Monthly Devlog | April 2026 | No. 87

Development
May 9, 2026
May 9, 2026

April has seen continued progress across all areas of development, with the team advancing both core systems and content while building on the results of recent testing. Efforts have focused on improving stability, refining player-facing features, and pushing key assets through to more complete stages of production. From character creation and encounter design to backend performance and world-building, each discipline has contributed to strengthening the overall experience. Alongside this, new features and systems have begun to take shape, laying important groundwork for upcoming content and future testing phases. 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

Throughout April, the 3D Modelling team made strong progress across both new and existing character assets, advancing multiple pieces through key stages of production. The Sinker enemy was brought to completion with its full texturing pass, finalising its surface detail and preparing it for in-engine use. Alongside this, attention shifted to revisiting the Vaznarite, with early sculpting work underway to redefine its form and align it with the project’s current visual direction. A significant portion of the month was also dedicated to the Earthen Dwarf, moving from proportion and scale adjustments through to a completed sculpt, followed by retopology, UV unwrapping, and final texturing. With the updated base model established, existing clothing and beard assets were refitted to match the new structure, ensuring consistency across all variants. Together, these efforts strengthen the overall quality, cohesion, and readiness of character assets within Depths of Erendorn as development continues.

Finalised Sinker enemy textures

Vaznarite base sculpt rework

Improvements to base model of Earthen Dwarf

Finalised sculpt of improved base model

Improved model with base costume refit

Beard refit on base model

Programming

Client

Throughout April, the Client team focused on improving the reliability and clarity of quest and activity systems following recent testing. Key issues affecting real-time updates were resolved by correcting how activity data is indexed and processed, ensuring quest information now updates accurately during gameplay. Additional fixes addressed problems with archived entries not clearing correctly, allowing new objectives to appear as expected without disrupting the results screen. With these core systems stabilised, development moved forward with new functionality, including map linking and options to pin or hide quest entries, giving players greater control over how information is presented. Alongside this, a long-standing issue affecting stat bar accuracy was resolved through a transition to a more dependable rich text solution, ensuring values display correctly when stat limits change.

Server

April saw the Server team deliver a wide range of improvements spanning combat systems, dungeon functionality, networking, and overall game stability. Combat encounters were refined through updates to pacing and responsiveness, supported by extensive fixes addressing crashes, race conditions, and edge cases across core systems. Dungeon content saw major attention, with events re-enabled under the updated framework, ability blocks corrected, and generation performance significantly improved, reducing load times while also introducing more flexible wall and ceiling systems to enhance structure and atmosphere.

Progression systems were expanded through changes to quest reward visibility, allowing players to review rewards directly from quest boards, while broader event functionality continued to evolve. On the technical side, networking was upgraded to a more efficient communication format, alongside improvements to command processing and backend performance, resulting in faster and more reliable gameplay. Additional work introduced early foundations for social systems such as group matchmaking, alongside updates to NPC behaviour and world interaction.

Sound Design

Across April, the Sound team focused on expanding, refining, and rebalancing the game’s audio to improve both impact and immersion. A comprehensive review of existing assets was carried out, with adjustments to reverb, attenuation, and volume helping sounds sit more naturally within the overall soundscape. In parallel, a large number of new recordings were produced for abilities, magic effects, UI elements, and ambient audio, with ongoing editing and selection ensuring a consistent and high-quality final set. The team also continued developing event-driven audio, reworking and adapting existing sounds to support a wider range of scenarios while maintaining cohesion. Older assets were revisited and improved in both design and source quality, supported by new field recordings captured in remote locations to enhance environmental authenticity. Additional work explored clearer audio feedback for progression, including early iterations to better distinguish between reaching maximum experience and levelling up. Together, these efforts strengthen clarity, variety, and immersion across Depths of Erendorn’s evolving audio design.

Collection of field sounds

Continued nature audio collection

Environment Art

The Environment team concentrated on improving visual cohesion, scale, and overall presentation across Erendorn’s world. A comprehensive foliage pass refined the sizing of grass and meadow flowers, creating a more balanced and natural look throughout open landscapes. Landscape materials were further developed to introduce greater texture quality and variation, while road widths were reduced to better align with the intended world scale and improve readability during traversal. In parallel, the team began early development on key front-end elements, including the character creation and selection screen as well as the login screen, establishing the foundations for a more unified player entry experience.

Concept character creation screen

Possible loading screen

Animation

The Animation team progressed a range of work spanning new encounter content and broader character behaviour improvements. Development of the Thrasher plant moved from initial rig refinement and skinning into early animation exploration, with a focus on establishing a clear and distinctive movement style that supports its role within the Forest Queen encounter. This was followed by continued refinement of its animation set to ensure consistent and readable behaviour during combat, alongside preparation for upcoming alpha animation features and integration work. In parallel, the team expanded NPC behaviour across the world, introducing archer characters with timed idle and shooting animations, as well as a wider variety of ambient actions such as sitting and working. These additions help create more dynamic and believable environments while strengthening the overall responsiveness of character systems within Depths of Erendorn.

Thrasher enemy rig improvement

Thrasher animations improvements

Sitting animations for NPCs

Guard archery animations for settlement

Visual Effects

April saw the VFX team focused on strengthening both the clarity and versatility of visual effects throughout Depths of Erendorn. A continued effort was made to refine existing ability visuals, with adjustments to positioning ensuring effects remain visible and consistent across uneven terrain, improving readability during combat. Alongside these refinements, the team expanded the effects library with a more impactful variant of the generic fire effect, enhancing visual feedback for key abilities. Exploration into new techniques also progressed, including material work using HDR imagery to support concepts such as destination-aware portal visuals. In parallel, early development began on atmospheric effects for the login screen, with experimentation around softer, ambient visuals leading to further iteration as technical challenges are addressed. Together, this work improves reliability while broadening the creative possibilities for effects across the game.

Improved positioning for effects

Optimised fire visual effects

Experimental portal effects

That’s it for this month’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of March yet?! 

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