Recent Pantheon Developer Roundtable Dives Deep Into Dungeon Design And What Challenges Players Can Expect

The devs are set on taking player choice and design to a whole new level for MMORPGs.

Anthony Jones
By Anthony Jones, News Editor Posted:
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Pantheon Dungeons

The June Developer Roundtable for the upcoming MMORPG Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen had Visionary Realms Creative Director and Programming Producer Chris "Joppa" Perkins lead the discussion about the game's dungeon design. Perkins explained the current intricacies of dungeon play and answered plenty of questions from fans, hoping to shed some light on what players can expect within them.

Starting out, Perkins elaborated that dungeons in Pantheon are "large-scale" and "dense," even having multiple pathways and points of no return to make exploration naturally exciting and fresh. There will be the occasional rare enemy spawns with unique loot drops, platform-style traversal, and camping spots littered throughout that'll persuade players to come back and discover more about the zone. Not to mention, some dungeons will lead to others and new explorable locations.

When it comes to dungeons, the devs seem to be making sure there are nuances of player choice, such as allowing players to enter a dungeon from one entrance versus another to begin the zone differently. The devs hope these choices keep dungeon play engaging for players and become an incentive for them to return and explore more after leveling. Changes are still in the works for the Pantheon dungeons, like improving underwater dungeons and creating content that makes players want to visit them. There's plenty to look forward to for players who enjoy making on-the-go decisions inside dungeons, but we'll have to wait and see how their ideas come together.

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About the Author

Anthony Jones
Anthony Jones, News Editor

Anthony Jones is a gaming journalist and late 90s kid in love with retro games and the evolution of modern gaming. He started at Mega Visions as a news reporter covering the latest announcements, rumors, and fan-made projects. FFXIV has his heart in the MMORPGs scene, but he's always excited to analyze and lose hours to ambitious and ambiguous MMOs that gamers follow.

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Discussion (2)

rainingwolves 1 year ago
I realize that this game is shooting for that old school vibe and that’s a pretty good thing. My only hope is that I pray that they don’t forget that we have old school MMORPG’S like EQ 1 and 2, DAOC and others. So I guess what I’m getting at is while we want the old school vibe but I much prefer the old school vibe while pushing the genre in a completely new direction than we ever got as those games progressed into WOW and it’s clones and instead I hope we get what EQ or Vanguard would have been if that style of MMO had continued forward. I want all the bells and whistles with gameplay we would have received had EQ 3 or 4 had come out if this genre had kept the progression of the living and breathing world with Dungeons and Dragons type characters and groups.

desryndoes 1 year ago
Nice write-up, Anthony! I really appreciate that it seems like you actually listened to the whole thing and understand the goals & tenets of Pantheon, including what a dungeon actually "means" for the game. As reiterated many times in the Roundtable, it's a place that players will dwell and come back to, not something to simply be "ran" as is the modern MMORPG design. Again, love the coverage!


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