Darkeaten Dev diary - Game writing, inspiration and burnout

 Hey, just as I used to on the original blog on the comic site, I want to get into the habit of posting monthly dev diaries to talk about what I've been doing. These will come out on the 15th of every month, and will probably involve me talking about what's going on in my head around the time. So lets get into the meat of it, shall we?

So I've been working on concepts for some kind of skirmish game in Darkeaten, which feels like a fun project to take on. I've always wanted to make something to play this setting in, as even though it's supposed to be agnostic and used for whatever, it's definitely fun to play a game made for a specific setting instead of trying to shoehorn it into a preexisting game. 

But for what I've got right now, for basic ideas, I'm envisioning a stressful little skirmish game about managing your team's blood and stress, while fighting off both another player and npc monsters that spawn around the map. Kind of a PvEvP experience if you will. I've written up a rudimentary system for how blood will work as a resource, acting as both your leader's health and their source of magic. 

I've also written up a pretty good idea of the stress system, I want it to act as a sort of ticking clock that puts literal stress on the player. Trying to find a good in between of pressure and fun, letting people do cool things and not be punished hard for it. 

As for other ideas for it, I'm working through concepts for team customization, having both choice over a blood type and a faction, which can make for a lot of unique combinations of team. Plus giving freedom of choice on your main Strigoi character and how kitted out they are. I want to implement as much stuff from the zine as possible, so if you see something you like in it you can recreate it in the game.

I've got lots of inspirations for it brewing, taking little things from other skirmishes I like and putting them in a boiling pot with my own ideas. I've been looking at a lot of stuff from Necropolis, OPR quest, Forbidden Psalm, Necromunda, just to name a few. Taking inspiration while still making it uniquely it's own thing. I want it to feel a lot like Darkest Dungeon in a way, where you take a group of warriors into an unknown land filled with monsters who want to kill them, and manage their tools and stats like a house of cards. One wrong move and the team could crumble under it's own weight. 

I've been playing a stupid amount of Darkest Dungeon, I'd highly recommend it if you love gritty dungeon crawlers

Ideally I can get this concept out in at least testing before the next dev log, I feel I have a bunch of good concepts that I just need to put into exact writing, and a bunch of blanks to fill in with character customization stuff. But we'll see, if you're interested in the idea or experience writing this stuff, reach out! 

Outside of the game, I've been working on new world concepts and ideas. I've been trying to structure a concept for more wild and bestial races to exist within the setting, outside of just basing them off of the infection. I've been ruminating on the idea of the "Clotborn", people born with more or thicker blood who take on bestial aspects of some kind, normally of a blood-sucking nature. I want things like Orcs to exist within the setting but I want them to be more unique. I like the idea of people who look like Leeches or mosquitos, and obviously bats. Giant Lamprey men stalking the foggy swamp around Stagetin, or tribes of orc-like bat people in secluded tribes on Thorian's outer islands. I want to expand on it more in some way but not fully sure yet. Just feels a bit restrictive if everyone is either humanoid or infected in some way.

Darkest dungeon has some mosquito-people which partly inspired this concept

I plan at some point in the future releasing a sort of sequel to the zine with more specifics and new ideas I've thought up, plus some stuff from friends and whoever wants to contribute, a sort of community book of stories, artwork, and ideas. So if you have anything cool you want to share, send it over to me! I'd love to see it.

In other more discouraging news, I think I'm putting the comic on indefinite hiatus for now. after the few months I was putting it out weekly, I felt really burnt out on it, and when I do bring it back I don't plan on doing the weekly schedule. I found myself dreading putting out more pages, and my art and writing style is evolving so fast that I don't think I can really promise to put it out any time soon in good conscience, as I'd want to redo a good chunk of the chapter I'm on before I continue. It's not a project I want to abandon, I have a very cool story I want to work more on, but I'd rather not dread making something that started as a little side project, you know? I think I'll focus on stuff like the zine and game where I can flex my writing as much as my art. It's faster and less mentally intensive on me.

I think that's all for now. Going to be working on lots of these ideas to try and extend them further, I feel like it's going to be a pretty cool year for Darkeaten stuff, so stay tuned! 

