KickStarter Darkest Dungeon Pre-Release Thread

[Metro]

I'm not questioning the purpose of EA, I'm saying that I thought they specifically said the other stuff wouldn't come until release. I guess I was mistaken.

 

[Renevent]

Either way isn't this a good thing?

 

[Zombra]

Update #31 For backers only.

May 18 2015

Darkest Dungeon Steam Key Available Now!

Dear $15 Backer,

You can now retrieve your Darkest Dungeon key and gain immediate access to the game, by following the instructions below!

Although at the $15 pledge level the keys were only supposed to unlock when the game is finished, we've decided to release the keys early. The game has already been in Early Access for three months, and we want to reward your early support of the project. Thank you for believing in us.

Now go have fun!

A couple notes:

• Darkest Dungeon is STILL IN EARLY ACCESS. If you prefer to not play an unfinished game, we recommend you still wait to play until we reach Full Release later this year.
• Because it's still in Early Access, it can currently be played ONLY ON STEAM.

To Get Your Steam Key:
1) Visit the Humble Key resender here https://www.humblebundle.com/store/keyresender

2) Enter your Kickstarter e-mail address (the one you used for backing). If you changed your email address via Backerkit when you checked out for Darkest Dungeon about a year ago, then use that one instead.

To Redeem Your Steam Key:

1) Install Steam, if you haven't already. Get it at: http://www.steampowered.com

2) On the Steam menu, choose: Games -> Activate a Product On Steam

3) Enter your Steam key

Thank your for backing Darkest Dungeon! We hope you enjoy it. And remember--bring a shovel!

--Red Hook Studios

SUPPORT:

Problems with the Humble Key Resender or your Humble Download page:
Please contact Humble Support at support.humble.com

Backer-Related Problems:
email us at backersupport@redhookgames.com

Technical Problems:Visit the official Steam forums for answers to the most common issues:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/262060/discussions/

Or email us at support@redhookgames.com

Well shit. I was happy to just wait for release, and I don't want to ruin it for myself, but I'm also excited to have fun with the in-progress version. Early Accessors, what's your advice?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Might as well wait for full, I hear shit gets easy soon enough.

 

[Jimmious]

It's a nice little game with really cool looks but I would also agree to wait for the full release. There's not so much to it yet and it kinda gets repetitive after a while.
Not saying I didn't enjoy the 11 hours I logged, just needs more meat to it imo in order to keep you there

 

[da_rays]

I'd also advise to wait to pop your darkest cherry. Game is beautiful right now , After you get the hang of the game, its pretty easy to progress through all the content. I've currently seen everything there is to see in the EA and i've forked around 30ish hours. For myself , im waiting that the game get a bit more meat ( classes , more dungeons , more boss etc) before i try another playthrough. Still , that said , DD is gonna be one hell of a good crawler if they dont fuck up ajusting new content , difficulty , learning curve and dynamic of the game ( read here : dont turn this shit into a dungeon crawler for ''casual'' players )

 

[Hatred]

I've also played this game a little. Seems mad fun thus far. Not sinking in mega hours to avoid burnout is a bit of a test of will atm. Thankfully Invisible Inc came out recently. I might have to have a bit of a poke to look at those new classes though. Such cool classes in this game.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...p_Dive_Darkest_Dungeons_Affliction_System.php

Game Design Deep Dive: Darkest Dungeon's Affliction System

Game Design Deep Dive is an ongoing Gamasutra series with the goal of shedding light on specific design features or mechanics within a video game, in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren't really that simple at all.

Check out earlier installments on the heredity system of Hero Generations, traffic systems of Cities: Skylines, and the plant-growing mechanics of Grow Home.

Also, dig into our ever-growing Deep Dive archive for developer-minded features on everything from Amnesia's sanity meter to Alien: Isolation's save system.

Who: Chris Bourassa, creative director and artist, and Tyler Sigman, game designer and executive producer

We had been circling around the idea of doing a game together for years, but we were busy with other studios and start-ups. We’d get together and brainstorm various ideas, but the one we were most captivated by was Darkest Dungeon.

