David Dunham, the designer behind the acclaimed cult classic King of Dragon Pass, is preparing to release a new game titled Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists. This upcoming title aims to push the boundaries of a narrative design concept Dunham pioneered in 1999, which he now terms a 'tactical narrative game.' Publisher Kitfox Games describes it as a 'systemic storybook experience,' while its Steam tags categorize it as a strategy RPG, highlighting its unique and difficult-to-classify nature.
Dunham explained that Thousand Hells builds upon a concept he first explored in King of Dragon Pass, where character experiences are used to resolve narrative challenges. In Thousand Hells, players will deploy the traits of hired party members to navigate surreal underworld adventures. These traits function as verbs for interacting with the game's world, determining success or failure in various encounters. For instance, a combat-trained character might be essential for facing a specific threat, while a truthful character could be a liability in deceptive situations.
One of the key innovations in Thousand Hells is how it handles character agency. Dunham noted that party members have their own motivations and can refuse to cooperate, forcing players to make strategic compromises. This system adds a layer of emergent storytelling, where player decisions are influenced by the independent actions of their recruited companions.
"Lots of games use storylets now, and I was trying to come up with a way to push that a little more in the way they're assembled," Dunham stated. He likens the game to a 'kaleidoscopic game' due to its randomized assembly of narrative elements, ensuring a different experience with each playthrough. Unlike King of Dragon Pass, which could take dozens of hours to complete, Thousand Hells is designed for a shorter, more concentrated experience, aiming for a movie-like duration of one to two hours for a complete story arc.
The game draws inspiration from various mythologies and artistic works, featuring settings like the Great Below, an underworld inspired by ancient Mesopotamian beliefs, and the Hell of Nightmares, which pulls from the imagery of Hieronymus Bosch's paintings. Players might find themselves on quests such as reclaiming murdered sons from the courts of the dead or escorting a scholar into a perilous dreamscape.
Dunham expressed his consistent priority as a game designer: to create games that allow him to continue making more games, echoing a sentiment attributed to Walt Disney. Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists is slated for release this fall and is currently available to wishlist on Steam.