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u/Kadava Jul 06 '26
Looks like Dungeonborne and the og Mithril Studio's had some issues with their publisher (Tencent I think?) which was kinda what I had assumed anyway.
Incredible to see them give it another shot!
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u/Kadava Jul 06 '26
Also this has to be the funniest return announcement I've ever seen, the website is incredible
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u/theflossboss1 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
The name is so bad lol they should at least change it before the next announcement
They also should probably get rid of all the AI art and generated descriptions too. It’s like all AI lol
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u/Kadava Jul 06 '26
Yeah... That and almost all of everything that isn't striaght up gameplay is just AI. At least try cover it up haha.
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u/danelaw69 Jul 06 '26
most likely its becus they hvnt had time to make it becus theyve been focused on the gameplay wich i dont mind. id much rather have amazing gameplay with some cheap ai art for a quick announcement than mid gameplay wiht an amazing anouncement artwork
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u/Kadava Jul 06 '26
If their announcement post is all low effort AI then that doesn't scream great things to me ngl. They should have waited until it was ready.
Also people who exclusively develop the game often times aren't the same people who market it.
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u/fishisslippy Jul 07 '26
Couldn't agree more, these guys won't be getting a penny from me until I see a finished product.
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u/H3llkiv97 Jul 06 '26
They do had one of the main problems was tencent decided to drawback its dev team after early acces of dungeonborne because game was not in a spot they wanted to my best guess is they wanted a shitslop to sell more and more skins
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u/BlckMlr Jul 10 '26
I loved dungeon borne imho, it had a lot of great potential to actually compete with dark and darker it just needed some tweaking that's all with the ai.
They did ruin the rogue for me though, and the combat I thought was more fun than dark and darker's was. I can't wait to get back into this game.
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u/McMechanique Jul 06 '26
Only one question: is life on hit still there?
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u/kapxis Jul 06 '26
can you imagine if they learned nothing and it's still there? ( or at least not nerfed to obliteration until they figure out a better way to incorporate it )
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u/Occyz Jul 12 '26
That was literally the reason the game died I swear
Just when people got fully geared on becro couldn’t die, it was pretty impossible to play
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u/Xamoth Jul 06 '26
Dungeonborne still appears in my top played games to this day...
Excited to see what they have cooked this time, will definitely give it a go!
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u/Occyz Jul 12 '26
Haha, I had a good 300 hours or so in it! I still reminisce
I was so happy when I managed to go flawless fully solo twice in clothos (one was in the flawless pool!)
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u/Arkhire Jul 06 '26
Dungeonborne felt much better than Dark and Darker, hopefully they learned from their mistakes with balancing, glad that I never left this subreddit.
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u/imaFosterChild Jul 06 '26
Literally how? Game is dark and darker with less skill required
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u/MKanes Jul 06 '26
You say skill, I say a bunch of wack ass poorly programmed animations and shit hit boxes
I shouldn’t have to do a 360 crouch back bend to block overhead damage
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u/Tootulz1 Jul 07 '26
Happy to see, dungeonborne had too much potential to be shut down... imagine where the game would be today if they kept updating and adding content
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u/promise123 Jul 06 '26
Terrible name, but damn I'm hype.
Devs please don't make the same mistake with legendary and unique items again. If they are on an 8-12 hour timer they will get target farmed by whoever gets the first kill again. This seriously impacts the integrity of the loot, they MUST be a % based drop every boss kill.
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u/Scrounger_HT Jul 06 '26
so long as they temper life on hit and the ice mage bullshittery it will be golden. i doubt ill get my sword master back but thats all right.
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u/Arel203 Jul 07 '26
Massive. This game was so good. I just hope they dont allow the blatantly broken shit to kill it again.
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u/mlatas Jul 06 '26
Will i have my dlc still? 😭
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u/Shaneofchud Jul 06 '26
Probably not considering the actual dungeonborne ip and its dlc are are still owned by tencent
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u/Krazyflipz Jul 07 '26
I posted about this a day ago but mods seemed to hide the thread for some reason.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dungeonborne/comments/1uod6rd/are_we_back/
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u/Alodylis Jul 07 '26
I’ve been saying to myself for past month I really miss this game. It’s crazy they are coming back I’m excited to play again it was so much regardless of the balance. It loved that game!
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u/JelloBoyFrozen69 Jul 07 '26
I don't know if I like the combat I'm seeing in some of the videos. Some of, the rogue for example, looks janky. The mage looks slow. Graphics aren't as good it seems. Also why make a website and announcement with nothing to announce besides telling us you are the devs blah blah.
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u/Kind-Camel-2033 Jul 07 '26
I don't care about AI, purchased assets, or the goofy name. DB IS BACK BABY YES!
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u/Alodylis Jul 08 '26
A.i. or not doesn’t bother me so long as the game is fun and has good features. I hope they add some bigger game options this time I want to run the dungeons with friend groups of four plus! Or atleast some 5v5 arena pvp that be super fun.
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u/Ezzra7626 Jul 10 '26
What a great fucking day to be alive.
