How To Draw In The Darkest Dungeon Style

There's Beautiful Art Even In The Darkest Dungeon

Making Of

Developer Red Hook Studios' Darkest Dungeon [official site] -- a brooding, and sadistic take on roguelike RPGs -- wouldn't work without its gorgeous art blueprint. Actually, it would fail miserably at everything information technology attempts to do otherwise, from the storytelling to the mechanics. I spoke to Darkest Dungeon'south creative director Chris Bourassa to find out how they created an fine art style that would unify the entire game.

Art design has always been a valuable aspect of any video game. For instance, Rapture in Bioshock 1 and 2 are captivating not because the games are technical powerhouses, but because they sport an artful that is able to depict people in. The same goes for Dishonored; the enemy and earth pattern are singled-out and surprising, and add layers of satisfaction to the overall experience. Only while not bad art pattern complements said games, it'southward the focal signal in Darkest Dungeon.

"The art mode is crucial because at a glance, it conveys the essence of the game," writes Bourassa when I speak to him. "Dark, somber, uncompromising, difficult, and worn - all of these things come to mind when looking at a screenshot, and are reinforced past the play experience."

Players take command of four party members at any fourth dimension, and the whole premise of the game is to challenge you with how far you can delve into a dungeon earlier your political party members start to become both physically and mentally strained. Characters can become insane, plow on one another, and give up entirely. This is communicated through the mechanics, equally character's statistics will get-go to wane, nullifying their ability to gainsay enemies.

But where the game actually shines, and why it has become so dearest in the first place, is how it is able to convey the emotions the characters will inevitably feel, aslope visually showcasing the biggy challenges that await them, through its art style. Players feel that same sense of dread and hopelessness.

"The art and blueprint of the game were both born of a single artistic vision," Bourassa writes. "The difficult edges in the art style reflect the uncompromising nature of the game, the pooling blacks are a nod to the light mechanic, and the empty eyes help convey the pervasive sense of hopelessness. Consistency is critical for immersion, so when fine art & design both service the creative direction of the title, players experience swallowed up in the game world.

"For instance, when characters become 'affected', we decided that since it was a crucial moment, we needed custom poses and new art to really sell the moment. That'south an example of artwork highlighting a fundamental feature in the game to great effect."

The studio's fastidious arroyo towards achieving this particular aesthetic makes the game feel like a living, breathing medieval painting. Information technology'southward dissimilar any other game out there at the moment. Bourassa had to overcome a gargantuan number of obstacles to realize their initial goal with Darkest Dungeon'due south art blueprint, especially since he is the sole artist on the team.

"We wanted the game to look and feel every bit though it was grounded in the time flow it was describing," he writes. "I looked at a lot of medieval woodcuts, Durer illustrations, & illuminated manuscripts. I also wanted to make sure that the game had a modern edge, then I referenced a number of my favorite comic book artists - Mignola, Davis, Bachalo, Canete. I retrieve the biggest challenge was developing a fashion that would allow me to work quickly, but that would yield solid, consistent results. As the only artist, production efficiency was a big concern."

Figuring out how the art design will complement, and often dominate gameplay and storytelling was an excruciating process. The latter two aspects have to feel like they belong with Darkest Dungeon's world, and the studio was able to figure that out. What is more interesting is that the game was funded via Kickstarter. This is Cherry-red Hook Studios' offset project, and existence an unknown name meant the squad had to come out swinging with its initial thought. Oftentimes times with Kickstarter, if you aren't a large name like Keiji Inafune or Double Fine, there has to exist an instant, visceral style to entice people to take interest in your projection, and hopefully fund information technology. In this case, judging a volume by its comprehend is an inevitability.

Darkest Dungeon's distinct wait left an everlasting impact on people when it was announced, and that seems to me to be the biggest reason why it was funded. The idea of your characters suffering mentally and giving upwardly was an exciting and novel premise sure, but the presentation has to be every bit striking. Simply put, the game wouldn't exist in the offset identify without its visual style.

"I agree," Bourassa writes. "Kickstarter is an interesting animal, because you are really marketing a promise, and as such, art and impression thing a great deal - you desire to attract people to the potential that your vision has. I think at that place may exist a temptation to research electric current art trends and craft your projection to capitalize on what'southward 'hot' - pixel art, for instance, enjoyed a great deal of attention for a few years. For u.s.a., we felt information technology was important to stick with a style that worked well with the blazon of game nosotros were making, and that was unique enough to stand out in a crowded market. Instead of chasing a trend, we wanted to leapfrog the current climate and strike out on our own."

Bourassa hails from a triple-A background and having the creative freedom to work on something like Darkest Dungeon felt liberating for him. Most triple-A publishers out at that place wouldn't greenlight a projection similar this -- there are simply too many risks involved - and the push in the mainstream still seems to be towards photorealism. As the technology behind games continues to plateau however, delivering diminishing returns for higher polygon counts, the importance of their fine art styles -- and the pressures faced by their artists -- will go along to increase. Originality and creativeness could become harder to achieve in the triple-A scene fifty-fifty as they become more vital.

"I can only speak for myself, just coming from AAA development, where there is indeed a slap-up pressure level to produce increasingly 'realistic' concept art, information technology was refreshing and invigorating to go back to something more than stylized," Bourassa writes. "Information technology's liberating to work more quickly, and I enjoy the results, so it'due south a win/win. I exercise see a widening gulf between AAA evolution and smaller calibration operations like ours.

"There's a college level of risk aversion on bigger titles considering of the development costs, so they tend to accept fewer risks, with blueprint and fine art alike, and that can experience very restrictive. If annihilation, the increasing popularity of 'indies' has shown that at that place is room in the market for all kinds of styles and interpretations -- I think that's healthy for developers and for consumers alike."

Darkest Dungeon isn't a triple-A game at all. Rather, it'south a mammoth chance taken by a brand new studio that ultimately paid off. Bourassa and the residuum of the team's herculean endeavor to differentiate itself, and offering players something truly unique to feel resulted in one of the best games to come out of Kickstarter. Its art blueprint is forepart and center, enervating your attending, and opening your optics to what videogames are capable of.