Drakantos News

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to our January Devlog! Before we delve into the updates, we'd like to invite you to join our Discord! We have a vibrant community and we are always sharing new teasers there! ❤️



[h3]🎮 Development 🎮[/h3]

In this month's hero teaser, we'll be showcasing the dwarf Orbryn, an Engineer from Garmorli! 🪨

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
- As mentioned on our previous devlog, we did a total of 160 active artifacts. This month, our focus has been on refining these artifacts by writing their descriptions, recording in-game GIFs, and conducting extensive balancing and internal testing. We have also modified them to use charges instead of cooldowns, with a limited number of charges per mission, boss fight and PvP (explanation below).

Originally posted by notes

🧙‍♂️Dev Note: We think cooldowns are less effective because, if you want to optimize, you would need to use everything once the cooldown is up. This approach is not ideal for situational artifacts like shields or things that require strategic timing. So, with charges, you can control the best time to use them, and we can achieve more balance overall in all content. The artifacts still have a bit of a cooldown, but it's only 5-10 seconds.

- The Level Design team has finished the maps of the two biggest cities, Kasteron and Ereluna, for the open world. They have also remained dedicated to the ongoing revamp and review of older missions.

New version of the Ereluna Throne Room 🍃
- For the environment, we focused on the 'Demonic Cult Tower' sprites. You saw it in our last devlog, but this time we are working on its interior, including all rooms and decorations.

- About mounts, the concept we showed in a previous devlog, is now a reality! The system is 100% ready with the sprint, collection and other necessary things. 🔥

- Using some animals and creatures we already had in the game, along with a bunch of cool new saddles we made, we've got plenty of mounts ready to hit the road! If we consider different colors and saddles, we have around 65 variations for now, but we're far from finished. We plan to create many more mounts and also develop armors and more awesome content related to them!🐎



- We've also made a change on how the ultimate works. For those unfamiliar, they function similarly to Brawl Stars/Overwatch, where you charge your ultimate by landing hits with your regular abilities. Once it reaches 100% you have your ultimate ready to go. We've kept that system, but now we'll also allow players to accumulate 'energy' beyond 100%, up to 125%. So when you use your ultimate, you will spend 100% of your energy, but still have some remaining if you've gathered more than that amount.⚡

Originally posted by notes

🧙‍♂️ Dev Note: We did this because some heroes' ultimates are easier to pull off, requiring less positioning and timing, so they had an advantage. They could use their ultimates as soon as they got them and start gathering energy very fast. On the other hand, heroes that needed more positioning were having a worse performance. With this change, you've got the option to wait a bit before using your ultimate since you can now stack up to 25% more energy before you decide to use it.

- As this is a Devlog showcasing Orbryn, we also wanted to give you a sneak peek of the Dwarven Kingdom. ⛏️


- We've returned to working on the bosses, finishing the balance and skills of the Undead Wyvern, and the Irhaal boss fight. Now, we're planning to do more! We have 15 ready but are aiming for at least 25!

- 17 adorable pets (including some color variations), were completed. This brings our total to 62!🐾


We are kicking off our "Create a Pet" contest! This is your chance to let your imagination run wild and dream up an amazing pet. Whether you’re sketching out your ideas with a pen or bringing them to life digitally, we’re eager to see your unique creations!

✍️ To participate, join our Discord and submit your creation in the event channel.

We would love to hear which part of this devlog captured your interest the most. Thank you once again for your time and continued support! ❤️

See you in the next devlog! 👋

[hr][/hr] Team Note: We've been watching your video responses to our devlogs and love seeing your feedback and reactions.😄

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to our December Devlog! First we want to wish a Happy New Year to you all! A massive thanks for all your support and let's go 2024!! 🔥

Join our discord to receive teasers and interact with our community and devs!



[h3]🎮Development🎮[/h3]

In this month's hero teaser, we'll be showcasing the elf Faendar, an Archdruid from Ereluna! 🍃

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]Learn more about his backstory/lore on our discord.