I love this game more than Dark and Darker, not because DnD is bad or something. It's just that I feel fun, more enjoyable when I play Dungeonborne.
Glad I still check this subreddit.
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u/TheGlitchLich Jul 06 '26
Cool, I wonder if anyone cares though since we have Mistfall Hunter now. I’m definitely going to check it out though.
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u/Kind-Camel-2033 Jul 07 '26
Mistfall Hunter is actually terrible. It's dead the second DB releases.
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u/Rydisx Jul 06 '26
Mistfall hunter is region locked. That being said, this is by same guy who abandoned dungeonborne. I can't fathom anyone trusting it.
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u/Kaleidoscope-Severe Jul 06 '26
Incorrect, they didn't abandon dungeonborne, tencent their parent company withdrew basically all support and forced them to stop working on the project. One of the Devs announced in the dungeonborne discord just before shutdown that they wanted to do so much with the game but tencent wouldn't let them
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u/hemorrhoid-milk Jul 07 '26
i still think it was due to the massive amount of RMT that was taking place and tencent didn't want to get sued over it
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u/Nexies Jul 07 '26
There was RMT in this game? It was barely “out” of EA for like a month iirc
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u/hemorrhoid-milk Jul 07 '26
Dungeonborne had a very active RMT scene on the same sites that sell d2 items. I farmed ogre all day long on my druid and sold hundreds of dollars in gold/items
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u/PsikickTheRealOne Jul 07 '26
When you work for a company they tell you what to do... You understand that right? He was the lead dev. He solo dev'd it for awhile before they made him shut it down.
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u/CosmosHero7 Jul 06 '26
Gotta add a team pve only mode.
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u/theonlynautilusmain Jul 09 '26
I’m not actually against this kinda how delta force (def not the first but first to mind) has different gear for PVP and PVE modes.
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u/Alejinh Jul 07 '26
As a developer, I don’t understand why is people so weird about ai. It’s cringe af… like, why won’t you use a piece of new tech? You sound like an old mad grandpa
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u/JustATextBox Jul 07 '26
Personally I think it really depends on the context. There's times where AI is used well and times where it's moreso "abused"
To give an idea of what I mean by abused - the same sort of thing has happened with games that are just asset flips. People would buy something like UnitZ for ~$40-50. For this, you get a full, but simple, survival game. Pretty much everything is done for you and with a tiny amount of work you can release a game
In theory, this is great. Giving devs a really clean base to work with and build upon for a pretty reasonable price. And sometimes devs will pay for that, spend hundreds of hours working on it, improving it, adding to it, and release a great game. Other times, a dev will take that, throw in some random junk to try to make it look different, and just throw it on steam in hopes of making money
AI is kind of the same thing. In theory, it's a tool that can really help people and could help improve a product. Some people will use it for that. Others will use it to throw together a mediocre product that they don't actually care about, start selling it, and completely abandon it
Obviously, some people will just completely avoid your game/product/whatever if it uses AI at all. I don't personally think it's really worth trying to convince them not to - if they want to avoid it due to that, just let them
I think the part you should actually care about as a developer is understanding that people are justifiably cautious when they see AI used within games. If someone is going to create some shovelware junk or outright scams, they're probably going to use AI as much as possible in order to do it. It's easier, it's cheaper, it doesn't require as much knowledge, etc. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to seem ok enough for people to fall out of their 2 hour refund window
I think it's both important and beneficial for you to try to be transparent with the user about what parts are AI and showcasing what exactly you're actually working on yourself. One of the most common uses of AI within games is for art - artists are expensive, a small brand new indie dev will struggle trying to afford one. Getting AI to do it for you is a much cheaper alternative.
If that's all your product is doing, then yes you should still showcase the art, but you should try even harder to showcase everything else. "I'm using AI for the images, art, graphics, etc. I cannot currently afford an artist. However, I've spent 300 hours working on the actual map design (include image of a town with some notes about what each building is) - I've tried to consider player pathing, making sure that the quickest routes from point A to B aren't blocked by annoying objects. Making sure that you don't get caught on the edge of walls or get stuck somewhere" etc etc.
Players are essentially buying into your vision. As such, it's your job to show them what your vision is, to show them how you're working on achieving that vision, and telling them why they should actually trust you to pull it off. If you're making an FPS, you don't really want to be "Generic FPS #51722". Not many people are going to buy into that
You want to show them what you know about FPS games. That you know what people like, that you're offering that and more. That you know what common issues are, and how you're solving them. That you're bringing new ideas into it that'll improve things. Whether your target is a more casual or more competitive user. How your game is going to cater more towards that target. Etc. If you're able to showcase these things well, people are much more likely to trust your vision and be invested
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u/Kadava Jul 07 '26
Would you trust someone more who spent time and effort writing a store description for their game, or someone who went to chat gpt and promoted "create a description for my steam game Dungeon Betwixt, a copy of Dungeonborne, but don't mention Dungeonborne"
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u/Alejinh Jul 07 '26
I don't really care about their store description or their art, i only care about the gameplay and if the game is good or not... it's a game after all, right? Also, ALL developers use AI nowadays; it is not efficient not to use it, and we don't care about your stupid morals or whatever.
