Dream Kingdom Studio publish The first of a massive Q&A session for the MMORPG Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen community. The developers discuss the current status of the project, upcoming updates, team composition, funding, categories, regions, production and the reasons for the massive rework in recent years.
Current development plans
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s new roadmap isn’t ready yet. Developers expect it to roll out in the coming weeks, but have yet to announce specific release dates for individual components.
The immediate goal is to provide a fully tested version of the game with complete gameplay for levels 1 to 50. The main focus will be on the combat system, character development, non-player characters and items.
The author is not yet ready to give an approximate date for the full release of version 1.0. They believe that the basics need to be “fixed” first before more realistic forecasts can be made. The team also plans to return to the approach they took during Seasons development: plan their work more carefully, don’t commit to things they’re not ready for, and move toward their predetermined goals step by step.
Reasons for development and changes
The developers explained in detail why many of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s systems have been repeatedly changed or recreated over the past few years. Designer Mark Marajlino said one of the challenges was assigning large mechanics to individuals. The combat, career, crafting, and gathering systems are too large to be effectively controlled by experts. There are several people working in certain areas right now.
Additionally, some of the rework was caused by other necessary systems not being ready. Sometimes, existing solutions have to be changed due to mechanisms developed later. Visionary Realms admits that many bad decisions were made during its more than ten years of development. However, the team still believes they can finish the game.
Moderate team composition
For the first time in recent years, the developer has revealed the actual size of the team. Currently, Visionary Realms has a total of 30 employees. Among them, 25 are involved in development and 5 are managers. The total number of full-time employees is approximately 26.
According to the CEO, the existing structure is sufficient to implement version 1.0. At the same time, more programmers, designers and artists will speed up development. Some artworks are transferred to third party performers.
Project financing
The studio did not provide specific figures when asked about the size of its cash reserves, monthly expenses and financing terms. The CEO said that the current funds are enough to release version 1.0 of “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen”, and additional investment will speed up development.
The existence of third-party projects not related to the gaming industry has also been confirmed. Visionary Realms received funding to cover the costs of the project itself and ultimately add resources to the development of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Only a few employees work on two projects at the same time.
Working on the combat system
One of the focuses of the next major update will be the combat system. The developers are working on the characteristics and abilities of non-player characters, their locations and population density. In addition, the traits and behavioral characteristics of organisms are also expanding.
The team intends to bring back more challenging content for the player base. According to the author, the current version of the game is oversimplified.
A “unified” NPC system is also still being planned. The chevron pattern was once used to indicate the strength of an opponent and was initially seen as a temporary solution.
The developers themselves admit that the current gaming experience of levels 1 to 20 on the test server is still far from ideal.
New and planned courses
Necromancer and Monk are already working on internal servers and are being tested. Players will be able to access them with the next content update. But for bards, things are a little more complicated. This category is still considered an optional target for version 1.0 and is only in the design phase. The developers want to make it as original as possible, but have not yet begun full implementation.
The studio also confirmed the lack of separate feats for Punishment Paladins and plans for Berserkers
Kraft 2027
The developers have given the most specific deadlines for making the system. The spacecraft is scheduled to return in 2027. This system will not be included in an upcoming update dedicated to combat and character development.
Development of play areas
Development continues on the large Fairtail starting area. Due to its size, the developers are considering releasing it in multiple parts. The first part of Fairtail should appear when the server clears, which will reset the progress of existing characters.
Current areas will also be gradually populated with additional content. The studio admits that some of the areas it has created now look too empty, but work on them will be prioritized.
The author is also considering the possibility of adding first zones on other continents before sea travel is fully implemented. For example, use a loading screen or portal.
New races and characters
The rest of the game is planned to be added to the game once the starting area is ready. Until then, representatives of the new race can appear as NPCs in other areas.
Racial abilities are still part of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s design, but the developers don’t plan to work on them in the near future. First, the team wanted to determine baseline parameters for all other systems.
New tools to speed development
One of the most important technical issues on this project was the old Odin tool, which was responsible for processing power and data. It doesn’t handle a lot of complex logic well, which is one of the things that hinders the development of a proficient system. In addition, processing large amounts of data through it is too slow.
Visionary Realms is currently testing a new tool that allows you to:
- Change data directly and instantly;
- Detect conflicting changes;
- Automatically check for some errors;
- Make large-scale changes;
- Greatly simplifies the designer’s work.
Once fully implemented, the authors anticipate a significant reduction in manual effort.
Communicate with players
One of the main complaints from the community continues to be the lack of information about development progress. Visionary Realms said they intend to increase the number of publications. The developers hope to once again use a format reminiscent of previous seasons, when players were presented with a streamlined list of current tasks. We are considering the option of continuously updating the page in a task board format.
The team does not release the complete internal development plan as it contains thousands of tasks and is used to develop the management system. Additional visual material is also promised, including screenshots of unfinished areas, new models, and other working materials.
Free access period
Against the backdrop of low player activity, studios are considering a variety of ways to attract new audiences. Particularly discussed were free weekends and free limited access to early versions of the game.
There are no specific dates or conditions yet, but according to management, the ideas have moved from the stage of simple discussion to an assessment of the technical and organizational feasibility of their implementation.
future plans
Visionary Realms’ focus right now isn’t on expanding the number of features, but on fixing the core of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Near-term milestones should include improvements to the combat system, character development, balance, non-player characters, classes, and items. After that, the team expects to continue expanding the world and other content more aggressively.
The release date for version 1.0 is still unknown. The only fairly concrete long-term production date remains 2027, and they’ve promised to reveal new development plans in the coming weeks.
Visionary Realms plans to release the next installment of answers to community questions next week.
