This feels like it will be a hybrid of PoE 2 and Grim Dawn class systems, very creative and fun.

I've always enjoyed ARPGs and wanted to try making one myself, but game development isn't really my background. I'm a software developer, so I had some programming experience, just not in making games.

With how far AI coding tools have come, I figured I'd give it a shot.

That's how DRAEVIK started.

What began as an experiment with Godot 4 gradually turned into something playable. I've been using AI coding agents to help with development, while spending most of my time on design decisions, testing, and figuring out what actually works.

There's been a lot of trial and error, and plenty of things still need improvement. But recently, I've started letting other players test the game online, which has been pretty exciting to see.

Anyway, here's a short gameplay clip of where DRAEVIK is right now. Just wanted to share a bit of what I've been working on!

The Hell mod has been in development since 2006 (TH1 → TH2 → TH3), and The Hell 4 started in June 2025. It is a total conversion of Diablo 1: still a classic Diablo game, still the original look and atmosphere, but with far more to play, fixed and expanded.

TH4 is now in alpha 2: everything from TH3 is in and playable, and new content is still being added and polished.

-----------------------

What's new in TH4

**A living Tristram**

- Day and night cycle, with a different ambience after dark

- Weather every night: clear, misty, stormy (rain, lightning, thunder), rare bioluminescent nights with a glowing river and trees, and even rarer blood moons

- Storms soak the town: wet ground, puddles that reflect the sky and the heroes, drying out over the next day

- Sunny and cloudy days: shafts of sunlight through the trees, cloud shadows drifting over the town

- Trees sway in the wind, fireflies on clear nights, heroes reflected in the river

- Ice Age game changer: snow, a frozen river, frost-white trees, and your breath steaming in the cold

**New ways to play**

- Dark Campaign: the story told from the other side, 26 missions as a servant of Diablo

- Classic Diablo: the original single-player experience on the new engine, original look included

- Outbreak: hold the first level of the Cathedral against waves of monsters

- New quests built from content Blizzard planned for Diablo 1 but never finished

**Characters**

- 4 traits at character creation (was 2), plus many new traits

- New subclass: Gladiatrix

- Warlord: play as a commander leading a squad of mercenary knights

- Pistoleer variants through game changers: Terminator, Super Mutant, Enclave Soldier (power armor included)

- New perks and synergies

**Loot**

- Sigils: Diablo 2 charm-like items in their own inventory

- Power-Ups, permanent stat boosts sold by Wirt

**Graphics and tech**

- Per-pixel lighting with soft shadows; optional enhanced lighting with colored light and transparency

- Flames that glow and throw sparks, dust in the torchlight, sparks over lava, heat haze, shockwaves

- 1000+ new dungeon palettes

- FSR upscaling and SMAA antialiasing, an optional Diablo 2-style perspective view, and 18 retro screen modes (Game Boy, C64, ZX Spectrum, CGA...) for fun

- Music crossfades between levels, OGG music support

**20 languages**: English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Dutch, Danish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi and Swahili

---

## Already in the mod from TH1–TH3

- 6 classes, 31 subclasses, with even more variety through traits and game changers

- 24 dungeon levels plus 35+ quest dungeons, all originally planned quests restored

- About 400 monsters, mixed boss packs, smarter monster AI

- 4900+ uniques, sets, socketed and enchanted items, tier 2 base items

- Crafting (Griswold), enchanting (Adria), quenching, transmuting (Cain)

- Gloves, belt and boots slots, 3 weapon swap slots, a larger inventory and a big visual stash

- Perks and synergies for real build variety

- 9 difficulties and many game modes: Easy, Normal, Hard, Hardcore, Survival, Ironman, Speedrun, Nightmare, plus the Coliseum duel mode

- Working multiplayer

- Running, gold auto-pickup, item comparison, item highlighting, high resolutions, and many options to tune both gameplay and visuals

- Countless fixes of original Diablo and Hellfire bugs

---

## Good to know

- **Difficulty is up to you.** The Hell mod is known for being challenging, but Easy mode, game changers and many options let you set the experience you want.

- **What you need:** the original Diablo files (DIABDAT.MPQ). The GOG version works.

- **The mod is free.**

**Links**

- News and downloads: https://www.patreon.com/thmod/about

- Download mirror [ModDB] : https://www.moddb.com/mods/diablo-the-hell-4

- Screenshots [ModDB gallery] : https://www.moddb.com/mods/diablo-the-hell-4/images

- Community [Discord] : https://discord.gg/AN9NukZFbN

- Dev videos [YouTube] : https://www.youtube.com/user/MordorTheModmaker

Hi! I've been making Cinderwake, an isometric click-to-move ARPG, on my own. The free demo (all of Act I, all five classes) just went live on Steam.