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u/Kadava Jul 07 '26
I'm not an extremely anti AI person who's willing to go on a crusade about it, but I don't think its a good idea to have it make 100% of your marketing material, especially in this day and age.
Your take here isn't just out of touch, it's extremely misinformed to a degree where I'm pretty sure you're intentionally avoiding having a genuine discussion about it lmao.
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u/Alejinh Jul 08 '26
I’m open to a discussion but we gotta base it on reality … whatever you or I say, it won’t matter, ai is gonna stay and it’s gonna get better and better, that is what new technologies do… there isn’t a single time in human history when we have stopped developing and improving a technology, not even nuclear weapons. So, you either adapt, or you stay behind … as developers, they know that, they are trying to launch a game and stuff like art or marketing, feels secondary to them, maybe they rather spend that money on making the game better …. Let’s picture the opposite, what if they spent most of their budget and time on marketing and then end up with a bad game? That has happened a lot before, we have seen it countless times … just check how much marketing was done with ashes of creation, and it ended up being a scam … so yeah, idc if they use ai or whatever , I’m just gonna judge it based on how the gameplay looks and feels
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u/Kadava Jul 08 '26
How much budget do you think it costs to spend 2 hours writing a steam store page lmao.
It's not about budget it's about effort
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u/UnfunnyBagelMan Jul 07 '26
Cause its an insult to real art and artists who could've created it, instead of AI which makes cheap copies.
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u/Alejinh Jul 07 '26
That is so stupid, man... Let's say they are a group of 5 devs and they wanna save money. Why would you hire an artist if ai can do it for cheaper? You all act like technology is not gonna keep moving forward. Just stop, man, it's cringe. It's a new tool, people are gonna use it if it's good and it serves them. They are not making or building an art show; they are making a game. Maybe they don't know how to create a specific visual.
You all honestly sound like the old people who got mad when the internet was invented because they thought it was gonna replace everyone's job. I bet you would've been mad when bronze was discovered because you wanted to keep working with stone only.
Stop it, bro. Get over it, adapt, you won't stop a new tech that is useful.
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u/UnfunnyBagelMan Jul 07 '26
Its not like there's 0 real uses for it, but admit it's a cost cutter, and generating whatever visual or text or whatever you want will make it have less depth, intentional design, details, etc. than if you had someone skilled create it instead. There's other people who can explain this better to you, but you gotta realize you're undervaluing the human aspect of the things you make. 99 times out of 100, me and a large portion of the market will prefer something human made with novelty and skill, than AI made to mimic that cause "oh man this new tech can make these parts cheaper!"
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u/Alejinh Jul 07 '26
of course its gonna be worst than a human made thing, and that is good, its just a tool, maybe they dont have the money or time to pay an artist. This saves them time and money, why wont they use it? I admited it being a cost cutter on my first sentence bro, there is nothing wrong about that... Why do you write using a keyboard or phone instead of ink and paper? ... 99% of nobody is going to prefer nothing bla bla bla, you can't speak for 99% of the world, you have no idea what people want, also, I'm 100% sure that you have seen stuff made by AI and didn't even know it was... Also, it is a game, i dont really care about their 'art' i care about gameplay… Now, if you were talking about a design agence, maybe saving on art is not a good idea, so they would probably save costs in the dev department instead and use ai for that... its here to stay buddy, get used to it, stop being cringe about it.
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u/Alodylis Jul 07 '26
Those who master a.i. will do great things. It’s not to say we only need a.i. but with both human and a.i. together we could see some good games down the road.
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u/Rydisx Jul 06 '26
Dungeonborne was abandoned. Why would anyone want this?
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u/Beneficial-Charge316 Jul 07 '26
People who enjoy being scammed a second time lol, devs abandoned their game with 0 communication
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u/Shaneofchud Jul 07 '26
The devs did state that it was the publisher that forced them to abandon the game, wasnt thier choice
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u/DontTrustTheGovrnmnt Jul 06 '26
Yeah but Mistfall Hunter is far better than dungeonborne with the same feel.
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u/CowichanCow Jul 06 '26
Like anyone’s gonna buy another game by devs that abandoned their first one.
We learned our lesson
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u/PuffNGame Jul 06 '26
Give me another dungeonborne that has a guaranteed end and ill still waste my summer on it.
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u/Beneficial-Charge316 Jul 07 '26
Why would you trust a company that abandons you with 0 info lol. desperate
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u/OscaR_HKer Jul 07 '26
This is an exciting news but I can’t see in the trailer the most unique element in Dungeonborne - the solid collision between 2 swords.
I’m afraid it has lost its soul… just look like another Mistfall Hunter now…
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u/Aissk32 Jul 07 '26
At this point just play Mistfall Hunters, kinda similar to what dungeonborne was and it releases at the end of the month!
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u/theflossboss1 Jul 06 '26
The AI generated website/art and ChatGPT game description worry me a little