Just before the Christmas break, Tyler Sigman (Co-Founder and Design Director) and Chris Bourassa (Co-Founder and Creative Director) of Red Hook Studios headed over to r/Games for an Ask Me Anything on all things Darkest Dungeon. We’ve picked out just some of the questions and answers for you, so you can gain a little more insight into the upcoming Kingdoms update and our next DLC, Inhuman Bondage.
If you want to read all the questions and answers, with some about the studio and wider franchise, be sure to head on over to the r/Games Reddit.
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Question - The parallels between the upcoming Kingdoms game mode and the DD1 dungeon crawling is uncannily similar. To make sure everyone's on the same page, will this be following the footsteps of DD1's formula, or completely new?
Answer - Kingdoms is a completely new experience. It is not, strictly speaking, "DD1 in DD2" and we caution people not to expect that. But it borrows many themes and mechanics from the original game, and fuses them with the core of DD2. "Town events", a larger roster, a persistent worldspace, make a return. It also brings a host of new stuff to the fore - a more involved quest chain (an evolution of the Crusader quest from Binding Blade DLC), Inn skill trees, the new playable Peasant Militia - just a ton of really cool ideas. You'll be racing to complete the quest chain and keep your Inns safe against escalating attacks as time ticks down. - Chris
Question - The kingdom/inhuman bondage update on console will arrive on a later date, but it has already been planned for release or the date has to be planned yet? Thank you
Answer - We don't have a firm date yet because the complexities of porting make it hard to predict with certainty. Also, there tends to be a bit of variation in how many unexpected bugs are found once the PC version releases. But our goal will be to turn the port around and get it onto the consoles as soon as we can. - Tyler
Question - Hi! For the Kingdoms mod, will the unlocked stuff from the main campaign be there too? Or will the Kingdom mod be really fully independent? Same question about the DLC. Thanks, can't wait to go back in!
Answer - We intentionally have designed Kingdoms to be entirely separate from Confessions as much as possible. If somebody buys the game, we want them to be able to play Kingdoms first if they wanted to. So in this regard, almost none of the unlocks from Confessions carry over to Kingdoms mode. One exception are the Stagecoach skins (livery). You have to unlock those in Confessions to be able to use them in Kingdoms. But otherwise, there isn't any crossover. - Chris
Question - Any plans of bringing back Hound Master and making Bounty Hunter as a permanent character like the others?
Answer - Bounty Hunter is fully playable in Kingdoms, but no plans to bring him into Confessions mode as a full character. The theme of Confessions is atonement, and moving past your trauma, and I think it makes the character more 'his own thing' by not participating in that emotional journey. Did you enjoy Book of Boba Fett? I sure as hell did not. Sometimes, the less we know about a character, the more interesting they are. Will BH always be different from the other heroes going forward? No, it just made sense for the Confessions mode. No comment on Houndie just yet - we get a lot of asks for him :) - Chris
Question - As DD2 approaches the release of Kingdoms and Inhuman Bondage, the two big milestones, the future seems a little foggy. We know that 2025 will see Crimson Courtiers and Coven come as the next modules for Kingdoms, as well as reworks for the remaining heroes with old paths. However, we don't know how they will be released, and what is more in store in DD2 once Kingdoms, Hero Reworks, and Origin Skins are finished.
My question is, can we expect a Road Map somewhere in the near future to add more certainty about the game's future?
Answer - Looking ahead to 2025, we have confirmed the Inhuman Bondage DLC, Kingdoms1/2/3, and hero paths & skins. We have plans for *even more* on top of that as well! Now, to be totally honest with you, we are not big fans of roadmaps. We need to maintain some institutional agility, to pivot and reorganize as challenges (or happy accidents!) happen. We don't want to set expectations early and find ourselves unable to meet them. That's why we prefer to announce only what we know to be coming next. We're as forthcoming as we can be! - Chris
Question - Will the Infernal Blaze Mechanic be part of kingdoms? and most important! Will the snuff flame mechanic come back?
