Interview with Chris Bourassa on Darkest Dungeon

I recently spoke to Red Hook Studio co-founder, Chris Bourassa about the hit video game, Darkest Dungeon. We’ve spoke about this game before on the podcast. It’s a fascinating mix of Lovecraftian horror, team management, and brutal dungeon crawling. I’ve quite enjoyed it. Find out what plans Red Hook has for Darkest Dungeon, what Chris has learned about game design while working on the game and what his favorite Lovecraft stories are!

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5 Comments


  1. Man, I might have to get back in the game and try to beat the final Dungeon again now.

  2. Yeah, now I feel the itch to play again! I just got back into Civ6… will I never be able to commit to a single video game?!

    “Curiosity, interest, obsession… Mile markers on my road to damnation…”

  3. Woo hoo! Looking forward to that sweet patch and upcoming DLC.

    I was the one who asked about the Helion/Plague Doctor balance. It’s those double stuns; it gives you huge action economy advantage, and combined with their DOT abilities it’s very effective. The big drawback is that it takes a really long time to finish each fight. But since I often delay ending fights to heal anyway, that’s okay with me. I really lean in to the grindiness, apparently. I did one of the endgame quests with a 2 Plague Doctor/2Hellion comp, and it was easy — except that I lost one of the Plague Doctors to a lucky crit. But I finished the whole thing with the remaining three.

    I’m glad it seems like so many people use different strategies, though! I was a little worried that I’d found the optimal strat that breaks the game. I guess not!

  4. I like Occultist (for real healing, choose the dark arts apparently), Plague Doc (to stop that pesky bleeding), Abomination (for stuns and blights), and Hellion to keep forward.

    Vestal, Crusader, Highwayman, and either Grave Digger or Hellion is another combo I have some luck with, ultimately though I never get very far. Too casual a player.

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