Darkhaven - An Action RPG with Dynamic Worlds

[The_Mask]

A new ARPG featuring dynamic, destructible, buildable worlds, made by many of the original creators of Diablo & Diablo II.

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Title card with positive and negative features:

Positive:

Title is being made by known names in the RPG genre: Eric Schaefer & Brian Fitzgerald (Diablo I), Peter Hu & Anthony Rivero (Diablo II)
Title is being programmed by legendary programmer Colin Day! (NOX)
Title has a demo everyone can try (featured below) and you can play all the way to level 8
Title has been worked on for 4 years, so far
(Mostly) Straight White men doing what they do best

Negative:

Title protagonist is a female, with plans to add a male
Protagonist is a witch, which is, usually, heathen female power fantasy
Title is made in Austin, Texas - the butthole of Texas
Title will not see the light of day until 2027, with an Early Access version planned before full release - this usually means they're strapped for cash and it is usually a bad sign when it comes to the quality of the final product

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mo ... escription











A living, dynamic world

This is the first sign that this is a completely different breed of ARPG. Unlike the static set pieces popular in the genre today, the world of Darkhaven is fully procedurally generated, growing from bedrock to mountaintop on a fine grid of 0.5m x 0.5m x 0.25m tiles.

No two worlds are alike, giving the game infinite replayability and discovery.



Destroy everything. No more following a looping passage only to be blocked by an inconveniently placed wall. Blast your way through like the hero you’re meant to be!







Jump, Swim, Climb, and even Glide!



Ever wonder why, in most ARPGs, a few pebbles will stop you in your tracks? In Darkhaven, you will freely explore an open world without guardrails and preset paths.



Free-flowing dynamic combat where strategic positioning and your skill amplify your stats and build choices. Jump over enemy swings, dodge missiles, and attack from the air. Combat in Darkhaven is smooth, impactful, and never boring.





Destroy everything. No more following a looping passage only to be blocked by an inconveniently placed wall. Blast your way through like the hero you’re meant to be!









Delve for treasure and uncover long-lost treasure rooms and ancient ruins. Transform mountains into valleys and valleys into lakes. Divert rivers to drain lakes or harden lava.





Build walls and cities. Work with allies and erect a giant wall to stop Shadow’s advance. Conquer the world and rule a Kingdom of your own. Progress from a lone adventurer to the architect of a new Age.



Water flows and grass grows. Lava spills forth from fissures. The entire world is physically simulated and ever-changing.





Created by the principal designers of Diablo I and II. Simple affixes that combine meaningfully, presenting players with real choices. No level scaling and items that aren’t just stat-sticks, and every item tier has a purpose. Darkhaven is one of the few ARPGs where even common white items can be the basis for your build.





Beware! Dangerous monsters lurk in the darkness.



Runes can be used to modify your skills or socketed into items to create Runewords. The Witch class can even slot them on her body to create tattoos that modify her build.

Socketable hearts drop from specific monsters, granting unique abilities.



Combine up to three skill trees to create your own unique class. With thousands of possible combinations, there’s always something new to try!



Share your world with friends or play in massively multiplayer public worlds with anyone in the world.

Define the rules of your persistent world. Co-op or PvP, set the difficulty level, private or open, and much more.



Create online, persistent, mods. Extend the genre or create entirely new games. Make your own areas, quests, monsters, items, classes, and skills. Define game rules. The possibilities are endless!

[rusty_shackleford]

A living, dynamic world

This is the first sign that this is a completely different breed of ARPG. Unlike the static set pieces popular in the genre today, the world of Darkhaven is fully procedurally generated, growing from bedrock to mountaintop on a fine grid of 0.5m x 0.5m x 0.25m tiles.

No two worlds are alike, giving the game infinite replayability and discovery.

ehhhhhhhh


ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[The_Mask]

I swear to you, I was ambivalent when it came to pasting this one, for stuff like this all over the page.

But I keep telling myself that these people made Diablo (and others have coded NOX) and I keep telling myself that maybe I am the one wrong, and that maybe I should have some faith.

But it's hard to have faith. Hard, I tell you.

[Vaako]

that random generated world didnt help starfield either

way too many games made without gore these days sigh

[maidenhaver]

A living, dynamic world

This is the first sign that this is a completely different breed of ARPG. Unlike the static set pieces popular in the genre today, the world of Darkhaven is fully procedurally generated, growing from bedrock to mountaintop on a fine grid of 0.5m x 0.5m x 0.25m tiles.

No two worlds are alike, giving the game infinite replayability and discovery.

ehhhhhhhh


ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I want to see procgen develop, it can be done.

[maidenhaver]

rusty's companions should be procgenerated.

[Norfleet]

I want to see procgen develop, it can be done.

Procgen has one core issue: It inevitably ends up creating a world much like reality: Vast expanses of useless, irrelevant slop. Think how far in real life you have to go just to find anything useful or interesting. Why is that? It's because the real world is procgen slop.

This can be good, or it can be bad, depending on your goal. In Diabloesques, well...think how much of Diablo was just slop and how you actually ended up ignoring it in favor of farming the same boss over and over as quickly as possible, dodging all the intervening slop.

[DemoGraph]

think how much of Diablo was just slop and how you actually ended up ignoring it in favor of farming the same boss over and over as quickly as possible, dodging all the intervening slop.

I liked when the game was slurping on that slippery slop.
Investigation and exploration imply either geometry you have to sift through or many intereactables with non-obvious ways of interaction to iterate or think through.

[sheet]

Diablo was probably the first game that players optimized the fun out of, coming at around the time of widespread internet adoption. I don't think it was slop when it had a lot to offer in challenge and new discoveries before everyone could just look up databases

[Maledict]

Should've added an underboob

[J1M]

I refuse to try this until they turn off the 200% bloom filter.

[Rand]

Well, at least it's not a woman swordsman or archer.
Magic is about the only thing that could make women competitive with male combatants.
(Well, guns, too, sometimes. But that's not applicable here.)

[J1M]

Well, at least it's not a woman swordsman or archer.
Magic is about the only thing that could make women competitive with male combatants.
(Well, guns, too, sometimes. But that's not applicable here.)

I don't know, I've never met a woman that could cast spells.

[rusty_shackleford]

Magic is about the only thing that could make women competitive with male combatants.
(Well, guns, too, sometimes. But that's not applicable here.)

We know women are poor modern combatants, there's really no reason to think magic would be any different

[cpmartins]

Depends. Enchantment would be a woman's bread and butter magic school for example. They wouldn't be bad at Illusion either.
Whatever fools the eye and mind, women would excel at. Not at the level of a man, of course. But close.

[The_Mask]

The Kickstarter is stuck at 80% with 24h until its end. I doubt it's going to happen for them.

[The_Mask]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mo ... ts/4641703

This is NOT the update I was prepared to write....

What an unbelievable finish. Thank you all for your support. We are grateful and humbled beyond anything we can put into words.

Just hours ago, I was writing a very different update. We are going to move forward with or without this Kickstarter, but honestly, it feels SO good to be marching forward with all of you by our sides.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. What a team you all are. You delivered beyond what we could have hoped for!

Here we go!

Phil & The Moon Beast team