Driftmoon Enchanted Edition is now available. The game is now playable on more platforms and has new features.

Announcing: Driftmoon Enchanted Edition!

29.04.2020

Hi! This is Ville and Anne, the developers of Driftmoon. The time for releasing Driftmoon - the Enchanted edition - on multiple platforms is finally here, yay!

If you already own Driftmoon through Steam or GOG, your game will receive the update right now, or really soon. If you haven't yet tried Driftmoon, a big portion of the game is free on all platforms, so give it a go:

We've had a ton of requests about getting Driftmoon on more platforms. Initially we started work on the Enchanted version right back in 2013 when the first version of Driftmoon was released, until life put a temporary stop to our plans (kids, illnesses, money issues, etc). But we never gave up on our dream of finishing the Enchanted version of Driftmoon. Finally, a year ago we had a chance to resume work on Driftmoon again, and we've worked nonstop ever since. For seven years you've been sending us countless encouraging messages, and also tips on how to improve Driftmoon, so happily we haven't run out of encouragement, or of ideas on what to do. Thanks everyone!

What's new compared to the vanilla Driftmoon?

• Driftmoon now runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android - so take out your tablet or your cellphone and head straight for adventure!
• We've added the Mystery Box, full of surprises for both you and your friends!
• New characters, quests, items and skills (through the Mystery Box and elsewhere too)
• Major graphics update: better textures to look better on modern screens, lightmapped shadows, and the lot.
• Updated user interface: easier to use, looks better, and scales better: from your smallest screen to your living room TV. (still including the possibility to adjust text size, etc)
• Tons of bugfixes, dialogue fixes, quest fixes and improvements.
• Improved music, with an extra melody. All music by Gareth Meek - Thank you again, Gareth!
• Gameplay enhancements: quest reminders, Silver feather counter (very useful!), and more.
• The possibility to recover from a broken save (for example if your disk was full).
• And more surprises! Because there's bound to be something cool that we forgot to mention here.😆

For the techinally minded among us, we've ported the old C++ Driftmoon to C# on the Unity platform. We think it was a good choice, although it was a huge amount of work.

What's next for Ville and Anne? Now that Driftmoon is finished, we're hoping to make enough money from it to finally get the chance to focus full-time on making our own games. We already have a list of game ideas some 500 ideas long, but we've narrowed our next pick to two top candidates that sound the most tempting.

We really hope you have fun playing! If you find any problems, please tell us. The easiest way to give us feedback is through the feedback button in the game menu. And most of all, we want to wish all of you good physical and mental health amidst this strange corona struggle that the world is currently going through. Stay safe!

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Driftmoon is on sale at FireFlower games at a 60% discount, resulting in a $7.70 (5.60 Euro) price target.

Steam announces that you can now buy Driftmoon for 30% off till January 10th.

Greenlit Gaming interviewed Anne and Ville Mönkkönen the creeators of Driftmoon.

Something I didn’t expect from Driftmoon was to enjoy it in a manner similar to a really good book. I found the characters to be quirky and the dialogue charming! What made you decide to create a game with such an emphasis on its written elements?

Anne: Thanks! Wonderful to hear you’ve found similarities between Driftmoon and a good book. One of the benefits of working together has been the fact that we’re usually not short on ideas when we get the chance to toss them around together. That means we had a lot of stories to tell. Both of us also enjoy reading good books (when possible), and playing story-heavy games, so it felt natural for the first game we did together to put an emphasis on the adventure, and the story.

Ville: To me the most important part of a roleplaying game is the story and the characters, so that’s where we’ve put most of our development time into. We had a lot of fun writing all the dialogue, I’m definitely going to miss that. First one of us would write a rough draft, then each of us would go through it taking turns revising the dialogue, and playing with the kids.

The story in Driftmoon isn’t your typical “dark and scary tale” often seen in games nowadays. In fact, it’s often quite the opposite! What kind of reaction do you hope players get from the story?

Anne: I’d really like Driftmoon to be a feel-good game, a game that would leave you smiling, so it’s always awesome to hear playing Driftmoon’s managed to brighten up someone’s day. I know that’s what I’m hoping for the most. Calling Driftmoon the cure for depression might be a tiny exaggeration, but that would be a pretty remarkable achievement for a psychologist, don’t you think?

