The creators of Darkest Dungeon 2, the upcoming roguelike which has so far seen significant success in early access on the Epic Games Store, will use a similar approach to DLC as its 2016 namesake, which Red Hook’s co-founders and directors say will allow them to continue “making cool things,” with plans for both free and paid Darkest Dungeon 2 updates set for the future.
Speaking exclusively to PCGamesN, live from the San Francisco show floor of this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), Red Hook’s co-founders and Darkest Dungeon 2’s creative directors Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman explain how update plans for the bleak RPG game remain “old school,” and committed to providing the “quality” for which Red Hook has become regarded.
“We don’t have a Battle Pass. There’s no ‘Red Hook crystals.’ We’re old school,” Bourassa explains. “We want to support the game and make free additions to it, but also really lean in and assign development time to good, paid DLC which affects and mutates the base game experience, and brings a lot of content value to it. I feel like our studio has a good reputation in our community for delivering value, and we’d want to preserve that.”
“DLC pays for the development team to keep making cool stuff, is the bottom line,” Sigman adds.
Darkest Dungeon 2 has been in early access on the Epic Games Store since October 2021, with a full release now set for both Epic and Steam on May 8. With plans in place to overhaul the relationship system, Bourassa describes the post-launch period as a “fun place to be.”
“If your game does reasonably well, it’s a fun place to be where you have this framework and platform, and a lot of ideas you might have left on the cutting room floor you can sweep back together into an improved version, and look for every opportunity to grow and enrich the game.”
PCGamesN is reporting live from GDC and will continue to bring you exclusive interviews, news, and reveals, including more on the development and post-launch plans for Darkest Dungeon 2.
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