Chris Bourassa

#232 Chris Bourassa Talks Darkest Dungeon

Designing Thematic Games

Series


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

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