Ville: My favorite feedback is: “Playing your game is like being wrapped in a warm blanket with a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter night.”

TechZwn have reviewed Driftmoon and were quite positive about it.

The game is easy to get into, and it’s easier still to get absorbed by its world, not for its so-so visuals but for its extremely well-done writing. It could have been a little longer, being maybe 15 hours long with all its side-content. There is also some modding support, a few having been made so far. But the base game, costing  you $15, has good value in my book, and still would, even if time spent were a good way to look at the value of games in the first place. If you don’t mind a level of simplicity, or some great walls of text, and want a light, fun adventure, Driftmoon is an excellent game you may come to love as I now do.

For more Driftmoon news you can also check out an interview on TruePCGaming.

Ogre Jungle has reviewed Driftmoon with an A.

I had an amazing time exploring the world of Driftmoon, and was actually quite sad when I finally beat the game. I really have not enjoyed an RPG this much in quite a while, and you are hearing this from a guy who plays way too many RPGs. My only issue in the fun factor is how long it took for Driftmoon’s major hook to try to grab me. Waiting 40 minutes to finally catch the player’s attention is rather dangerous for a game of any genre, but I am glad that I stuck with it and didn’t miss out on this title.

And here is a test drive of the game:

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an review for this game.  The reviewer liked it very much:

I'm really impressed with Driftmoon. Not just because it's such an impressive indie project, but because it was a memorable RPG in its own right. A fun, light-hearted game, with a more serious story running beneath it. And once it's over, there's still more to do. The game comes with its own modding kit, letting you create further adventures to share with others, all immediately accessible via the game's launch screen.

Indiestatik's have collected their impressions of Driftmoon in this article.

If you’re a hardcore RPG fan looking for the next gritty, pathos-laden plot and tactically demanding combat, then Driftmoon might not be the game you’re looking for. This is strictly a casual RPG – something to be played with a cup of tea in hand on a lazy afternoon. For those new to the genre, it’s a great introduction to all the common trappings of action RPGs, but without any of the difficulty spikes or orchestra-baiting tragic decisions. It’s generally kid-friendly, too, and even the slightly awkward, delivered-too-quickly romantic sideplot is innocent enough. While not huge, there’s already a respectable amount of mod content available for the game, and that’ll only grow in time.

Here are two more Driftmoon reviews of which one is a video review.

Gamezebo reviewed the game and awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Of course, this disappointment in Driftmoon’s length and linearity only exists because its world, characters, and experience are so charming and engaging that had it been even twice as long, I’d still want more.  Nearly every detail of the game has been thoughtfully considered, from the fill-in mini-map with fast travel to the karmic results of your actions at the end of the story, resulting in a truly rewarding and personal experience.  Its puzzles are interesting without being frustrating, its characters unique yet relatable, and its battle system challenging yet conquerable.  It’s a world you can only fully appreciate from within, and once you do—you won’t want to leave.

And then there is the video interview By VertigoTeaparty.

Here are two more reviews of Instant Kingdom's Driftmoon.

Jayisgames, no rating, but very positive.

With its sense of humour, rich imagination, and simple casual gameplay, Driftmoon is a breath of fresh air. It could actually be considered the perfect entry-level action-RPG to anyone new to the genre, but that would imply that it doesn't have anything to offer diehard fans and that's simply not the case. It's a refreshingly vibrant game with secrets to uncover, puns to groan at, monsters to topple, and gameplay that can be picked ip and mastered by anybody. The mod creation tools are even simple and yet powerful enough, with clear labelling and drag-and-drop placement, that you can create (and play!) even more adventures with just a little experimentation. Driftmoon is a ray of sunshine in the form of an action-RPG indie gem that boasts one impressive adventure and boundless potential. With witty writing, memorable characters, and a big emphasis on the sort of tale that feels like it could have come from a zanier Narnia, this is one indie game any fan should make sure to check out.

Destructoid, 7.5

Driftmoon seems to me like the perfect introduction to RPGs for someone new to the genre. It's light-hearted, not too difficult on the lower settings, and doesn't overwhelm the player with options in combat or a complicated skill tree.

