Black Keres

This post is not from Dark Orchid. It is an account from devs in love with what they make, about a special project.

Black Keres is a labor of love. A lot of things had to line up for it to be born, and I want to tell that story from the beginning.

As good nerds, two of our interests are reading and history (hello, Oni-Dohyo). For years I have been working through a reading list of the classic books of human history, and one of them was the Iliad. It took months. It is definitely not an easy read: the book on one side and Google on the other, looking up the name of a god (it is perfectly normal for one god to have several names), the name of a city, who is whose son. Even with the difficulty, I can say for sure that it is an incredible book. The great classics of humanity reach us in a different way, and this one reached me.

What stayed with me the most were the pains of the heroes. They are almost gods, but they are very human: they have flaws, they have virtues, they feel fear and rage. They are real people, and we connect with them. Achilles' grief at losing Patroclus hit me the hardest. I remember him throwing himself on the ground and covering his head in dust: the most powerful mortal in the world, feeling an endless pain.

I didn't know how I would create something about the Iliad, but I knew that at some point I would. When I started thinking about our next game, I was looking for a project I would be personally invested in, and Black Keres kept showing itself to be exactly that. That is when I remembered: I had already made art of Greek warriors, and it was all stored in the DOG vault (the affectionate nickname we have for Dark Orchid Games, haha).

I went to open the vault. There was a color palette with several different warriors, and the moment I laid eyes on it I saw Achilles. Right then, I knew.

From a fighting game to a card game

The initial idea was a fighting game. But the soul of Dark Orchid is putting our own personality into our games, and a traditional fighting game was not going to work for us. Thinking about what we like to play, especially strategy games like Magic and Darkest Dungeon, we understood what we wanted the core of the game to be: fighting + card game.

From any point of view, it looked like a terrible idea. How much art for the cards? (Spoiler: 80 animations, for the cards alone.) How many characters? How many interactions? How many bugs?

It didn't matter much. Passion makes you a little bit brave, and that was the case with this game.

And, to the surprise of no one, it was a lot of work. All the art and animation was made by hand, pixel by pixel, without AI, and it was very enjoyable. Dozens of the cards have a special place in my heart, each one with its own memory of the Iliad.

The Keres: the pain the gods can see

The central mechanic of the game is called Ker. In the Iliad, the Keres are the black spirits of violent death: the bill that comes due for everyone who fights. In the game, every wound you take brings a Ker closer to you. At the same time, the Myrmidons, Achilles' people, become much stronger the more they suffer. That idea comes straight from the poem.

In the Iliad, a hero's suffering is not felt only by him. The gods feel it too, and they answer with blessings and help. Achilles' pain is part of the reason he is the favorite of the gods. Gathering Ker, in the game, is a way to show that sympathy: the more you suffer, the more the heavens look at you.

The luck of drawing the right cards is, to me, a gift from the gods. And that is what I wanted every battle to have: the feeling of a hero fighting without knowing whether luck and destiny are on his side. That is how I read the Iliad, and the game is built on it. Two of my favorite cards show where it all comes from.

Rage Rekindled

Rage Rekindled is the rekindled fury of Achilles, and it comes from Book 18. Achilles has just learned that Patroclus is dead. He throws himself on the ground and groans, and his mother, Thetis, hears him from the depths of the sea. Then he walks, unarmed, to the trench in front of the Greek wall. Athena places the aegis on his shoulders, and a golden flame ignites around his head. He shouts three times, and the Trojans panic.

On the card, Achilles is on fire. For me, this is Achilles at his peak.

Diomedes Wounds Ares

Diomedes Wounds Ares is the high point of my other favorite hero. In Book 5, Athena climbs into Diomedes' chariot, takes the reins, and guides his spear into the belly of Ares, just below the belt. A mortal wounds the god of war. Ares lets out a cry that the Iliad compares to nine or ten thousand men shouting in battle, and flees to Olympus to complain to Zeus.

It is an absurd scene, and it is the whole Iliad on a single page: men and gods mixed on the same field, and nobody quite knows who is in charge.

The first fight

In one week the complete playable prototype was ready. The first fight I played was Achilles against Hector, of course. I started the match just to test it, and I ended up playing for half an hour. It was incredible.

Then I showed it to friends and family. Lots of laughter. My wife and my brother ended up fighting over who would play next. They got crushed several times and did not give up until they managed to win. It made me very proud to see a prototype entertain the people I love that much. That was the moment we knew we had gotten it right.

What changed

Black Keres changed Dark Orchid. It changed our ambition, our confidence, the way we choose our next games. But, above all, we understood that we have something special to offer people, and that we have the creativity and the unique personality to make art.

It is not a little weekend project. It is what we want to do. And, for as long as we are making games, this is the kind of work we want to deliver.

One person I need to name: De takes care of all the formal matters of the DOG, and even some of the development ones. On this project, she left every creative decision to me and held up everything else. I am very grateful to her.

Now it's up to you

I only ask three things:

1. Try the game.
2. Be persistent. Black Keres is not easy. You will lose, and the game will crush you the way it crushed my brother and my wife. Try again.
3. Think warmly about reading the Iliad. It will take a while, it will be hard work, and you will need Google on the other side. It is worth every page.

— Gus & De