The entire DarKnot team is very busy preparing for the release of the game in early access, but still we want to share some news about our game and studio with the players.
Neighbours
Walking along the dark streets, you will stumble upon a crumbling estate. Its owners are clearly wealthy (people?)
The doors of the estate are open and anyone can come to visit. I wonder if the owners of the estate are alive and if so, how hospitable are they?
Everyday life of the developers
Over time, we will add female main characters to DarKnot and the ability to play as them. In this video, we create animations of strikes dealt by a female character modelled by the movements of the DarKnot team member.
We wonder if male or female characters will be more often chosen as MPCs :)
Gameplay
In one video, we have collected gameplay moments from the deadly cities of DarKnot, unpredictable events and encounters, the co-op mode and some exclusive Halloween content. We share this video so that you get to know our game better.
Early Access
Soon DarKnot goes into early access. The gameplay is designed for a minimum of 3 hours, but for some players the game may take over 6 hours. For those who purchase DarKnot in early access, all DLC released in the future will be free.
We do our best to make DarKnot fun to play and we hope that you will appreciate our project.
Can’t wait to release the game in early access, DarKnot Team
DARKNOT EARLY ACCESS | NEW TEASER
After an exciting run and broadcast through the SteamNextFest which lasted from 3 - 10 October, we have released a cinematic teaser ahead of the early access release!
The DarKnot game is still in development and we plan to go into early access later this month, October 2022. Explore the vast world of DarKnot to experience true survival. Choose how to deal with your opponents and plan your own strategies accordingly.
Add DarKnot to your wishlist. Your support is really important to us!
DarKnot is a non-linear psychological horror game experience, focusing on a high level of detail and immersion. Here you will find insidious opponents, dynamic battles and puzzles of various degrees of difficulty. It's up to you to decide in what style to play the game.
It was inspired by our favorite horror games: Silent Hill, Resident Evil, The Evil Within, Dead by Deadlight and The Last of Us.
The early access version of the game is scheduled to be released this fall.
The game is a combination of survival horror, adventure, and roguelike. The MPC wakes up in a safe place, gets ready for a sortie, thinks over their strategy, prepares their inventory items, and makes a sortie. The player will then find new items and solve puzzles leading to new locations with other safe places. When the MPC dies and wakes up, they will either be in the safe place they previously woke up in, or a new one if they made progress. Then the loop starts over.
You can play DarKnot according to your ‘modus vivendi,’ so to speak. If you like to pick a fight, you accumulate as many weapons as you’re able to, and set out to destroy your enemies. This way, you play as a **warrior**.
On the other hand, you can meticulously explore the gloomy locations and search for the hidden objects. In this case, you play as an **explorer**—no need to get weapons for you!
If you’re a **fugitive** who is paranoid about scary monsters following your track, you can use a tarot card and remove all your traces—but this comes at the price of lowering your stamina or health points.
If you are a **survivor**, you gather as many items as possible and craft anything, and everything! Often you don’t enter fights, but if you do you use all your crafted weapons and resources such as explosives to overcome an enemy.
You can solve puzzles in a traditional way by looking for clues, but you can also lose your temper and break stuff instead, just like in real life. You build relationships with different game factions in your own manner—make them allies, or enemies.
Here is the gameplay trailer:
DarKnot Horror Game Stream
DarKnot is a non-linear psychological horror game experience, focusing on a high level of detail and immersion. Here you will find insidious opponents, dynamic battles and puzzles of various degrees of difficulty. It's up to you to decide in what style to play the game.
It was inspired by our favorite horror games: Silent Hill, Resident Evil, The Evil Within, Dead by Deadlight and The Last of Us.
The early access version of the game is scheduled to be released this fall.
The game is a combination of survival horror, adventure, and roguelike. The MPC wakes up in a safe place, gets ready for a sortie, thinks over their strategy, prepares their inventory items, and makes a sortie. The player will then find new items and solve puzzles leading to new locations with other safe places. When the MPC dies and wakes up, they will either be in the safe place they previously woke up in, or a new one if they made progress. Then the loop starts over.
You can play DarKnot according to your ‘modus vivendi,’ so to speak. If you like to pick a fight, you accumulate as many weapons as you’re able to, and set out to destroy your enemies. This way, you play as a **warrior**.
On the other hand, you can meticulously explore the gloomy locations and search for the hidden objects. In this case, you play as an **explorer**—no need to get weapons for you!
If you’re a **fugitive** who is paranoid about scary monsters following your track, you can use a tarot card and remove all your traces—but this comes at the price of lowering your stamina or health points.
If you are a **survivor**, you gather as many items as possible and craft anything, and everything! Often you don’t enter fights, but if you do you use all your crafted weapons and resources such as explosives to overcome an enemy.
You can solve puzzles in a traditional way by looking for clues, but you can also lose your temper and break stuff instead, just like in real life. You build relationships with different game factions in your own manner—make them allies, or enemies.