By the same token though, diehard RPG fans like myself will find things like the lack of party controls and the basic skill tree a bit too simple when compared to games like Baldur's Gate or The Witcher. Driftmoon is, in its own right, an adventure worth having though, largely thanks to its witty writing and absolutely splendid humor. It’s a bit of salvation in a genre that seems to be limping by these days.

Driftmoon is very obviously a labor of love. A lot of time and dedication went into creating it, and it shows. Though it may fall short in some areas, this is a classic RPG through and through. Beginners and veterans alike should take note and try out the demo at the very least.

RPGCodex has reviewed Driftmoon noting the good and shortcomings of the game whilst still advising it.

Technically Driftmoon is of excellent quality. Even though the textures are poor and the occasional lack of animations can be a bit jarring, the game looks and sounds good. The engine comes with lightning effects, physics with intractable objects, day and night changes, auto-saves, a journal, and a convenient auto-mapping system with quick travel. I got well over 15 hours of playtime out of the game, with absolutely no bugs or glitches.

The story wasn't a big turn-on for me. It just kind of happens in the background and only becomes dominant in the rather abrupt ending portion of the game. The Fallout-reminiscent ending slides that detail the lives of the characters you have influenced throughout the game highlight how little the importance of the main storyline actually is compared to the minor characters and their quests.

Here is a small collection of recent Driftmoon reviews. The first two were already linked to on their website.

i-luv-games, 9

It’s easy for me to recommend Driftmoon as a purchase. It has a fun story, loads of gameplay, great atmosphere, and I think it will remind others of the great games they themselves had played long ago. I’d urge you to buy it after reading all of this, however if you’re still not convinced then please do yourself the favor of picking up the lengthy Driftmoon demo and find out for yourself why it deserves a place in your game library.  If nothing else, Driftmoon proves the point that greatness can come from humble beginnings

Destroy All Fanboys, 95%

Visually, all you need to do is play the game, look around and do a bit of zooming in and out to see it’s chock full of detail that makes every nook and cranny quite believable without relying on graphics card melting photorealism. People and environments are solid and lovingly rendered, little bugs (no, not THOSE types of bugs!) and other critters skitter around and overall, there’s a nice sense of place thanks to the varied locations and the amount of interactivity in most of them. The game shortcuts what would be long-winded (and expensive to produce) expository cinemas into text and dialog that convey mood and move the plot from place to place almost perfectly. While there’s no voice acting in the game, the lovely character art and some of the character descriptions and dialog pull you into parts of each character’s life. You end up liking many of the people you team up with or at least wanting to know more about them.

Dealspwn, 8

This sense of fun and personality funnels into the gameplay. You'll strive to collect a legendary weapon, which turns out to be a garden implement. You'll uncover the reason why 'Evil Berries' deserve their worrying moniker. Powering up your character and beating down enemies may be all well and good, but you'll keep playing to discover what silly situation you'll end up in next. Driftmoon feels like a blast from the past in many ways, a product of a time when studios threw the constraints of grit and realism out of the window in order to focus on fun.

The Instant Kingdom site has been updated with the release information for Driftmoon. They also reduced the purchase price of Driftmoon with 3 euros, resulting in it being 11.99 Euro until the 5th of March, 15% of which is donated to the Red Cross.

The game can be downloaded from the Instant Kingdom site, Gamersgate, Greenman Gaming and Desura.

Besides that there is also a blog we missed on the history of the development of Driftmoon which dates back 7 years and is an interesting read.

Within a day Driftmoon will be available for purchase. If you are wondering if this is a game for you, check out Corwin's review of Driftmoon based on the latest beta.

The first thing to stress is that this is definitely a mixture of two gaming genres; adventure and rpg. While different from and not as complex as the old QFG series, it does contain many of the same elements. First of all, it's supposed to be a light-hearted and fun game which doesn't take itself too seriously. In some ways it reminds me of the excellent Frayed Knights which successfully adopted the same tone. Consider, how often have you faced the pizza cutter of DOOM while playing your standard rpg? That's not to imply that the game is in any way silly, it's definitely not. Underneath all the humour lies a serious and complex game.

