Development and release The concept for ''Dragon's Dogma
was created by Hideaki Itsuno. He created the initial concepts of an RPG title and the Pawn system in 2000 before he was brought on board the staff of Devil May Cry 2. Itsuno had a chance to pitch the project in 2008 following the completion of Devil May Cry 4''. With internal discussions going on about Capcom's next large-scale project, the company had asked for a concept that could potentially sell one million copies. ''Dragon's Dogma'' was one of seven pitches given by Itsuno. The main concept was an RPG based primarily on single-player but with casual multiplayer elements similar to watching a
bulletin board system. The Pawn system and its Western RPG-styled formed part of the pitch. Itsuno's decision to pitch the project was due to the advances in gaming hardware, which had become powerful enough to properly realize the game. Initially scheduled for "early 2012", Capcom delayed the release date by several months. ''Dragon's Dogma
was released on May 22 in North America, May 24 in Japan and Australia, and May 25 in Europe. All versions came with a one-time download code to access a demo of Resident Evil 6''. Following the game's release, multiple
downloadable content (DLC) packs were released, ranging from cosmetic items to new quests.
Scenario and art design The scenario and script were written by Haruo Murata. Brought on board the project during development, he was favorably impressed by an early demo of a Cyclops battle. He was in charge of writing the main scenario and dialogue interactions, with his main aim being to create a setting that would react to playing actions in a "natural" way. The globe is inspired by Sicily with its Mediterranean appearance and Greco-Roman and Western medieval cultural traits. The world design and basic scenario were created by Makoto Ikehara, a veteran of the
Breath of Fire series. He was not involved in the later parts of production, but he was able to bring knowledge of both fantasy settings and role-playing mechanics to the team. Another contributor to the scenario was Bingo Morihashi, who had previously worked on the scripts on the
Devil May Cry series since
Devil May Cry 2 and
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Itsuno cited multiple inspirations for the world of ''Dragon's Dogma
, including The Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons and The Neverending Story''. To research the setting, the team made several trips to Europe to research its scenery and architecture. The art directors were Daigo Ikeno and Makoto Tanaka. Ikeno designed the Dragon himself, aiming for a classic high fantasy look and "cool" aesthetic. The final design emulated the "simple yet powerful" dragons of folklore, but with the main aim being to make the fantastical creature as realistic as possible. During the initial design phases, several concepts were created but had to be discarded due to either design changes or a lack of development time and resources to include them. Itsune described the game as their attempt to create a defining RPG experience similar to
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The control layout was carried over from Capcom's other action titles such as
Devil May Cry. Many of the action elements were carried over and how characters fought with enemies was also drawn from that series. The world's design was intended to promote both realism and fantasy; game designer Makoto Tanaka compared the wished-for atmosphere to someone walking through the African savana and encountering its wildlife, but with fantasy beasts replacing real-world animals. The team gradually worked through the rules of the game world, which were all based on the real world as far as possible. According to Kobayashi, the game's scale and style—which were like nothing produced by Capcom up to that point—caused multiple problems for the development team. There were several times when Kobayashi felt like giving up due to the problems that came up. The game used the 2.x version of Capcom's proprietary
MT Framework game engine, which had previously been used in several Capcom games including
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and
Devil May Cry 4. According to the programmer Taro Yahagi, who was in charge of work for the engine, ''Dragon's Dogma'' was the most difficult project as MT Framework required a large number of adjustments. Previous MT Framework titles had been stage-based action titles, so transitioning to an open world was a drastic change and required the creation of a dedicated "World Offset" function which shifted the world based on player position so environmental data could be updated. The team could not increase the number of data points to solve the issue of rendering environments as this would have been beyond the available hardware. Another new addition was "deferred lighting", an advanced lighting engine that could maintain realistic lighting during the game's day-night cycle in the open world, in addition to environmental effects such as characters getting wet. The retail version of the game also incorporated an advanced
anti-aliasing filter. Character actions, including combat actions such as grappling, where created using a combination of
motion capture and
