There is a new version of the game out now. You can get this version of the game on our Downloads page. If you’re a backer (above $8 or above) your copy of the game on Steam and now, itch.io will also be updated to this version. For the first time, the (unfinished) soundtrack is now also available on itch.io for $15 and higher backers. You should have received an email at the address you used to back our project on Kickstarter.

New features

In addition to the changes we talked about in the last post, there have been a few new tweaks and features that we’re happy to show off. Here’s a sampling:

Autosave. We made saving faster and made save files smaller. Saving is also now a little more stable. Because of this, we finally felt comfortable putting an autosave feature into the game, and a “continue from last save” menu option. This feature was a long time coming, and its still a little buggy, but it finally more or less works.

Better Dwarf AI. Dwarves are better at pathfinding now, especially when moving from aboveground to underground.

Better looking/performing water

Better looking map screen with icons

Silly Dwarf Diseases and Injuries Dwarves can now acquire random diseases such as Tuberculosis and Dysentry, which spread from dwarf to dwarf causing stupor, slowness and unhappiness. Several creatures now transmit diseases such as Rabies and Necrorot. Dwarves can get random injuries which take time to heal. Dwarves now go unconscious after taking too much damage and will have to recover in a bed.

Build anything. Building furniture/items no longer requires them to be built as part of a room. Most objects can now be built directly, and can be moved around the colony or deconstructed into parts.

Dwarf info widget. When clicking on a single dwarf, a new widget is now visible which shows some information about them. Previously this information was hidden on a second screen.

Tutorial Hints. The tutorial now spawns a floating hand that points at relevant items on the screen. This hand can be disabled.

What comes next?

Based on our projections, the game is likely to be commercially released around late September or early October 2017 on Steam and itch.io. Our target price is $19.99. Backers $8 and above will of course get free access to the commercial version of the game, but we will stop posting free builds directly on our website after that time. In the coming months we will be focusing on further improving the performance and user experience of our game.

One of the big pushes will be to increase the number and types of interactions you can have with other factions. We have some of this system in place, but its just not interesting enough. We have been looking into procedural story generation techniques and are super excited to get some of this in place.

In general, we will also be polishing and improving the user interface and working hard to reduce the number of critical bugs and balance issues that come up when playing the game for a long time.