A team of veterans behind some of the most defining action RPGs of all-time, such as Diablo and Torchlight, is founding a new independent game studio called Moon Beast Productions. Their debut game, Darkhaven, is an isometric dark fantasy action-RPG designed around player agency, dynamic world systems, and skill-based combat.
The studio was founded by Diablo veterans Philip Shenk, Peter Hu, and Erich Schaefer, and the team as a whole includes experience across the first three Diablo games, Hellgate: London, the first two Torchlight games, Nox, and Marvel Heroes Online.
Or, in other words, a handful of games that are collectively regarded as some of the greatest the genre’s ever seen.
Today also marks the launch of the Darkhaven Steam page and the announcement of plans for a Kickstarter campaign aimed at funding its Early Access debut.
“From the very beginning, we wanted Darkhaven to feel good to play,” Erich Schaefer, co-founder and chief creative officer at Moon Beast Productions, said in a prepared statement. “Movement is fun. Being able to jump over attacks, climb cliffs, dash out of danger, or swim across a lake that may or may not be infested with riverfangs changes how combat feels in this kind of game. It’s not just about numbers fighting numbers anymore. It’s much more engaging. For me, it becomes more about skill, finding flow, and making smart decisions in the moment. I’ve never had more fun making and playing an ARPG.”
Darkhaven positions itself as a next-generation action RPG that blends traditional ARPG loot and progression with an evolving, persistent world. Environments are procedurally generated and fully deformable, meaning players can dig through earth, tunnel through walls, manipulate terrain, and interact with seasons and weather in meaningful ways.
According to the team, the world itself “remembers” player actions by altering dungeons, battlefields, and landmarks for all future explorers, a twist on the genre that aims to give meaningful weight to choices and exploration.
Rather than leaning solely on stat progression and incremental buffs, Darkhaven intends to make movement and character control a key part of combat outcomes. Players can jump, climb, swim, dash, and traverse terrain dynamically, bringing a more visceral feel to fights. ARPGs typically have a more static feeling, where environmental interaction is typically more limited to only a handful of objects with physics properties.
The team also says itemization will lean into the bold, expressive loot philosophies of early ARPG classics: gear that changes playstyles and opens new strategic avenues rather than just providing minor numerical advantages.
“Great itemization is about possibility,” Peter Hu, co-founder and president at Moon Beast Productions, said in a prepared statement. “In Darkhaven, we want items that open doors, gear that makes you stop and rethink your build, your strategy, or even how you play the game. Finding something powerful should be exciting and inspiring, not something that gets smoothed out into tiny percentage gains.”
Moon Beast has already activated Darkhaven’s Steam page and teased a “coming soon” Kickstarter campaign where the community can support development. A playable demo is expected to accompany the Kickstarter launch.