Both of us freed up in the spring of 2013, and we decided it was now or never, so Red Hook Studios was born. We were excited by the chance to work on a game that had no external compromises--something purely made by us, for us, the way we wanted it to be. We were willing to bet that if we did that, there would be a decently sized niche audience that would also like it and thereby support the business.

Over the course of the game’s development, we built up a team of experienced collaborators to help make the game a reality. Right now we have six full-time people working on the game, plus our sound (Power Up Audio), music (Stuart Chatwood), and narration (Wayne June) contractors. Both of us have enjoyed the small-scale production, where limited resources breed creativity and force hard decisions.

What: Modelling an adventurer's mental health with the Affliction System

The ability and skill to fight is only half of the equation. What if a hero was unwilling to fight?

Darkest Dungeon is about the psychological toll of adventuring. The centerpiece of this is the Affliction System. As heroes adventure, their stress levels build. This is presented in game as a stress meter on each hero. When the stress meter reaches 100, heroes face an Affliction check. If they fail the check (which is common), they manifest a temporary condition of reduced effectiveness -- an Affliction. Afflictions are different ways that people respond to stress.

Heroes can become selfish, abusive, hopeless, paranoid, afraid, masochistic, or just plain irrational. The different afflictions cause a wide variety of different game behaviors. For example, a selfish hero may take treasure for themselves, a hopeless hero may give up fighting, and a paranoid hero may become convinced that the other party members are enemies.

Sometimes, a hero will pass the Affliction check. This puts them in an incredibly useful Heroic state, where they may inspire the other team members or fight at increased effectiveness.

To reduce stress, you need to give heroes time off between missions and let them unwind in the ways that people do: drinking, gambling, meditation, prayer, and more. However, there are limited slots in town for each activity, and each hero has their own personal preferences on what they like. This becomes a bit of a board game in terms of trying to make the most of R&R between quests.

The Affliction system puts the player squarely in the role of a team manager, squad leader, or hockey coach. To be successful, you need to consider the human factors on the way to accomplishing your goals. Push heroes to their limit, and they will break mentally.

Why?

We’re big fans of RPGs, ranging from classic old games like the Bard’s Tale series, Eye of the Beholder,Ultima Underworld, etc., on up to Diablo, Dark Souls, and contemporary MMOs.

However, many RPGs lose sight of the human element. Situations are presented as purely a player’s choice whether to face down a terrifying monster with only 1 HP left. We started asking: how would the hero feel?

In addition, we wanted to make something that stood in stark contrast to the "loot pinata" style of RPG. To be fair, some of those are done incredibly well, and we’ve clicked and right-triggered to the best of them, but they rely on a huge amount of procedural loot generation and the game becomes all about finding the next larger sword.

Taken together, those considerations led us to focus almost exclusively on the sword arm, not the sword. More specifically, the ability to fight is only half the equation. What about the willingness to fight?

The Human Response to Stress

Although we are obviously influenced by Lovecraft in terms of tone, we never really thought of things in the strict “insanity” filter that many Call of Cthulhu games adopt. In fact, the inspiration for the Affliction System itself was not Lovecraft, but rather the role of human factors in history and fiction. Wargames have often incorporated human factors (morale), and many movies have illustrated them to great effect (Aliens, The Thing).

We wanted to capture the human response to stress. Any person can break under pressure, and people break in different ways. Some people become angry and abusive, whereas others become withdrawn and hopeless. However, moments of extreme pressure and high stakes are also what drive meaningful heroism. The strongest of us shine when everything is on the line!

Because we were focused on the human response to stress, we also had to consider how people reduce stress and settle back into normal behavior. Just as people respond to stress differently, they also recuperate in different ways. Some people need a drink; others need spiritual centering.

We felt that building a fantasy dungeon crawling party with these ideas in mind could result in some interesting -- and volatile -- adventuring.

The Stress Meter

Although we wanted parts of the Affliction system to be purposefully opaque at first glance, we realized early on that we needed to completely expose the Stress meter and display stress increases and decreases directly as numbers -- for example, +20 Stress!

We ended up with a straightforward Stress Meter, and while this presentation is something we initially tried to avoid, the meter provides a tangible thing for players to try and “game.” This is a good thing: It provides clear feedback and consequences, while still allowing an organic narrative to develop. When taken in context of the unpredictable ways in which Afflicted heroes can behave, complex (and often tragic!) situations can develop.