- As we mentioned in the previous devlog, the game design team shifted their focus to theActive Artifacts, which are another system that helps you customize your build, adding new skills that are unlocked in your account and can be used by almost any hero. We have finished all that we wanted for now, totaling 160! (77 new this month). Now, part of the game design team will start working on the passive ones!🔥

- Our art team is doing the last hero, whose identity is still a surprise (what type of hero do you think it is? share in the comments💬). We are also creating more pets and developing new environmental assets for the demon worshipers' domain. This area is set to be vast and scary! Below, you can see the initial sketch and how it turned out.👹

Sketch

Final Version

- The Level Design team has started planning the open world, carefully connecting locations to enhance the overall player experience. Simultaneously, the other part is dedicated to the ongoing revamp of older missions, ensuring they meet the highest standards of gameplay.

- Our programming team has finished the new updater, and a lot of optimizations.🤖

- In our latest devlog, we had completed the mount animations for 8 heroes, and now we've finished animations for all 20 heroes! We've also created additional animations for artifact usage and other miscellaneous stuff (for all heroes). 🐎



- We've finished 34 new pets bringing our total to 50 so far. Once we complete everything we have planned, we'll start working on creating awesome mounts! 🦜



- We also started and finished our 20th hero, Ojore! He is a tank with a mix of Brawler/Geomancer abilities. We finished all his art and animations, including his victory pose, mount, death, battle stance, all attacks, emotes, icons, and even orbs.💥




That's it for this month's devlog. The team took a two-week break for Christmas and New Year, so we had only 15 days, but even so, we made a lot of progress!

What did you like most about this devlog? Let us know in the comments.

See you in the next devlog! 👋

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to our November Devlog! Before diving into the updates, we'd like to invite you to our Discord. This month, we've introduced a new gallery with the splash art and walking animations of all the heroes.


We're also conducting polls for the upcoming hero teasers and sharing some teasers for you to get a sneak peek at the development! Your presence there would be awesome! ❤️



[h3]🎮Development🎮[/h3]

- Last week's community poll decided our next hero teaser between Liam and Zeugladius. Your choice was clear, and we're eager to unveil the Paladin Errant: Zeugladius!🔥

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]Learn more about his backstory/lore on our discord.

- The game design team shifted its focus from bosses to artifacts and has completed 93 of them so far (we had 20 in the previous devlog)! For those who are not familiar, artifacts are another system that helps you customize your build, basically adding new active/passive skills that are unlocked in your account and can be used in almost any hero.

- In our latest devlog, we showed the prototype of our mounting system which garnered a lot of positive feedback. Since then, we have developed the mounting animation for 8 of our heroes. 🐎


- Since we started designing the missions, a lot of new assets, systems, and monsters have been created. Because of that, our Level Design team has now begun a long but necessary journey to revisit and revamp our earlier missions to ensure they all offer the best gameplay experience.

- We've finished creating the splash art for all the heroes. Each one has been carefully designed, capturing the unique essence of every hero (we posted them all on our Discord).

- We created an Undead Wyvern!🔥



-We worked on environmental assets for the Ereluna Palace interior, banners for all factions, debris, small objects, and a lot of miscellaneous objects for decoration.

- We made more progress in the HUD, updating the cosmetics tab to add the mounts and other cosmetic itens.

- We have developed 6 new pets. Would you like to have this cute little bear pet? 🐻



Or, do you prefer this adorable skelly one? 💀
x
- Our programming team finished a lot of internal systems that will help the team as a whole. They also worked on the equipment system and on a cool "chain" system that was used to create some of the artifacts, monsters and boss mechanics.💻

This month we reached 100k wishlists!! As a indie team, we're really grateful to see our project connect with so many people. Big thanks to everyone for your support. ❤️

What did you like most about this devlog? Leave it in the comments for us.

See you in the next devlog!👋

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to our October devlog! First we'd like to invite you to join our Discord. We plan to increase the number of teasers and other smaller updates about the development there. We also aim to do more polls to gather feedback from our community. Your presence there would help us a lot! ❤️



[h3]🎮Development🎮[/h3]

- We received multiple feedbacks regarding the movement speed of characters while walking on the map. We've then prototyped a mount system and we'd like to hear your thoughts: Do you like this system and would you like to see it in the game? What kind of mount would you like to have? Leave your answers and suggestions in the Steam comments below! 🐎

Some heroes will have their own abilities as mount as well

- Here's Yura's gameplay teaser, one of the 20 playable characters. We intend to include a hero teaser in every devlog so you can get a glimpse of each hero. Feel free to share your thoughts on this format in the comments.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]Learn more about her backstory/lore on our discord.

