Greetings Defenders,
We wanted to take some time to introduce ourselves, talk a little bit about who we are, and share some of the things we have planned for DD:A moving forward. Before we get into our plans, we think it's important to set expectations. We are a small core team of passionate community members working under Chromatic. We're a group of players who care deeply about DD:A and were given the opportunity to help develop the game we love. Over the last nine months, we've spent our time learning, fixing issues, improving systems, and delivering updates to the game. While we're proud of what we've accomplished so far, we've also learned just how much work goes into game development. Every update has helped us gain experience, improve our processes, and better understand what it takes to support and grow the game. Over that same period, our focus has largely been on stabilizing the game, addressing long-standing issues, and building a solid foundation for future development. While that work will continue, we're now reaching a point where we're ready to take things up a notch. With the support of Chromatic, we've been given the green light to pursue a more ambitious development roadmap. Our goal isn't just to maintain DD:A, we want to continue growing it with new content, new systems, new rewards, and meaningful updates that keep the game feeling fresh for both new and veteran players alike. We're excited about where the game is headed, confident in the direction we're taking it, and excited to share some of what we've been working toward. With that said, we wanted to give everyone a look at some of the areas we're currently focused on and some of our plans for the future.
Meet A Couple of Members On The Team
Coolgamer
Hi guys,
Most of you already know who I am, so I'll keep this brief. I've been a longtime member of the DD:A community and have always been passionate about the game. Having the opportunity to help guide its future is something I'm incredibly grateful for, and I'm excited to work alongside all of you as we continue developing it.
Best,
Coolgamer
Czar
Hey everyone, my name is Cesar, or Czar.
I first played Dungeon Defenders back in December 2012, when my mother gave it to me as a Christmas gift. From that moment on, I fell deeply in love with the game.
Although I unfortunately haven’t had the time or availability to explore every piece of the Dungeon Defenders franchise down to the smallest detail, the series still holds a special place for me. It is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played.
I have a degree in Computer Science and recently joined the DD:A CDT, where I'm working as a Level Designer and Environment Artist.
Feel free to AMA about me or the new maps currently in development!
We do have other members of the team working on DD:A, but they're a bit shy and preferred to stay behind the scenes for now. While you may not see their names here today, their contributions have been invaluable and help make everything we're working on possible.
What We're Working On
Before diving into specifics, we want to emphasize that everything listed below is currently a work in progress. At this time, we do not have exact release dates for many of these features, and priorities may shift as development continues. Rather than commit to dates that may change, we want to focus on sharing the direction we're taking the game and the projects we're actively working on.
As development progresses and plans become more finalized, we'll continue providing updates and sharing more details with the community. We'll have much more information to share as we get closer to releasing each feature, but for now we wanted to give everyone an early look at what we're working toward.
We also plan to make use of the PTR branch for public testing whenever possible. As larger features, big balance changes, and new content get closer to release, we'll be inviting the community to help us test them and provide feedback. These tests give us valuable information and help us identify issues, make adjustments, and polish content before it reaches the live game. Community feedback has been one of our most valuable tools over the last nine months, and we want players to continue being a part of the development process moving forward.
Balancing and Rebalancing
One of our largest ongoing focuses is game balance. Throughout the past nine months, we've already made a number of balance changes and adjustments across the game, but we view balance as an ongoing process rather than something that is ever truly finished. One of the most common pieces of feedback we've received from the community is that much of the game currently feels on the easier side. While we don't want DD:A to become frustrating or inaccessible, we do believe the game is at its best when players are challenged and rewarded for overcoming that challenge. Our goal moving forward is to create a gameplay experience that feels rewarding and engaging. We want players to feel encouraged to improve their builds, optimize their strategies, and chase upgrades that make a meaningful difference. The ideal experience is one where content feels challenging when you first encounter it, but becomes manageable and satisfying as you refine your build, improve your gear, and master the game's systems. As part of this effort, we'll continue reviewing and adjusting areas such as pets, heroes, gear progression, enemies, towers, and runes. We want a wider variety of builds and playstyles to feel viable while ensuring progression remains rewarding and gives players meaningful goals to work toward. Many of the larger balance changes will be tested on the PTR branch before release. This gives players the opportunity to try changes early, share feedback, and help us identify areas that may need further adjustments. Our goal is to work alongside the community to refine these changes so that when they reach the live game, they feel polished, rewarding, and fun to play.
Bug Fixes and Better In-Game Information
Bug fixing remains one of our highest priorities. While we've fixed a large number of issues over the past nine months, we know there are still many more that need attention. Some of the most commonly reported issues include game stability problems, especially in deep survival, as well as Tac Map issues and various multiplayer-related problems. These are all areas we are actively investigating and working to improve. Whether it's gameplay bugs, UI issues, visual problems, or edge-case interactions, we encourage everyone to continue reporting them either in the Discord bug report channel or through the Steam Community discussion posts. Even if we don't respond to every report individually, they are all reviewed and help us prioritize what needs attention.
Another common piece of feedback we've received is that players want easier access to information while they're actually playing the game. While we are currently working on an updated wiki, we also understand that players shouldn't have to constantly leave the game to find answers. Because of that, we're exploring ways to improve the amount of information available in-game and make important systems easier to understand.
