Diablo 2’s Original Developers Launch Darkhaven, a New ARPG That Competes With Their Own Classic

Blizzard surprised fans recently by adding a new Warlock class to Diablo 2 and releasing the 2021 remaster on Steam. For some of Diablo 2’s original developers, this revitalization of their 26-year-old masterpiece is both a source of pride and an unexpected challenge as they work on their own brand-new ARPG called Darkhaven.

“Just the fact that people are playing this 30-year-old game, that it’s worth it for them to introduce new content, is amazing to me,” said original Diablo 2 lead character artist Phil Shenk in a recent interview with PC Gamer. “It’s super cool. I’m very proud, I guess is the word, just at the fact that it has so much legs.”

Shenk hasn’t had time to explore Diablo 2’s new class yet, though. Along with the rest of Moon Beast Productions—which includes Diablo 2 programmer Peter Hu and designer Erich Schaefer—he’s been laser-focused on preparing a demo for Darkhaven and launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund its continued development. At the time of writing, Moon Beast has raised $200,000 toward a $500,000 goal with 25 more days to go.

I asked Shenk and Hu how it feels to find themselves in competition not only with the Diablo games that came after their time at Blizzard, but also Diablo 2 itself, now that it’s been remastered, released on Steam, and bestowed with new DLC.

“There’s tons of conflicted feelings there,” said Hu. “Yeah, not gonna lie about that… We’re an indie company in a way, going up against a giant, and that’s a tough hill to climb.”

“Yeah, we feel the pressure, but I don’t hate them for it,” said Shenk.

Shenk also pointed out that the vision for Darkhaven isn’t simply to make another Diablo 2, so it remains to be seen where their players will come from. Moon Beast is aiming for something that sounds like a mix of Diablo and modern survival games like Valheim and Enshrouded, with “open-ended, procedurally generated, dynamically responsive sandbox worlds.” The bullet points include deformable terrain, digging and mining, building, mod support, and the option to play solo, with a group of friends, or in massively multiplayer servers.

It’s an ambitious project, which is why Moon Beast wanted to have a playable demo in the public’s hands before launching its Kickstarter campaign—something to prove that they have a working piece of software and not just a bunch of cool ideas. They’ve spent over four years on the game so far, funded by venture capitalists and their own money.

I’m impressed by the world editor included in the demo, a good sign that the commitment to mod support is legit. It’s also not every day you launch an ARPG and discover that you can double jump and swim.

You can try out the Darkhaven demo for yourself on Steam, and read more about what the developers are aiming for on Kickstarter.

Regarding Diablo 2’s new Reign of the Warlock DLC, Shenk also added that he understands why Blizzard only added a new class, rather than a whole new act, which is something Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson said he would’ve liked to see.

“Having worked on Diablo 2, and knowing how much work goes into making a new act, yeah, that would have been amazing and awesome,” said Shenk, “but I can’t even imagine how they would do that, because you’re retconning the story and the lore, and how does that affect everything that happened after Diablo 2?”

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