Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen News

by CEO Chris Rowan

Hello everyone,

Earlier this week we announced our new funding, and it sounds like you are as excited about it as we are. More funding means more team members making more content, and faster development toward launch.

We aren’t quite ready to share all the details yet, as we are still filling roles and adjusting the schedule, but one detail we are excited to share is the introduction of our new Project Manager, David “Nephele” Beach.

Our long-term community members may recognize David as the dedicated crafting enthusiast and part-time designer who has been fighting to make Pantheon's crafting as good as it can be. What you may not know is that David served in several senior project and program management roles at a little company called Microsoft for almost two decades.

[h3]THE RIGHT FIT[/h3]

Appointing a Project Manager who has already been in the trenches with the team for years is a huge advantage, as their existing relationships and deeply intimate project knowledge means they can get right to work. David’s past with the team and his even longer history as a community member reflect his dedication and passion for the project. And frankly, given his credentials and the results we’ve already seen, I can’t think of someone more fit for this role.

[h3]WHAT A DEDICATED PM MEANS FOR PANTHEON[/h3]

So, what does a Project Manager actually do for us?

A game of this scale is a massive web of moving parts and dependencies, with creative and technical teams that must all move in sync. The PM is the central hub for all of it. David’s role is to collaboratively build the master plan with the team leads, identify risks, manage the schedule and resources, and ensure that every single department is communicating effectively.

For the game, the company and you, the community, this role is the engine for an accelerated drive toward the 1.0 release of Pantheon based on predictability and clarity.

This move to specialized roles is crucial. A dedicated PM's entire focus is results through efficiency, structure, and communication. On a small team, it's natural for people to wear multiple hats, and our team has done heroic work doing just that. But as we staff up and drive hard for a 1.0 release, this specialization is what allows the rest of the team, our artists, designers, worldbuilders, lore writers, and programmers, to focus 100% on what they do best: building the world, creating the classes, and making the game you're all waiting for.

Think about it like the relationship between a talented band and a great music producer. The most legendary albums are often the synergy of massive, unhinged talent from the band, guided by the supportive organization, structure, and, when needed, tough love from the producer. Think The Beatles and George Martin, or Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. It’s that partnership between raw creativity and disciplined execution that makes and delivers magic.

As we get all these new processes integrated, you should begin to see the effects. When our internal teams have better visibility and communication, there is less chance for confusion, which in turn helps us communicate more clearly and accurately with you.

We are all committed to building the best possible Pantheon, and this new role is a critical step in making sure we do it right and get it to you sooner. I'm thrilled to have David on board to help us get there.

But enough from me. The best person to talk about this role and his vision for it is Nephele himself…



[h3]HOW WE MOVE FORWARD WITH PANTHEON[/h3]
by Nephele

Hi all. I feel a little sad that my secret identity has been unmasked, but I’m happy that I finally get to talk to you about what I’ve been working on in the background.

Before we begin talking about my role, let’s talk about Pantheon and the team. We feel very strongly about presenting a fully-fledged, holistic world. We don’t want Pantheon to feel shallow when it’s done. That extends to both our gameplay systems and our content. When it’s all said and done, we want you to be able to log in and feel like you’re in a fun place where you have choices in terms of where to go and what to do. Maybe you head off to explore a new area, or perhaps you dive back into that dungeon from last week to try and get a rare item. You could spend the day or even just a few hours hanging out and fishing with some friends. You could head out to tame that new mount, or you could attend an in-game play put on by some of your fellow players. You could even potentially start a new character, in a different part of the world entirely, and experience the game in an entirely new way, making new friends along that journey.

Building that world takes a lot of work, and more importantly, a lot of coordination. Coordination is an area where we have stumbled in the past, and when I first took on the PM role, I knew it was the first thing that we needed to address. There have been a few changes that we have made recently to help with that.

First – we took a hard look at what it takes to build a new zone or POI and how we can make that process happen on time without major delays or having to leave things out. I am happy to report that we now have a much more robust planning process, which helps us make sure that we have everything lined up when we need it. This prevents delays and allows us to focus on quality and getting the content out in a completed state.

Second – we sat down to revisit what we need to have in place for our 1.0 launch. There are absolutely some content and features we can add to the world after our launch, but there are some things that need to be there or that don’t make sense to bring in after the fact. We have realigned our internal roadmap around delivering these parts of the game and the world first.