Afflictions and the Affliction Check

Stress mounts organically during adventuring through critical hits, dealing with curiosities, party interaction, and more. The Affliction Checks -- which determine whether the hero becomes Afflicted or Virtuous, are big moments and can really have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a quest.

Since drama is the name of the game, we sunk additional time and effort into the presentation of these moments. A banner announces that a hero is being tested, and after a (very tense) moment, the result is revealed in a fullscreen splash!

Each affliction has different effects in combat, camping, and exploration. While there can be some positive effects (e.g. an Abusive hero gains a damage bonus), Afflictions are generally bad! Afflictions reduce your heroes’ capabilities and also make them challenging to manage because the hero will frequently act on their own. This might not be so bad if a hero decides to attack on their own and you wanted them to do that anyway, but it can cause serious problems if a greedy hero opens a trapped chest, or a masochistic hero refuses to be healed.

We want to put you in uncomfortable situations where you do not have complete control of your party. This is a central pillar of the game, and all mechanics are designed to reinforce it. We toy with player agency, constantly reminding you that these little digital heroes have minds of their own and sometimes their desire for survival (or a heroic death) will trump whatever you had planned. We want you in the role of a squad leader, trying to make the most of your soldiers and tackling hard decisions about who to sacrifice and who to save.

In contrast to the transparency of the Stress meter, we purposefully don’t list all the behaviors that any given Affliction may have. We want you to have to observe and react to your hero as it happens. Of course, you can build up awareness over time by playing the game. In this way your time and veteranship are rewarded.

The behaviors themselves were designed, as much as possible, by holistic consideration of the Afflicted states. For example, “What would a fearful hero do in combat?” They’d back away, they’d occasionally be too terrified to attack, and when they would attack they likely wouldn’t be hitting at full accuracy and vigor. “What would an abusive hero do in combat?” They’d bark at any failings of their allies, they’d hit enemies with an uncontrollable rage, and so on. Then, of course, there is the grab bag “Irrational”, which can do... you guessed it... any combination of the other Affliction behaviors.

Barks

In addition to the behaviors themselves, we needed to pay off the heroes’ personalities by having them comment on their situation and actions. That’s one of the key ways in which we remind the player that what really matters is how the heroes feel, not how the player feels.

We’ve invested a great deal in the barking system -- we have the ability to write custom barks for every class-plus-affliction combination. This way we can have a Selfish Grave Robber sound different than a Selfish Bounty Hunter. It was important to us to inject additional personality into the hero classes by exploring their personalities and alluding to their backstories in their speech. The more you play a certain class, the more you will learn of where they’ve been, and how they look at the world.

The barks also act as behavior signals -- almost every Affliction act out is preceded by a contextual bark. We also show the Affliction symbol above the hero’s head to illustrate that they are behaving on their own instead of under player control.

Virtues

Sometimes, despite the odds, a hero can rise to the challenge, shake off their stress, and rally themselves and their party to fight on! Passing an Affliction check allows a hero to enter a temporary "Virtued" state.

There are currently five types of virtue: Stalwart, Courageous, Focused, Powerful, and Vigorous. Virtues are purely positive and can make the hero herself more effective, and sometimes even enhance the overall party. Having a hero pop Virtuous in the middle of a nasty fight can be a huge moment, and for as much as we like to focus on human fallibility and beat the player down... the heroic reversals are what memorable adventures are built on!

Town Activities

We had a great time designing the stress recovery system. There are six different activities in town where you can “install” heroes and let them drain off stress. The slot system is intentionally very boardgame-like, and we pay off the game’s theme with the various side effects that can occur and the way we present the stories in the Activity Log.

Of course, just as people are fallible, some of their “hobbies” are fallible, too -- Flagellation and Drinking, for example. We get a great deal of satisfaction from reading angry tweets about how somebody’s favorite hero went on a drunken bender and left town, leaving them with a gaping hole in their roster! (SPOILER: The heroes always come back, eventually.)

And to add a little unpredictability, we let the Caretaker occupy spots in town randomly. This is a funny little side-narrative. He is equally happy in the abbey or the brothel.

