In an East-meets-West collaboration, developer Gameloft and GOAT Games have partnered to bring Dungeon Hunter 6 - the latest game in the popular hack 'n' slash series - to market.

With a massive installation at this year’s Gamescom show in Cologne and a huge marketing push it’s safe to say that the title has high hopes pinned to it. And with a strong development team, and a planned simultaneous release in Eastern and Western markets, Dungeon Hunter 6 looks set to be a major step forward for the franchise.

Gameloft previously developed the Dungeon Hunter franchise solo, but the series has lacked a core installment since Dungeon Hunter 5 back in 2015. Gameloft are of course well-known for their partnership with Ubisoft and long tenure in the mobile gaming industry. GOAT Games - a name which ambitiously stands for 'Greatest Of All Time' - were founded in 2019 and have had great success in Chinese markets with games such as War and Magic, and Bloodline: Heroes of Lithas.

We spoke to Gameloft CSO Guilherme Lachaut and GOAT Games' founder Machine Ma to find out what Dungeon Hunter 6 brings to the franchise and their hopes for the title.

How do you view the IP of Dungeon Hunter?

Machine Ma: We see it as the definition of the RPG genre. This IP emerged when the whole industry started. So most games on mobile are super casual, like Fruit Ninja, that kind of stuff, but for us we prefer a game with action and the depth of an RPG. We see Dungeon Hunter as really defining what’s possible on the mobile platform, and we think it will be a long-term success within the industry.

Tell us about the collaboration between GOAT Games and Gameloft for Dungeon Hunter 6

Machine Ma: For us, we are like a start-up company, with just a few years experience, so learning from a giant like Gameloft has been quite an experience for us. They’re very careful and know how to do games right. And also they know how to shape this IP and create something that will continue in the right way.

Guilherme Lachaut: In terms of the franchise, Dungeon Hunter 5 has been the most successful by far so we wanted to work with GOAT Games because Dungeon Hunter 5 has been very successful in the Chinese market. So this is a global partnership. The game will be in international markets from the start and will also at some point be in China.

We feel that their expertise with the Chinese market, with their previous games, is a way to continue the legacy of the game. At Gameloft, with our skills, we felt that GOAT Games had something new to bring to the game. They had lots of freedom in terms of where they wanted to bring the game. We had the passion for the IP but we gave them the liberty to do something that wouldn’t have been done if it had been developed by one of our studios.

What kind of new experience is Dungeon Hunter 6 bringing to the players?

Machine Ma: We wanted to improve this game and make it the best in the series of Dungeon Hunters. The players wanted more interactions with each other and there’s the new PVP system which has really diversified the type of gameplay. And the game has been going for nine years now, so by now, the graphics have to be good! So we’ve been really working hard to make them the best.

Guilherme Lachaut: So up until now in Dungeon Hunter we’ve had five installments and one spin off and this game is following Dungeon Hunter 5 and is set many years later. We were interested in GOAT Games’ twist on the story and their expertise in refreshing a genre so it’s a follow on for the story, 100 years later and that’s allowed us to be more modern with all the industry standards for what you would expect from a mobile game today.

What’s so special about the Dungeon Hunter series?

Machine Ma: Dungeon Hunter 6 is a refinement for this brand. At GOAT Games our ambition is to produce the ‘greatest of all time’ - that’s our name! So we want the game to be one of the finest in the whole genre. We love this franchise, but we wanted to take it to another new level.

So how do you play Dungeon Hunter 6? Tell us about the gameplay.

Guilherme Lachaut: There are many different roles you can take. What I like is the smoothness and all the different types of attacks that you’d expect from an RPG. What I like about this genre and with Dungeon Hunter 6 especially is that you can have quick sessions, or you can really get involved and engage for multiple hours at a time.

I play it taking a train to work, and then I play it long hours at home so depending on what the player wants to do there are multiple roles in the game just for them.

What are your expectations for the game?

Machine Ma: We want the long-time fans to really like this game. Because a lot of our players were Dungeon Hunter players when they were young so we want to satisfy the long-time fans. And also we want to bring lots of new stuff to the game so we can have plenty of newcomers to the IP too. And so I think our collaboration with Gameloft will be a big success.

What do you think are the most exciting aspects of the game for players?

Guilherme Lachaut: There’s a big fanbase who have been waiting for Dungeon Hunter 6 for a long time. We have those historical mobile players that have grown up playing games like Dungeon Hunter and now they get to try the new combat systems, play a more action-oriented game, experience more diversity in terms of characters in terms of the mods and their abilities.

There are a lot more variations and combinations than were possible in the past. The game has been going for eight years now, so I think there was an expectation from an audience that has played the game in the past, but who wanted to see the game with a modern twist. That's what we've delivered.