Dragon Ruins II News

Hi everyone,

2024 was a transformative year for the studio, as we finally achieved relative stability and adequate resources to expand the scope of our projects and develop them at a healthy pace. Thank you for supporting us through this journey and the growing pains.

I'd like to share my thoughts about our releases in 2024, as well as games the studio contributed to, and plans for 2025.


As a long-time fan of David Allen's work (Mordor, Demise), I was surprised that no one created a successor to his games, so I decided to do it myself. Dragon Ruins started as a jam game to test the core gameplay and then reworked into an enhanced commercial version to test the waters.

It became a hit for us and showed we weren't alone in wanting another game like this. We released a follow-up in January 2025, which also sold very well.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2929540/Dragon_Ruins/


The original game shipped with a bonus mode called "The Tower of Rebirth" where you possessed enemies to reach the top floor. Ringlorn Saga Gaiden was created to develop this mode into a standalone open-world experience and work as a quick spin-off to keep fans busy until Ringlorn Saga: Book Two arrives.

The idea took a few failed attempts, cuts, and shifts in design to make it work. Sadly, slower sales and prolonged development mean it's unlikely to break even anytime soon, but Book Two will still happen at some point in the future.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2262980/Ringlorn_Saga_Gaiden/


SKALD was developed by High North Studios and published by Raw Fury. I worked on it as a composer from 2019 until I finished my work in 2023. The game finally came out in 2024 and garnered a positive reception.

Personally, I was surprised by how often the music was praised in reviews. Some of the later work was composed while dealing with blackouts, and I'd like to extend my thanks to the Kim family for providing me with a place to unwind, recharge my devices, and guzzle unhealthy amounts of kimchi jjigae.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069160/SKALD_Against_the_Black_Priory/


I contributed some music to Hazy Mind in late 2023. To be honest, I'm yet to play the final version of the game, but the beta I played to get the feel for it had an amazing style.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380340/Hazy_Mind/


We've released Dragon Ruins II in January. Since the original sold much better than initially anticipated, we had a decent budget to work with and enough time to research and develop features that we wanted to incorporate in the sequel.

It sold much better than expected, and we're currently working on a standalone expansion to provide more stories for tired DRPG fans.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3293490/Dragon_Ruins_II/

Hanako's Flower Shop (by FantaJI) is coming out on April 25. I assisted with the QA, including checking the game on Steam Deck and checking the release candidate for errors.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1529640/Hanakos_Flower_Shop/

Apart from that, we are working on a big update for Demon Lord Reincarnation. Its commercial success took us by surprise, but internally, we were unsatisfied with the way it turned out, and player reviews reflect that.

Since then, we've been quietly reworking the game from scratch, fixing elements that didn't work, and incorporating content and features that were cut to meet the deadline.



There's no ETA yet, but it's progressing at a steady pace. Once the update ships, the original version will be available on a beta branch.


You might've heard this before, but we are no longer working with Xitilon and are in talks with a new console publisher to handle our games. This means there's no ETA for future console releases until the deal is signed.

Again, thank you for your support.
--Romanus Surt of Graverobber Foundation

Hey, brave adventurers!

Dragon Ruins II surpassed our expectations in terms of sales and reception. The console release is in talks right now, and it will take a while, so please be patient.

That said, we'd like to thank you for your support. We wouldn't have achieved all this without you.

[h3]What's Next?[/h3]

While Dragon Ruins III is planned and we made some initial design work on it, it'll take a while before it enters development, as we don't like to work on two similar projects back-to-back. We're taking it slow for now, going through our internal TODO list, and considering our options, as we have quite a few game concepts lying around, waiting to be realized.

However, we're not done with Dragon Ruins II yet.

As you might remember, we considered releasing Scenario Disks as DLC for the base game to provide new scenarios and expand the game world. After some consideration, we've decided to compile the ideas we've had for additional scenarios and develop a standalone expansion.

The current plan for the expansion is:

• Separate story that begins after the events of the base game
  
• 15 dungeons, roughly the size of the base game
  
• New exploration mechanics (e.g. hidden doors, teleporter traps)
  
• WANTED System (hunt down specific monsters and collect big bounties)
  
• New weapon types (Greatswords and Spears)
  
• New skills (e.g. Misanthrope, which increases damage against humanoid opponents)
  
• Changes to the character, item upgrade, and monster systems
  

Why standalone? Dragon Ruins II is a tight, finished package, and we prefer to keep it that way, while a standalone expansion gives us the freedom to adjust the game design as we see fit without running the risk of breaking old content or changing game balance in undesired ways.

That being said, plans can change, and the current plan is here to share our goals, not generate hype.

P.S. No, this is not an April Fools joke.