Trendy Entertainment announced in March that their sequel to the third-person tower defense game Dungeon Defender would be modelled on the MOBA genre. Well, after months of development they’ve scrapped that idea and, according to studio director Dave Loyd, are now “refocusing our efforts on a true sequel.”
“Originally it was being developed as a MOBA-style PVP game, but we reviewed the project and decided to turn the ship, refocusing our efforts on a true sequel,” explained Loyd. “I’m happy to announce today that Dungeon Defenders II is in development!”
The team “started looking at DD1 and brainstorming. […] We generated tons of ideas and ultimately created The Five Pillars of Dungeon Defenders II. We define these pillars as axioms, rules by which all game features are assessed, and which must be upheld at all times.
“Pillars in hand, we began to concept the game! Strike teams explored ideas for core gameplay mechanics while others began to establish a vision for the project. It was Daniel Haddad, a gameplay programmer, who finally presented a concept which unleashed a torrent of creative thought. That concept, like a blacksmith’s hammer, rang throughout the studio, molding and shaping the Dungeon Defenders II project.”
You can see that concept at work in the new teaser trailer:
Loyd ends saying that “As Studio Director, I am working to enable ways for you to share and get involved. Our approach to this reboot of Dungeon Defenders II keeps that principle close to the heart, and we intend to provide even more methods for you to help us mold Dungeon Defenders into a game that will resonate in these very ways. We will be announcing the first initiative toward that goal later this month (Hint: it’s around an important date).”
I quite liked the MOBA angle Trendy were taking Dungeon Defenders in but the original game has a huge number of fans and the pressure to remain true to that must have been too hard to resist.