Creating Characters in the Darkeaten setting

 Hello, now that I've finished the zine I want to make a little guide for those of you who want to convert/make custom characters within the Darkeaten setting. Kitbashes, Ocs, rpg characters, etc. As always, this is just a stencil, and take these tips as you'd like. Rules are meant to be broken.

A good way to come up with a character is to simply randomize them on the on the document below! just roll a few d6s and boom you have a character. it's easy and free to use for when you have no clue where to start.

For a larger version, look HERE

If you're more interested in specifics, I got some more info below.

My first tip when making a character is to determine what kind of character they are, a hunter, infected, pyromancer, something inbetween? this will determine the aesthetic design of the character in general, as they all have pretty different looks. 

Any church based character will normally be clad in red. Red is the holiest color, as it is the color of blood, so use it as much as you can to show the holiness of the character. Any armor plates will normally contain lots of curved aspects to them as well, as curves denote holiness. Of course, you need blood, bloody makeup, dripping from the mouth, on the hands, wherever. Pennant characters tend to have lots of barbed wire around their bodies, and may even exhibit the pointed pennant helmet in some occasions. Add runes here and there, do whatever you see fits the concept.

The lead cover character literally drips with holiness!

Infected are much more fun, as you're free to do almost anything you want. Infected can be anything from standard zombies to canine beasts to even trees or metal. Infected can even look completely normal, with only warped minds and insides. The only constant with infected are their orange eyes. Orange is the key color of infected, and should be used to accentuate certain infected parts of them. Other than that, go wild! make something crazy and monstrous. Create your own custom strain with their own dreg lord to lead it. Do whatever you want

some infected look crazy, so get creative!

Pyromancers are vagabonds, and thus tend to wear lots of rags and generally standard clothing. They tend to be covered in burns and scars, with their wounds seeping with fire. Pyromancers have no consistent colors, and tend to wear lots of different shades. Pyromancers may seem like lost wandering souls, but they tend to be very intelligent, and act just like a standard citizen of Thorian, just with an obsession with the burnt rune.

I never drew a head here, but a headless pyromancer sounds sick

Fleshmelders are another opportunity to get creative, as they can have weird additions to their bodies and strange metallic growths going in different directions. Not all mechanical parts on their body have to make sense, or even lead anywhere, many have wires that flow in and out of their skin needlessly. Additional arms and syringes containing strange fluids also are commonplace, as is the use of warped bones on the outside used of the body as armor or augmentation. Skin stitched clothing is also very common, even sometimes containing faces of those harvested. Other than that, just place metal spikes where you see fit, jutting from the skin in random directions.

This page really show how crazy fleshmelders can be

The only other tips I can give are to make your character exhibit their city. Characters from Invale will be wearing heavy clothing, and characters from Agota will wear light clothing. Many citizens exhibit their cities, as it's were they will spend their entire life, so get creative with it! Also, anything gothic or punk adds a lot, corsets, studded belts and bracelets, lots of piercings, crazy hairdos, etc. Those are optional but add to the aesthetic of the character, darkeaten is a punk fantasy setting after all

That's all for now. Go make some characters! If you do, send them over to me at any of my socials so I can see them, I'd love to see what you make! And feel free to ask any questions you've got, I'd love to answer any character creation conundrums you have.

Darkeaten zine out NOW!!

 “Prayer is my blade and it is soaked with the blood of the saints before me.”

-Unknown

  

    Across the oceans, through a thick fog that obscures both the body and the mind, stands the land of Thorian. A cursed land locked in an eternal, crimson night. It’s people tormented by maddening plague that warps them into monsters. Its Lords have left only their regime behind, creating a land of obsessed fanatics. The only constant, blood.

    Engross yourself in 40 pages of gothic fantasy writing and artwork, the perfect introduction to the setting and people of the darkeaten. Each page contains interesting information on different factions, landscapes, and monsters that Thorian holds, along with artwork examples of how they look, and quotes to give a look into the minds of the madmen who stalk this rotted land.

    Darkeaten is a game and media agnostic setting that allows you to form your own stories based on the ideas presented in this zine. Write your own story, forge your own faction, and consume the blood of your foes. 

Thorian Bleeds, o holy hunter.
Will you be it's salvation...
or it's executioner?

Follow the link in the top bar to download it! thanks!