The frustrating reality is that despite awful death threats, Red Hook managed to build a better production process and method for communicating with players. On Darkest Dungeon II, lots of changes to the progression, relationship, and traversal systems all needed serious reworks to become as functional as they are today. 'We soul searched on them and found they were right for the game,' he insisted. Sigman did clarify that if you look back at the corpse system saga, you won't find that Red Hook was somehow stubbornly sticking to its guns, or isn't willing to make changes. 'A lot of the learnings and how we approached this time weren't just on the success of branding updates or whatever on the first game, but on the missteps, you know?' But Bourassa and Sigman agreed that the corpse system experience 'matured' the studios' processes. 'by the time it's gotten to the main branch, it's already gone through a bit of vetting, and our communications side is ready to talk about it.'ĭoes that mean the death threats were somehow worth it? No. If the private test group hates the change, Red Hook has time to re-evaluate it and see if it needs changes or should just be scrapped. Changes are first teased, then announced by a talented team of community managers. The game's presence on the Epic Games Store meant that supportive fans of Darkest Dungeon were more likely to be in the audience than more fair-weather followers. Now Red Hook has many layers of 'buffering' to make sure such changes don't feel too sudden for players. 'We had not yet built infrastructure.for rolling out change.' 'It was really a community management thing,' he reflected. Sigman said that in the time since the corpse system fiasco, Red Hook's had time to gain 'perspective' on how that kerfuffle came about.

'I don't mind a death threat, I just want it to be nicely worded,' Bourassa joked. So much so that some sent death threats to Red Hook. And when it was added, lots of Darkest Dungeon players hated it. It's not a system that was present in the early days of Darkest Dungeon 's Early Access journey. After enemies were slain in battle, their bodies would stay on the battlefield, and become a kind of obstacle players had to plan around in combat. Specifically, the corpses in the first game. To talk about why Red Hook made these updates (experimental branches and private test groups weren't a part of Darkest Dungeon 's production process), you need to talk about corpses. expectations can certainly bleed into that territory.' 'It's a lot more like live operations, like games as a service. 'It's kind of crazy but it really speaks to the way people perceive Early Access now,' he added. And even before that, the private test groups have a forum to communicate with developers and discuss features before they go into a build.

That's effectively three layers deep of 'testing' new builds. 'And then we have private test groups before we even go to the experimental branch, before we go to the main Early Access branch.'

'We've kind of learned that you need an experimental branch of your Early Access game,' Bourassa explained. The reality couldn't be further from that. Players who participate are supposed to know they're working with an unfinished product, and as long as there's a certain level of shippable quality, they know they're there to give feedback and help make the game better. In theory, the Early Access process is like beta testing. Darkest Dungeon II had multiple layers of 'early access' Co-founders Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman took some time to explain how their team adjusted their methods for navigating this ever-evolving path of video game development.

Now that the game is fully released, we wanted to take a moment to check in with Red Hook's developers and see how their second run of Early Access went. The first Darkest Dungeon was something of a game industry milestone: a Steam Early Access title that sold a bananas number of units ( over 6 million copies since 2015) and a pioneer in how mid-sized developers can make the most of their presence on Steam.įor Darkest Dungeon II, Red Hook signed a deal with Epic to execute their Early Access journey on the Epic Games Store, and in the process have already managed to sell over 300,000 copies. With that perhaps too-obvious joke out of the way, let's move on to our usual business: exploring the very successful Early Access process behind Red Hook Studios' freshly released sequel. One is a long arduous journey defined by frequent bickering, stressful encounters, and demonic bosses. What's the difference between Darkest Dungeon II and game development?

Darkest dungeon ii characters