Darkfall

Did You Know?

• The game went live at 9 p.m. Central European Time on 26 February 2009, twelve hours after the announced launch time, and customers were awarded four days of free game time due to launch problems.
• Eurogamer reviewer Ed Zitron awarded the game 2 out of 10, but lead developer Tasos Flambouras claimed server logs showed the reviewer played for under three hours, a claim denied by the writer.
• Game Observer gave Darkfall an overall score of 83/100, while Meristation gave it 7/10.

Development history (2001 to 2012)

Development of Darkfall was announced on 29 August 2001 by Razorwax, a team based in Oslo, Norway, initially consisting 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), and Erik Sperling Johansen (Lead Server Programmer). In October 2002, the Razorwax team was integrated into Aventurine SA, a newly formed company based in Athens, Greece. After a meeting in Athens, the teams decided to relocate Razorwax from Norway to Greece due to lower taxes and cost of living, and the move was finalized by December 2002. A signup page for a closed clan beta was made available in September 2005, but the beta never occurred; a 1.5-minute gameplay video was released in February 2006 as compensation. Associate producer Tasos Flambouras later stated that additional money and resources were devoted to expanding the game's scope. Darkfall's first major public revelation was at E3 in 2006, where a standalone demonstration version was shown to journalists. Bi-weekly developer journals and community Q&A articles began in June 2006 on Warcry. An announcement on 11 July 2006 indicated preparations for beta, though Aventurine had no publisher and considered self-publishing. On 17 January 2007, Aventurine announced active discussions with partners and that a functional beta build was running on remote servers.

Development history (2012 to present)

In April 2015, a developer named Axilmar, who worked on the Unholy Wars version, started a Reddit petition to see if players wanted a classic Darkfall server. It got around 1,789 signatures. He showed the results to Aventurine’s CEO about a month later. On June 15, 2015, after a three-day delay, CEO Zad Mehdawi said bringing back Darkfall wasn’t possible because of the high costs for infrastructure and support. Instead, the company would keep improving Unholy Wars, but they were open to serious offers for licensing the original game. The next day, Claus Grovdal, who originally created Darkfall and used to run Razorwax, tweeted that he was let down by Aventurine’s decision not to revive it. On November 18, 2015, community manager Ici Wave posted on the official forum that Aventurine was talking to two groups about a license. On February 3, 2016, Ub3rgames said they had gotten the license and updated their site. On March 1, 2016, Big Picture Games also confirmed they had the license. On March 8, 2016, Ub3rgames showed the first gameplay footage of Darkfall: New Dawn. On March 19, 2016, Big Picture Games released footage for Darkfall: Rise of Agon. On April 8, 2016, Big Picture Games started a closed alpha with a non-disclosure agreement, sent out 500 invites, and opened a store with three founder packs. On June 14, 2016, Ub3rgames set a stress test for June 28, 2016. On August 3, 2016, Big Picture Games announced a closed beta. On August 16, 2016, Darkfall: New Dawn moved from a free stress test to an InDev beta that required a purchase. On May 5, 2017, Darkfall: Rise of Agon went live. On January 26, 2018, Darkfall: New Dawn launched.

The Darkfall world

Darkfall claims one of the largest online worlds of any MMORPG to date. The world consists of a large central continent named Agon, containing all six racial capitals, surrounded by four smaller continents to the north-east, north-west, south-east, and south-west, along with numerous small islands and archipelagos. A developer estimated before release that it would take about eight hours to run from one end to the other, but the actual crossing time is closer to four hours, with a diagonal crossing taking up to six hours. The world includes diverse terrain types such as forest, plain, desert, ice, jungle/tropical, swamp, and wasteland, all handmade by developers. Any terrain can be accessed with appropriate skills, such as climbing mountains or swimming to islands. Darkfall has relatively few mob spawns compared to contemporary MMORPGs, aiming for a more realistic style. Mobs display higher artificial intelligence, calling for help, retreating, dodging, and switching between melee and ranged attacks, making them generally more difficult. A December patch further improved mob AI. The most recent patch added non-aggressive wild animals like deer that players can hunt for resources.