2023 With You

It's a tricky job writing greetings year after year without sounding boring, but we're still here with all our passion to prepare for what's next on the incredible journey of the game that's so dear to our hearts: DOFUS.

So, I'd like to thank you again for your loyalty and the passion you share for our game and the Ankamaverse, which drive us to do our best every day. Once again this year, we've been proud and happy to see many community, artistic, and creative projects, as well as participation in charitable activities. Seeing our universe being combined with all this energy is incredibly motivating.

I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate the whole DOFUS team and the Ankama teams on their work this year, with a big finish and a terrific KrosmoNote, ushering in a new format, and working together admirably to kick things off.

As usual, I'd like to start this New Year's letter by going over what happened last year and then looking ahead to what awaits us this year.

Looking Back

I know we aren't there yet, but sometimes, looking back makes it easier to look forward. And what a future to look forward to, because the game's 20th birthday is almost upon us. That's right: 20th! It's absolutely insane for a little game made in Roubaix, and that's something to keep in mind.

This year has been really special for the World of Twelve. I didn't want to cover absolutely everything, so I made a list of some of the things that really stood out to me this year. As I read this list again, I think I may have gone a bit too far, but I hope you don't mind me being happy about what was accomplished!

This time, I'll provide a few links for those of you who might have missed the articles relating to these various topics, or if you already read them, to refresh your memory!

Technical Developments and Merger

This year, what seemed "impossible" a few years ago was finally achieved: redistributing the various game servers' populations again, which had become poorly distributed over time. This long-term project enabled us to clean up old, useless data in the game's databases, but most of all, to offer much better gameplay conditions for all the different communities.
_{As a reminder, you can find a quick overview of the merger's detailed review here: https://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg/news/announcements/1550534-server-merger-review-time}

Osatopia

It's hard not to take another look at this incredible Temporis event. Your enthusiasm for this Temporis adventure was so great that we once again hit record highs in DOFUS, which seemed difficult after stay-at-home orders ended. However, an amazing number of you took part in this event, which was full of new things and surprises, and we'd like to thank you!
_{To reread the main introductory information about Osatopia: https://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg/news/announcements/1467060-ankama-live-osatopia-june-7-summary}

Valonia & the Forgelances

It took 19 years for the 19^th class to appear in the game! The biggest content update of the year was under the auspices of the Lance Dur series, which you'll soon be able to watch on the French ADN streaming website from February.

This new animated series greatly inspired us, and despite the time difference between us in the Krosmoz timeline, we wanted to add complementary features to bring the Archipelago of Valonia to life. We hope this will make you want to watch our next animated series – coming out on February 15 – even more while you're waiting for the fourth season of WAKFU!
_{Reread the devblog: https://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg/news/devblog/tickets/1539740-valonia-forgelances}

First Temporis Retro Event

It's impossible not to talk about the incredible year DOFUS Retro had with so many great things that happened. The year kicked off nicely with the first Temporis event in DOFUS Retro, and I think I can safely say that you (and we) liked it so much that we're planning on doing it again this year.

The experience remained completely compatible with the roots of DOFUS Retro, and it was an opportunity for many of you to (re)discover this version of DOFUS. The Hall of the Valiant seems so quiet now.
_{A little recap of this first Temporis Retro event: https://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg/news/announcements/1447322-temporis-retro-numbers}

Tragic Circus

Objectively, I think this is probably the best update DOFUS Retro has had since it launched in 2019. This update is just a bundle of love and fun – I don't see what else there is to add. I hope your card collections are coming along nicely and you're not too addicted to the Gladiatrool like I am!
_{Reread the devblog: https://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg/news/devblog/tickets/1516529-dofus-retro-update-1-39-tragic-circus}

Ankama Live

It's not a game, strictly speaking, but it's a format that I really like, as you might have realized. And believe it or not, this past year, it included more than 75 hours of streaming in the DOFUS category with a total of 33 streams just on the official channel. Thank you to Alvi, Djinn, and everyone who helped us organize and present these different streams over the last year. The highlight was obviously the KrosmoNote, with a peak of 17,000 people tuning in at once, so thank you all for connecting to the livestreams in such great numbers and such high spirits!

We will obviously build on this momentum in the coming year!

2023 Is Straight Ahead

While I can't overindulge in my habit of dropping spoilers about other games and activities, rest assured that 2023 will be a really jam-packed year in terms of releases and news at Ankama. I also urge you follow what's going on with the other projects, because Ankama's production teams still have many great things to show you! But that doesn't mean DOFUS will be taking a back seat this year, as I'll prove to you in a moment. And just for once, I'm starting the list backward, from newest to oldest.

For those of you who didn't follow the KrosmoNote (what were you doing then?), I'll go over the various points discussed regarding DOFUS, which I'll try to round out here.

DOFUS Unity

2024. This was obviously the (hopefully only) bad news for you during the KrosmoNote. But is it really bad news? I appreciate that you're impatient, but that's not how I see it. At least, not for the future of DOFUS.

As explained during the KrosmoNote, we're finalizing the rough copy of the current game in Unity. If we decided to delay the release of the project even further, it's so we can now really dive into some major developments of this version of the game. We're keeping several surprises in store for the release of what I hope will be a major new version of DOFUS in the future. I'll quickly go over what was briefly mentioned in various announcements.

During the KrosmoNote, you could see the initial work on a complete revamp of the game interfaces integrating new features.

At the same time, we're working on the enormous task of "bringing to life" as many environments as possible in the World of Twelve. This improvement will be done in several stages since the work is so extensive, but we're making it a priority, as the World of Twelve deserves it with all the content developed during the last 19 years.

