Building the World of ARDEM: A Dev Diary

Crafting a World Worth Surviving In

When we set out to build the world of ARDEM, we had one guiding principle: every location should tell a story. From the overgrown suburbs to the abandoned military checkpoints, each area reflects the collapse of civilization in its own way.

Terrain and Biomes

Our world spans multiple biomes — dense forests, open meadows, coastal cliffs, swamplands, and mountainous terrain. Each biome has its own resource distribution, wildlife, and survival challenges.

Environmental Storytelling

You won't find quest markers pointing you toward lore. Instead, the world itself tells the story. A barricaded school with supplies inside, a crashed military convoy on the highway, a greenhouse someone tried to maintain long after the outbreak — these environmental details paint a picture of what happened and the people who tried to survive it.

Points of Interest

With over 100 handcrafted locations, there's always something to discover. We've designed each POI to reward exploration while maintaining a sense of danger. Some of the best loot is in the most dangerous places.

Performance and Streaming

Building a world this large comes with technical challenges. We've implemented a custom level-of-detail and streaming system to ensure the world loads seamlessly as you explore, maintaining stable framerates even on mid-range hardware.

— The ARDEM World Design Team