With Driftmoon being ready and available on the 26th a new trailer has been made available as well.

You can order the game already on the Instant Kingdom site.

IndieStatik informs us in a preview of the upcoming release of Driftmoon on the 26th of this month and that it also will be available from Good Old Games. Besides that they also have a look into the game.

Gibberish is what is going on here – absolutely full of it. But you better get used to it because Driftmoon is a game that thrives on the art of nonsense at times. Take the main crew of the game, those who are fated to save the word from the evil King Ixal – there’s a hyperactive firefly, a queen panther with a moon whale-sized ego, and a determined fellow who’s lost everything but his bones and still refuses to give up. Have you ever heard of a more perfect main character lineup than that? You’ll be playing the part of a young man accompanying these loons as set off on an adventure to bring light back to the world.

Yeah, admittedly it’s pretty standard stuff for an RPG story-wise, but this cake is decorated with some really quirky humor and diverse characters. And sometimes that’s enough to make a game easily recommendable to the right people. One thing that you can rely on is familiarity with RPGs, and that is definitely the case with Driftmoon – quests, treasures, dungeons, forests, magical artefacts, secret doors, puzzles, powerups. It’s all in there, and that means to most people it’s going to be easy to pick up and understand. Perhaps “understand” isn’t the best word, actually, considering it’s a game that thrives on being peculiar and witty through its many humorous and odd characters. But you know what I mean.

Here is a hands-on update from the Driftmoon beta as reported by Destroy All Fanboys.

When we last left our hero (in a previous demo build), an important item was acquired, a relative was rescued and there was a nice air of “this is really going to be even more fun!” at the expected abrupt ending. Picking up right from that save, the game gets funnier and a bit more challenging as new enemies and plenty of nice surprises awaited with further exploration. One thing new players will NEED to learn (other than adjusting to the top-down camera angle, but there’s a potential slight options tweak being considered) is the importance of moving or activating certain objects in the game world to uncover assorted secrets. I found a new room in the old dungeon I was on the way out of by extinguishing a torch (hey!), and there were a wealth of cool items under chairs, chests, wooden boards and heavy rocks (among other places)…

Some new enemies in the new area included tough smoke-producing beasties that block your view until you step into those billowy (and possibly smoky-smelling) clouds and have to fight for your life. The Karma system is also working well here, as you’ll come across a few tempting opportunities to add handy items to your growing inventory that might seem like a good and greedy thing to do, but you’ll end up paying for it in one of a few ways. Side quests are ample and so far, take place with a minimum of annoyance (as in none at all). You need to be a bit meticulous to find some of the folks or creatures who need your help, but expect some well-written exposition as you meet new friends (or potential foes).

Instant Kingdom has spoken about this on our forums but for those who missed that, Driftmoon now has an optional "tilted" camera view that many may like:

The top-down camera angle is something that often comes up when people see Driftmoon for the first time. I've never seen a feature that divides people more, some people love it, and some people don't even want to try the game because they fear the perspective. I believe it's largely an issue of what you have become accustomed to. I started my gaming life playing games with a top-down perpective like Ultima VII, and grew up with isometric games like Planescape: Torment. The fully top-down camera of Driftmoon has never been an issue to me, but that may just be because I've been playing too many ancient games. And here's the important philosophical point, I'm not here to make games for me, I'm here to make games for other people to play. That's why we're adding controls to change the camera angle!

According to IndieRPGs the release date for Driftmoon is between the 20th and 28th of February and will be available for 14.99 Euro.

There is also a trailer available which is over a week old, so you might have seen it already.

Instant Kingdom's Driftmoon has reached a Release Candidate, taking the official release even closer:

I give you the Driftmoon Release Candidate, version 0.99! With this version we've fixed about 200 typos, and otherwise improved the wording of our texts. Writing a roleplaying game is a huge effort, so small mistakes are bound to creep into the dialogues. I want to give special thanks to our testers for helping us find all the errors! Driftmoon couldn't be this great without you.

