A Deeper Look at Dreadwoods Gatekeeper - Design, Gameplay and Plans - Devlog #2

I recently finished the trailer and was lucky enough to have it picked up by awesome folk at IGN. Then I realized that people looking to learn more about the game are finding my first devlog video, which is now more than a year old and very outdated.

So, I decided to make a new one and share deeper insights about the design, the story, and everything else.

I recorded a video version of this same devlog. It has literally the same info, so feel free to choose whether you'd rather watch it (Warning: I'm not very good at YouTube yet ːsteamfacepalmː) or read this post.

Before we start, I want to invite you to our Discord community where we can talk about what you think about the game's design, share your ideas, or just stay in the loop for when the early beta, the demo, and the full game are going to be released.

Design, Gameplay and Story

Let's start with some design changes from the previous devlog.

I've been going back and forth with the design and decided to change some of the ideas. For example, in the previous design, the gate was supposed to be part of a town, but now I changed that to be an isolated outpost instead. Having a whole town was just a massive overscope for me and the one artist helping me with the game. Plus, having an isolated gate outpost has its advantages. It's a lot scarier. This is now your home as not just workplace. You work, sleep, and repair an old gatehouse that hasn't been in use for years.

To give you a quick summary of the story, you play as a young man who was doing terribly in the army. You chose to take this job as a replacement for your training, thinking it would be a lot easier. But you're not a good fighter, so dealing with things out here is going to be a challenge. I'll get back to the simple defensive combat mechanics a bit later.

There's still a tavern like in previous design, but now it's a roadside tavern. You'll get to ride your horse to reach it faster. Once you're there, you'll need to turn in your daily report to Marshal, get paid based on your job performance, get food from the kind innkeeper Hobbs, and pick up building materials to renovate your gatehouse the next day. If you have enough coin, you can also buy new gear like boots, a jacket, pants, and eventually a better spear. These gear upgrades will be very simple. You'd get better armor, meaning you can take an additional bite from a wolf before dying, or better boots that give you more stamina.

The main gameplay is mostly the same as in previous design. You inspect wagons and travelers who want to enter. You tax them if they carry goods without a permit, or confiscate items if they have anything considered illegal.

I won't get into lore it too much, but essentially, the kingdom is divided into the south and the north. You are near the northern border, and the north is not doing well. It's falling apart, and savages are raiding the lands. Because of that, a lot of people want to move south, but you can only let them pass if they have the proper papers from the big city near the border.

While waiting for the next wagon or traveler to arrive, you can fix up the old gatehouse with the materials you got from the inn. You can also cook a stew to keep yourself and your dog companion fed. Being fed simply extends your stamina. As you saw in the trailer, we have a dog now! And here's a fun fact. It's actually my artist's dog, called Mrvica. He reshaped a dog model we got to look like her and textured it by using a photo of his dog, and then stylized and pixelized the texture to fit the style of the game. (I'll probably share her photo later. I'm just waiting for my artist to return from vacation and send one.)

Patrol

Once night falls, you'll need to do your patrol along the wall and reach the watchtower, where you will climb up to check if there are any unexpected campfires or anything else out of place. As you walk along the wall, you'll need to keep an eye out for any broken parts and fix them. While this gatehouse is an outpost meant to control the passage of people and the taxation of trade goods, there used to be a few farms, a church, and an old graveyard around it that you'll see on your patrol. They are all long abandoned now. As the Marshal instructed, you need to check if there are any squatters and make sure to kick them out if you find any. With so many refugees coming from the north, the Marshal is concerned some might start living in the old buildings or the church, and they aren't allowed to stay there.

Combat

Now, on to the combat. As I mentioned, you're a young, inexperienced, and a bit clumsy guy who isn't good with weapons. But, you do get a spear, and you learn how to protect yourself by bracing it at the right time to impale any approaching threat. You've been told that there are wild animals that might attack you, so you have to be careful on those patrols.

The idea behind the combat is that I want the player to have a weapon, because you are a guard, after all. But as you know, the moment a player gets a weapon in a horror game, their perspective usually shifts from "what is that behind the corner? I must be careful" to "what's behind the corner? I'm gonna chase it down!" This system should provide a nice balance. I don't want you running from every single enemy the whole game, but at the same time, I want you to feel that there's a real and serious threat, keeping you on high alert.

I haven't talked much about the horror and the story yet. So the folk around here say this gate outpost is cursed. Since the protagonist comes from the capital, which is much more developed than this distant backwater part of the kingdom, he doesn't buy into the rumors. But then things start happening and... well you'll see that for yourself in the game. You'll draw your own conclusions about what's going on in this place.

Simulation Elements

As you can see, the game isn't a pure simulation. It's a combination of story, horror, atmosphere, and simulation elements. I want to set the right expectations. It's not going to have a simulation as complex as games that focus solely on that mechanic. But, it will still have interesting things to check, inspect and do. As well as difficult or silly decisions to make.

I'm aiming for about 4 to 5 hours of gameplay, but we'll see how it goes as we keep developing it. The goods in the wagons, patrol events, and some other things will be randomized, but overall, it might not have the infinite replayability like some of those pure simulation games. On the other hand, the people coming to the gate will feel much more real than NPCs who just repeat the same few random lines every time they show up.

The idea is to create a nicely packaged experience that immerses you in this world, where you'll meet different characters, get engaged in your gate work, protect yourself, and slowly figure out what is actually happening at this gate as you progress.

Suggestions and Feedback

I hope this helps bring you a bit closer to understanding what the game is going to be. Feel free to ask if you have any questions, or share your ideas and suggestions! Some of the design is locked in by now, but not all. And I still have to think of most of the gate interactions, so if you have interesting ideas for those, I'd love to hear them, as well as any other ideas of course.

To give you a few examples of what I have in mind: a person might show up claiming to be nobility from the north, demanding to be let in even though he has no papers, and threatening that his guards will tear down the gate if you don't open it. Or, someone might show up at night saying their wagon broke down around the corner, asking you to follow them into the forest to help fix it. Or a silly one like: A priest (the Dreadwoods region has its own peculiar religion) shows up with a church permit, claiming he's transporting a servant of Jaro (basically their devil). But when you go to the wagon, you only see a goat and a few other animals. Is he just abusing his religion to transfer animals he has no permit for, or is there something more to it?

Any ideas for those gate interactions are super welcome, as well as any other suggestions you might have.

Join our Discord community to discuss all this and more!

Beta Access

If you want to get early beta access or a streamer demo, I have mailing lists for both:

• Playtester Mailing List: Sign up to get the next early beta as soon as it's available (not for streaming):

  https://mailchi.mp/3e162a4d60ae/dreadwoods-gatekeeper-playtesters-email-subscription

• Streamer & Press Mailing List: Sign up to receive a demo key once it is ready for streaming.

  https://mailchi.mp/02e755e0dd6d/dreadwoods-gatekeeper-streamers-email-subscription

Thank you!

Thank you so much for taking interest in our game! I really appreciate all the support.

-Darko

Raw Tale Games