#232 Chris Bourassa Talks Darkest Dungeon
Designing Thematic GamesSeries
Chris Bourassa joins Dirk and David to discuss his work on the indie hit Darkest Dungeon. They talk about the inspiration for some of Darkest Dungeon’s characters, enemies, and mechanical systems. They also cover the game’s difficulty and learning from some of the public outcry during the game’s early access stage
Episode Outline
01:01 What is Darkest Dungeon, mechanically and thematically?
04:13 Why does the dungeon crawl theme endure?
06:47 Digging deeper into the stress and affliction mechanics of Darkest Dungeon
12:10 How Chris and the team approached the character designs in the game
19:21 Combat and enemy/boss design in Darkest Dungeon
26:11 The blowback from the heart attack and corpse mechanics that were introduced in early access
33:06 Learning from the early access process and how they implemented changes afterward
43:09 Talking about the criticisms of Darkest Dungeon’s slow middle game
49:59 What information is available about Darkest Dungeon 2
In this Episode
Chris Bourassa - @bourassaart, darkestdungeon.com
David V. Heron - @davidvheron
Dirk Knemeyer - @DKnemeyer