It’s time for an update! Today we announced our release date for PS4 and PS VITA: September 27th, 2016. We’ve been hard at work getting the ports together and we are super excited to have it coming out next month!
We will be doing pre-orders on the Playstation Network soon, and if you are a PS+ member you will get 20% off the launch price ($24.99 USD). Cross-buy and Cross-save will be for all purchasers and not just PS+ members.
Backer Rewards
With all the work going on for the Playstation ports, we had to delay some of the physical rewards. But now that we are able to start seeing around the bend, we wanted to give everyone an update!
The remaining physical rewards are the Backer Print, Diorama, and Art Book. So let’s review:
Backer Print - These are ready to print and shipped to Chris and Tyler to be signed, just waiting for some time post PS release.
Diorama - These have been started but we are still finalizing the specs.
Art book - This is an anticipated item and we want to do it justice. Chris will be devoting time to this after the PS release and we expect delivery to be Q4 this year.
There is only one remaining digital reward, and that is the Estate Map. Chris wants to livestream the creation of the map. The livestream will be later this month (August) and we will announce a hard date soon. We’d love have you all tune in and keep Chris company as he works his magic!
OTHER GOODIES
That covers all the things promised in the Kickstarter, but we also have other cool things brewing.
Steam Workshop - This is the next major feature we plan to work on post PS release.
DOTA 2 Announcer pack - Yes! This is still planned, we done a first pass on the lines and are now punching them up.
Future DLC - We have some awesome ideas brewing and hope to share more news soon.
It is because of your support that we have means to continue working on Darkest Dungeon. We are eternally grateful that we are able to support our game this way and hope to continue to add cool and exciting content to the game.
FAQs
Can I get a PS key if I backed?
Sorry, but no. During the crafting of our KS campaign the wording we used only promised the PC version of the game for redemption. Playstation was not an option for key redemption to our backers.
We are happy to announce that Linux is officially out as a supported platform! Earlier this month we put out a beta version of the Linux build and with the help of our community members we’ve addressed all the major issues and feel confident in the current stability of the build to give it a wide release.
We want to thank Aaron Melcher of Knockout Games for his hard work in doing the port! Many Linux players will probably recognize his name as he has done many Linux ports for various popular games, and he has done a great job on Darkest Dungeon. We also want to thank our community members who jumped in early to help track down bugs and report them to Aaron as he worked on getting the build ready for release.
While we have your attention it is also a great opportunity to give everyone an update on what’s going on with the Town Events and PS4/VITA.
MAC APP STORE RELEASE (OSX)
Although the game is already available for OSX via other storefronts, we are excited to be bringing it to the Mac App Store this Thursday, April 28th! Some people prefer to buy their games via that storefront, and we’re happy to oblige as well as to start strengthening our relationship with Apple! Stay tuned for imminent updates.
TOWN EVENTS
Let’s talk Town Events. We have now been full steam on Town Events for the past few weeks, and we’re excited about the new features! With the added time we have been able to digest our own internal feedback to the system, as well as the feedback we’ve received from our community.
Last time we talked about Town Events we wanted to put a clear definition out there as to what we want to accomplish with the added system. To reiterate:
‘Town Events’ are designed to add variety to the Hamlet over the course of a campaign. Upon returning from an expedition, there is a chance for a thematic event to trigger in town – this functions akin to a deck of event cards.
Town Events add variety to the overall campaign and also provide additional personality to the Hamlet itself! In some cases, the events are related to quests. For example, the ALL SAINTS DAY event has a high chance to proc after successfully completing the Ruins Gather Holy Relics Quest. ALL SAINTS DAY sends the Abbey into a zealous celebration, and makes all treatments there free for that week!. We like this example as it helps answer a common community concern on the value of the various gather/destroy quests that we’ve had in the game for a long time, and have been criticized for their loss in value due to inventory restrictions.
Town Events are currently planned to deploy in mid to late May. We will also be circulating the patch on the “Coming in Hot” beta branch before wide release, so stay tuned for details if you wish to be one of the first to try out the update!
PLAYSTATION UPDATE
We have previously announced Late Spring/Early Summer as a target for PS4 and Vita release. With the adjustment of schedules and matching up with potential future events we are now targeting late July or August. We want to make sure that all of the Town Event contents we are working on now are solid for inclusion into the console release, as well as making sure it runs like butter and plays well with a controller. Adjusting controls, in particular, is not a quick process. We have a level of quality that we want to ensure in all of our releases and we would rather take some extra time to make it right, rather than rush it out the door. The awesome and talented Sickhead Games has been helping us with the porting.
We remain incredibly excited to bring the game to PS4 and Vita, and we have seen such enthusiasm from the community, as well. Sony has been a fantastic partner to work with, and we can’t wait to make a big Summer splash with the game!
STEAM WORKSHOP / MODDING
Although we don’t have anything concrete here just yet, we wanted to also remind everyone that we are committed to improving the mod-ability of the game and officially supporting it via better tools, docs, and Steam Workshop integration! We have been amazed at the creations we’ve seen already. With everything already mentioned in this update, we’ve just been busy with other things we promised sooner! This remains incredibly important to us and we believe will really strengthen the long-term community of the game. We’ll update you as we break ground!
Those of you already engaging in modding, please feel free to post requests and ideas for tools/docs/etc in the Steam forums.
REMAINING KICKSTARTER REWARDS
Last but definitely not least, we are starting to ramp up the machinery in preparation for producing the remaining Kickstarter rewards: prints, art books, diorama, drawn faces, etc. We have definitely not forgotten these! Finishing up Town Events will check off our last *feature* stretch goals, as well.