Quirks

Whereas Afflictions are major, temporary conditions, we also wanted to represent the little ways in which people have weird tendencies or special skills. These are our Quirks.

Quirks come in positive and negative flavors and can range from “Hagiomania” to “Nervous.” Each quirk affects some manner of gameplay. Some are simple stat buffs, but others play into the town metagame. For example, a hero with “Known Cheat” is banned from Gambling in the Tavern and will therefore have to look to other entertainment to reduce their stress.

Quirks can be removed by treatment in the Sanitarium. Surely they use humane methods in there... don’t they?

Affliction History

Finally, another small mechanic that came about organically from observing human behaviour is the Affliction History. People tend to react to stress in ways that are individually consistent over time. A person who panics as a deadline approaches tends to fall into that comfortable panic again when the next deadline comes around. To pay this concept off in-game, we track each hero’s history, and over time they tend to fall into the same Affliction patterns. This supports our goal of building a small emergent narrative for each hero.

Fighting back the horrid abominations from outer spheres is gruelling, stressful work! A lifetime of blood and battle takes a toll on even the most hardened hero, and we felt it was time for an RPG to acknowledge that.

“Have you met Reynauld, the paranoid Crusader with a gambling problem and the runs? He’s your new front-line tank.”

 

[vonAchdorf]

The recently announced content update went live today:

Spoiler

Build Update #8855 (PC and Mac)
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light." --Dylan Thomas

New Features

• New Hero Class! Man-At-Arms
• New Hero Class! Arbalest
• New Ruins Boss! Gibbering Prophet
• New Warens Boss! Formless Flesh
• New Weald Boss! Brigand Cannon
• New Loot: The Ancestor’s Trinket set. Ultra-rare items once held by the Ancestor himself - be warned, some of these trinkets are only found in the pitch dark!
• New Building! Ancestor's Statue: Click the statue to open the Ancestor's Memoirs - a record of all cutscenes and boss backstories!
• Heart Attacks! Don’t let your heroes get too stressed. If your stress bar fills again past affliction...it’s over.
• Sell your junk! In the Trinket Inventory, hold shift to see sell back value, shift+click to sell trinkets
• Crit-heals! Heal, critically!
• Tons of Party Names as created by Kickstarter and Humble backers!

UI Improvements
Hamlet

• Added z-depth to the Hamlet, improved building menu interaction, revised all times of day
• Graveyard: Added a background and new Caretaker pose; Tombstones change to reflect resolve level at time of death, UI improvements, scrollbar
• Activity Log: UI improvements for easier 'at a glance' parsing of the activity log, scrollbars
• Trinket inventory now supports sorting by class restriction and rarity, and a scrollbar
• “Unequip all Trinkets” button for quick Trinket wiping
• Updated art on remaining incomplete trinkets
• Quest Select: Approved party names from player survey
• Updated roster sorting buttons' colors to reduce visual noise
• Class sort now sorts by preferred position

Dungeon

• Added hotkey ( c ) to bring up/dismiss character panel
• Manual torch snuffing for more control of lighting level (mouse over torch for instructions)
• HP bar animation when healing for greater visual feedback
• Additional map controls and logic (-/= or -/+ on numpad to control map zoom)
• Map now follows the party, remembers its zoom setting after scouting

Misc

• Clarified presentation of PROT (protection) in some places. PROT starts as a % which gets multiplied by the hero or monster’s Max HP. This gives a damage mitigation (armor points) number. For example, 20% PROT x 30 HP = 6 Protection pts. Each hit that lands will have 6 points absorbed before any damage gets through. Additional future work expected.
• “Marked” no longer referred to as “tagged” in some tooltips
• Improved various menus and icons in the game
• New / unique trinket art for trinkets with missing art