An important fix with this version is that we've finally had a chance to optimize our rendering code. While Driftmoon works on pretty much any old computer, even first generation netbooks, there are locations in the game that have been visibly slower. The biggest culprit, terrain rendering, is now much more optimized, and runs up to 30% faster in the previously slow locations.

If you haven't tried Driftmoon yet, try out the Driftmoon demo. Not only is there an excellent adventure in it, you can also play all of the Driftmoon mods and even make your own adventures and roleplaying games, completely free of charge!

Instant Kingdom kicks off the New Year with a Driftmoon post about improved minimaps:

The minimaps in Driftmoon are very useful, but up until now they've been a bit on the blurry side. Since I wanted to re-render all of the game's minimaps before release, I decided that now is a good time to see what I can do about increasing map details.

At first I thought about using a bigger texture, going from size 1024 to 2048, but then I realized something. Most of our minimaps have quite a bit of black in them, because the available world size is much bigger than what is actually used by the map. So why not use that black space to improve precision? Here's a comparison. Quite a bit more detail in it, right? 

Instant Kingdom has an update on Driftmoon, announcing they are content complete and have 99 bug reports left to work through:

There are now only 99 posts in my feedback folder left! That's right, we've finished all the content, and it's now down to polishing and balancing everything, before the release candidate ships to our excellent playtesters!

If you recall, we posted a few weeks back that Instant Kingdom's indie effort Driftmoon was nearing the end of the development and the latest update reinforces that:

Hands up, who guessed that we've been busy making Driftmoon? Come on people, I can't see those hands! ...That's more like it. You will be pleased to hear that we only have a few pieces of Ixal's fortress left to do! It's true! And that's why I've locked Anne inside the dungeons of Mors-Sarmeth! (Don't worry, she's got plenty of food and water.) And I won't let her out until she's finished designing the whole castle! I think she's secretly enjoying it.

Of course, there's still some work left to do after we finish implementing the level design and the bookfuls of dialogue that go into the ending. Some parts of the fortress still have to be filled with finishing touches (and more monsters and loot), and then we'll get to the fun part of fully playtesting the whole game. We're nearly done now, and it's great to finally see our long dream coming true! Still, I think we're even more happy to be able to finally present the whole finished Driftmoon to everyone who's been anxiously awaiting to continue the adventure!

The Rampant Coyote has guest writer Ruber interviewing the folks from Instant Kingdom about their indie fantasy RPG, Driftmoon. There are two parts (one and two) and here's an early excerpt:

Ruber: Notrium, as said, was a remarkable hybrid between RPG and action game, and was pretty fun.  But in Driftmoon you opted for a turn based combat, instead of a real time action game like before. Why?

Ville: We actually prototyped Driftmoon with Notrium-like fast action combat. But we found that a turn-based combat system works much better for this particular game. With Driftmoon we wanted to focus more on the storytelling and exploration parts – we wanted to make the player feel like he has all the time in the world to explore this place. While the combat in Driftmoon is pretty fast and requires a lot of thinking, you’re always free to pause it, and you usually have the option to retreat. I love the combat system, it requires just the right amount of thinking and strategy to get through the harder enemies. Once you develop your character a bit, and equip him with some new combat skills, you have a whole bunch of interesting in-combat choices to make. And there’s a great amount of variety in the difficulty levels, on the Adventurer level you can very nearly play it as an adventure game, and the last level, Guardian, really gives hard-core RPG players a challenge.

We haven't checked in on Driftmoon for a little while but Instant Kingdom has kicked up a progress update - nearly there:

Progress on the new content in the final alpha version:

• Dialogue writing: 98%
• Level design: 60%
• Sound design: 60%
• Final polish: 20% 

• Whole game: 98%!

That means we've completed at least two thirds of the NEW content (or about 98% of the whole game) for the final alpha, which will be the final version before release! Yay! I don't yet know how long it will take to complete the rest, but rest assured, you'll be the first to know if you've signed up for the release newsletter.

We've extended the game's ending just a bit, and included a few more endings you can get. The hard work of writing the story and the dialogue is nearly complete! Anne is eagerly making sounds and dragon-shaped fountains, and I've already placed all the dialogue and the plot-relevant events into the game. Now I'm adding all the juicy bits in between: puzzles, enemies, lava, more lava, and the Pit of Pain All Night Takeaway.