Another example is the addition of a "Codex" feature, which is intended to collect additional content to further develop the universe. Our aim is to successfully combine your in-game activities with the completion of this codex, but also new objectives for existing content.

On another note, there will be a more global feature to control supply and demand and more generally what could be called in-game mercenarism, but also to give you a more modern tool to search for players around an in-game activity. Eventually, this will probably lead to an in-depth revamp of the content shared in the trade and recruitment channels.

We particularly want to rework the symbolic screen at the end of a fight – the screen most often shared on social media that illustrates your wins and drops – but we especially want to take the opportunity to offer you a statistics module for your fights in the long term. This will help you refine your strategy and get a clearer picture of what worked and what didn't within your team!

Among the upcoming improvements, as mentioned during the KrosmoNote, there is also an important role for the musical themes that you cherish, which will be enhanced through an orchestral version directly integrated into the game. Our new tools will eventually enable us to make the background music, game music, and other sounds more responsive to your activity. And those are just a few examples of what to expect.

For all these new features and the ones I can't tell you about yet, yes, we've decided to give ourselves more time than initially planned. But we're convinced that with everything Ankama has to offer this year, you'll have plenty of things to keep yourself busy while waiting for your next immersion in a brand-new version of DOFUS!

DOFUS 2.0

I'll take you back to the KrosmoNote 2022 for a moment, just to quickly refresh your memory. Here are some of our goals for the coming year:

I'll start by reminding you that this kind of visual is by no means an exhaustive list of what will be done this year…

 

The first major project for us to (finally) complete is alliances. It's a promise this time: We're nearing the end, and feedback on the devblog really helped us fine-tune our intentions. Just a quick word about this: We want to keep on making more early devblogs like this whenever possible because they work really well. I won't lie to you; we'd like to do more of them, but we have to keep in mind that they're entirely written by the game's production team. Summarizing features that are being designed while also producing them is sometimes tricky and time-consuming, even if we love it!

The next devblog topic will be the upcoming changes regarding incarnations and their "transformations" into playable sidekicks. Many concerns appeared on the forums following this announcement, and we want to share our intentions and reassure you at the same time.

We're going to continue balancing the classes later this year, with a first phase for the Forgelances after they appeared in the game, but also for other classes. We also want to breathe new life into Eniripsa, which, while far from being the most underrated class, has dated gameplay.

We also want to resume improvement work on the Kolossium this year. We'd like to offer a system of giving up a fight by vote, continue to integrate new maps to make fights more varied, but most of all, resume improvements to the league system in its entirety.

We still have a big plan to rework the idol system before the end of the port, but as you can imagine, there are no magical solutions, and there are lots of implications for many systems and content in the game. We'll have a chance to talk about this again later in the year.

Finally, we want to continue improvement work on existing content launched in 2022 and thus rework lots of existing equipment, sets, and also the related recipes, especially for level brackets 150–199.

We won't rule out the possibility of adding content here and there during the year, and we'd also like to continue the main storyline after the reunification, but as you may have gathered, no major new content is slated for this year as things stand. As mentioned above, our aim is to finalize the port, so it's not for a lack of desire but out of necessity that we'll put our energy into finalizing it first and foremost.

And finally, because I know it's already eagerly awaited, yes, you can expect the 8^th Temporis event at the end of this year. I know it's a long time away! Be patient. In the meantime, I suggest you pay its big brother a visit…
 

DOFUS Retro

It's the roughly the same thing. This time I'll give you another look at what was discussed during the KrosmoNote:

 

DOFUS Retro will open the year with its second Temporis Retro event! The team is currently in all-out production of this event, which promises to be full of surprises, emotions, and adventures! We're working our hardest to make it even better than the first event that you enjoyed. So no clues today, but believe me – it's hard not to talk about it!

As usual, we'll prepare an exciting teaser to drive you nuts before explaining what it's all about in the near future. But you'll have to wait…

Many improvements will be made to the whole game for Temporis, whether it's the gift interface or other nice little things.

For the rest of the year, we'll be working on integrating more seasonal events into the game to give DOFUS Retro a more regular rhythm in the future. This should enable us to intersperse life on the servers more regularly and offer you new little things for the occasion.

Finally, the big technical goal for this year will also be to provide a new system for server mergers, enabling older servers to be merged together again. But there's still a lot to do at this stage!

As for the rest, we'd rather keep it a surprise, because it's still only January…
 

Why Don't We Celebrate Already?

I'll finish up with some good news to start the year. I know it's always asked for at the beginning of the year, and 2023 will obviously be no exception!
A weekend event will be held on all DOFUS and DOFUS Retro servers to celebrate the beginning of the year together.
For the duration of the event, combat and profession experience gains will be doubled in both DOFUS and DOFUS Retro.

The event will start on Friday, January 20, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. (CET) and end on Sunday, January 22, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.! It's time to get your new character ready and finish leveling up your professions if you haven't already done so.

Thanks

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contribute to making the World of Twelve come to life every day and making it better, be it the various volunteers on the moderation teams, or the dream team of Game Masters and their increasingly popular events. The different sites and community initiatives we've seen emerge or continue to develop often bring smiles and a sense of pride to the DOFUS team.

I'd also like to thank our partners such as KTA and RetroEsport who have done a great job enlivening the competitive scene in DOFUS and DOFUS Retro this past year. Congratulations to them and their teams for their many achievements!

I'll save the closing remark for my own team whom I'd also like to thank for the passionate work they do here every day.

That closing remark is probably the most important one. Once again, all my best wishes for this year, and I look forward to seeing you in the World of Twelve!

Have a great year 653!
— Logan