Old-School MMO Feel in 15 Minutes a Session
By the developer
Old MMOs had a feel I still like. You camp a spawn, watch the log scroll, and sit up when a named monster finally shows. Most of us do not have four free hours on a weeknight for that anymore.
CalemDrift is my attempt at that feeling in a 10 to 20 minute session.
What "old-school" means here
- Zones with level ranges. Twenty nine hunting zones from 1 to 50, plus The Sanctuary as a safe hub. Verdant Hollow is 1 to 3, Razorclaw Den 12 to 19, the Dragon Sanctum 45 to 50.
- Named rares. Corrupted Dryad, Marsh Hag, Iron Golem, the Ice Queen. They show up rarely and drop better.
- A combat log worth reading. Every hit, every crit, every raid doorway. "A rune-lit doorway rises from nowhere. A threat awakens."
- Gear that rolls. Random stats, rarities from common to legendary, and mythic class sets from raids.
- A player economy. The Auction House is where your spare legendary loot becomes someone else's upgrade.
- Death costs you. In Hardcore it is final.
The Drift
The old games stopped being interesting once you outleveled a zone. I did not want that, so I built the Drift.
Kill a zone's raid boss and its Drift unlocks. Turn it on and the zone goes corrupt. The Marsh Hag you farmed at level 10 comes back with a Drift prefix and abilities she never had. Three creatures show up that only exist there. Drift monsters scale to your level, so going back to an old zone still means a real fight.
The Drift can also corrupt your hero, for better or worse, and Drift Shards are how you earn permanent stat points. This is the endgame.
What fits in 15 minutes
- Hunt one zone and build a kill streak. Long streaks can set off Streak Crits.
- Wait for a raid door and take down that zone's boss.
- Clear a Drift daily from the Quest Journal, like Thin the Drift, Cull the Warped or Name the Horror.
- Check your Auction House listings and collect your gold.
- Forge Drift Shards into a Fractured Drift Rune.
What is different from the old days
- Fights are short. Selected skills can fire automatically. You choose where to hunt, when to raid, what to wear and when to turn on the Drift.
- No waiting in line for a spawn. Every fight is yours, and raids are solo.
- Play anywhere. Start in a browser and keep going on Android.
FAQ
Is CalemDrift an MMO? It is an online RPG with a shared economy, leaderboards and the Auction House. Fights are solo.
How long does it take to reach level 50? A while. There are 29 hunting zones on the way and a raid boss in every one.
Do I need to play every day? No. Dailies and weeklies are there if you want them.
Keep reading
Play a session now at calemdrift.com · Get it on Android