Gameplay / Balancing Improvements

• Darkness is now more deadly: reduced player crit bonus in low light, slightly increased chance of players being surprised in low light, increased stress damage in low light, slightly increased monster dmg in zero light, slightly reduced gold bonus in low light
• Adjusted Dungeon / Region leveling to fit new boss plot quests
• Max upgraded Roster size increased - this may be temporary!
• Trinkets: Tuning of Trinket award rates and rarities
• Trinkets: Balancing/redesign pass on many Trinkets
• I’m stuffed! Limit added to Food consumption to reduce over-eating exploit
• Plague Doctor: increased Blight Resistance
• Bounty Hunter - Hook and Slice is now reworked as a rank 3 / 4 targeting bleed attack
• Bounty Hunter - Slight nerf to Finish Him damage bonuses on the Stun Killer effect
• Leper - Revenge removed ACC penalty and slightly reduced CRIT bonuses
• Leper - Intimidate: reworked the skill to be a strong debuff skill with some damage, affects ranks 1/2 together
• Reduced Crit-heal percentage
• Reduced companion stress from Death’s Door
• Slightly reduced average crit damage from monsters
• All L3/L5 monsters have slightly increased HP which may make for slightly longer fights / increased value of buffs and debuffs.
• Many size 2 monsters have more HP (Carrion Eater, Swinetaur, Unclean Giant)
• Crone: now harder to hit, increased Crone’s Curse debuff and added extra target possibilities to her debuff attacks
• Swinetaur can now do running attacks from ranks 2+ instead of 3+. Ole!
• Monster Brains - improvements to default brains to make somewhat more deadly as monsters level up
• Monster Brains - more monsters have their own brains (much more to come)
• Original bosses (Necromancer, Hag, Swine Prince) now have nastier behaviors as they level up
• “Heal Received” buff now on certain Skills and Trinkets
• And probably a few secret things...

General Bug Fixes

• Activity Log entry cutoff issue
• Activity Log names update when heroes are renamed
• Torch disabled during ambushes with tooltip explanation
• Health bar showing up on second quest bug
• Profile reposition bug on Main Menu
• Raid Results UI layout fixes
• Non check-marked room bug
• Miscellaneous string edits
• Fixed AOE “+” positioning
• Fixed Plague Doctor camping pose
• Non-loading screen narration interrupting loading screen bug
• Swine Prince targeting fix
• Battle camera bug, getting stuck at the end of a round
• Removed background barks on Provisions screen
• Blood splatter no longer appears on misses and dodges
• Crash fix when death and Affliction check occur simultaneously by trap
• Narration queuing fixes
• Traps not appearing when spawned in a corridor previously visited
• Prevent surprises from occurring in tiles previously scouted or visited
• And more…!

http://steamcommunity.com/games/262060/announcements/detail/209761440192663452

 

[Zombra]

To those playing the beta: how robust are the keyboard controls? Possible to play without mouse entirely? If not, why not, dammit?

 

[Jimmious]

The game seems designed to be played by mouse for now. However I do believe they've mentioned PS4 porting and stuff, which will probably mean simpler controls, more keyboard/gamepad friendly in the future..

 

[Jasede]

The big update just went live!

 

[granit]

Keep coming back to hear the narration. Too good

 

[Metro]

I enjoy the combat but the game still feels lacking.

 

[Skippy]

I don't think I have been addicted to a game this much in a long, long time. What a pleasant surprise!

 

[Tigranes]

Game's playable using a trackpad and keyboard, that is to say, not entirely mouse-free but certainly doesn't need a lot of mouse.

It's a good game indeed, though not particularly 'deep', especially once you get good enough to reach equilibrium points.

 

[Zombra]

Game's playable using a trackpad and keyboard, that is to say, not entirely mouse-free but certainly doesn't need a lot of mouse.

Thanks for replying on this Tigranes. I've been worried about it - sounds like it won't drive me too crazy to play it

 

[agris]

A new patch dropped yesterday.

Updates: 9095 to 9110:

• Fix to AOE crit rolling. It should now work as described in the Gameplay notes below.
• Bug where some crits were doing lower than max weapon damage should be fixed. Please post if you experience this bug again.
• Fix to crash involving quitting to main menu

