Jul 8, 2024

Drakantos - Ninah

Hey everyone!

This Devlog will be a bit different from the others. This time we'd like to explain a bit more about how the game is going to work. Let's get started with some informations:

Future Devlogs

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To keep you updated on our progress, we've been posting monthly Devlogs and several teasers on our Discord. However, to make the Devlogs more interesting and complete, we will now post them every three months. This way, we can bring you more exciting updates and content without disrupting our development pace.

During this period, you won't be left without updates. We will continue posting teasers and content regularly on our Discord and other social media platforms, so you can stay closely updated!

Dates

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🕕 We know many of you are eager to know an ETA on when the game will be released. However, this is not an easy task for any game developer company (not even for AAA). We have a lot of content ready, but there is still much work to be done.

We want to release a game filled with content, especially since it's an MMORPG designed for long-term play. We don't want to launch the game as quickly as possible, we want to release it with plenty of features for the players. We are working hard and aiming for a release around mid-2025.

The featured hero this time is Liam. Since he has appeared several times before, we decided to showcase his gameplay along with a game teaser. In the video, you can catch a glimpse of a city in the open world and a mission from the Adventurers' Guild.

👉 Leave a comment below with your thoughts on the interfaces, gameplay, etc. Your feedback is essential for us to keep improving.

Gameplay

We've seen many people asking whether the game is an MMORPG or a co-op ARPG. In short, yes, it's an MMORPG, but it's definitely different from the conventional ones. We didn't follow the traditional formula and created something more unique. We're trying to combine the best aspects of an open world with the best of dungeon crawlers. Below, we'll explain in more detail how this will work.

Open World

In the game's open world, you'll be able to meet all the other players on your server, just like in any MMORPG. This part will focus more on:

World exploration;
Facing enemies;
Finding chests and secrets;
Solving puzzles;
Collecting resources;
Searching for pets;
Story progression;
Side quests;
And more!

Additionally, we have the classic market where you can buy and sell items to other players as well as many minigames and activities to do in the cities and areas you explore and unlock.

Beginning:

Starting in the game, each character will have a different prologue, showcasing a bit about their story, personality and how they become involved in the main plot (villains will have a separate part, but we'll explain that at another time). This means the beginning of your journey will be unique depending on the character you choose. Eventually, players will arrive in Fairdale, the 'starting' village in the open world. We designed it this way to make it easier for friends to connect and avoid the issue of starting in different regions.

Quests:

After playing other MMORPGs, we've concluded that we no longer like doing linear 'talk here and there' quests, often mandatory for leveling up. That's why, in Drakantos, quests will have a real purpose and the rewards will not be only gold and experience, they will include unlocking systems, shops, artifacts, exploration tools (like a climbing hook to access new locations), and so on.

We will also have many side quests and specific stories for certain characters. For example, a certain quest might require knowledge of Magic, so only mage characters will be able to complete it.

It's important to note that these quests offer horizontal progression, meaning that completing a mission with one character will count for your entire account.

Experience:

Of course, you will also earn XP by facing enemies in the open world, but as we mentioned, this part will be much more focused on exploration and quests, rather than 'farming' or 'leveling.' For this, we will have the Adventurers' Guild.

Adventurers' Guild

We briefly mentioned the Adventurers' Guild in our last Devlog. This system will be the more 'Dungeon Crawler' part of the game that we talked about.

All the major cities and villages will have an Adventurers' Guild. In these locations, you will be able to access the game's world map, with various missions available to choose from. These missions change periodically, altering both the maps and their main objective.

Currently, we have 120 different maps, with various biomes, and they function like dungeons. All of them were handcrafted, without procedural generation, because we believe it can make maps feel generic, and we want them to have a unique touch.

The main objectives range from simple tasks like killing all the enemies in the mission, collecting specific items, finding something unique, escorting merchants, rescuing kidnapped villagers, finding a wanted boss, to defending villages from invaders or stopping conflicts between other factions. For example, you might have a mission to kill an Orc Leader in an elf map because they are in an ongoing conflict, and you end up getting involved in a battle between the two factions to find your target. This means that even if a familiar map is selected, the objective will vary a lot, making it different each time.

Sneak peek at some sub-bosses

Secondary objectives and Rare Special Events:

In addition to the main objectives for each mission, there can also be various random secondary objectives. Some examples:

You are escorting a merchant at night when suddenly, you are ambushed by undead monsters.
You enter a cave and come across a cultist ritual.
You are collecting an item in the forest and find wild animals being devoured by a Griffin, which then starts to attack you.

And there can also be rare special events. Examples:

Nil’Varix, the demonic clown, appears and proposes a challenge. Imagine you have already completed the mission, but can you finish it with a giant hand trying to crush you? Or by swapping places with other players? Or with a giant magnifying glass where you can't move while being watched.
A golden gnome appears, and you need to defeat it before it escapes.
A mercenary might offer you a proposal to attack other players during a mission, leading your group to raid other players' missions with the goal of eliminating them, and vice versa.

If you choose to complete these side missions, your reward at the end will include a bonus specific to each special or secondary event.

All these situations will make the player experience much more fun and varied, reducing the repetitiveness of grinding and making the game more dynamic.

Ranks and Difficulty

These missions will appear based on your Rank in the Guild. This Rank is linked to your “Power,” which is essentially your strength with equipment (an overall “item level”). As you increase your power, you can rise your Rank. Each difficulty has the power of the enemies and minimum and maximum requirements for completion.

This means you can adjust the difficulty according to your preference. If you enjoy challenges and want to test yourself, you can advance in rank with the minimum requirements and attempt more difficult missions, accelerating your growth. However, if you prefer an easier difficulty, you can remain at your current rank for longer or even do missions from lower ranks. So, you can proceed at your own pace or even help friends who are at different ranks.

The best part is that this setup facilitates the introduction of new content in the future. For example, if a rank has a limited variety of enemies or missions, we can introduce more content, and this will multiply the possibilities once integrated into the system, enriching the entire experience.

Matchmaking

To avoid queues and long wait times in the future, when you choose a mission, it automatically starts after a few seconds. If other players are also trying to do the same mission, you will join them. Otherwise, you will go alone or with however many people were also trying.

The standard queue is for 3 players, but the mission will start regardless of whether or not other players are found. In this case, other players can join you up to a few minutes after the mission has started, joining as reinforcements (or you can join someone else's mission that has already started).

Enemy difficulty scales with the number of players to maintain consistent challenge levels. This scaling also adjusts if players quit or disconnect during the mission.

In a premade group, you can play with up to four friends. We've set the player cap at 1 to 4 because we find that this number offers the most enjoyable experience. The game's top-down 2D perspective doesn't provide the expansive view you'd get in a 3D MMORPG. Furthermore, given it is a more paced and punishing action RPG, too many players on screen can make the gameplay chaotic. However, this limitation only applies to the regular Adventurers' Guild missions, we have other content designed for larger groups, including PvP and PvE modes.

Conclusion

In summary, the game is an MMORPG at its core, sharing the same world with thousands of players. There will be a wide variety of challenges during both the level-up phase and the endgame, offering difficulties for all tastes and allowing you to play with your friends from the beginning.

Once again, we thank you for all your support. We hope you enjoyed this Devlog! Let us know in the comments what you found most interesting! ❤️

See you next time! 👋