Arcanoria is not ready to be released yet, but we're hard at work developing it! If you'd like to participate as an early tester, please contact us at arcanor@arcanoria.com. Here's our latest news update:
January 25, 2009 - Engine Updates & More!
Ogre 1.6, Consolidated Development SLN, Hydrax Water, Database access from Lua script, Scene Object Gravity, Landscape Shadows, Dynamic Quests
Sorry for not putting up an update blog here sooner, but it's been very busy and I've been a bit slack about getting it posted. That said, we do have quite a bit of news for you today...
First of all, we've updated the Arcanoria client to use Ogre's new version 1.6, which gives us an even faster rendering platform, along with lots of other advantages (you can read more about this at the Ogre website). What's even better is that we're now using this in a single development "solution" file, along with all of the other "dependencies" that Arcanoria is based on (i.e. Zen Engine, and underlying technology libraries for Newton physics, CEGUI, Lua scripting, SQLite, etc.). This will save us huge amounts of time and trouble in all future development. Yay! (And big thanks to Tony Richards for that!)
In other major news, Matthew Gray has brought the ocean to Arcanoria, by implementing Hydrax, a fantastic Ogre plugin that gives us dynamic water, including realistic looking waves, dynamic shoreline, underwater effects, refraction/reflection, caustics, foam, etc. We've made 4 screenshots to show you how Hydrax looks in our game. Please review our Photo Gallery for those pictures.
Another big update is the ability to apply gravity to objects created not only from Lua script, but that Lua script is in turn now getting its data directly from an SQLite database. So our scene creation is nearly 100% data driven now, which is a huge benefit for scalability.
Yet another significant update was the ability to use Ogre's texture based shadowing algorithms, which are much faster to render as compared to the stencil shadows we had been using previously.
Last (for today) but certainly not least, we've now got the ability to interact with our NPCs using mouse clicks, including selection, and two way interaction. This allows us to do things like quests, shopkeepers, and more. Thanks to Tony Richards for that hookup!
We're really excited about things to come as the Zen Engine has already released its 0.4 Alpha, and is heading forward to the 0.5 Beta release in the next couple of months. This will allow Arcanoria to release our initial demo around the same time. More about that as it comes...
For the full list of project status updates, please take a look at our History blog page.
The Story
The Age of Mortus is over. The Dread Lords held sway over the lands of man for thousands of years, until their defeat at the battle of Vallendahl. The curse of undeath that held the realms in its ancient, vice-like grip for so long is no more. A kingdom has risen, built upon the deeds and honor of the greatest heroes of the Dread War. The forest of Taelendor has awakened once more. Life, once a rare, precious commodity, has returned. It is a new age, one of exploration, peace and prosperity.
But all is not what it seems. Ancient evil is not so easily vanquished. The dark kin of the elves stir in their mountain of power once more. Tribes of norse-folk have set aside their enmities under the banner of a new, cunning Warlord. The forests have seen the passage of a race long thought extinct, and the Kingdom of Illiana is beset by political infighting. Yet worse than all, there are Dread Lords who survived the epic battle and now plot and scheme for their return to power and subjugation of all the free races.
Great deeds await those with courage and mettle. Dead civilizations await those with the fortitude to wrest away their secrets and artifacts. Dark foes await those with the skill and power to end their threat to all.
It is a time for Heroes and Legends. This is Arcanoria.
Read much more about the history of Arcanoria on our Story page.
Game Overview
Arcanoria is a Medieval Fantasy Online Role Playing Game, where solo players or groups can go on quests, craft custom items, join trade guilds, and face deadly challenges using their expertise with sword, bow, magic, stealth, or guile. Arcanoria offers rewarding non-violent quests (in addition to hunting/fighting quests, which are also available). You can advance your character to high levels without ever being required to attack a living being. Arcanoria proves that RPGs don't have to be violent to be fun and interesting! The game also provides meaningful choices in your character's development, where your in-game actions determine your abilities. The more you focus on certain skills the better those skills become - at the expense of unrelated skills. The world itself is very large. From cities to castles to murky caves to wind-swept mountaintops to volcanic islands to barren deserts and salt flats, to lush forests... Arcanoria has it all, just waiting for you to discover!
Player Races: Human, Norse, Elf, Dark Elf, Gnome, Lizardfolk
Combat Classes: Warrior, Wanderer, Mind Mage, Lightbringer, Necromancer, Druid, Elementalist
Non-Violent Classes: (list still in development) Fisherman, Cook, Healer, Blacksmith, Archaeologist, Alchemist, Merchant, Farmer, Tailor, Carpenter, Researcher, Trapper
What Is Arcanoria, really?
Actually, Arcanoria is none of those things. It's just a figment of the imagination. We're working hard in order to turn this farfetched fantasy into a Virtual Reality. This project directly involves lots of cool buzzwords including:
- 3D Graphical Modeling, Skeletal Animation, Physics Simulation, 3D Sound Rendering, Real-time 3D video Rendering
- 2D Graphics Design (i.e. Photoshop/Illustrator)
- Client/Server Network Programming, Security & Encryption, Database Programming and Administration
- Delivery-on-Demand (i.e. downloadable program and data updates)
- Object-Oriented Programming (using C++), UML Design and Analysis
- Game System Design (characters, economy, combat, crafting, quests, monsters, spells, etc.)
- GUI Design and overall UI Design
- Music and Sound FX Design
Our main game engine is based on several technologies including Ogre 3D as the central rendering engine. Please review our Tech Page for more details on the specific tools we use to create our game.
Miscellaneous Other Information
This project was begun on January 9, 2007. For more information, please review the different pages of this site, or contact us at arcanor@arcanoria.com. Also, please check back from time to time as we will continue to update this website to chronicle the unfolding of this ambitious project. This site is updated frequently - usually at least once a week, sometimes multiple times per day - so check back often to learn about the latest updates to Arcanoria!
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