Dark and Light will launch globally this year via Steam

Filbur

Snail Games has issued an English press release:

Shanghai - August 1st, 2016 Chinese game developer and publisher Snail Games is making a major step forward in the PC gaming market with its latest sandbox MMO - Dark and Light, announced at the ChinaJoy 2016 expo in Shanghai. After more than ten years since development first began, the game has finally come onto the scene again this year.

One World, Twelve Years
Dark and Light first caught the public's eye back in 2004 with its impressive 40,000 square-kilometer world, the largest ever MMORPG map.

The original concept of Dark and Light was to provide a deep and realistic world simulation, complete with complex systems for each of the necessary parts of a real world - weather, landscape, wildlife, plants, even laws. All the systems were connected, meaning that a change in any one system would drastically affect all the others, however, these deep, interlacing systems lead to numerous difficulties during the game's early stages of development.

With the breakthrough of a new game engine in 2008, Snail Games refocused its efforts on Dark and Light, determined to see this phenomenal sandbox MMO concept all the way to completion. A teaser video of Dark and Light was released in 2012, showcasing the progress that had been made up to that point, but due to several factors, no further information about game was released after that teaser, leading fans to wonder whether the game would ever make it to release.

Change in Consistency
After nearly four years of silence, at ChinaJoy 2016, Snail Games unveiled that Dark and Light was alive and well. In fact, it was clear that the game had been largely improved since the last time it was shown, from the game engine to the game mechanics.
With the revolutionary UE4 engine, the difference between the current version of the game and its previous iteration is night and day. The game's lore and setup has also been significantly updated with multiple universes, three races, and a rivalry between the dark and light all setting a new tone for the game.

In addition to the improvements in visual fidelity and changes to the fictional game world, Dark and Light now boasts a more magical fantasy element with the inclusion of sorcerers and aliens, which tie into the central conflict of the game. Players will be able to explore a simulated world that not only feels real and believable but also feels imaginative and new.
Over the past 12 years, the enthusiasm of the developers at Snail Games to deliver an amazing virtual world with complete freedom has never wavered. With the continuing improvements to our game engine and the unremitting effort of our development team, the next phenomenal Sandbox MMO - Dark and Light will soon be launched in 2016.

Dark and Light’s Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/officialDNL/

Dark and Light’s YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLKXAuNL9mA

SpottyGekko

"Dark and Light first caught the public's eye back in 2004 with its impressive 40,000 square-kilometer world..."

Unfortunately, that's not the reason most people remember D&L for, lol

It's not fair to saddle Snail Games with the original D&L baggage, though. But then again, Snail Games bring plenty of their own baggage to the party anyways...

Avarix

'Sandbox' immediately throws up red flags for me now. It has come to mean there isn't a whole lot to do in the game, so you'll have to pretend there is.

Nasa

Hope it will be less p2w than their Black GOLD.

Sovrath

Avarix said:

'Sandbox' immediately throws up red flags for me now. It has come to mean there isn't a whole lot to do in the game, so you'll have to pretend there is.

I think one's mileage may vary. Personally I don't care about quests or developer made content. Give me a huge world to explore, a way to progress/upgrade my equipment and, say, dungeon content I can make my way through (I'm not talking about instanced raid dungeons) and that's all I want.

That's why, for me, Vanguard was so good.

Sovrath

wtf!

"fantasy element with the inclusion of sorcerers and aliens"

Avarix

Sovrath said:

Avarix said:

'Sandbox' immediately throws up red flags for me now. It has come to mean there isn't a whole lot to do in the game, so you'll have to pretend there is.

I think one's mileage may vary. Personally I don't care about quests or developer made content. Give me a huge world to explore, a way to progress/upgrade my equipment and, say, dungeon content I can make my way through (I'm not talking about instanced raid dungeons) and that's all I want.

That's why, for me, Vanguard was so good.

I agree. I like the idea, and even some of the iterations, of sandbox games. It's just that what I think a sandbox game is and what current marketing thinks it is are two vastly different things. 

BillMurphy

I'm just wary in general. But hope I'm impressed.

