Creator of Darkhaven is glad he has to compete with his own creation from the past
The developers of the original Diablo 2 have mixed feelings about their current studio having to compete with their own legacy. Amid the recent addition of a new class to the iconic game and the release of Diablo 2: Resurrected on Steam, the Moon Beast Productions team is working on the ARPG Darkhaven and crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
Phil Schenk, lead character artist of Diablo 2, told PC Gamer that he is proud of the game's longevity, but now he and his colleagues—programmer Peter Hu and designer Erich Schäfer—find themselves as an independent studio facing off against a giant. According to Hu, they have to "climb uphill" against Diablo 4 and the updated Diablo 2.
Darkhaven has been in development for four years and is a hybrid of a classic ARPG with survival elements like Valheim: procedural generation, building, resource gathering, and mod support. The developers emphasize that they are not trying to simply replicate Diablo 2.
It is important to note that the Darkhaven demo has received very positive reviews, but the crowdfunding campaign has yet to reach its goal: backers have contributed only $200,000 out of the $500,000 needed.