As a result of that work, we have a plan in place that allows us to be more efficient and effective. For example, one of the big improvements we have made is in our art pipelines. In the past, we were not starting on creating new art assets early enough, and we would often end up trying to build out areas without having all the different props and NPCs needed for them. That led to delays and rework. In our new process, our goal is to have all the assets ready to go before the designers and worldbuilders ever touch the new area.

We have also made improvements in how we plan and schedule our content efforts. We want to have regular updates and content releases for all of you, but larger areas take more time for us to put together. So, while we devote most of the team to working on those larger areas (and give them the time they need to do them well), we’re also organizing our work to bring you smaller updates in between those big zone releases. Those smaller updates include revisiting some existing areas that need a touch-up, as well as some new goodies that aren’t in the world yet. Combined with our new funding, this means that as we push forward, we will be able to deliver more content (with better quality) faster than we have in the past.

Finally, we recognize that content is only one part of the equation. We have many gameplay systems that need to be implemented and updated. However, those systems are all intended to work together and trying to implement them piecemeal results in a poor experience for our players. It also makes it very hard to balance our content and itemization effectively. We have adopted a new approach when it comes to our systems work that should result in a much more full and cohesive gameplay experience for all of you in our upcoming releases.

Right now, the team is working on a few things:

• Finishing up the Wildbloods for our release later this month.
  
• Wrapping up work and beginning quality testing for the initial release of our Mounts and Taming systems next month.
  
• Building out the environments for Badia de Cara and lining up all the different props and NPCs that we will need to populate the area.
  
• Refining detailed planning documents for our next three major zones and the next five-six smaller content areas that we plan to deliver.
  
• Preparing for a major gameplay update and some big additions to our character progression systems for both adventuring and crafting/gathering.

We have a lot that we are working on lining up for the first part of 2026, and I am planning to publish a roadmap update for all of you that will help explain those plans in more detail.

One last thing – a huge part of what has kept us going over the years has been the passion and enthusiasm of our community. We want Pantheon to be an MMORPG that many of you can enjoy for a very long time, and we are committed to that goal. We won’t always be able to do everything that everyone wants, but your feedback has been and will continue to be extremely important as we go forward, and we hope you will be excited by some of what we have in store for 2026.

[p]Great news to share this morning!

Visionary Realms has secured additional multimillion-dollar funding to supercharge development of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.[/p][p]The funding will be used to bring on more artists, programmers, designers and reinforce project management. What this means for Pantheon: a more robust launch sooner. Our timeline will be reduced significantly with the new team members, and we will be able to not only deliver 1.0 launch sooner, but more complete. Keep an eye here for the updated roadmap, coming in a few weeks, which will detail what's coming next.[/p][p]Game Rant has covered the news this morning. Check out the article here.[/p]

[h2]What goes into designing a major boss encounter?[/h2]
One of the aspects of our game we’ve been starting to work on more over the past few months is our boss NPC encounters. While we want all of our content to be challenging, there’s just something special about getting to the end of the dungeon (or even just the side room) and having an epic, memorable fight. Ideally, we want each of our boss NPCs to challenge players in different ways, and to feel very distinct from each other. Making that happen isn’t always as simple as it sounds, however.

For today’s dev diary, we wanted to pull back the curtain a little and give you all some insight into the process we are using to design these boss encounters.

[h3]Step 1: Treat it like a Story[/h3]
The most memorable RPG fights tell a story. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you’re going into a fight for the first time, there should be things that surprise you, twists that you perhaps didn’t see coming. Obviously, in a social game like ours, you might already have heard from other players what to expect, but we want the events that happen during the fight to be exciting.

So, when we envision these boss fights, we start by thinking about the storyline of the fight. For example:

1. Boss does villain monologue
   
2. Boss fights players
   
3. Boss realizes he has underestimated the players and calls in help
   
4. Boss gets serious and starts using his big attacks
   
5. Boss realizes he’s in trouble and calls for more help
   
6. Boss plays his trump card in a last-ditch effort to win the fight
   

This may seem a little silly, but it helps us establish the flow of the fight and the types of things we want to have happen during the encounter. We always try to start with something like this, because it makes the rest of the process much easier.

Another aspect that we try to consider when building out the story of the fights is how we want players to be challenged. For example, should the fight be an endurance fight where players must outlast their opponents? Do we want to keep a lot of damage focused on the tank or spread it out among the group? Should it require tactical repositioning and moving the boss around to avoid damage? Should it feature environmental hazards that players need to work around? Having a good picture of the flow and feel of the fight helps us as we begin to sketch out the encounter.

