DARKEST DUNGEON

The main gameplay of Darkest Dungeon started out as a tile-based game that had the
player control a group of characters as they moved about in a dungeon, eventually
transitioning into a combat mode when they had encounters. The two recognized that
players would get bored of looking at icons of the characters' heads all the time via the
top-down icons, which would not allow players to come to bond with the characters.
This led to the concept of presenting characters from the side view in combat, making
the player feel they were at the same level as the characters, alleviating some of these
issues. This also enabled Bourassa, the principal artist on the game, have an opportunity
to show off more of his work.[8] However, this would have left them the need to
transition from top-down to side-view and create more art assets. They worked around
this by using the same side-view not only for combat but for dungeon exploration,
creating the basic gameplay of Darkest Dungeon.[8]

The side-view mechanic then led into the idea of the characters being in ranks, allowing
for certain attacks, abilities, or defenses if they were in the right rank; characters in the
front could have powerful melee attacks but take more damage, while characters in the
back would be more protected but limited to weaker ranged attacks. This was an idea
inspired by The Bard's Tale, but they were able to expand upon it to create interesting
situations, such as having characters pulled out of rank by an enemy attack. This in turn
led to a new attribute for how likely a character could be moved out of position, creating
strategies for the player as to handle a mix-up in the ranks during combat, as well as
applying the same principles of rank to the enemy forces and making situations for the
player to figure out how to take advantage of a weak rank arrangement.[8] Furthering
from these concepts, they crafted the character classes to have various strengths and
weaknesses based on their rank positioning, created further strategic elements for the
player to explore.[8]

One core idea of the game was its Affliction system, in which the dungeon-crawling
characters would gain stress and eventually afflictions as they explored.[7] Bourassa and
Sigman noted that while they are fans of classic role-playing games such as The Bard's
Tale, Eye of the Beholder, and Ultima Underworld, most of these games lacked the
human element to the characters. They give an example of a character being down to
their last hit point in battle and the player simply making decisions to win, the character
reacting regardless of their low health.[7] They instead wanted to "toy with player
agency", giving moments where the player is reminded they do not have full control of
the actions of the adventurers in the party.[7] They also sought to alter how most loot
systems in role-playing games work so that the player was not always focused on
finding the best gear for the characters but instead working to support their characters.[7]
Bourassa and Sigman were aware that these facets may turn players away from the
game due to the difficulty and inability to have full control, but continued to stay true to
their vision of the game.[9]

The Affliction system was inspired by psychologically traumatized heroes, both through
historical events as well as works of fiction such as Hudson from Aliens and the soldiers
from Band of Brothers who are transformed by the horrors of combat; Sigman pointed
to the seventh episode of Band of Brothers where a soldier watches his friends die from
a shell explosion, stares transfixed at the event, and then becomes unable to fight any
more, as the feeling they wanted to capture.[10][11] Though they were also inspired by
Lovecraftian horror, they did not want to use the concept of "insanity" that is common
in that genre, and instead focused more on the nature of stress and how it affected the
human psyche.[7] Because of the importance of the Affliction system to Darkest
Dungeon, the developers spent significant time to make sure that the impact of stress
and afflictions were emphasized dramatically in the game's presentation, using special
graphics and sound cues to signal the onset of an affliction.[7] They also created a "bark
system", dialog stated by a character reflecting their current stress, affliction, and other
attributes as another means to humanize the characters and remind the player that they
do not have full control of the characters.[7] Alongside the Affliction system, they
developed the town facilities that are used to cure afflictions and reduce stress, using
concepts they borrowed from tabletop games.[7] They also included Virtues, positive
afflictions that can result from high stress situations, and a means of tracking the
afflictions of a given character over time, so that in future stress situations the character
will often become encumbered by the same affliction, developing a behavioral pattern
that the player may be able to use to their benefit.[7]

A disembodied narrator, voiced by Wayne June, was also included to comment in a

sardonic manner throughout the game, furthering the atmosphere they wanted.[9][12]
Bourassa had listened to June's readings of various H.P. Lovecraft works prior to
developing the game, which partially inspired Darkest Dungeon. When the two were
preparing the game's first teaser trailing, they felt they needed a narrator and approached
June for his work. Once the trailer was completed, they recognized that June's voice as
narrator was a necessary element for the game.[6] Art assets were created by Bourassa; in
addition to the Lovecraftian nature, he wanted to give the game the look of woodcut and
illuminated manuscripts, and took inspiration from eastern European artists such as
Albrecht Dürer.[6] He further modernized the look by using ideas from comic book
artists including Mike Mignola, Guy Davis, Chris Bachalo, and Viktor Kalvachev.[6]
The game uses a homebrewed, lightweight cross-platform game engine developed by
programmer Kelvin McDow