Warlyx

i remember playing it , my pc moved it at 15fps at most , that failed badly it went f2p at the end before shutting down

DEATHRAMENT

I tried this game in beta and it was a mess, I quickly uninstalled it. I'm anxious to try this new iteration though. I'm not sure iv'e played any games by the company making it so I'm not familiar with there work. Hopefully they don't ruin it.

BillMurphy

It's been 10 years since it originally launched. I wonder just how much has been changed?

Betaguy

too late to the party, good luck light and dark.

neschria

2016 is turning out to be the weirdest year I've seen so far, and I am middle aged, so that actually means something. Of all games to rise from the dead, why Dark and Light?  O.o  

DEATHRAMENT

Sneschria said:

2016 is turning out to be the weirdest year I've seen so far, and I am middle aged, so that actually means something. Of all games to rise from the dead, why Dark and Light?  O.o  

I guess they saw potential in it all those years ago and bought it. But by how long it's taken them to finish it I figure they didn't realize just how much work it needed.

Phry

BillMurphy said:

It's been 10 years since it originally launched. I wonder just how much has been changed?

Be interesting to know for how long it was mothballed for, and just how recently it was taken out again, hopefully they didn't just take it off the shelf, dust it off a bit, and chuck it out there to see what bites.

jusomdude

Ok, so they have a large world... but is it an interesting world? Or is it just a lot of empty space?

sn0wblind00

i was so hyped for that game back then.  got into beta.  it was not a functional game.  complete disaster.
but that was 10 years ago

MikeB

Moved this to our newly minted Dark and Light forums.

Luiden

SpottyGekko said:

"Dark and Light first caught the public's eye back in 2004 with its impressive 40,000 square-kilometer world..."

Unfortunately, that's not the reason most people remember D&L for, lol

It's not fair to saddle Snail Games with the original D&L baggage, though. But then again, Snail Games bring plenty of their own baggage to the party anyways...

lol, no doubt.  Dark and Light still remains the biggest disaster ever in MMORPG industry, it was so long ago I think most folks have forgotten about.  No only was the game terrible and incomplete, they took all the presale money and ran, the game never got released.  They didn't even have the right licenses in place to product the game, it was like you had a group of middle school kids bit torrenting software to create a game.

I can understand a company 'acquiring' the code and the original ideas, but for the love of god re-brand it to something different than Dark & Light.

SpottyGekko

MikeB said:

Moved this to our newly minted Dark and Light forums.

Shouldn't that be "...freshly resurrected Dark and Light forums" ?

Grunty

SpottyGekko said:

MikeB said:

Moved this to our newly minted Dark and Light forums.

Shouldn't that be "...freshly resurrected Dark and Light forums" ?

I think that this is an instance of words being very carefully chosen. 

Cname

Sovrath said:

wtf!

"fantasy element with the inclusion of sorcerers and aliens"

Technically the 3 playable races (or tribes - depending on translation) available at start are beings displaced from another world so they are aliens in the world of D & L.

Phry said:

BillMurphy said:

It's been 10 years since it originally launched. I wonder just how much has been changed?

Be interesting to know for how long it was mothballed for, and just how recently it was taken out again, hopefully they didn't just take it off the shelf, dust it off a bit, and chuck it out there to see what bites.

It was mothballed for 2 years after previous iteration when the former project lead left and project resources were diverted to AoW1 and Black Gold. The current iteration (3rd) began in earnest only in 2015.

Amegashie

On the plus side, neither the resurrected game itself nor the behaviour of the company behind it could possibly be any worse than the original.

Considering this seems to be pretty much an entirely new game I'm curious why they stuck to that poisoned name though.

baphamet

you know the current mmo landscape is bad when failed mmo's are being necro'ed

ooogy

it will be a money grab .. they'll just polish up the visuals to look pretty.. and it will be a huge boring empty game. That may be enough for some people though

Dakeru

baphamet said:

you know the current mmo landscape is bad when failed mmo's are being necro'ed

What a weird conclusion...
A company revives a game that failed 10 years ago.

I would conclude that this just means that companies will use any means to get your money.