{"id":53436,"date":"2025-10-29T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53436"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:03:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T06:03:52","slug":"were-still-at-the-bottom-of-the-dungeon-wizardry-variants-daphnes-success-has-exceeded-all-of-drecoms-expectations-but-development-became-just-as-demandi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/were-still-at-the-bottom-of-the-dungeon-wizardry-variants-daphnes-success-has-exceeded-all-of-drecoms-expectations-but-development-became-just-as-demandi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re still at the bottom of the dungeon.\u201d Wizardry Variants Daphne\u2019s success has exceeded all of Drecom\u2019s expectations, but development became just as demanding\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When<strong> Wizardry Variants Daphne<\/strong>, the latest installment in the long-running Wizardry series, launched last October, even its developers at Drecom didn\u2019t expect it to be quite as popular as it turned out to be. \u201cThe initial response was nearly double what we expected,\u201d director Keisuke Kanayama told AUTOMATON. Since then, development has, in some ways, become even more difficult than when building the game from scratch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u3010\u92ed\u610f\u5236\u4f5c\u4e2d\u3011The Fourth Abyss\u3010Wizardry Variants Daphne\u3011\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_g2WDcP9Vhs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although they were confident that the core fanbase would enjoy their work, Kanayama and his team were aware that they were in relatively niche territory with Wizardry Variants Daphne, which reflected in their launch targets for the title. But the live-service dungeon crawler RPG has, despite some ups and downs, seen enduring popularity even as it marks its first anniversary. Maintaining the hit, however, has put development in a tight spot, Kanayama admits.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly busy. We want to complete the story that leads up to defeating the Ten Greater Warped Ones, but the upcoming new Abyss (dungeon) will only be the fourth. We want to keep releasing content consistently, but both the third Abyss, Guarda Fortress, and the next one ended up being delayed past their planned update dates.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1345\" height=\"757\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1345px) 100vw, 1345px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-001.jpg\" alt=\"Wizardry Variants Daphne\" class=\"wp-image-53438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-001.jpg 1345w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The reason, Kanayama explains, is development resources being spread out between new content and service upkeeping. \u201cWe have to handle operational tasks, fix bugs, and respond to player feedback, all of which scatter our efforts. We&#8217;re trying to keep the overall balance between live operations and new development, like adding new Abysses, but it\u2019s quite difficult.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a dilemma typical for live-service games: too many fixes and your players get bored; too much new content and your game starts breaking down. \u201cMy workload is maybe down to 80% of what it was compared to before release,\u201d Kanayama says, \u201cbut in other ways, it\u2019s even tougher. Before launch, all of our development work simply went into making the game better. But once you go live, it becomes a mountain of tasks, from tuning existing game elements, fixing bugs and creating new Abysses, to managing a larger team (Daphne\u2019s dev staff has more than doubled in size since launch).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1392\" height=\"779\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1392px) 100vw, 1392px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-002.jpg\" alt=\"Wizardry Variants Daphne\" class=\"wp-image-53439\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-002.jpg 1392w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-002-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-002-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Kanayama compares the ongoing development cycle to the game\u2019s own dungeon crawling. \u201cIt\u2019s an Abyss,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought that once the game launched and started earning revenue, I\u2019d feel happier, but we\u2019re still at the bottom of the dungeon.\u201d Still, he finds the process ultimately rewarding, and his goal is to keep Daphne\u2019s development process sustainable while raising player satisfaction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For its major anniversary update, Wizardry Variants Daphne got a Bounty Bill system for hunting powerful enemies, expanded Compendium system, and revamped Auto-Battles with customizable commands. Preparations are already underway for year-end events.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wizardry Variants Daphne is available for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2379740\/Wizardry_Variants_Daphne\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), iOS and Android.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wizardry Variants Daphne director Keisuke Kanayama talks about how the game&#8217;s success has affected the development process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,10],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-interviews","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cWe\u2019re still at the bottom of the dungeon.\u201d Wizardry Variants Daphne\u2019s success has exceeded all of Drecom\u2019s expectations, but development became just as demanding\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wizardry Variants Daphne director Keisuke Kanayama talks about how the game&#039;s success has affected the development process.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/were-still-at-the-bottom-of-the-dungeon-wizardry-variants-daphnes-success-has-exceeded-all-of-drecoms-expectations-but-development-became-just-as-demandi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cWe\u2019re still at the bottom of the dungeon.\u201d Wizardry Variants Daphne\u2019s success has exceeded all of Drecom\u2019s expectations, but development became just as demanding\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wizardry Variants Daphne director Keisuke Kanayama talks about how the game&#039;s success has affected the development process.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/were-still-at-the-bottom-of-the-dungeon-wizardry-variants-daphnes-success-has-exceeded-all-of-drecoms-expectations-but-development-became-just-as-demandi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-29T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-53436-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1297\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cWe\u2019re still at the bottom of the dungeon.\u201d Wizardry Variants Daphne\u2019s success has exceeded all of Drecom\u2019s expectations, but development became just as demanding\u00a0 - 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