Instant Kingdom has a new Driftmoon Alpha, having added a new chunk of content:

Another Driftmoon alpha is now downloadable! If you haven't preordered yet, this is a great time to support the development of a unique indie roleplaying game! And be sure to sign up to be notified when the game is released.

As you approach the peaceful-looking shore of Eione, you can't help but wonder where on this island... Wait a moment, I was just about to reveal the whole plot! What I mean to say is that the new areas of Eione and its underwater tunnels are now available for your pleasure. You'll also finally meet Bobby, the skeleton from the menu!

Besides the new areas, quests and important plot-twisters, the new version includes more portraits, fixes for graphics glitches, and most importantly, the new mist effect!

A small warning, the new areas haven't been properly balanced for difficulty yet. If you find any group of enemies way too difficult, we're eager to hear your feedback. Just click the little feedback button.

Head over for screens and more details.

Instant Kingdom sends word of a new Alpha for Driftmoon that features a major new area:

The new Driftmoon alpha is now downloadable! If you haven't preordered yet, this is a great time to support the development of a unique indie roleplaying game! If you'd rather wait until Driftmoon is ready, you can always sign up to be notified when the game is released.

Welcome to Nomon Docks! Nomon is the new major area available with the new version, where you will find the Steam Whale Company. You get to meet Sarah, Seria, and many others, including Eelie the incredibly shy Zap-Eel. My own favourite is Captain Catdog, who is always ready with a new exclamation. Skinny sumowhales! Loopy lowlife Lobsters! Just watch out when he sneezes.

So if you haven't tried Driftmoon yet, try out our long, free demo!

If you've already played through the previous alpha, you can load your last saved game, and head straight on to Nomon Docks. But if you definitely want to catch every new little thing in the beginning of the adventure (and make sure your character is developed to the max), you're naturally free to start from the beginning as well.

There's a small update at the Driftmoon site covering the changes in v0.841:

As you can see from the (rough prototype) image above, we've already started work with the new levels we so carefully planned, and the work is going well! Since you can't make a docks type level without having a few piers and bridges, I took the opportunity to add some new features to make them work. In addition to the improved floor lighting, we can now have bridges! All you need to make a bridge/stair/platform is click one little button in the editor.

The Driftmoon Alpha has a small update, taking the game to v0.835. Here's a snip and head over for the full changelog:

In memory of my old canine friend, we've added Belinda the Wolf Mother to Northrop. Be kind to her. Another highlight from the new version is that you can now configure the keys used in the game. Using the keyboard is of course optional in Driftmoon, you can fully play Driftmoon with just your mouse hand (and I know of a few Driftmoon players who actually don't have the use of both hands). But this might help you if you're used to having the inventory open with the caps lock for instance.

Also we've tackled a few cheaters who have been escaping to other maps and even to the world map to escape fights. Others have been fooling our poor shopkeepers by buying cheap ingredients, then using the blueprints to make new items which can be sold back at a profit! Actually I find that highly amusing, but the item prices have been tuned all the same. Driftmoon is not a trade simulator!

A small update to the Driftmoon Alpha has been released - head over for the full changelog:

In response to some of the feedback we've got from the previous version, we present a few small updates! The most notable change is the text size slider, which allows playing on larger resolutions, and on the couch, and even if you just couldn't see the tiny fonts before. We've turned Arabella into a fully matured quest to find her a new master. We also decided to turn off the ability to see hidden enemies by hovering the mouse over them - it's much more exiting to not know exactly what lies in that dark room up ahead.

Instant Kingdom has released a demo for Driftmoon, so go give it a try. The game isn't finished yet, so I assume this is based on the latest Alpha:

The first, official Driftmoon demo has just been released! If you've been waiting to see how you like the gameplay, here's your chance!

The long demo comes with our powerful editor & mod-sharing system, along with all of the currently released mods. The current full alpha already includes about 5-10 hours of quality playtime, and more is certainly coming! The rest of the adventure will be finished in the following few months.