[h3]Step 2: Theming[/h3]
Once we have the general flow worked out, the next step is to establish the themes we want to leverage in the fight. Maybe our boss is a powerful necromancer, or perhaps he’s a brutish warlord. We spend some time brainstorming exactly who our boss NPC is and what kinds of things they might do in a fight. For example:

• Is the boss a spellcaster? A melee fighter? Both?
  
• Does the boss fight alone or do they have minions/helpers?
  
• What sorts of attacks does the boss use? Do they do big sweeping strikes with a weapon? Bathe the area in fire? Call down lightning from the heavens?
  
• Is there anything special about the location of the fight? Spikes in the floor? A door that locks behind the players?
  

[h3]Step 3: Special Moves[/h3]
No MMORPG villain is complete without a special signature move or two. So, after we work out the themes of the fight, we try to brainstorm a few of these things that they can do. This is an important step since sometimes these attacks might involve some custom animations that we need to create.

We often have more ideas than we can really implement at this stage – sometimes there are technical limitations that prevent us from using an idea, and sometimes our initial ideas are really cool, but they don’t really fit well with the storyline of the fight.

[h3]Step 4: Putting it all together[/h3]
Big boss encounters can have dozens of script entries like this one.

Once we’ve got the flow of the fight, the theme, and the special moves figured out, it’s time to start building everything. This is the part that can take the longest. Not only do we have to create the abilities the boss will use (and potentially animations and visual effects for those), but we also have to set up targeting conditions and cooldowns for those abilities. For example, do we want the boss to use it on the person with the highest threat, attack the healer with it, or to target someone randomly in the group they are fighting? Do we want them to use it every 15 seconds during the fight, or only at certain times? Do we want them to use the ability as soon as the fight starts or wait a bit before they start using it?

In addition to the big, flashy moves, we also need to make sure that the boss has several more mundane things that it can do. If we only had the big moves, fights would feel very odd, since the boss wouldn’t be doing anything at all in between those big moves. Most of our bosses will have several smaller abilities that they can do in between the big things, which helps make the fight feel more dynamic and interesting.

We typically go through a few iterations before we finally land on an overall set of abilities that we feel works well together. Depending on the fight, sometimes this process can take a few weeks just to get to this point. During this time, we’re also usually finalizing the loot for the boss NPC as well (since we have a decent understanding of its intended rarity and difficulty).

[h3]Step 5: Testing and Tuning[/h3]
Hey, can you come over here for a second and help test something? We promise it won’t hurt...

After we have all the abilities set up and everything put together on our boss NPC, it’s time to do some testing and tuning. For this, we like to use our unsuspecting coworkers and our focus testers. We have them join our internal test server, group up, and then we unleash our new boss upon them and watch to see what happens.

Sometimes, we get things right the first time, and our boss proves to be a challenging and fun encounter with very little tuning needed. More often though, we start finding situations we didn’t anticipate that we need to address. For example, in a recent test we had a problem with a boss that would summon its minions, but the minions were too far away to notice the players and attack them. We’ve had situations where the boss’s big attack was just a little too big and resulted in every other NPC nearby swarming in to attack the boss. And of course, sometimes we just find bugs. In some recent testing we had a boss get stuck in a loop where it would keep performing the same action repeatedly.

When we are tuning the boss, for most fights we try to aim for a level where the fight will be challenging for an “average” group of players. This can be somewhat tough to gauge, but our main goal is to make sure that the fight is memorable and fun for people who attempt it, and not something that is easy or forgettable. After all, these are bosses that we are talking about. For what we term “major bosses”, we will sometimes tune them a little higher specifically so that they will still pose challenge our most skillful and organized players. However, we have an overall goal that all our content should be accessible to groups who put in the time and effort to learn the encounters, so we generally try to keep a baseline difficulty that is challenging but doable for most groups.

From start to finish, this process can take weeks or even months alongside the other work we are doing to build out new content, but it is very important to us that we are creating compelling content for our players to experience, and that includes having exciting boss fights.

