Hi everybody,

First of all, we’re very sorry for the slow news and response time lately. In this update, we wanted to cover what we’ve been working on this semester, as well as lay out a timeline for going forward.

Game Design Updates

Over the past few months, we’ve been restructuring the way the core gameplay works. This is one of the reasons we haven’t uploaded a new build of the game in a few months — it’s been in a state of overhaul.

Changes to Selection Mode

Originally, we were planning on using the “Tycoon” model of controlling units and getting things built. In the Tycoon model (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, etc.), the player places “designations” for things he or she wants built, or done, and then “minions” (in our case, Dwarves) complete the tasks automatically.

After doing some playtests with naive users, we realized the Tycoon model was too confusing in our full 3D environment, and even veteran strategy game players had trouble understanding what their Dwarves were doing.

For that reason, we’ve decided to switch to the “Strategy” system of controlling units. In the Strategy system (Starcraft, Command and Conquer, etc.) players first select units, and then tell them which tasks to do. This is a subtle, but important difference — players will now be able to tell specific Dwarves to do specific things, and will be able to cancel Dwarf jobs.

Changes to Resource Collection

Originally, resources were physical items which had to be transported from one place to another by Dwarves. During play-testing, we found that Dwarves were spending a huge amount of time just carrying items back and forth, and stockpiles couldn’t hold many items before needing to be expanded.

Because of these flaws, we’ve changed the way resources work. Blocks and entities still drop physical items, but when Dwarves collect these items, they now go into a “backpack” that the Dwarves carry.

Stockpiles have also changed. Rather than just being a space for physical resources, they now contain crates full of resources. Crates can hold anywhere from four to thirty-two items as stockpiles get upgraded. They are created and destroyed automatically as Dwarves add or remove items. This has also made building structures dramatically faster as Dwarves automatically remove items from stockpiles.

New Content

While re-designing the core mechanics of the game, we are also adding new content.

Minimap

The game now has a mini-map which can be scrolled, zoomed, etc. and shows the position of your Dwarves.

Animals

We now have the ability to spawn animals. Right now, the only animals we have in the game are birds and deer, and not much can be done with them, but they do run around and look cool!

Traps

We now have one working trap in the game that Dwarves can build, a bear trap. After the bear trap is placed, it will wait silently until a non-dwarf creature touches it, at which point it snaps, causing damage and disappearing.

New Interface and Titles

We’ve created this fancy scrolling title screen, and a few more menu graphics.

Music

The game’s soundtrack is also coming along. Here are a couple of WIP tracks. We’re trying to maintain a similar style and timbre to the original song used in the Kickstarter. That is, cheesy low-fi MIDI.

Moving into Alpha

DwarfCorp will be officially moving into “Alpha” on June 7th, 2014 that means all backers $8 and higher will be getting a download key on Steam and a link to the Humble Bundle page. Previously, only $20 and higher backers had access to the game. Unfortunately, we still don’t think we will have Mac or Linux builds available by then, but a Windows/XNA build will be available.

Shirts

Almost everyone should have received T-shirts by now. We will be doing another pass of our rosters to make sure we’ve got everyone. If you are a shirt-level backer and still haven’t received a shirt, please let us know, and we will make sure you get one.

Taxes and Money

We paid our first set of income taxes this year (yay!?) After taxes and the money we’ve spent on consultants and materials, we’ve still got about $30,000 left. That will be enough to continue funding the game through Beta at the current pace of development.

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That’s it! More updates soon as we try to get a bunch done before the Alpha is to be released.