LazyAssGamer has reviewed one of the Driftmoon Alpha releases, awarding a score of 9/10 despite the game not being finished:

I found the game to be surprisingly well structured and rich in information. Going in I expected sub-par story bits to litter this hack-and-slash adventure. Instead, I found it to be quite an engrossing tale. What makes this story so great is how it infuses detailed information with humor. For example, of the many books and notes you pick up, one of my favourites was a note from the mayor of Northropp which orders that the “Gardening Tool of Doom” be locked up. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny, but it does a great job of keeping players very entertained while exploring through the game. Although some portions of the game can get a little wordy for those who are impatient, those who can stick with it will find lots of back story. The vast amount of backstory and little details come together well and really show that writing was a focus of the game’s creators. With enough lore to base a novel, the game is more than prepared to handle any players that may want to invest more than the average completion time.

Instant Kingdom has released Alpha 8 for Driftmoon with a swathe of fixes and changes:

We have a ton of fixes and improvements to various smaller things (but no new areas just yet!). My absolute favorite is Feagle, the Silver Phoenix! You can get her fairly early on, and she will come to your aid when you're in really tough situations. On apprentice level she will heal you, on advanced level she will also cure any poison effects, and on master level she will also aid you in combat. Best of all, I like the shimmering light effect she has, it's spectacular in dark dungeons.

To those who may be wondering, there will be at least one alpha version before the final game is released - after all we're still missing some major areas from the end of the game. Rest assured, we are working as hard as we can to bring you the rest of the adventure!

Head over for full patch notes.

Driftmoon released a new trailer. It shows off a lot of the new content. Here's the statement from their website which basically thanks everyone for their feedback:

Here comes the new official trailer for Driftmoon, fresh off the drawing board! Be sure to watch it in 1080p mode.

 

I want to thank you all for the feedback you've given us, when playing the new alpha! Great to hear that you've had fun with it! AND you've spotted some really interesting and strange errors, so I'm going to have my hands full for many days. I probably won't have enough time to answer all of you back unless you've actually asked for something or I desperately need more information because the problem is so interesting. Rest assured that if the feedback form said it was sent, I definitely got and carefully read your feedback - and if it said there was an error sending it, I probably got it even so.

 

Once we get all the little things fixed, we'll naturally make an automatic update, that'll be offered for download, when you start Driftmoon. We hope you enjoy the adventure, and keep the feedback coming!

Instant Kingdom let us know they have released a new Alpha for their upcoming indie cRPG, Driftmoon. Here's the statement they sent over:

Get ready for Driftmoon Alpha 7! Half a year in the making, it's now ready for our preorderers. If you haven't preordered yet, you can still get your copy for 20% off, and at the same time show us your support! If you'd rather wait until Driftmoon is ready, why not sign up to be notified when the game is released?

We nearly completed all of the new areas last August. But when testing the whole game through back then, we discovered some areas of the game-play and the content, that we wanted to tune a bit further to make them just right. It was a relatively large and time-consuming task, but now that we've spent the last two weeks playing and replaying, we're really happy we decided to do it. Why? Simply because we ourselves have now had so much fun with our own beta-testing play-throughs. And if we've really enjoyed adventuring in Driftmoon ourselves (even though we know beforehand pretty much everything that'll happen), we have high hopes that you will too!

Next on our plate is to release a new trailer with some of the new features and areas, and a demo! After that we'll retreat to our secret chambers to make the final areas of the game. We'll release one more alpha version before the final release, so Driftmoon is not far from being completed!

PS. If you've got the previous alpha version, you should be able to update to the new alpha just by starting the game. We hope you can still give us plenty of feedback on where to improve the game, so don't hesitate to use the feedback button in the lower right corner of the game!

Among the hundreds of new things in this version, we have two new large areas (and another smaller area), a murder mystery, new enemy types, boss fights, tons of new quests, and as a whole a much more polished experience. To put it plain, there's a lot more to play, and the bits we already had, we've made better. See the changelog for more details.

New areas: Monastery and Crypt, along with a mystery of treason, murder and theft! The quests and the many characters you can meet and chat with are the part we've spent most of our time with, but unfortunately we cannot tell you much about them without giving away too much.<br/>

New companions: Velvet the Queen Panther, Stone Dwarf, Stone Giant and Stone Titan. The stone-faced guy is a summon you gain early on, and it keeps getting more powerful (and bigger) as you progress.