[p][/p][p]“There are none that exist who have so obsessively studied the enigmatic and destructive nature of the arcane. While many Wizards are driven mad through their studies, those who emerge stable under the weight of this power wield a force barely imaginable in awe and effect.”[/p][p]– Arcanery Instructor Varilos Phyren[/p][p][/p][p]Our primary goal with the Wizard update is to further capture that fantasy of reckless power and mastery of the elements. The numbing cold, the sounds of electricity crackling around you, the heat of flames anxious to consume everything in sight.[/p][p]This pass includes updates to (almost) every single spell for the Wizard kit along with brand new spells through level 50. The core abilities have all been replaced with new, more destructive versions. We have increased the number of Direct Damage spells from 16 to over 30, including the introduction of some long-awaited AOE’s. The codex will be filled with more consistency and balance between the elements throughout all level ranges, providing options and choices for each playstyle.[/p][p]Some of our new spells include:[/p]

• [p]Blazing Tempest: “Summon a swirling storm of flame above your target, searing them with Fire damage every 3 seconds for the duration of the effect. The final tick of damage will restore 2 Fire Focus to you.[/p]
• [p]Shattershock: “Hurl a bolt of charged mana at your target, blasting them with Shock damage. Consumes 3 Shock Focus.”[/p]
• [p]Frostifor: “Channel a torrent of frozen shards that hammer your target with Cold damage every second for up to 4 seconds. Each tick of damage restores Mana.”[/p]
• [p]Ckru-Venoth’s Inferno Lance: “Forge Ckru-Venoth’s lance of molten mana above your target and bring it crashing down, searing them with Fire damage. Consumes 3 Fire Focus.”[/p]
• [p]Mol-Thrane’s Storm Arrow: “Wreathe your arm in crackling mana and launch Mol-Thrane’s arrow screaming into your target, blasting them with Shock damage. Consumes 3 Shock Focus.”[/p]
• [p]Veyrule’s Icy Comet: “Shape swirling frost into Veyrule’s icy comet and hurl it into your target, striking them with Cold damage. Consumes 3 Cold Focus.”[/p]

[p]The Focus system has also undergone some significant changes. In the previous iteration of the system, almost every spell dipped into the Focus pools in some way. This made the class feel locked into specific rotations, and any deviation from those rotations ended up in a loss of damage.[/p][p]Going forward, we have made Focus something that you use in a more targeted and deliberate way. The biggest, flashiest spells will often consume Focus to pack a bigger punch. Many other offensive spells have been changed over to use cooldowns rather than Focus costs and will help provide consistent damage while also restoring Focus or Mana based on your choices. Mana costs have also been reduced on most of your offensive spells, allowing you more flexibility to leverage those big spells when you need them.[/p][p]Mastering the careful use of Focus and Mana will help Wizards to stay competitive in longer encounters, or further leverage control over their damage output.[/p][p]All of this is coming in November’s update, along with the Wildbloods. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback!

- Fusoya[/p]

"Eh, the wildbloods? They keep to themselves mostly in that village of theirs. They usually don’t bother us as long as we stay out of their territory. I wouldn’t want to tangle with one though. I once saw one of them take down half a pack of thornscales in just a few moments.”

– Ariana Lostwing, Ranger of Sky Durbin

Once a nomadic people, the Wildblood tribe of demihumans settled in the Silent Plains hundreds of years ago. Arriving shortly after the destruction of Havensong and the tumultuous final battles of the Decide War, they laid claim to a small area around a hilltop just a short distance from the coast. Hunters and gatherers by nature, the Wildbloods kept to themselves, mostly avoiding conflict with other groups. Attempts by Thronefastian scholars to visit the tribe and learn more about them in recent years have all been rebuffed, often with the scholar in question being deposited outside a nearby village, unconscious but otherwise unharmed.

Wildblood warriors have a well-earned reputation as fierce fighters who give no quarter in combat. Relentless in their pursuit, Wildblood hunters will track their prey across the open plains, often felling creatures that would give most others pause. However, what is truly remarkable about the tribe is their rapport with the natural world. Stories are told of Wildblood spellcasters summoning powerful lightning and flinging verdanfire bolts at their enemies, and travelers passing near their village reported seeing the Wildbloods worshiping at great totems that crackle with mystic power.

Of late, strange and troubling happenings have been observed in the lands of the Wildbloods. Just a few years ago, a splinter group established a camp outside the main village, and there seems to be little love lost between the two populations. At the same time, the Wildblood hunters often seen in the plains have started to become more aggressive and territorial, even to the point of engaging in skirmishes with travelers and other groups including the Goldenfangs of the western plains. Strange lights have been seen coming from the village at times, and a wall of thorns crackling with mystical energy now bars entry to the camp.