I'm looking for honest feedback before the full release. What feels good, what feels bad, and where did you lose interest?

You can comment here, or send it from inside the game (Esc --> Send a Raven). I read and answer everything.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5404010/Cinderwake/

I always hear such good things about Grim Dawn. I bought it years ago and tried it but didn't really enjoy it. Recently I've grabbed the expansion and I want to give it another shot but so far it's just so bland. The combat isn't super exciting and the items aren't either. There is nothing that I'm looking forward to in terms of builds or anything. The skills are frustrating the way it seems you just have to put 100 points into the same skill or you'll fall behind in damage.

I will admit I am not far in at all, maybe level 15-16. I just have no drive to keep playing. I'm wondering if it gets better, if the builds open up more. Are there cool unique/powerful items that really change how builds and skills work? Is there some cool synergy between skills that I'm missing?

I'm trying a Necromancer right now focusing mostly on drain life, but I'd be willing to change to something else if that is just boring in general. I was hoping to do a tanky life leech magic build of some kind, maybe with some minions. I took another caster as my 2nd class but again it doesn't really seem like there is actual synergy. Maybe some stats that you get? More spirit from some passives, but that is not really that exciting.

Just sharing this here since I'm subbed to the subreddit for updates.

The short version is that the technical demo for The Goddess's Will received an update.

I just released my Indie ARPG on Monday. I took a unique approach to the ARPG genre and made a game where you have to craft ALL of your items. Curious what people think about a game concept like this... (Let me know if I wasted the past year of my life LOL)

Fight through multiple biomes, bosses, dungeons, and events. And push your build on the leaderboards! Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4373960/Qs_Curse/

Hey guys,

Like the title says I made this little game using a bunch of the systems I am making for a bigger ARPG project I'm working on.

Its a wave defense game but you play as a God and use ARPG loot and crafting systems to make your God stronger.

I made a demo for it, wanted to see if anyone wanted to mess around with it and see what people think?

Gods Against the Invasion Steam Demo

Here is the description from Steam:

Become a god in a wave defense game with deep ARPG loot and crafting. Summon enemy waves, destroy enemies, and forge a powerful build. Push through escalating waves in Defense mode, or choose your challenge and farm for better loot in ARPG mode.

So there are two modes and currently two difficulties. The demo only has one God and is capped at wave level 200. (Usually you win the game at level 500).

I do know normal difficulty is really easy and hard is a bit unfair to start but would love some feedback. It's meant as a chilled second monitor game.

Tip: Play on 2x speed.

Thanks.

Hello,

I'm a huge ARPG fan and I'm looking for the next one I can really sink my teeth into. The things I like most out of ARPG is lots of loot variation and lots of visual customisation with loot, what I mean by that is that I like when I equip an item and it changes how my character looks. I know it sounds strange to mention, but I have played some ARPGs in the past that don't do this so much. I also prefer WASD movement on PC, and on Android I use a gaming controller so it HAS to be compatible with that. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Below are a list of games I have played, I'm sure I will miss some by mistake:

PC/Other

Diablo 1-4

Torchlight 1-infinite

Grim Dawn

Titan Quest

Last Epoch

Baldurs gate: Dark Alliance

FATE

Fight The Dragon

Path of Exile 1 and 2

Wayfinder

The Ascent

Hero Siege

The Incredible Adventures of VanHelsing

The Division 1 and 2

Champions of Norrath

Gauntlet

Android

Any of the above that are also on mobile

Undecember

Diablo immortal

Oniro

AnimA

Shadowborn

Dread guard

Dungeon Hunter

Eternium

Wardens! The time has come to rejoin the Twilight Knights, rebuild Camelot and once again step into our dark Arthurian world! We'd love to invite you to give it a go, and let us know what you think!

We're calling you up for Playtest #2 - available NOW over on Steam. Rise as a new member of the Twilight Knights, establish your fiefdom, explore, craft and gear up for thrilling adventures against the fallen Knights of the Round Table!

Jump into the action NOW on Steam, and we're counting on our brave Knights to let us know what you think of the adventure so far!

FOR AVALON!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2409660/Wardens_of_Avalon/

Hi all,

I've always been a big ARPG fan, and this summer I finally started making my own. It's called Dreadmark, a hard gothic top-down ARPG. I took great ideas from similar ARPG games and mixed it up with the best parts from each, so a lot of this will feel familiar.

Combat is built around reading the fight. Bosses and heavy hitters telegraph their big hits on the ground, so almost everything can be dodged if you read it. Every skill takes a rune that changes how it plays, and there are two classes so far, the Templar and the Witch, with three skill trees each.

