Building An RPG Community: The Success of Orna

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 20, 2024 4 Views 6 Min Read
Building An RPG Community: The Success of Orna

The streets of Ottawa probably didn’t seem like the birthplace of a revolution in mobile gaming. Back in 2018, something remarkable happened, thanks to the magic of social media. “The game really came from a Reddit post,” explains Josh O’Reilly, Northern Forge’s Marketing Mage. “That’s what decided the fate of this. It went from a hobby to a full-time job for our main developer.”




That modest beginning evolved into Orna: The GPS RPG, which has spent the past six years redefining mobile gaming standards. While other location-based games chase augmented reality tricks and simplified mechanics, Orna carved a different path, one built around traditional RPG depth. The game operates within a carefully calibrated interaction radius of 150 to 500 meters, thoughtfully designed to avoid private property issues while keeping content accessible to players whether they’re exploring actively or playing from home.

This is an official image of Battle Shapers with the protagonists on the artwork. There is also a logo for the game.

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Orna: A Unique GPS-Driven RPG Experience


Within these boundaries lies one of gaming’s most sophisticated progression systems. Every 25 levels represents a new “tier,” unlocking fresh systems and content types that transform familiar locations into fresh adventures. A staggering 75 character classes populate this world, each offering unique abilities and playstyles. “What’s lovely is on your main character, you can play all the classes and switch between them like this,” O’Reilly notes. “Freedom of expression for players is super important.”

The game’s dedication to depth extends across every system. Players can collect over 3,000 distinct items, battle more than 500 monster types, and face off against 200 unique bosses. Monthly content drops on the first of each month bring new storylines, gear to chase, and quests to tackle. Each update explores a different in-game culture inspired by real-world mythologies, building out a rich universe that grows more intricate with each passing month.

Making an Impact: Terra’s Legacy

September 2024 marked a major evolution with Terra’s Legacy, launched as part of the Green Game Jam 2024 initiative. This update transformed real-world pollution hotspots into digital battlegrounds. Players submitted GPS coordinates of environmental trouble spots in their communities, from industrial wastelands to garbage-strewn creeks. The development team verified these locations and converted them into “Gloomsites,” special areas haunted by waste-type enemies called Murk monsters.


These Gloomsites serve as both combat zones and restoration projects. Players can plant virtual trees and grow special Gaia apples that provide character upgrades when harvested. Northern Forge backed this environmental initiative with real support, pledging 20 percent of all Terra’s Legacy in-app purchase revenues to Earth Day Canada. The studio priced these special IAP packs at $9.99, creating a direct link between virtual adventures and real-world environmental action.

Real-World Territory Control: The Conqueror’s Guild

Following Terra’s Legacy, Orna rolled out the Conqueror’s Guild on October 31st, perhaps its most ambitious feature yet. This massive update introduced a full territory control system built around real-world landmarks. Players battle for control of “Settlements” – popular local points of interest that become bases of power. Winners claim titles from Duke to Emperor, with each rank offering exclusive daily rewards they can share with other Settlement members.


These Settlements target specifically chosen popular real-world locations, transforming familiar landmarks into battlegrounds for pixel-art supremacy. Winners leave public messages on special Carving Stones at each Settlement, adding another layer of strategy and community interaction to the mix. The game’s global success, with over three million players across 18 languages, strengthened its community-first approach. “Our community, they’re everything to us,” O’Reilly emphasizes. “We wouldn’t even be here without them.” It’s also mighty impressive that the game’s entire localization was handled by its passionate player base, with every developer remaining active daily in Discord, implementing player feedback in real-time.


Orna’s Legacy

For a game that began as a Reddit post inspired by a love of classic JRPGs, Orna stands as something remarkable. The blend of traditional RPG depth, GPS innovation, and community-driven evolution demonstrates how mobile games can thrive through complexity and player respect rather than simplification. For a studio that describes itself as “strong, mighty, nimble, experimental, modest, and ambitious,” these updates feel like a mission statement come to life. They’re transforming a game that began as a technical experiment into something unprecedented: a mobile RPG that makes the real world feel more magical, more meaningful, and maybe, just a little bit better.

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