This past week we caught up with Tyler Sigman and Chris Bourassa from Darkest Dunegon. The game came out in early access this past February and has been doing extremely well on Steam. We’ve covered the game a lot here at MMORPG.com in recent months and are now checking in with the team about their latest Fiends & Frenzy patch.
Since the game has launched the guys have been on a huge crusade to support it out of the gate. They were happy about the success it had on Steam and now are caught in a sea of support and community management. They also were working on fixes for the quality of life in the game. In the last few months they are very happy to get back to content and making the game they want to finally deliver as a finished product in the Fall.
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Fiends & Frenzy brings two new hero classes to the players: The Man-At-Arms and the Arbalest. The Man-At-Arms offers a tough front line fighting class which can take a lot of punishment. The Arbalest is a heavy shooting class which can deal loads of damage from the back ranks. By now most of you have played these classes, however Tyler and Chris explained that they can work well in any group formation. The guys also said that meta has really stayed balance among the players in terms of group formations. Something they are very happy about. While not every class may fit together perfectly, they are happy that players are making their own designs and not just following along with what someone else tells them is the best.
The guys were also very happy of the new bosses in the game. The massive Brigand cannon was fun to create because they too find the Brigands an annoying foe in the game. They wanted to pay homage to them and give them a boss of their own. So the giant cannon was the perfect fit into their fighting style. Chris explained that the Gibbering Prophet also messes with the players a lot. He can come into the estate and truly shed light on what your ancestor has been up too. Even though he is bat raving crazy, the prophet may also be the only one talking sense. The last boss, the Formless Flesh is not only a disgusting foe, but also extremely difficult to fight. It takes up all four ranks and has weak spots exposed at certain times in the fight. However, taking it down is not just a tank and spank fight, you have to exploit its weaknesses when you can. “It’s the grossest thing I have ever drawn,” said Chris.
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The team has gotten loads of feedback from fans and continues to listen, especially to their original backers. Tyler said a lot of the quality of life changes to the game have come from players. Even something as simple as an “unequip all trinkets” button for the party. These changes along with an overall UI polish will continue to be updated.
We asked the team what they had in mind going forward. Everything seems to point to October when they plan to release the full version of the game. They have a very set checklist of elements they want in the game and don’t consider it at 1.0 until those features are in. Classes like the Hound Master and some more bosses should all be added by then. They also want to make sure all the town events are in for players as well. They do have some more releases planned for the summer leading into Octobers final version.
Tyler and Chris said not to worry, the road does not end in October. They are now theorizing a lot about what will come after. They like the idea of some different play styles for the game. With a true survival mode being part of the gamut of choices before them. They also want to show a lot more of the world beyond the estate. They've talked a lot about the game going onto mobile platforms as well as other areas like Mac and Linux. Chris joked that he had heard of players breaking keyboards while playing, he said the true frustration of Darkest Dungeon will not be known until someone breaks an iPad. For now, get in and enjoy Fiends & Frenzy!