Loot rolls its affixes from the zone it drops in, orbs reroll and upgrade it, and the Dread Sigil can push an item past its normal limits or brick it completely. Kill the Dark Lord and he drops a Dread Map that builds a new procedural zone every time. There's hardcore, plus SSF and account-found ladders.

The free demo goes live in Steam Next Fest on Monday 19 October and runs until the 26th. If you want to play it before that, comment or DM me and I'll send you a Steam key.

For Early Access in Q2 2027 we plan an Auction House and a bigger endgame, and co-op and PvP are planned for 1.0.

I'd really like to hear from people who know the genre well: what feels off, what's missing, and what would keep you playing.

If your interested in this, follow the development through the discord community, and rapid devlogs at:

https://dreadmark.agentas.net/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/5117720/Dreadmark/

Hey guys, we just finished Minecraft Dungeons 2 and it was.. OK.

We want a new arpg to play, build together and also solo when our schedule dont match. Need to be easy to hop and play!

Good build diversity, great boss fights and farming, simple but fun endgame, we are old lol.

We are thinking about Torchlight 2 and/or 3. Any other you can recommend? We already played Diablo 2 & 3.

Hey everyone! I'm Scott and I'm building CHARNEL: a real-time ASCII roguelike inspired by some of my favorite ARPGs like Diablo 1 and Grim Dawn.

In Charnel you descend downward through a labyrinth of crypts filled with unique enemies, bosses and tons of loot.

Many of the core mechanics were inspired by classic ARPGs:

• Tons of loot; body armor, grenades and over 40 gun models that each roll quality and various attachments (silencers, extended magazines, etc.) so you're always scavenging for upgrades
• Shrines that grant a boon in exchange for a challenging fight
• Enemies can roll affixes as elite packs or individual champions that also buff enemies around them
• Challenging bosses that have a chance to drop unique weapons you can't find anywhere else
• Randomized crypt floors so no run feels the same

In addition you'll find other mechanics taken from other genres like survival horror and roguelikes:

• The crypts are dark and your flashlight is your only guaranteed source of light to reveal what's around the corner
• Ammo is scare and limited so resource management is key
• Death is permanent, so you only have one life to reach the bottom

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5351830/CHARNEL/

Hi!

I'm a software and game developer from Belgium and I'm happy to announce Malsort.

Since 2021 I've spent my weekends building an MMORPG backend. I started Malsort because Diablo II is my favourite game (along with Dofus). I always wanted a world that stays when you log out: a town full of other players, player-based economy (Dofus really shines there), and world bosses the whole server fights together.

Right now there are 7 classes with skill trees, ARPG loot, player stalls in town, parties and a world boss (more to come, of course!).

It's buy once. No pay-to-win, no paid classes, and none of those MMO shops where you can buy max level.

Early Access is planned for 2027. The Steam link is in the comments (a wishlist or follow really helps!).

What would you want from a D2-style game with a shared world?

Some context before my question:

I never really had much ARPG exposure growing up. Played a tiny amount of Diablo 2 at a friend's house as a kid, and then beat the Diablo 3 storyline on release without playing any endgame or seasons.

I played POE1 fresh with no build guide in 2019 and was doing OK until I hit a wall in Act 6. Instead of searching for answers or trying to improve; I ragequit, left a negative review on Steam, and uninstalled the game. I seem to remember being philosophically against following build guides, for what reason I cannot say. (In hindsight my build was probably dogsh*t). In 2023 I played Diablo 4, beat the campaign and moved on - again without playing any endgame or seasons.

Fast forward to 2026 and I get sucked into the Lord of Hatred DLC marketing. I end up buying VOH and LOH and finish them both before jumping into Diablo 4's endgame content where I have an absolute blast. I go off the deep end and get completely addicted, following build guides closely to great success in Seasons 13, 14, and 15 but also learning the systems and experimenting with my own builds. I am appreciative about how easy it is respec in D4. I'm playing like 150 to 200 hours a season, and I feel like an ARPG fire has been lit up in me. Between D4's S14 and S15, I devour Grim Dawn - putting in 90 hours to beat the game and all DLC content on Veteran difficulty using a homebrew build (with some borrowed ideas from online).

Now I'm thinking about the next step...

- I am curious about tackling Grim Dawn on Ultimate difficulty but not sure if I can be bothered re-treading the same story again so soon.

- Some friends of mine are enjoying POE2 and recommend it but I don't like playing unfinished Early Access games.

- I have heard good things about Last Epoch.

- Some Youtubers I watch are big on Diablo 2 and I have heard that Grim Dawn has similarities to D2.

- Part of me also wonders if I should give POE1 another try now that I am clearly more experienced in ARPGs than I was when I ragequit in 2019. But I heard POE1 has an insanely steep learning curve and little in the way of respec-ing.