More updates coming on all these goodies!
WRAP UP
BOOM, that’s it for now! We hope you are excited for all the things 2016 has in store for Darkest Dungeon. As always, we are listening to your comments and feedback at all the places listed below!
--Red Hook Studios
Tech Support: visit Steam Forums or email support@redhookgames.com
Backer Support: backersupport@redhookgames.com
General feedback: visit the forums, or email feedback@redhookgames.com
We are fast approaching the full release of the game and want to give you all an update on the various backer-fueled features yet to get into the game or be delivered to your mailbox.
Steam Release - January 19th!
Darkest Dungeon Releases - Jan 19th
Our official launch day is January 19th! Not only are we are all working exceptionally hard to deliver a torturous endgame to Darkest Dungeon, but we’re implementing a slew of awesome feedback we’ve gotten from our community. All of us are excited to see your reactions to what we’ve cooked up for the finale, and we’re pouring every bit of effort we can towards making it memorable and maddening!
We’re not revealing anything about it until launch, but we can say that the Darkest Dungeon itself has a bigger scope than any other area currently in the game!
Reminder: ALL BACKER TIERS SHOULD HAVE STEAM KEYS SINCE MAY 2015
We get this question a lot, so we want to make sure everyone knows: all of you should have your Steam Keys. $20+ Tiers got them in February 2015 at Early Access release. We released keys to the $15 Tier in May 2015.
If you don't have your Steam key, please email us at backersupport@redhookgames.com and we'll help you out!
Town Events, Merchant Class Stretch Goals
Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
Quality has always been extremely important to us - especially now as we work through things like the final quests and bosses. In order to deliver the endgame content in a high quality manner consistent with our previous releases, we’ve moved some stretch goal features like town events and the Merchant class out to a post-launch (free) update. These features were stretch goals - unlocked by backers like you - and we want to be able to give them the attention, focus and love they deserve. We are absolutely committed to doing them.
The Musketeer - Adventurer Tier Backer Class
Joining those two features as a post-release update is the ‘Adventurer’ backer reward class variant - recently voted to be the Musketeer by you! A highly trained sporting sharpshooter, the Musketeer has never faced real combat. Rich, arrogant and determined to prove herself equal to the task, she has found her way to the Hamlet.
Our hope was to be able to get the Musketeer done for launch, but we’re working anywhere from 12-16 hrs a day as it is, and this would simply be the straw that broke the party’s back, sending us all catapulting into unrecoverable Afflictions. There simply isn't time to finish drawing and designing it in time.
One thing is for sure: we want to do it right. We were really happy with how the backer-designed Abomination, Madman, and Collector turned out, and we want this class to receive the same level of care. Namely: original sprite art, Affliction/Heroic poses, combat fx, original combat/camping skill names/icons, class-specific dialogue, and of course, a wallpaper!
We’re very excited to get started on the Musketeer, but to do her concept (and your reward) justice, we need a bit more time. We hope you understand.
Other Backer Rewards
With those first updates out of the way, let’s get a run down of all the remaining backer obligations we have and where they are in our schedule.
Cinematic: Although we did not meet our Cutscene stretch goal, we felt it was important to pay off the game’s finale in fine style! We’re pleased to announce that upon defeating the final boss, you can look forward to an ending cutscene that furthers the game’s narrative and hopefully creates a few chills in your spine!
Journal of Your Doom - We are currently collecting responses from the appropriate backers and these will be included with release on the 19th!
Kickstarter Heroes and Kickstarter Trinkets - We sent out these surveys to those of you who backed at the appropriate levels, and you should have seen them by now! We will be including these in the release on the 19th. If you missed the surveys and the cutoff of the 12th (today), we'll make sure to include your hero/item in a hotfix update!
Kickstarter Narration Rewards - These recorded lines will be sent out this week to those of you who backed at that level!
Adventuring Journal - We are burning the midnight oil on this and we hope to have it ready for release on the 19th!
Estate Map - We wanted to do something special with this and beginning in February, Chris will begin live streaming the creation of the Estate map! Schedule details will come after release.
Kickstarter Portraits - Our art team (of one) is still swamped with Darkest Dungeon work, so we will be fulfilling these this Spring/Summer.
Kickstart Signed Backer Print - These are ready to print, but the timeline to get them printed, signed, and shipped will take a few months, so this will be fulfilled by this Spring/Summer.
Art Book - The art book had to wait until we have all the game art completed, which we’re getting close to! Once this is done we will start assembling the book and plan to ship it by Spring/Summer.
DD Art Book
Diorama - We are excited to print these in high quality, and they also required us to finish the game art first. We plan to produce these and ship by Spring/Summer. You can still look forward to having the best Desktop Darkest Dungeon Diorama around!
DD Diorama
Credits - Last, but not least is the in-game Credits. We are hoping to add these within a week of release, as a hotfix update.
We are super excited to start working on these rewards as it means that the entire adventure is coming to its conclusion. This whole experience has been incredible and we are super thankful for all to you, our backers. Your early support of Darkest Dungeon means the world to us and we cannot be happier, albeit a bit nervous, for the full release next week! We remain absolutely committed to getting you all of your rewards.
Other Game Features and Updates
Aside from backer rewards, we also are excited to extend the game. Stay tuned for an upcoming roadmap which will lay all these features out on the calendar.
You have all helped make this project possible, and we're working hard to do your support justice. Sharpen your blades, and soak your torches in oil - we’re only a week away from… the Darkest Dungeon.
Finally, in anticipation for next week’s release, we wanted to share this Important Public Service Announcement. Remember--we all need heroes.