inverse kinematics. Physics was controlled using a newly created in-house physics engine. The physical interaction between large monsters and characters climbing on them using a combination of physics and motion-based algorithms similar to early water animation techniques. These designs were intended to work on the contrasting hardware of the PS3 and 360. The game was developed for the
PlayStation 3 (PS3) and
Xbox 360 (360) consoles. According to producer
Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the team's previous experience creating
Devil May Cry 4 helped with development as they both carried over technology and had familiarity with the planned platforms. The online functionality for the PS3 and 360 were respectively co-developed and supported by
Sony Computer Entertainment and the
Japanese branch of
Microsoft. Their cooperation enabled Capcom to reduce running costs for the online functions to nearly nothing. The limited scope of online elements was a compromise which both fulfilled with gameplay goals of the team while avoiding many of the problems of full multiplayer. According to Makino, the team hired 82 voice actors; the recording took place in North America between two studios over fifteen weeks, with two audio directors supervising the process. The Pawn voices were difficult due to the variety of physical customization. The team ultimately chose twelve voice actors to record lines at different pitches. The game includes additional content such as an extra dungeon dubbed Bitterblack Isle, with additional weapons and armor exclusive to that area, and full Japanese voice acting. Producer Minae Matsukawa and director Kento Kinoshita had both worked on the original ''Dragon's Dogma''. Kobayashi acted as executive producer. The game came about due to community feedback about the original game, with Bitterblack Isle being designed as a lore-based end-game dungeon with powerful enemies. There was also a wish to create a "complete" version of the game. A
Windows version of
Dark Arisen was planned from an early stage, with the main aim being to take advantage of the Windows platform's greater technical specifications compared to the PS3 and 360, in addition to expanding the game's player base. The port was developed with QLOC. The team's main aim was to optimize the game for the Windows platform, rather than improve or expand on current assets. The Windows version of
Dark Arisen was released worldwide on January 15, 2016. It was eventually released in Japan on October 5, 2017.
Dark Arisen was later released for the
Nintendo Switch on April 23, 2019, in Europe and North America, and April 25, 2019, in Japan.
Music The music director for ''Dragon's Dogma
was Tadayoshi Makino, who had previously worked on Monster Hunter Tri''. Makino initially began planning the musical elements of the game in 2009, when the game world's design was still in a state of flux. Makino was initially pulled in two different directions by Itsuno and Kobayashi; while both wanted to make an impression outside standard fantasy music expectations, Itsuno wanted to use jazz while Kobayashi wanted to use hard rock similar to
Queen and
Kiss. His aim was to not make the music too assertive, allowing it to blend in with the natural world of the game. Ishi was involved from an early stage, when the musical direction of the project was still being decided upon. Kondoh was brought in due to his work on previous Capcom titles. Zur's methods of working were entirely new to the otherwise-Japanese composers, something which the team thought would benefit the production. Makino acted as general supervisor due to his knowledge of the game's story. The music was recorded in
Bulgaria by the
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra; the recording, which took place at the Bulgarian National Radio Studio, included roughly 130 musicians and choir. A European orchestra was chosen as Makino wanted a distinctive sound different from the typical Hollywood-styled orchestral sound. The recording was supervised by
Thomas Böcker and his company
Merregnon Studios, who were brought aboard the project by Harmonics International based on their previous collaborations on
Symphonic Fantasies concerts. Rock elements included in some tracks were recorded in Japan by guitarist Tenyu Nakamura and drummer Tatsuya Suzuki. As much music as possible was recorded live rather than using synthesized instruments. For
Dark Arisen, Makino returned to compose new tracks for the game's new dungeon alongside Kondoh and Zur; the new work, mainly focused on the new dungeon, covered 24 tracks. In contrast to ''Dragon's Dogma
, the added music for Dark Arisen'' made heavy use of synthesized music. Makino created "Coils of Light" using the core melody of "Eternal Return", tying into the original soundtrack. The English version of "Coils of Light" was sung by William Montgomery. The official soundtrack album for ''Dragon's Dogma'' was released on May 23, 2012. Featuring 66 tracks across two CDs, the album was published by the music label of Square Enix. A shorter album was released by
Sumthing Else Music Works as a physical and digital release on November 11. "Into Free -Dangan-" was released as a digital single on
iTunes on April 4, 2012. At Kobayashi's suggestion, Makino collaborated with
Square Enix's
Tsuyoshi Sekito, who had composed music for multiple Square Enix titles and performed as part of
The Black Mages; Sekito performed guitar for some of the album's arranged tracks. "Coils of Light" was released as part of Raychell's album
L ▶ R on April 24. ==Reception==