ll see you all in the apothic depths…

…of  the Darkest Dungeon.

-Chris

(ps.  Read that last bit in Wayne June’s voice for maximum effect)