Over the past week, development across Depths of Erendorn has centred on strengthening combat depth, world presence, and system reliability ahead of continued testing. From expanding enemy and environment assets to refining core gameplay mechanics, audio feedback, and visual effects, the team has maintained steady progress across both content creation and technical improvement. Tooling enhancements and balance adjustments continue to support faster iteration, while focused polish across client, server, and presentation layers ensures the game grows more cohesive and dependable with each update. As always, join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn. Alternatively, join our Discord for all the latest! - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
Over the course of the past week, the 3D Modelling team pushed further into the sculpting phase of the Sinker enemy, expanding on its rocky protrusions and reinforcing the creature’s core forms. With the larger shapes established, attention turned toward refining surface detail across the model, adding layered definition to its stone anatomy and sharpening key features to enhance readability in silhouette. This continued detailing pass strengthens the enemy’s sense of weight and texture, bringing greater depth and character to the sculpt as it advances toward the next stage of production in Depths of Erendorn.
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Set Piece Design
During the past week, the Set Piece Design team revisited the city wall’s main entrance, delivering a significant scale and visual update. The structure was increased in size to better reflect its importance within the settlement, with updated textures applied to improve material definition and overall readability. Additional wooden framework was introduced to reinforce the expanded proportions, providing stronger visual support and a more convincing sense of construction. These revisions enhance the entrance’s presence and help anchor it more convincingly within Erendorn’s growing urban spaces.
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Programming
Client
Across the past week, the Client team maintained focus on event testing and activity stability, working closely with ongoing server-side changes to ensure systems remain aligned. Fixes were applied to improve the display of Points of Interest for interactable objects, addressing inconsistencies in how they appeared across the interface. Real-time POI updates were also introduced to both the world map and compass widgets, allowing newly spawned objectives to surface immediately without requiring a full UI refresh. These improvements enhance responsiveness, strengthen navigation feedback, and support clearer objective tracking as event iteration continues.
Server
Over the past week, the Server team delivered a substantial systems update spanning world simulation, combat mechanics, and internal tooling. A new Settlement NPC framework was introduced, enabling NPCs to patrol between waypoints with configurable movement behaviour, supported by an integrated visual editor within the toolset to streamline placement and iteration. A new equipment slot modifier system was added to the combat engine, allowing abilities to dynamically adjust the stat contribution of specific gear slots with time-limited, stackable effects, opening the door to more gear-interactive ability design. Zone controls were expanded with toggles for events, spawning, and settlement quests, while dungeon group spawning rules were enforced more reliably on the server. Alongside these feature additions, movement speed tuning, improved session validation, corrected stop-point logging, and refinements to tagging and UI workflows strengthened overall reliability. The team also continued a broad ability balance pass, investigated a new interactable duplication issue, and refined enemy group distancing and pathing to improve encounter flow.
Sound
Throughout the past week, the Sound team continued refining core audio systems to improve clarity and impact across combat. Work progressed on the ducking and reverb systems, further shaping how abilities sit within the wider soundscape and ensuring environmental effects respond appropriately to gameplay context. Several underwhelming abilities received additional punch to help them carry more presence during encounters, strengthening their identity and readability. In parallel, a thorough in-engine review of animations was carried out to confirm that all associated sound cues trigger correctly and at the right moments. Together, these updates enhance responsiveness, balance, and overall cohesion within Erendorn’s evolving audio design.
Environment Art
Across the past week, the Environment team continued shaping Erendorn’s world with focused terrain and landmark updates. The landscape was sculpted and refined to properly accommodate the newly developed outpost areas, with assets placed directly into the level to establish their in-world presence. A new field landmark, informally dubbed the “DOE Henge”, was introduced to provide a distinctive point of interest that supports both exploration and dynamic combat encounters. In parallel, field flower materials were adjusted to reduce harshness and excessive reflectivity, resulting in a more natural visual balance across open areas. Together, these changes enhance environmental readability, gameplay space, and overall world cohesion.
Visual Effects
Over the course of the past week, the VFX team continued diagnosing and resolving issues affecting several broken abilities, with particular attention given to cascade emitter behaviour. Ongoing investigation has focused on ensuring effects trigger reliably and render as intended during combat. In parallel, the visual treatment for Lightning Pulse was reworked to better align with the updated version of the ability, refining both its look and overall impact in-game. These adjustments improve clarity, responsiveness, and cohesion across Erendorn’s combat effects as balancing and iteration continue.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of January yet?!
