Darkfall

For the novel by Dean Kootz see Darkfall (novel)

Darkfall (sometimes referred to as Darkfall Online due to the URL of the official website) 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.

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.

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, 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 newcommers to the community.

An announcement on July 11, 2006 stated that preparations are still being made to begin beta.[6]

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.[7]

Features

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

Unrestricted PvP, with no safe zones
Inter-character collision detection
Manual aiming & blocking
Naval warfare
Dynamic, physical weather
No radar or floating names

References

History

Features

References

External links