New Challenges
We're planning to add challenge maps to missions that currently do not have them.
Our vision for challenges is to create fun, unique experiences that encourage players to approach the game differently than they normally would. The goal is to push players to make full use of their kits, experiment with builds, and adapt their strategies in new ways to overcome each challenge. Rather than simply serving as another difficulty setting, we want these challenges to feel like their own type of content, offering an alternative progression path as well as additional endgame activities. They are intended to sit alongside existing modes like Survival, Mix Mode, and Pure Strategy, while also providing new ways to earn rewards and engage with the game.
New Maps
We're excited to continue expanding the game's map roster. Our primary focus moving forward is creating new maps that keep gameplay feeling fresh and engaging, especially for long-time Dungeon Defenders players. We want to introduce new environments, layouts, and experiences that feel meaningfully different and give players new challenges to learn and master. At the same time, we still want to honor the legacy of previous games. We are currently working on two maps from the original game that have been remade and updated to fit the DDA art style and overall direction. Alongside these, we also have two completely original maps in development, designed by Coolgamer and built by Czar. This mix allows us to both push the game forward with new content while still bringing back familiar maps in a refreshed form for players who enjoyed them in the past.
New Loot and Rewards
We're also actively working on expanding the game's loot pool to give players more variety and exciting rewards to chase. This includes new pets, weapons, accessories, and potentially new armor sets in the future. Our goal is to create more meaningful progression and reward paths that support different playstyles and builds, while also giving players more long-term goals to work toward. We want loot to feel exciting to earn and rewarding to experiment with, whether it's through farming, challenges, or future event rotations. As development continues, we'll share more details on specific items and systems as they get closer to release.
Elemental Rework and Expansion
Another area we're actively exploring is the elemental system. We believe there is a lot of untapped potential within the current elemental mechanics, and we're looking at ways to expand and improve them. Our goal is to create more interesting gameplay decisions, more build diversity, and additional strategic depth for players. We're not quite ready to share all of the details yet, but this is a feature area we're very excited about and look forward to discussing further as development continues.
Map of the Week and Event Rotations
We've already been running Map of the Week since early March, and we've seen a great response from the community so far. Moving forward, we'll continue this system as an ongoing part of our live content rotation, and we're excited to keep building on it.
update 6/2: endless spires: (This has already passed)
update 6/9: yuletide village
update 6/16: lost metropolis
Update 6/23: [TBD]
Update 6/30: [TBD]
As always, the goal of Map of the Week is to highlight different maps as bonus farming locations and encourage players to engage with a wider variety of content across the game. We'll continue refining the rewards and rotation structure over time as we gather feedback and see how players engage with each cycle. In addition, we're planning recurring rewards tied to these rotations. Every sixth Map of the Week rotation will feature a special limited item drop available on Massacre Mixed Mode. These items are not intended to be permanently missable and will return in future rotations Every seventh Map of the Week rotation will feature the Overload Dice pet, giving players a recurring opportunity to earn one of DD:A's unique rewards.
Looking Ahead
While this post focuses on some of the larger initiatives we're currently working on, we also plan to continue delivering featured updates along the way. Our goal with this post was to give everyone a better understanding of where the game currently stands, what our team has been working on, and the areas we're focused on moving forward. While we're not ready to share every detail just yet, we wanted to be transparent about the direction of development and some of the projects currently in progress. We also want to give the community time to react to what we've shared here, ask questions, and provide feedback. Community feedback has played a major role in shaping development over the last nine months, and it will continue to be an important part of the process moving forward. As these features continue to develop and get closer to release, we'll share more information, open PTR testing opportunities when appropriate, and continue working with the community to ensure these additions are as polished and enjoyable as possible.
How You Can Support the Game
One of the most common questions we've received, both in-game and on Discord, is how players can best support DD:A and the development team. The biggest thing you can do is continue being the amazing community you've always been. Report bugs. Share feedback. Post ideas. Tell us what you enjoy and what you think could be improved. We genuinely want to build this game alongside the community, and your feedback has already played a huge role in helping shape the updates we've made over the past nine months. We also encourage everyone to join the Discord server if they haven't already: DiscordJoin the Dungeon Defenders Discord Server!. It's the best place to stay informed about upcoming changes, connect with other defenders, participate in discussions, and speak directly with members of the development team. Finally, while it is absolutely not required, players who wish to support the game financially can do so through our cosmetic DLC. We recently released the Crystal Core Cosmetic DLC last week, which is now available for players who want to directly support ongoing development while also picking up a themed cosmetic set. You can find it here: SteampoweredDungeon Defenders: Awakened - Crystal Core: Relics Unsealed on Steam. Those purchases help support continued development and allow us to invest more time and resources into future updates, features, events, and larger projects for DD:A.
Sneak Peaks:
Everything shown here is a work in progress.4
Maps:
Dread Dungeon:
Hall of Court:
Code Name: The Forest:
Code Name: The Swamp:
New Element System - What is this?
New Enemies:
Code Name: Mr. Shark
Code Name Black Dragon:
Loot Goblin:
Code Name: Skelmancer
Conclusion:
Thank you all for your continued support, patience, and passion for the game. We would not be here without you. We're excited about what lies ahead and look forward to sharing more details as these projects continue to develop. See you in Etheria.
Happy Defending,
The Community Development Team