Darkfall

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For the novel by Dean Koontz see Darkfall (novel)
Current game event marker This article or section contains information about an unreleased video game.
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Darkfall
Developer(s) Aventurine S.A.
Publisher(s) N/A
Self Published
Designer(s) Claus Grovdal, Game Design/Producer
Henning Ludvigsen, Art Director
Ricki Sickenger, Lead Tools/Game Logic Programmer
Kjetil Helland, Lead 3D/Client Programmer
Erik Sperling Johansen, Lead Server Programmer
Engine Darkfall Proprietary Engine
Latest version Pre-beta
Release date(s) N/A (To be revealed at a later date)
Genre(s) MMORPG, Online RPG
Mode(s) Open PvP Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: Rating Pending (RP)
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Media N/A
System requirements Operating System: Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP
Processor: Pentium® III or AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz processor or faster (1.5 GHz or faster processor recommended)
Memory: 256 MB RAM minimum (512 MB recommended)
Video: Any Windows-compatible video card (NVIDIA GeForce 4 or ATI Radeon with at least 64 megs of video memory (128 MB recommended)
Internet (TCP/IP)
Input Keyboard, Mouse, Gamepad

Darkfall is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in development by Aventurine SA that combines real-time action and strategy in a fantasy setting. Darkfall is highly anticipated by the player versus player (PvP) community. The game is currently in private beta testing, but an official release date has not been announced.

Contents

[edit] History

In early August 2001, Razorwax announced the development of Darkfall and launched its official website. [1] The Razorwax development team consisted of five members:

  • Claus Grovdal (Lead Design and Producer)
  • Ricki Sickenger (Lead Tools and Game Logic Programmer)
  • Henning Ludvigsen (Art Director)
  • Kjetil Helland (Lead 3D/Client Programmer)
  • Erik Sperling Johansen (Lead Server Programmer)

In October 2002, Aventurine S.A. was founded in Greece. The Razorwax team was integrated into Aventurine, and five other developers from Norway were hired into the company.[2] When the Razorwax team and the Aventurine team had their first meeting in Athens, a member of one of the teams joked that Razorwax should relocate from Norway to Greece due to the lower taxes and cost of living in Greece. Eventually, the two teams realized that this idea actually made very good business sense,[3] and by December 2002,[4] the relocation of Razorwax was finalized. In the same year beta was announced and sign ups began. After 6 months sign ups were closed and the original declaration of closed beta was retracted. To this day claims of beta about to start persist.

Tasos Flambouras (Associate Producer of Darkfall) stated in his July 9, 2004 status report that "Darkfall is still in internal beta" due to delays in development.[5]

In September 2005 the signup for the closed clan beta began. But the planned beta of Q4 2005 was cancelled. Developers have stated that before the beta, they would release a gameplay video [6] which they did in February 2006.

Aventurine did not have a playable version of Darkfall available at E³ 2006. In June 2006, just after E³, the Darkfall team started releasing weekly Questions and Answers through Warcry, in order to help newcomers to the community.

An announcement on July 11, 2006 stated that preparations are still being made to begin beta.[7]

An interview with the developers on August 25, 2006 indicates that Aventurine does not have a publisher for Darkfall, and has considered the possibility of self-publishing the game.[8]

On January 17, 2007, Aventurine announced that a fully functional and stable beta build is running on remote servers and that the game is being shown to prospective partners, distributors, publishers, technology providers, etc.[9]

On January 30, 2007, Aventurine release a video containing about one minute of ingame footage, showing melee combat, mounts (including mounted combat), spellcasting and naval combat. [10]

[edit] Vaporware speculation

Darkfall has been dogged by speculation that the lack of definite information and publicity, along with the significant time the game has spent in development, suggests it is actually vaporware [11]. Aventurine has stated that "The Darkfall community has demonstrated that it doesn't need constant handholding and reassurances," which may explain the company's "information blackout". The only known video of the game appeared to be an early stage alpha at best, however a recent video (30th January 2007) partially discredited these rumours, showing the game in a much more developed stage.[12]. Associate Producer Tasos Flambouras has stated that the company "had to pass up many publicity opportunities," and supports this position by stating that "our game can compete a lot better than our publicity can" [13].

