With Blackguards they wanted to ”translate the cool things” about pen-and-paper battles, which champions creativity. Daedalic cast us as a convicted murderer, leading a team of misfits and rogues.
It’s not your typical ‘farm boy takes on evil sorcerer’s army’ approach as the team wanted a narrative direction less travelled. Saving the world will be ”very much by accident.”
”It’s not usual that you play as the bad guys. But that means that players can do a lot of things in this party-based game that they wouldn’t be able to do in other titles,” Daedalic tell us. ”So they will have a lot of fun with the story itself.”
”The game is very focused on the battles, on the tactics and the way you can develop your characters. We’ve placed a lot of focus on interactive environments to give players more options, more creative ways to win battles.”
”We wanted to translate the cool things about pen-and-paper RPG battles: the creativity with which players approach tactical situations,” they continued. Daedalic Entertainment is no stranger to developing games with a rich story, and has in fact won awards for the yarn spinning skills. The story itself in Blackguards is relatively simple, they say.
”You start the game with a choice of making your main character male or female, you return from a long journey to your home city and you find your best friend has been murdered by a wolf. You try to slay the wolf, but it’s you that gets in big trouble, as no one else witnessed the wolf and you’re the one near a body with a blood-stained sword in your hand.”
”You’re thrown into prison, tortured by your best friend and condemned to death row, due to hang the very next day. And then the real game starts, as you escape from prison and find yourself on the run and meeting up with various teammates along the way. And you start to wonder: was there ever a wolf there? And if not, what actually happened?”
There’s no heroes tale they’re pursing, specifically, as you’re ”not out to save the world - you only want to save your ass!”
”And all your companions are only out to save their asses too. During the story, the player will have many decisions to make, and those will change the overall storyline - there are three different endings - but also the relationships between you and the other characters. And while you’re on the run, you’ll find yourself drawn into a much deeper story about an ultimate evil, but if this bunch of bad people end up saving the world, it’ll be very much by accident.”
Blackguards is set in The Dark Eye universe of RPGs. Daedalic is developing two other titles set within this licensed fantasy world. Check out our full interview with Daedalic Entertainment to learn more.
Blackguards is releasing for PC with a holiday 2013 window.