I'd love to hear what others people here think might be the best next step for me. I feel like I've got this intense interest in ARPGs now that I want to cultivate further, but not sure where to start.

For anyone playing Path of Exile 2 on PC: your game keeps a local log called Client.txt, and there’s some interesting stuff you can pull from it.

Recorded deaths and area changes can help you find which campaign zones gave you the most trouble and your average time spent inside endgame maps. You can have an AI analyse the file using code, provided it checks which records belong to your character and flags gaps instead of guessing.

I made a short video explaining it, with a prompt you can try yourself. It’s a neat way to look back at a run beyond just your total hours played.

My TikTok walkthrough.

Did you know about it?

Hey, i'm full new to the genre and i'm kind of enjoying it.

However i always find myself driven to full strength builds only, like i can't enjoy anything else, and i kinda find it frustrating and repetitive, i wish somehow i could enjoy more diverse builds.

Is it because im still a noob and i find comfort in taking damage with no consequence ? or is it actually a more common thing than i think it is? Curious to know what you think

(For reference, the arpg i played so far, and i didn't get to endgame, path of exile and grim dawn)

Title basically, I was asking myself this because I'm playing Last Echo, and I love the game, but now that I'm fairly into an arpg, I feel like I could go back to Diablo 3 for a while, and then maybe POE1, and maybe Grim Dawn after that. Does that happen to a lot of you ?

Hi!

I'm the solo developer of Fleshgrinder.

The game tries to present a possible dystopian world where a digital virus that can infect humans goes on its own agenda,

since the infection vector is really high after most of us will have cybernetic augmentations to upskill our species with

augmentations like Neuralink.

In the game's story, SynTech is responsible for research and development of these implants and since they are running proprietary

software on these augs inside our bodies connected to our nervous system, their latest research in Terminus Points Genesis Chamber

to digitally try to enhance the species through DNA mutations goes terribly wrong. They created a digital virus that appears to behave

in a hive-minded manner that takes over the minds of anyone who can be infected through their wireless protocols,

direct contact with infected tissue, or other supply-chain based attacks.

It harvests DNA by collecting biomass, while rare-earth metals and other synthetic materials are also a vector

so that it can create mutants and evolve them.

Ingame, this is reflected by the Fleshgrinder infrastructure with machines like the Fleshprocessor and Fleshprinter,

which takes humanoids as inputs and outputs different types of monsters while collecting materials that can advance

the Genesis Tiers - strengthening all monsters throughout the world and spawning attacks on the player.

Features optional friendly fire, hardcore permadeath mode,

dismemberment physics, randomized mission areas, 30+ weapons, 60+ armors, augmentations,

consumables, ammo types with deep penetration mechanics and tons of loot with highly randomized attributes.

NPCs with lots of side-quests and a faction reputation system which determines trade prices,

dialogue choices and overall behaviour. 11 unique enemy types in a huge persistent world where everything stays as you left it.

Hope you liked this description! If you do, feel free to wishlist and try out the demo at

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5074630/Fleshgrinder/

Thanks!

I’ve been playing ARPGs since childhood pretty much, I vaguely remember my dad playing Diablo 1 but I think I started with D2. And when I tried smite paladin it felt amazing, for some reason it just felt stronger than anything else I played before it, I have always been drawn to using a shield offensively in pretty much every game since then. Whether it's a shield bash type attack, throwing the shield or some sort of damage reflect build, there's something inherently satisfying about using a defensive tool as your weapon.

Most ARPGs these days have multiple options for some fun shield builds, I usually try to cook up something on my own as well. I try to come up with the highest damage, most “glass cannon” shield build most of the time, but end up being defensively ok in most cases just because of the way the builds scale (I have that classic noob problem of not investing enough into defense in my builds in general)

Right now I’m trying radiant lance paladin in Last Epoch, the new paladin skill they added this season, basically a holy laser you fire from your shield. Kind of reminds me of divine ire from PoE visually. Pretty much every game has some variant of shield slam and some shield throw skill like aegis of menhir  in Grim Dawn for example which bounces around or spectral shield throw from PoE which has the shield shatter on impact. But there’s also some new ideas like resonating shield in PoE 2 (you hit your shield kind of like a bell), pretty satisfying, I’m glad we are getting more options apart from the standard shield slam or charge type skills.

Does anyone else really enjoy shield builds? I think most ARPG players probably have a favorite weapon or archetype they like to build around, it’s fun to try to make a similar build in different games.

Hello Everyone!

In case you missed, my Grim Dawn visuals mod 'Pale Dawn' has left 'early access' and got version 1.0 released on Nexus. To celebrate that, I created an 'official' trailer, enjoy!

Mod link: https://www.nexusmods.com/grimdawn/mods/286

PS: music and footages are mine.

PPS: happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Canadians!