Read Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken and tell me you could survive what real life hero Louis Zamperini did. When pushed to the limit, many have endured things that would seem impossible. Humans are very complex creatures in general, and behavior when it comes to stress is no less complex. Battles - and wars - are won by steely resolve, look at London during the Blitz, or lost by something as human as the onset of panic. War games have long modeled the concept of morale as a game mechanic, because morale can be every bit as important as troop equipment, training and supply lines. Most RPGs are built upon 100 percent agency, meaning the player has full control over the characters, except maybe when they are hit by a sleep or confusion spell. The game features turn-based combat and roguelike exploration, but the "hook" of the game is that the heroes are flawed and you have to attend to their mental status as much as you do their hit points. The player manages a roster of heroes and groups them up into parties of four for expeditions into the various dungeons around the corrupted Estate of her fallen ancestor. How tough are heroes when the chips are down and the stakes are high? Will they stand up to the challenge and be present when all is counted? Or will they collapse under the pressure? Everyone has a breaking point. Our goal with Darkest Dungeon has always been to put some of the human element into the long established and well-loved genre, and this means reducing agency somewhat. There are few phobias you can't attack in some way in a fantasy dungeon setting. It's a good excuse to put pressure on someone's fear of death, closed spaces or the dark. Dungeons are fairly unpleasant spots in general, and adventuring is a tough vocation. The funny part about developing a game about stress is that each time something like this happens now, there is a little piece of me that mentally observes: "This is just like in the game."Ĭreating Darkest Dungeon has helped us deal with classical heroes as real people with weaknesses both physical and mental. It's not the most productive of behaviors, but I guess everyone has their ways of acting out. My own personal Affliction is Irrationality - the pathways in my brain normally so devoted to logic and reason can become twisted like gnarled overlapping roots, and I'll start jumping to wild conclusions and emphatically arguing points I don't even necessarily agree with. I hit my stress cap and popped to "Afflicted" status during the third week of the Darkest Dungeon Kickstarter - the culprit being the last two months of intensive work and constant decision-making.
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