Dragon Lords — 2025 Development Update (and what’s next)

Karol Padiasek

— 2 min read

2025 was a year of steady, consistent progress on Dragon Lords, even if the pace wasn’t always intense.

I worked on the game throughout the year, but real life mattered too. Looking after my two boys, our girl dog, and making sure I could properly provide for my family meant development often happened in bursts rather than long, uninterrupted stretches. Even so, I kept coming back to the project and pushing it forward.

What’s important is this: 2025 wasn’t a year of flashy releases — it was a year of foundations.

What was added in 2025

Core gameplay systems

A large part of the year went into building and solidifying core systems that Dragon Lords depends on:

  • A complete quest system, including quest-giving NPCs, quest tracking, persistence, rewards, and progression
  • An active quest tracker UI and quest data import/export tools
  • A player marketplace for buying and selling items, with categories, pricing, and listing management
  • PvP combat, including animations, positioning, character states, and death handling
  • A full monster system (spawning, combat, rebirth mechanics, health and stamina tracking)
  • Hero occupations with levelling and progression (including mining and production roles)
  • Expanded mining and production systems, tied to locations and professions

These systems form the backbone of progression, economy, and player interaction.

World & content expansion

The world of Dragon Lords grew significantly over the past year:

  • Yobos, a brand-new continent, was created
  • South Yobos regions added with mountains, caves, towns, city walls, and castles
  • Multiple cave systems and new points of interest
  • Updates and improvements to Mehas, including new buildings, paths, and landmarks
  • Sea travel implemented, currently allowing travel between Mehas and Yobos
  • Many new items, NPCs, and locations spread across the world

This work laid the groundwork for a multi-continent world that will continue to expand.

Technical, performance & quality improvements

A lot of development effort went into things players may not immediately notice — but absolutely feel:

  • Major performance improvements, especially around NPC behaviour and pathfinding
  • Improved backend architecture, including caching, refactoring, and data tooling
  • More robust WebSocket communication (auto-reconnects, movement verification, stability improvements)
  • Better client-side responsiveness, UI polish, and usability improvements
  • Ongoing bug fixes across combat, production, items, collisions, and visuals

Together, this made the game more stable, faster, and easier to build on.

Early 2026: a bigger demo

My current target is to release a new, bigger demo in early 2026.

This demo is meant to be more than a preview. By this point, many of the core systems — quests, combat, monsters, occupations, economy, crafting, and travel — are already in place. The goal is to let players experience a meaningful slice of the actual game, not just a tech showcase.

I want players to actively help shape what is, more-or-less, the final state of Dragon Lords: balance, progression, pacing, and priorities.

As a thank-you to those who take part, I plan to award a special, time-limited badge / achievement to everyone who completes the demo (for example, by reaching level 20). This badge will be exclusive to the demo and no longer obtainable once the full game launches, as a permanent mark of being part of this early shaping phase.

Mid-2026: full game release (planned)

If everything stays on track, my hope is to have the full game released around mid-2026, featuring:

  • Three continents
  • All core mechanics in place
  • A solid foundation for continued expansion, balancing, and content updates

Want to be involved?

If you’re interested in testing future demos and influencing the direction of Dragon Lords, keep an eye out for the early-2026 demo announcement.

I’ll be actively asking for feedback on systems, pacing, and content — so if you enjoy being part of the shaping phase of a game, you’ll be very welcome.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

— Karol

P.S. 💬 Join the Dragon Lords Discord to follow development and help shape the game:
https://discord.gg/GwM9BMDv

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