GDC 2009: Dreamlords: The Rewakening Progress Report

SAN FRANCISCO--Dreamlords: The Reawakening is one of many online games on display at GDC 2009. The unusual free-to-play massively multiplayer real-time strategy game launched last year and has seen numerous updates since then that build out the game's strange fantasy world. In the game, you play as a dreamlord, an extremely powerful hero character that gains experience levels as well as items (such as weapons and armor), and can also, depending on your character's level of advancement and skillset, recruit armies for battle in the same way that researching technologies unlocks new units in a standard real-time strategy game.

In Dreamlords,your character owns a gigantic, instanced island floating in the sky where you can do all your player-versus-environment monster hunting in a [relatively] safe environment, without having to put your pride on the line in competitive play against other players. In addition to hunting, you'll be able to manage your island as a real estate holding that produces resources--and managing your island can actually be done outside the game, either in Dreamlords' in-game Web browser, or any other Web browser you care to use. This way, you can sneak in quick updates on what's happening with your island when you can't log in due to real-world commitments.

When you're ready to go into player-versus-player battles, you can then move toanother set of floating sky islands to duel with other players. These duels take place in various sectors of the islands and, like the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series, focuses on capturing control nodes on the map, which earn you ongoing victory points when seized. Winning the battle means winning control of the sector, which becomes especially important when random "boss" monsters (indicated by a throne icon) spawn on a certain territory, giving the owner the right to duel that monster in a battle that will yield especially rich item rewards. Of course, you can always use the game's cash-op store to purchase other items for your armies with real-world money.

Updates happen after every in-game "era," a period of about two real-time months. Future updates planned for the game include new player-versus-player battle modes, as well as potential cooperative play modes.