Combat enhancements:
We worked on making new enemy types and enhancing our existing ones for weeks. We made sure each enemy type adds to the combat in unique ways, making each fight different depending on what kinds of monsters are involved. You can even use the enemies against each other! We also have critical hits, new combat skills, a system for mana, the list goes on. The screens show only a small portion of the new creatures we've created. I'll tell you more about them in another post. 

A small update on Driftmoon, with the official site offering a shot of the world map with the seven completed location to date.

Instant Kingdom has another update for Driftmoon, offering a screen of The Stone Titan and discussing the play length of the game:

If you're the kind of person who doesn't play anything with less that 30+ hours on the sticker, you can easily spend that in Driftmoon by looking for all the hidden little things like the Silver Feathers, and solving the Easter Eggs - not to mention harvesting ingredients to build your own army of walking Ticker bombs. I know I've spent hundreds of hours actually playing and replaying the game. And don't forget that there will be user made mods, which will add to the game time.

And if you're the kind of person who can only spare a few minutes per day for gaming, Driftmoon is just the right length for you - you can save and load at any time, you can alter the game difficulty level at will, and you have a journal and a map to help you remember what you were doing. But what's more important is that this is a game that's 100% filled with real human made content. So whether you have a half an hour or six uninterrupted hours to spend with the game, you won't spend that time grinding to get to the next level - you'll spend it having grand adventures in Driftmoon!

A minor item but head to Instant Kingdom's Driftmoon site for a look at what they are doing with quickslots.

There is a new video for Driftmoon showcasing two new recipes for craftable items (DIY ticker and mana mines) as well as a new monster called Spikey. In Driftmoon you need recipes to create items. There is both alchemy and smithing in the game. I like the little wooden walking bomb. It reminds me a little of the automatons you could create in Arcanum. Here's a snippet and the video:

The first recipe is "My First Ticker Kit". I liked the Ticker monsters so much, that I made it possible for the player to build his/her own Tickers. Once dropped, the Ticker will seek out the nearest enemy and blow up, very useful when you're expecting a fistful of baddies around the next corner.

 

The second one is the "Mana Mine" recipe. It's a mine that you can deploy anywhere, and lure your enemies into it. Since it's a mine made out of a volatile mana potion, it will also fully recharge the mana of all who get caught in the explosion - including you. That means it's possible to whip up some pretty unorthodox strategies with the Mana Mine.

The Driftmoon site has a single screen for the addition of the Mirror Shield to the game:

"After losing all of his arrows in a campaign against the short-lived Spikey empire, Hogpuff the Brave ordered a shield that would magically repel all arrows back to their origin. Unfortunately the magic only works 3 times out of 10, but that didn't stop Hogpuff from carrying it around as a handy mirror, in case his hair ever needed adjusting."

Instant Kingdom has released a small video of a new monster recently added to Driftmoon - the Ticker.

Instant Kingdom sent us some Driftmoon screens, including new ones not seen before. Check them out in our gallery!

It has recently come to our attention that a new Indie RPG called Driftmoon is under development. It has its own website and appears to be making good progress. Here's a little about it from one of the developers who visits our forums:

Our humble goal is to make Driftmoon a very good RPG, as good as we simply can. When you try it, you'll of course have to form your own opinion on whether we're anywhere near to that goal. We've put a lot of our own (slightly twisted) personalities into the game, and have really tried to bring the world and it's habitants to life. Driftmoon is filled with quite a lot of things to find and discover, and there's usually various ways to go about solving our quests. The dialogue options you select make a difference in the outcomes, and you have the possibility to gather a party to travel with (you do not have complete control over them, though).

We've also put a lot of thought into the story behind Driftmoon: The story we ended up accepting was actually the third major storyline we tried for the game (and we went through about a hundred ideas before it ). The player also has the chance for quite a lot of interaction with many of our NPC's, and the NPC's are definitely not copies of each other. So yes, it's been a lot of work, but we're excited, and happy to be working together!

We wish them well and will be following their progress in the months to come.