2015 VIDEO GAMES AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA CONFERENCE

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Darkest Dungeon

Stress and the Art of Game Development

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GW-Y445jUc

Darkest Dungeon

Genesis

•The Idea•A turn-based gothic roguelike RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring.•Permanent, meaningful consequences•Characters over gear•Heroes are human

•Why Indie Development?

Genesis

•Red Hook’s first game•Kickoff: April 2013

•Opportunity Cost•Peak individual momentum; no ramen.

•Our Business Model•The Heist.

•Attracting Quality•Partners that inspire you.•Power Up Audio, Stuart Chatwood, Wayne June

Funding

•Our Goals: creative and business autonomy•Bootstrapping•Pre-Kickstarter angel loan: $75,000 from Klei•Took this to allow us to ask less on KS

•Crowdfunding•No equity investors or publishers•Success Criteria•Don’t need to be Candy Crush or even Clash of Clans.

Creative Direction• Standing out in a crowd: every aspect of the game

must service and reinforce the tone and creative direction of the title.•Art•Imagery reflects the time period of the setting: woodcuts, manuscripts•Modern comic book influence: pooling blacks and hard edges•Externalized art direction•Efficiency of production, constraints fuel creativity

•Narration•Lovecraft audio books.

•Writing•Language risk in support of the vision.

Design Direction•Classic CRPG inspiration: •Bard’s Tale, Eye of the Beholder, Ultima, and more

•Side-on combat•Roguelike? Rogue-lite? Roguelike-like?•The value of a marketing term

•Boardgame DNA•The Affliction System•Indirect control, loss of player agency

•Ruthless Autosave•It’s not a game for everyone•Forcing the player to confront loss and consequence

Design Direction

Development Story

Chapter 1: The Announcement

•This is show business•Make a big splash•Some stuff should stay behind the curtain

•“Terror and Madness” trailer•Conventional wisdom is just that

•Release publicity as mailing list seed round•Mighty 1100

Chapter 2: Kickstarter

•Strategy•About the game, not the team•Confidence, not desperation (though we were terrified)•About the game, not the stuff•Minimum $ask possible—success is its own story•Leverage Mighty 1100 on Day 1•Months of effort planning and running the campaign

•Result: $313,337 from 9,600 backers•Pitfalls•Exclusive content timed exclusive•Non-Early Access tier

Chapter 3: Early Access•Why?•Fits the game: fan involvement, balancing, experimentation.•Cash flow benefit.•Double Launch benefit.

•Opportunity•“Early Access is dead.”

•Delay: Oct Feb•E.A. is a Launch•Empty the clip.•Press, streamers, ads.

Chapter 4: Early Access Performance

• Early Access launched February 3rd

• Steam #1 for appx 7 days• Great streamer adoption•Turn-based pace allows them to perform

•SteamSpy.com reports:• 340,938 ± 15,117 UNITS•$19.99. Not yet discounted. No BIG content updates*

Chapter 5: The Here and Now

•Validation•“Early Access done right.”

•Speed Bumps•Support, community management, personal issues, means our first BIG content update isn’t until May 28th. Later than planned.

•EA Plan•Bundling content into branded, “event” patches

•Launch Strategy•The Darkest Dungeon

Takeaways

•The stress is real.•High stakes; can’t take anything for granted.

•Ignore conventional wisdom; spot trends.•“Death” is an opportunity.

•Empty the clip every time.•Share and network with other developers.•It’s not a zero-sum game.

•Regular work schedule, accountability•Build a solid party and bring a shovel

Q&A

DarkestDungeon.com / @DarkestDungeon

biz@redhookgames.comChris Bourassa: @BourassaArtTyler Sigman: @TylerSigman

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