I was 13 the first time I zoned into EverQuest. I died to something I had no business fighting, lost my corpse, and a stranger in /ooc helped me get it back. We grouped for the rest of the night. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since, and a while ago I decided to stop waiting for someone else to make it and build it myself, in Godot.
RetroQuest is a fantasy MMORPG in the spirit of early EverQuest. It’s a passion project: no publisher, no investors, just me and a lot of late nights.
What it’s about
- A big, slightly dangerous world that doesn’t hold your hand. No quest arrows.
- Death that matters: you lose experience, you can lose a level, and you run back for your corpse.
- Classes that need each other. Grouping is how you survive.
- The classic interface layout and keys, hotbars you set up yourself.
- Locked doors that want a key, rogues who can pick them, traps on the ones you shouldn’t open.
- Boats you ride from dock to dock, tradeskills in containers, hundreds of spells, horses.
- Cities you learn by their landmarks, with a guild hall for every class (the shady ones hidden down alleys and under graveyards).
The Godot side, for anyone curious
- Godot 4 on both ends: every zone runs as its own headless Godot server, with a world server in front and a persistence service and database behind.
- Movement is checked by the server, not trusted from the client.
- Zones are built in Blender with an add-on I wrote for it, then exported and put into the game with one button.
- Every zone can be shown in two looks: classic (small, soft textures like we remember) and newer (the same textures at full resolution with relief). Same stones, same colours. The last picture shows both, in the game.
Where it’s at
Still in development and not open to the public yet. Right now I’m building the human starting city and its harbour. The first three pictures are those zones as drafts in Blender; the last one is from the game itself.
Come along
- Devlogs (what I’m working on, what broke, what got fixed): Devlog — RetroQuest
- Discord, new and still being set up, but open: https://discord.playretroquest.com
- I’m looking for people to help: programmers, world builders, artists, writers, testers, community staff. Apply on the Join the Team page: Join the RetroQuest team — RetroQuest
Happy to answer anything about how it’s built. And if you played EQ back then: what do you miss most?