Here is the gameplay trailer:
DarKnot Devlog | Steam Next Fest
Hi everyone!
DarKnot is participating in Steam NextFest from October 3-10, 2022.
Steam Next Fest is a week-long celebration featuring hundreds of FREE playable demos where fans can try out, chat with developers, watch livestreams, and learn about upcoming games on Steam.
For developers, Steam Next Fest is an opportunity to get early feedback from players and build an audience for a future launch on Steam.
DarKnot is a third person, non-linear psychological horror game experience, focusing on a high level of detail and immersion. The streets of the city, the claustrophobic apartment atmosphere, and the abandoned underground station make the DarKnot world gloomy and terrifying.
DarKnot is set in a labyrinth made from the streets of a huge city. You have been left alone and you’ll have to face death in this endless labyrinth. They seem deceptively calm at first, but the truth is much darker than that.
The DarKnot team has heavily focused on reworking different game locations and levels. The Apartment has received a substantial update and a lot of new mechanics to make DarKnot a lot more immersive. Some other changes include:
Added the ability for NPCs to aim down (they were limited to a horizontal point of aime previously).
Added voice acting for the cutscene after the ritual completion.
Added an inspection of the fallen frame.
Added the live camera effect and the open window effect.
Use this link to view the live broadcast. https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561199007697872
Follow DarKnot on Steam to be the first to know about all the changes in the game.
Best Regards!
DARKNOT NEW TRAILER
We are delighted to announce that DarKnot, the third-person non-linear psychological horror game coming to Steam this Fall, will feature an updated demo during the NextFest from October 3-10, 2022.
In the mean time, enjoy the all new gameplay trailer!
The DarKnot game is still in development and we plan to go into early access later this year..Explore the vast world of DarKnot to experience true survival. Choose how to deal with your opponents and plan your own strategies accordingly.
Add darknot to your wishlist. Your support is really imprtant to us!
Watch the creatures of the DarKnot world -- sometimes they are calm and just lead a miserable existence. At such moments, you can get to know their lifestyle.
Depending on the creature's type and their level of aggression, it decides for itself what to do when strangers are detected. Just like you, creatures can choose to fight, hide, or run away.
But do not rush to celebrate the victory if they ran away from you. Their flight doesn't mean that they will disappear forever. Perhaps the cowardly creatures will go for help and will soon come back to you with a crowd of their counterparts. It's going to be much worse if they complain about you to someone much more dangerous than themselves...
Craft
Create the necessary items and repair the broken ones. Turn on your imagination and use the same item for different purposes.
For example, with a saw, you can saw off the revolver's barrel with a stuck bullet, or screws that prevent you from getting a quest item. Or you can cut off the enemy's head. Just remember to not drop the saw, otherwise your enemy will be able to pick it up and then they will saw off your head instead.
The Savages
If something sharp pierces the Savage's body, it is not fatal to them. You can shoot one of them right in the heart, but it won't kill the Savage. They look like people, but inside there is nothing human left.
The Savages are cannibals, always hungry and weak. Degraded and mentally ill, they will eat you alive.
Another nightmare...
Do you feel like you are in a desperate situation?
Do you feel a sense of loss, guilt, hopelessness and uselessness in this world? If you want to put an end to this, get a wire and hang youself, but it won’t work. Even if it does, you will still wake up. And this nightmare again...
Add DarKnot to your wishlist to be the first to know when the game enters Early Access.
Today we will talk about the weather, the diary, early access and the cardboard virus.
Weather and time of day
In the world of DarKnot, weather and time of day operate according to unknown laws. Are they controlled by someone or something?
How do the time and the weather react to the game events?
The answers are not found yet. But, as everyone knows, thick fog and darkness are filled with many dangers ...
The diary? This is what you need!
It's not uncommon for players to start by looking for clues in the diary -- they're doing absolutely the right thing. In the diary, you can check your vital signs, find out information about enemies and find clues on what to do and where to go next. The diary will always be with you, it will help you find answers to many questions. You can also find tarot cards in it or, for example, learn how to create explosives.
As you progress, you will insert the pages you find into the diary, and you will be able to better understand the intricate history of the dark world of DarKnot.
Early Access
DarKnot is still in development and we plan to go into early access later this year.
In early access, more locations will be available. We will optimize the game and fix all possible bugs. We also plan to add localization for German, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Where has all the cardboard gone?
And finally, let's talk about the most important thing.
Many people believe that cardboard boxes are only good for sleeping in or for using them as coffins for the burial of allied insects who fell in battle. But you can make a lot of useful and interesting things out of cardboard. For example, cardboard zombies!
Now cardboard will take revenge on everyone who did not respect it. Perhaps it will infect opponents with a Cardboard Virus (aka CardVID) or even bite them to death. The vaccinated individuals need not worry, but just in case, wear masks in places with a large gathering of cardboard creatures.
With love, Cardboard Virus Department of the DarKnot Team
DarKnot | DevLog - September
The sun is almost invisible here, and it is difficult to breathe. Unpleasant odors and strange sounds are around every corner. The very description of these places can cause discomfort, not to mention visiting them.