- We've completed another boss, along with its introductory cutscene. With this, we've now finished 12 out of the 20 bosses we planned for the game. Although we dialed back our focus on bosses this month because we needed to finish their respective scenarios/boss room first, we're already developing two more, aiming to complete them by next month. Below is an image of the Druid Temple in Ereluna, the setting for one of these confrontations.


- We've finished the artifact system and have completed the creation of around 20 active artifacts, but there will be many times more than that.

For those who aren't aware, the game will have various playable heroes, each with their skillset. Two interesting systems we're developing, Orbs and Artifacts, will further diversify your gameplay experience with them:

• Orbs: They are rare items that change what your skill does, they work like talents, but, being items, you have things to chase in the endgame, look for new 'builds' and rare drops. We can also release new orbs with each update, which means that even an old hero can get new skills, different 'builds', or mechanics after their release.
  
  
• Artifacts: Each hero can equip up to 4 artifacts, 2 active and 2 passive. The actives are basically two extra skills, and combined with the passives they will provide a possibility of different combinations and combos, so you can create different "builds" that adapt to your playing style.
  

- We are updating the character art for menus and icons, and we have finished 8 heroes. While the previous art was in "Chibi" style, we opted for a more "mature" style, as we noticed that, although some like the chibis, most prefer the "traditional" art.



- We produced dynamic videos of skills, Orbs, and Artifacts of each hero that illustrate the attacks in action. This way, you can view each move as you delve into its description.



- About the Hellgate we briefly mentioned in the August devlog, we are making assets/sprites for the bosses. They are more complex because the battle against them will be with lots and lots of players together. We have already finished the animation of two of the main demons and are finalizing the third. We want to do 4 of them, so we are almost there.🔥

- We've finished the art for over 10 pets, even though it's not our current focus. For those who adore having a unique pet companion, expect a range of collectibles and companions🐾

Liam's Gryphon Pet

We thank you once again for all your support! We will continue to keep you updated on the game's development here and on our social media channels! ❤️

See you next time!👋

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to our September Devlog! In this edition, we will provide updates on the game's development and also unveil our first Official Gameplay Trailer. 👀

[h3]🎮Development🎮[/h3]

- We've completed all the necessary environmental art assets for the Coliseum, a huge structure located in the heart of the Human Empire. This arena will be the setting for various survival modes and challenging duels in the future! ⚔️



- Moreover, we've designed a range of other environmental assets, including boats, fountains, new structures for the elves, and more.

- As mentioned last month, we created environmental assets for different kingdoms. We're now finalizing the construction/decoration of the cities of Akamond (Mage Tower🔮) and Ereluna (Elven Kingdom 🍃). Every detail has been planned to give these places genuine depth and authenticity.

- We've completed two more complex bosses and their introduction cinematics. Check out a sneak peek of the creation process for each:

"Urijor" Boss:

"Korz" Boss🪓:

- We've finalized the HUD for emotes, skins, pets, and character abilities. Specifically for abilities, we've integrated animated videos that showcase each attack, making it easier to comprehend the functions of both the abilities and orbs.

- We've completed all the animations and sounds for the first World Boss, which we won't reveal to avoid giving away story spoilers. Moreover, we've also designed the art for its arena, tailored specifically for this battle. Next month, we'll create the mechanics of the boss itself. As mentioned earlier, this one, along with the other world bosses, will feature a high level of complexity, showcasing at least 10 stages and a variety of distinct attacks. 🔥

- We’ve created a new monster, a sub-boss, called Doppleganger.

- We welcomed a new team member who will assist us with level design! 🤝

- We continued creating a variety of new missions/dungeons. Currently, we have over 100 handcrafted maps for these missions, not to mention the numerous 'surprise' elements that can vary within each mission.

- We've finalized our pet system! Although we haven't begun developing the pets themselves, the interface and the system are ready. Who's excited about having a pet in the game? 🐾

[h3]🎥First Official Gameplay Trailer🎥[/h3]

We are thrilled to share our very first official gameplay trailer with you! With a plethora of scenes, monsters, and content to choose, it was a challenge to pick just a few highlights. We truly hope you enjoy it!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We can't thank you enough for your continued support and encouragement. It's heartwarming to see our community grow, and we'll continue to update you on our progress here and through our official Discord.❤️

Remember to leave a like and comment if you enjoyed this Devlog!

See you next time!👋