Diablo veterans announce Darkhaven, isometric ARPG headed to early access

Veterans of the Diablo games have formed Moon Beast Productions and announced Darkhaven, a dark-fantasy isometric action-RPG that the studio says will enter early access; a Kickstarter campaign to help fund it is due to launch soon. The team includes Erich Schaefer and Brian Fitzpatrick, who worked on the first Diablo and the genre-defining sequel, and Philip Shenk and Peter Hu, who had prominent roles on Diablo 2.

Their credits also include Hellgate: London and the Torchlight series. Set in a post-post-apocalyptic wasteland, Darkhaven’s environments are described on the Steam page as reclaimed by the elements, with enemies from other dimensions appearing through portals and remnants of those encounters remaining in the world.

Moon Beast says it is incorporating “ecological rules” for each area, whether swampy or volcanic, to cultivate a “rich implied history” across the map. Moon Beast president Peter Hu says the team wants “items that open doors, gear that makes you stop and rethink your build, your strategy, or even how you play the game,” and that “finding something powerful should be exciting and inspiring, not something that gets smoothed out into tiny percentage gains.” The studio adds battles will emphasize clever, tactical thinking over grinding.

The game is described on Steam as a “next-generation ARPG”; Moon Beast says surroundings will be procedurally generated and fully destructible so each play-through is distinct.

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