Darkfall has been in development for around 7 years. This lengthy development time is quite average among the top quality MMOs[citation needed].


[edit] Unique Features

Darkfall is expected to have several features that set it apart from the majority of MMORPGs:

  • Unrestricted PvP, with no safe zones. Game mechanics will punish random player killing (see alignment section below)[14]
  • Complete looting. All items will be dropped on death, and can be looted by anyone who opens the corpse. Armor and weapons will be somewhat easy to replace.[15]
  • Inter-character and projectile-character collision detection. Projectiles (spells, arrows, cannonballs etc.) can be dodged. Players can be pushed or blocked by other players or by explosions.[16]
  • Manual aiming & blocking.[17]
  • Naval warfare. You can sink your opponent's hard earned ship[18]
  • Dynamic, physical weather.
  • No radar or floating names (Player made clan banners worn for identification.)[19]
  • Ranged combat will be viewed from first person perspective. Melee combat will be viewed from third person perspective.
  • Friendly fire. You can accidentally hit someone other than the character you were targeting. Area of effect offensive spells and healing spells can affect your friends and your enemies.[20]
  • Cities can be built by players[citation needed].
  • Player built cities can be destroyed. Each player built city will contain a guildstone, which protects the buildings and defensive structures in the vicinity from attack. The guildstone is invulnerable, except when it has been weakened by a Gloomer. Gloomers can be built by players after they have built a siege fort next to the target city. The siege fort can be attacked and destroyed at any time, during or after construction. If a city is destroyed, a new clanstone constructed on the site is temporarily vulnerable to attack. [21]
  • There will be a limit on the number of players and NPC's that can bind to a clanstone [22]

[edit] Alignment

NPC's will enforce a system that makes random killing of players more dificult. Killing a player of your own race or of an aligned race, except during a declared war, will lower your alignment. Alignment can range from -100 (ultimate evil) to +100 (paragon of good). Players with an alignment score below a certain level will not be allowed to trade with or accept quests from NPC's. Alignment can be raised by killing players of opposing races, or players of the same or aligned race which have an evil alignment.

Some quests will be available to only those characters with very high (good) alignment. [23]


[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] August 29, 2001 IGN Interview with the founding five members of Razorwax
  2. ^ [2] November 28, 2005 update with IGN
  3. ^ [3] August 27, 2003 update at mmorpgdot.com
  4. ^ [4] December 13, 2002 IGN article
  5. ^ [5] Status Report by Tasos- July 9, 2004
  6. ^ [6] February 27, 2006 gameplay video,
  7. ^ [7] Sensory Cues in Darkfall, July 11, 2006
  8. ^ [8] Womengamers.com
  9. ^ [9] January 17, 2007 Update by Tasos
  10. ^ [10] January 30, 2007 Gameplay Video
  11. ^ [11] January 26, 2006 mmorpg.com interview with Tasos
  12. ^ [12] November 28, 2005 IGN update
  13. ^ [13] November 28, 2005
  14. ^ [14] November 29, 2005 'Alignment and Playerkilling', IGN update
  15. ^ [15] August 18, 2006 Death, Warcry update
  16. ^ [16] October 03, 2006 Tactical Overview, IGN
  17. ^ [17] October 03, 2006 Tactical Overview, IGN
  18. ^ [18] January 30, 2007 Gameplay Video
  19. ^ [19] October 03, 2006 Tactical Overview, IGN
  20. ^ [20] October 03, 2006 Tactical Overview, IGN
  21. ^ [21] August 27, 2003 Darkfall Online: Interview Part 1 at MMORPGDOT.com
  22. ^ [22] January 22, 2003 Claus on the Darfallonline forums
  23. ^ [23] November 29, 2005 'Alignment and Playerkilling', IGN update

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