“The Shire, but with Cthulhu” - Solo Dark Fantasy RPG Interview

Many developers begin with a game idea. Dhameer Rocke started with an entire world.

What began as a narrative game design assignment eventually evolved into a five-book story, and later into a project by a solo game developer building an action RPG in Unreal Engine 5. Drawing inspiration from fantasy literature, cosmic horror, and classic RPGs, the project blends high fantasy adventure with an underlying sense of dread and uncertainty.

In this interview, Dhameer talks about adapting a written world into an interactive experience, managing scope as a solo developer, and the challenges of building a game almost entirely on his own.

Main topics:

– Solo game development

– Unreal Engine 5

– Book-to-game adaptation

– Dark fantasy worldbuilding

– RPG design

– Scope management

– Indie game development

– Narrative design

From Storytelling to Game Development

Many game developers begin by experimenting with mechanics. For Dhameer, the journey started with storytelling.

A narrative design class eventually led to a much larger creative project than he originally expected.

Q: Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and what originally pushed you to start building your own game instead of only writing the story as a book?

A: I went to school for game development, and early on I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do as a designer.

I took a class focused on narrative design and ended up with the skeleton of a five-book story. I spent the next month writing it, then the next year editing it obsessively.

At the time, I thought that if I already had a world and story built, creating the mechanics and gameplay would be easier than starting from scratch.

Now I know that isn’t true at all.

But it led me to this project, so in the end it worked out.

Building a World of Wonder and Dread

Crafting a compelling dark fantasy game requires blending elements that don’t traditionally live side by side.

Dhameer’s approach to fantasy worldbuilding allows beautiful landscapes to exist alongside cosmic uncertainty and consequences that don’t always follow traditional game logic.

Q: Could you tell us more about the game world and what kind of emotional experience you want players to have?

A: I want players to feel like they’re in the Shire, but so is Cthulhu.

The world is meant to feel fantastical and breathtaking while carrying a constant sense of unknown dread.

Consequences are everywhere. Actions you take now might affect you immediately, later, or maybe never.

Just like in real life, sometimes the bad guy wins and gets away with it. Sometimes you’re the bad guy.

When a Dream Becomes a Production

Many solo developers eventually reach a moment where a personal project starts feeling like a real production.

For Dhameer, that moment hasn’t quite arrived yet.

Q: You’re developing the project solo in Unreal Engine 5. At what point did the idea stop feeling like a dream and start feeling like a real game production?

A: To be completely honest, it still feels like a dream.

I’m working hard to get the project ready to pitch and hopefully secure funding, but I’m not blind to reality. Just because I’m passionate about it doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to succeed.

I think it will finally feel real when I’m watching a YouTuber explain how much they hate it.

Translating a Book Into Gameplay

One of the biggest challenges of adapting a written story into a game is defining the core mechanics. In RPG game development, this means deciding where to stay faithful to the original narrative and where to adapt characters, systems, and story elements for the sake of player experience.

Q: Was it difficult translating written scenes and characters into actual gameplay and visuals?

A: At first it was.

Then I reminded myself that the most important thing is that the player has fun.

Because of that, I decided the book timeline and game timeline would be very similar, but not identical.

For example, in the book Domrik doesn’t fully understand his powers until much later in the story.

In the game, he starts with a rough understanding of his abilities so players can learn and experiment with them much earlier.

Designing Domrik's Signature Ability

One of the game’s central mechanics allows players to steal enemy powers and use them as their own.

Interestingly, the idea originated from both personal experience and game design inspiration.

Q: What inspired Domrik’s ability to steal enemy powers?

A: A big part of it came from something my therapist told me when I was younger.

He said that sometimes it feels easier to make people feel what you’re feeling instead of communicating what you’re feeling.

That idea stayed with me for years.

Then later I played Elden Ring with a friend and really liked its counter system.

I started wondering what would happen if a counter worked more like a counterspell from Magic: The Gathering.

That eventually evolved into Domrik’s power-stealing mechanic.

The implementation has changed several times, from shield parries to projectiles and now to a short-range area-of-effect spell, but the core idea remains the same.

The Reality of Solo Development

Building an RPG alone requires balancing ambition with practicality.

For Dhameer, motivation and scope management have become just as important as technical skills.

Q: As a solo developer, what has been the hardest part so far?

A: Motivation is definitely one of the biggest challenges.

I’m fortunate to have friends who spend time with me on Discord while we work. That support helps more than people realize.

I’ve also been lucky enough to meet professionals who are willing to share advice and guidance.

One thing I’ve learned is that most developers genuinely want to help smaller developers if they believe in the project.

Scope is another constant challenge.

I tend to have huge ideas, so I’ve learned to separate them into two buckets.

One bucket contains the realistic version of the game.

The other contains the giant dream version.

Whenever I come up with something new, I have to decide which bucket it belongs in and focus only on the smaller one.

Learning Beyond Design

Even after years of work, the project continues to introduce new challenges.

Many of them exist far outside traditional game design.

Q: Was there any moment where the project became much bigger or more complicated than you expected?

A: The project was always pretty big.

One major moment was realizing I’d need to dive into C++ game development and teach myself the language to make certain systems work properly.

More recently, art, audio, budgeting, optimization, and performance have all become major considerations.

There’s always something new to learn.

There’s always another problem waiting to be solved.

Creative Influences

The project’s identity comes from a mixture of fantasy, horror, and RPG influences.

Many of them trace back to books that shaped Dhameer’s imagination growing up.

Q: What books, games, or worlds inspired the project the most?

A: Tolkien, Kingdom Hearts, H.P. Lovecraft, and Brent Weeks were all major influences.

I read constantly when I was younger, so there are probably many more influences I’ve forgotten.

Tolkien especially had a huge impact on me.

He was one of my father’s favorite authors.

I always wanted to create a world that someone would talk about with the same excitement my dad had when talking about Middle-earth.

Bringing Cosmic Dread to the Shire

Dhameer Rocke’s project highlights one of the more ambitious paths in indie game creation: building an entirely new world across multiple mediums and then transforming it into an interactive experience.

What stands out most is not simply the scale of the project, but the willingness to adapt. Rather than treating the game as a direct translation of the book, Dhameer embraces the idea that gameplay sometimes requires different solutions than storytelling.

For other solo developers, the biggest lesson may be that large creative visions do not have to disappear. They simply need to be broken into smaller, achievable steps.