Answer - Glad you like the Infernal Flames! Our designers had a lot of fun creating those as an interesting way of doing opt-in difficulty challenges. The first Kingdoms release won't have any Infernal Flames integrated, but it's something we are thinking about as potential additions to the following releases. That being said, we have a number of difficulty options that will be configurable for the first Kingdoms release, so people can scale the challenge to their liking somewhat. - Tyler
Question - Can we look forward to a Dev stream featuring either of the content updates this January?
Answer - Yeah, why not? Let's do it the week of Kingdoms release! Maybe not release day, but shortly thereafter. Sound good? - Chris
Question - Will people who buy the oblivion edition gain access to the inhuman bondage DLC or will they have to buy that separately. Also how’s development for that going.
Answer - Inhuman Bondage DLC must be purchased separately. We plan to create new bundles with all the stuff together. But the intent of the bundles is not to be "season passes" or DLC pre-purchases. They are always structured just to be discounts of whatever is currently available, to give you a price break if you get all the stuff together. - Tyler
Question - This one is about gameplay for kingdoms. What is inspiring this new gamemode? Are there other games that you pulled some design from that are complimenting the main gameplay loop of kingdoms?
Answer - Great question! Kingdoms came about because after the Binding Blade DLC, we were brainstorming on what cool stuff to add to the game. The most obvious answer is usually "more content!" (more regions, more heroes, more items, etc.) We wanted to think a bit more big picture and one thing led to another (as sometimes happens) and we came up with the audacious idea to sort of remix all the elements of the game into a different package--then players could have more than one mode to play, and perhaps find the mode that appeals to them the most.
More specifically, we got excited about blending some elements of DD1 and DD2 together to create something different than either. So for example, could we use DD2's combat, traveling, and inns, but then bring over stuff like DD1's persistent roster, "town events", and more epic "quest" that is split into smaller bite size quest steps. It sounded fun to create a bit of a board game strategic metagame and then layer in the rest of how most of DD2 functions. Then we started thinking about how the best way to do it would be the insane idea of offering it as a completely free update. And here we are...
Oh, as for inspiration, I think borrowing a bit from board games in general, and then of course borrowing from our own work on DD1. But nothing else directly springs to mind because Kingdoms is a bit of its own unique thing. But that definitely fits with how we like to design. Going back to DD1, the differences between Crimson Court vs Color of Madness vs Butcher's Circus are all pretty massive. We like to experiment. - Tyler
Question - Will Kingdoms still incorporate the stagecoach and travelling seen in Confessions?
Answer - Yes, Kingdoms still features the Stagecoach and traveling. However, the structure is quite different, and the biggest way it's different with regards to the traveling is that each region is much shorter. In Confessions mode, each region is a very long and arduous journey (intentionally), of which you only have to do a few to get to the end boss. In Kingdoms, the travel takes you between Inn and Camp locations on the Kingdoms map. Each region travel increments one "day" of world time, and the travel itself is much shorter than a comparable Confessions region. So the flow and pacing are quite different. We have a lot of fun with this day mechanic--adding interesting events and other things. The shorter regions are also key to another big part of what makes Kingdoms different than Confessions. In Confessions, you form one party and then use that party to try to get all the way to the boss. In Kingdoms, you change up your party frequently. So you can reconfigure based upon whether you are heading into the Shroud, say, vs the Sprawl. It gives a bit more of the DD1 missions feel at times. Which heroes are available to you depends on where you are on the map and which inns or camps those heroes are staying at. You can move them around on the map, so this creates a cool strategic board-gamey feel where you are trying to plan a few moves in advance, to keep your party optimized for each region you might want to tackle. Of course, this being DD, there are other reasons you might need to rest a hero and swap for a new one: for example, they might be stressed or worn out or have terrible debilitating quirks that need treated. :P - Tyler