FAQ

Frequently asked questions for Iratus: Lord of the Dead

What is «Iratus»?

Iratus: Lord of the Dead is a dark fantasy-style turn-based tactical roguelike RPG. You will stand by the dark side and help necromancer Iratus to escape from the dungeon he was imprisoned centuries ago. As a true necromancer, Iratus dislikes using weapons by himself and prefers to destroy his enemies with obedient minions such as skeletons, mummies, and vampires.

What was the game developers’ inspiration?

Primarily, Darkest Dungeon and Dungeon Keeper. The first one inspired us to make a tactical system, and the second one gave us an idea to create a game where the main character is the Lord of Darkness. We are also influenced by Slay the Spire and Disciples 2.

Did anything in particular influence the art style of your game, such as certain mythologies or stories?

The protagonist was influenced by Vrubel's "The Demon Seated". In addition, our art lead took inspiration from Lovecraft's works, HoMM (especially 5) and also Dungeon Keeper.

What is the difference between your game and Darkest Dungeon? 

In short, we’re striving to evolve the most advantageous points of Darkest Dungeon’s gameplay and removing monotonous systems as much as we can. The main focus is a variety of tactical possibilities with a comprehensive economic system, based on Iratus’ abilities and minion creation.

What are the specifics of the game’s economic system?

By circumstance, Iratus turned his lair into a tactical operation base. Iratus creates minions from the body parts of his deceased enemies: bones into skeleton, flesh into a zombie, rags and ectoplasm into a banshee etc. Also, there are many different ways to use talents, artifacts, minion items, alchemy, cemetery buildings. These are determined by the player’s chosen style of gameplay.

Could you give more details about Iratus’s battle system and tactical abilities?

Iratus’s fighting system offers a large variety of tactical skills and prowess. A crude attack is unlikely to succeed, so setting up each battle should be strategic. Something as simple as where a minion moves during an encounter can be the key to victory. Alongside a minion’s abilities, the player can also use the spells of Iratus.

What is the engine of the game? What kind of technologies do you use?

We’re using Unity as our engine, thanks to its popularity and adaptability. Character animation for Iratus is created with Spine Professional.

On which platforms can the game be played?

Currently, Iratus was released for Windows, Mac, and Linux on Steam, GOG and EGS. We have plans to port the game to other platforms in the future.

Which languages the game is translated to?

The game interfaces and text are now translated into English, French, Deutch, Spain, Korean, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Japanese, Russian, Polish and Turkish. Iratus himself speaks English (Stephan Weyte), French, Russian, Deutch and Chinese.

Who are you — the developers?

Iratus has been developed by Unfrozen, a studio that has existed since 2016. At different times, our team members were involved in various game projects for different platforms. The studio’s founders worked in Gamedev and game journalism for over 15 years. Our first project — Iratus, was successfully published on Steam and GOG, and now we’re working on the DLC.

Are you in touch with Redhook Studio?

No, but we respect the talent and creativeness of Darkest Dungeon’s developers properly.

Can I help you with your project?

If you’re interested in Iratus, we would be grateful if you could share information about the game with your friends, including sharing it on social networks. You can send your feedback about balance and gameplay to our official Discord channel. We are looking forward to constructive feedback from our community. Your ideas and requests are extremely important to us for making this game as exciting as possible.

I am a journalist/blogger, and I would like to share information about your game with my subscribers. How can I contact developers?

We would love to talk to the game press. Just contact us via [email protected], and we will contact you. You can also check the https://iratus.org/presskit.