Gameplay

• Hero Page cycling: You can now quickly flip through heroes on the Hero Panel/Character Sheet view by clicking the "Next Hero" / "Previous Hero" arrow icons at the bottom of the sheet or by pressing hotkeys (q) and (e). This works for current party in dungeon, roster, stagecoach, and graveyard. The list of heroes you can cycle through will be contextual to that setting. For example, while in the Stagecoach, it will cycle through available heroes to hire, while on the Embark screen, it will cycle through available heroes to put in the quest. Review and compare your heroes 153% faster than previous versions!
• New class-specific trinkets for Arbalest and Man-at-Arms implemented. Gear up! (However, currently using placeholder art so you'll have to wait a bit longer to feast your eyes on their full glory!)
• AOE attacks now roll crits individually per target instead of all for one. This better reflects design intent and also insulates the party a bit from one nasty AOE crit reducing everyone to quivering meatbags.
• Crit heals now give some stress relief. Huzzah!
• Crit heals will no longer happen on 0 HP heals, potentially resulting in less snarky comments on the Internet.
• Crit heals now have different chance and effect multiplies for single heals vs AOE heals. Single heals have greater chance to crit compared to AOE heals.
• Fix to Plague Doctor self-cure on Battlefield Medicine. Blights and bleeds B-gone! 3rd time's a charm, hopefully...
• Bug fix: Friendly skill effects are now rolled per target instead of whole group. Examples of this are the Jester's Insipiring Tune and its stress relief.
• Brigand Fuseman now has an attack to use should the cannon be killed first. Remember, friends don't let friends die this way, though.
• Reworded surprise-related buffs slightly in an attempt to make it more clear which things increase chance of the party being surprised or monsters being surprised.

Misc

• Comprehensive improvements to the pop-text queing system, which is how things like stuns, stress, heals, and so on show on actors. This should improve some cases where things appeared twice or appeared in strange order.
• Torch FX improvement
• Misc assorted bug fixes

Furthermore, Redhook has posted a dev roadmap for July+

Coming in July!

• New Hero: The Houndmaster! This rugged ex-constable will wander into the Hamlet, accompanied by his faithful Wolfhound and help restore order to your lawless acreage!
• Sanitarium overhaul! A significant rework of quirks, diseases, and the Sanitarium is coming! You'll be able to sculpt your heroes a little more by locking your favourite positive quirks on them - but be warned, doing so is permanent, and cannot be reversed.
• Diseases will also be separated into their own category, and better integrated into the game game flow.
• Armor up! Armor icons will upgrade on all heroes.
• "And more..." Quality of life changes, balance, tuning, gameplay tweaks and other additions are always going into the build!

After the July update, the next stop for us will be the Cove, a completely new dungeon with it's own bosses, monsters, curios, traps, and obstacles! If things weren't salty enough, get ready to choke down on the briny waters as your sodden adventurers push ever closer to...

The Darkest Dungeon!

Our full 1.0 release is scheduled for late October, this year!

The final dungeon and story content will be added, and you will conclude your quest to restore your family's estate, or die trying. What can you expect in the Darkest Dungeon? We're not saying a word...

Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm - we're working as hard as we can to bring you a fantastic experience!

-The Darkest Dungeon Team

Game will be released in October, and a new zone called the Cove will come out after July.

Anyone played with the new classes?

 

[Jasede]

Haven't really had the time/energy.
But game seems a lot harder now.

 

[Jimmious]

October? Sweet!

 

[Serus]

Scheduled for late october usually means late december or early next year. :D

 

[PhantasmaNL]

Game seems to be a bit harder since i first tried it, but that is good. For the next patch i hope they include an easier way to equip trinkets on your embark party and some more logic if possible to quirks acquired after a run. Getting four negative quirks after a flawless run is a bit counter intuitive. Already a great game otherwise. In my latest run my trap dude failed 4 times in a row, was crit by a stress dealer, went over the edge and got "Abusive" which led to him insulting the rest after almost every action adding stress, leading to the other 3 going over the edge. Two suicided apparently, the third was unable to do anything and was killed. Survived (boss run) with 1 party member on deaths door. Nice run.

 

[Ulminati]

What changed in the latest patches? I played and enjoyed this when backer access was first out. But then I decided to go cold turkey until release so I wouldn't burn out.

 

[Gord]

What changed in the latest patches?

Mostly some quality of life improvements and additions to the interface, some balancing tweaks, and in the last big patch two new hero classes.
Didn't play much though, for the same reasons.

 

[Ulminati]

I checked the site. There's new diseases, 3 new heroes (Man at arms, arbalest, houndmaster) since I played, some new bosses, QoL upgrades and apparently your guys can die from stress. With so many new things to check out, I'm neutral-positive towards reinstalling.