But the DarKnot neighborhoods won't explore themselves!
Garbage underfoot and the corpses of strange creatures on the ground. Buildings that have collapsed, leaving the shattered glass on the roads and piercing the soles of your boots. The surroundings have probably experienced a lot, and once life was in full swing here. But this is in the past, and now the cities are gradually being eaten by the closing darkness.
Left and abandoned places in the cities of DarKnot evoke fear and anxiety. They have no friends, no life. And don't kid yourself—those you meet in the city are not alive. But when and why were these cities abandoned by their peaceful inhabitants? So far, there are more questions than answers. Try to figure out what's going on.
Save Place
After lying dead for a day, and sometimes for several days, the main character awakens on his own. We have to admit that after that, he can stink. Most often, you will come to life sitting on a torn old chair, if you have already found it.
If you didn’t find it, you will wake up where the developers want you to. =)
Apart from this chair and a couple of rotten tables, you will have almost nothing at the beginning of the game. But as you progress, you will find many items that improve your living conditions.
You will find out later how useful these things are.
The fight? Maybe you don't need it.
Do you want to fight like this? Have a look at yourself—do you think you can put up a worthy resistance to your enemies? I am wounded, slow and hungry after long weeks or months in this place. Or maybe you've been here for several years, and only the locals know what they drugged you with and what they did to you.
Perhaps some sadistic surgeons removed several organs from you and clogged that toilet next to the bleeding chessboard...
If so, that explains the innumerable scars on your body as well as your physical and mental weakness. Therefore, the next time you come across your enemies, think about what action would be best to take – fight, hide, or flee and survive...
The Savage King
In the city, we have added the King of the Savage faction and quests with him.
There is no one in NIGHTMARE who loves himself more than this king. He is really selfish and takes great care of himself.
This king is a cunning bastard, and he takes his place for a reason. If you help him, perhaps he will help you in the future (or maybe he won't). He has lots of servants, although not without traitors.
On the other hand, he does not inspire confidence; he seems to destroy anyone as soon as he's got a chance. Be sure to add DarKnot to your wishlist. This is the only real support for us.
Did you know that DarKnot will have several city locations? We decided to dedicate a new dev diary to this topic.
In cars abandoned by their owners, you can find a lot of useful things.
So feel free to break into them – it is unlikely that the owners of the cars will ever return and file a complaint. Therefore, it is necessary to collect medicine, leftover food, look for clues, and somehow get out of this place. Just be sure that you can fight back if the alarm goes off and you have drawn unwanted attention to yourself.
Most likely, the owners of the cars are already dead, and for them, this whole nightmare is over. But not for you: you will return again and again. Giving up is not an option.
New faction
Strange noises and desperate screams are heard in the unlit streets of the world of DarKnot. You will definitely hear them, but only in the darkness. And if you move silently, you can pass by without seeing the appearance of the creatures that make these sounds. But as soon as you make your presence known with an awkward step or the slightest rustle, these strange, sometimes pathetic, frightening creatures will appear from all the cracks.
They are fast and attack in a pack. Fight or flight, it's up to you. The damage from their blows is not critical, but extremely unpleasant. These creatures run up to you with a wild scream, which, combined with pitch darkness, is quite creepy. After dealing or taking damage, there is a high chance that they will run away, but will soon return to repeat their futile attempts to take out their anger from their powerlessness on you.
Clothing
In the streets, we threw heaps of clothes on the dusty roads.
Wearing these clothes is not a pleasure for everyone. But this is better than running around the city in shorts, freezing and shocking your enemies with outrageous behavior. All found items of clothing are now transferred to the locker next to the chair, where you are resurrected after each death. After the resurrection, you may have a question: what stinks more - the clothes found in the street or the main character? We will have time to find out if you lived more than once.
Screen brightness
Our team watched more than a hundred streams of the closed DarKnot demo and found out that very few people discovered a little secret. It is hidden in the screen brightness bar.
In situations where pitch darkness comes suddenly, when the fuses are blown by the thunderstorm, and there are no light sources nearby, remember the brightness settings. They can help you, but we cannot fully guarantee that.
Add DarKnot to your wishlist to be the first to know when the game enters Early Access:
Now we are struggling to get DarKnot ready for early access and are working on new locations. We are also optimizing the game, fixing the voice acting, and eliminating all possible bugs. If you encounter bugs, please send them to Feedback and Bugs in the discussions on Steam.
By finding bugs and reporting them, you help us a lot!
We would like to express our deep gratitude to the voice actor Brian Watts. He recorded the voice over of one of our MPCs for the Rituals part of DarKnot, and we cannot recommend him more. Not only does Brian make the effort to breathe life into the character, he does so with great passion. We received a lot of positive feedback on his voice acting. You can hear his part in the free demo available on Steam.
If any of our colleagues from other gamedev studios need his services, here is his web site with a demo reel and portfolio.
