The Darkest Hour is a fan podcast where a group of gamers cover Dark and Darker, updates, interviews, and have some conversation about the state of the game. It’s a great podcast, definitely give it a listen as they’re a number of episodes to binge. Below are notes from episode 45 where they cover some exciting information, possible updates, and insight in general with the developers. Check out the full episode here.
General and Team Updates
Ironmace has done well with their Early Access sales, and are investing back into the company. Upgrading their office and growing the team to meet the demand of the community, they’ve have hired a number of positions and working with freelancers as well. This should help with the pace of development and content, but they’re were quick to emphasize that they will work at their pace to ensure quality. This rings true as a lot of what we have already seen has been very robust, even with the constant interruptions Ironmace faces on multiple fronts. It was really cool to hear some background about the team and how the company thinks and operates.
With a larger team, 2024 is looking to be an awesome year for Dark and Darker. They touched on number of development items we’ll see in time. The flea market being one of the highest priorities to help deal with providing a better trade experience, as well as helping distribution of items in the economy.
Gameplay and Design
They’re development is stretched thin as there are a lot of priorities, but they have several large systems they’re working on to get more testing and data established. A lot of their philosophy is around responsible development and investment of those development resources, so systems will enter half baked intentionally, so they’re easily removed if they don’t work out. Take note other companies, Ironmace is executing in a well done, but true early access approach and their honesty is very refreshing.
Upcoming items mentioned
There are plans for a demon form for a Warlock, and will be helpful in the development of the new druid. This will be very interesting as there are always trade offs with the choices in Dark and Darker. Demon form will surely be powerful, but who knows what it will cost you!
Ice mountain is a new locale thats in development, everything mentioned could change, but they refer to it as Ice Mountain internally. A lot is being tested and worked on internally with the first map or section of Ice Mountain, so make sure to keep expectations realistic. Just like other maps and locales, this will one will go through iteration and testing with the community.
The ranged meta is not ideal, but they’re actively working on the balance of different strategies. The team is definitely not fully happy with the way the current meta is, so we’ll see shifting in future patches. This is a layered problem that will take time to get right. From items, to classes, to maps, there’s a lot that effects the meta. Ironmace talks about how they want choices and different strategies that will be effective.
Guild hall was mentioned, but there are a number of features they won’t publicly commit to, which is smart, as we’ve mentioned before they’re resources are spread thin so they can only work on so much at a time. Very cool to hear about more community initiatives. To add on to this they want to add a number of items that will be both quality of life and helping foster more team game play and interaction. A missing chat or message system was discussed, and again is on their internal road map, but has to be prioritized.
Dark swarm experimentation is on the horizon. To test out some map routes, mechanics, and how things could play out we could see the dark swarm altered drastically or removed in some capacity to see how that plays out.
There’s a lot that’s being worked on, and even more planned to come out down the line.
Give the full podcast episode a listen, its well worth it. Also, check out their other episodes as they cover awesome content.
