Hello Dragon hunters!
Today, we’re giving you a first look at a new biome coming to Dragonkin: The Banished: Erde-nòr.
Being a volcano region, it definitely tells you a lot already: scorched volcanic wasteland where molten rivers, buried ruins, and the remains of a forgotten stronghold collide.
Of course, you’ll run into new dragonkins you certainly want dead.
Also, as part of our ongoing effort to make Dragonkin: The Banished a better game each day, we want our DevBlogs to follow that same process and make them more interesting for our readers.
That’s why, we’d like to take you behind the scenes, by not just going to preview the new environments but also talk about the “World & Narrative” design of our game, and the process behind creating the world of Dragonkin.
So, what exactly Is World Design & Narrative Design?
Before we walk you through the upcoming biome, let’s take a moment to explain what we mean when we talk about “World Design” and “Narrative Design” and how these two concepts shape the player’s experience.
At first glance, they might seem like the same thing, but they serve different roles:
- World Design focuses on the physical space: the design, the layout, traversal, landmarks, and how the world reacts to the player
Meanwhile…
- Narrative Design is about: the lore, emotional implications & triggers, motivations, context, and storytelling tools used to bring that world to life
Both of these aspects work together to answer a few and varied questions:
Where is the player? What are they doing or fighting? Why are they doing this? How is this communicated to the player?
One of the very first goals of the Narrative Design is to induce a narrative tension in the viewer through curiosity, suspense, and surprise. World Design then works in tandem to shape the environment and create the atmosphere.
That’s the kind of experience many games aim to create and Dragonkin: The Banished isn’t an exception.
In this DevBlog, we’ll take a look at how these concepts apply in our game and specifically for that new biome: Erde-nòr.
The Volcanic Plains of Koleos
This new zone is the first area you’ll step into when arriving in Erde-nòr.
From the beginning, our goal in designing the Volcanic Plains of Koleos was clear: to create a zone that feels dangerous and unwelcoming (like most of our biomes, to be honest).
As players progress further into the region, a series of questions should naturally come to their mind: Who made this place? Why are they here? And what are they hiding?
Here we try to spark the player’s curiosity and create a sense of mystery. We want the player to feel that something happened here… but not sure what, not yet…
The answer to who made this place is pretty simple: Saur Iknog, the red dragon, or at least the one who gave it its current shape.
As to why the dragonkins live here is explained by the fact this is the place where the cult began its efforts to bring Saur Iknog back into the world, resulting in a corrupted land, now volatile, volcanic landscape players can now witness.
If you did the prologue, some of what’s waiting here might feel… familiar. That area is raining fireballs! Here comes the environmental hazards! Your Wyrmling may protect you though!
And that, in essence, is the Narrative Design behind this region.
With that in mind, how does World Design help build that sense of pressure and danger? How do we communicate to the player through exploration and combat?
One way to create a sense of oppression, stifling, and ultimately kinda claustrophobic is by shifting how the environment and space feels over time.
The Volcanic Plains open with wide, and rather flat terrain, cracked earth, and burnt trees. There’s space to move and fight.
By venturing further, that feeling of openness gradually begins to fade. Lava flows start to segment the ground. What was once a broad plain breaks into isolated rock formations and ledges, with dragon-bone bridges spanning molten rivers that thread between them, just below the player’s feet.
Naturally, this type of design pushes us in a direction where we create more corridors and some tighter spaces.
However, such cramped environments aren't always enjoyable in ARPGs. For that reason, and to maintain a smooth gameplay experience, we made sure our players would also find larger, arena-like areas where the environment opens up again.
These larger spaces also are a perfect way for Narrative Design to use them through World Design. The cult’s presence becomes unmistakable here. Built structures, markings, and layout all work together to make these areas feel claimed and important.
To reinforce that, we shift the visual tone, moving away from the red-orange lava palette into cooler purples and darker hues. It’s a subtle but deliberate signal to tell the player this place is different and worth visiting.
That way, we try to keep building the player's curiosity.
At last, players reach a stronghold entry in the volcano, where the real descent begins…
Meet the Wyvern
One of the enemies you’ll run into in the Volcanic Plains of Koleos is the Wyvern, a pretty nasty mix between a dragon and a scorpion.
The Wyvern’s core threat is its Tail Strike, a forward sting that embeds into the ground, leaving the Wyvern momentarily stuck and creating a temporary toxic AoE around the impact.
Resurgence Stronghold
Deep beneath the volcanic wastes lies a buried stronghold.
World Design wise, the scale is much larger than the surface suggested, tall vertical shafts, layered platforms, and carved structures that go far deeper than expected.
That contrast is intentional. We wanted the reveal to feel surprising, like you’ve just stepped into something hidden and built for a very different purpose.
It’s now clear that the cult lives here and that’s why you’ll be able to find cult banners, prayer rooms, and dragonkins structures. But structurally, the fortress feels too refined to have been built by them alone. That disconnect is part of the Narrative Design intent: the stronghold doesn’t look like something the cult would have created..
Here, we want the player’s feelings to turn from curiosity to suspense and wonder: “who built this?” turns into “what lies at the bottom?”
While this zone may look even more narrow than the previous one, you’ll find very large areas as you go deeper in the depths of the mountain.
Meet the Dark Sorcerer
In the depths of the fortress corridors, you’ll undoubtedly cross paths with the Dark Sorcerer.
Players who completed the prologue might recognize this ominous figure from the cinematic, but never had the opportunity to meet them in combat and see Its kit.
The Dark Sorcerer is a slow-moving, almost static, ranged enemy who uses elemental forces to damage and disrupt the player. His kit includes: An Ice Tempest, which conjures a protective ring of frost around him that blocks incoming projectiles Fireballs that fire in all directions; and a Lightning Beam,dealing electric damage at short charge.
The Catacombs of Fire (Dungeon)
While delving in the dungeon, walls start to feel like ribs, everything feels… organic, darker, and closer, and strangely alive, as if you’ve slipped into the belly of a beast that shouldn’t exist. All this to give a claustrophobic atmosphere. That’s definitely a hellish pit.
We’ve previously built up suspense, and now we want our players to be surprised and feel uncomfortable. We won’t tell you more about the Dungeon as we want you to explore it yourself.
That’s it for today!
That wraps up our DevBlog on the environments of Erde-nòr.
We hope you enjoyed this new approach, and we’d love to hear if you'd like more DevBlogs like this, giving you a closer look behind-the-scenes.
Next week, we’ll be talking about the major points we are already working on, as well as what we plan to address based on the feedback you've shared with us.
Of course, many of you are eager to learn more about the Tracker and specifically her kit and gimmick. In the meantime, we dropped a small sneak peek of one of her upcoming abilities (not shown in the prologue!) on our Discord, if you’d like to check!
We’ll be back soon with more updates, so stay tuned!
