LOD
Because Godot’s Lod system leaves something to be desired, it took me a while to realize my idea of[…]
“Imagine Dwarf Fortress in 3D”
A Dwarfen Story is an indie game that is heavily inspired by Vintage Story, Dwarf Fortress and The Long Dark.
Build your settlement with your own hands and let the settlers bring it to life.
You can complete a wide variety of tasks. From woodworking to running the tavern, hunting or gathering. Do it yourself or let your settlers do the work for you while you explore the underworld with pickaxe and shovel. Defend your home against wild animals and worse … drunken dwarves.
In A Dwarfen Story you are not just a spectator, you are right in the middle of it and create your own story.
It’s not just the inhabitants of the world that keep you on your toes, a silent agent in the background also ensures unforeseen events that won’t let you get bored.
Prepare, survive, repeat.
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Screenshots (Subject to change)
Here are some screenshots. They are not necessarily up-to-date, as the game is still in development.
A living world
Animals and monsters should bring the world to life and, like the later settlers, follow a daily routine. If you are hungry, look for food. If they are afraid, they stay away from you. Are they active at night or rather during the day?
Easy to learn. Difficult to master.
The top rule is that gameplay, mechanics, everything should be easy to understand. If my children can operate it, then I’m on the right track. Honestly, who enjoys having to watch 3 hours of tutorials on YouTube before playing?
Seasons and weather
The seasons and the different weather conditions will not make it easy for you. You must prepare yourself and your settlements for the harsh winters. Wood, oil and food are essential for survival.
Dynamic storytelling
As in Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld, each player should experience their own story. Routines running in the background ensure that you never get bored.
Your settlers will build relationships with each other. Whether positive or negative. So it can happen that your miners get drunk and party all night and the next day blow up the mine because they are still hungover from the evening. Perhaps they also destroyed the tavern during a brawl, leading to the displeasure of other settlers.
It can also happen … that your settlers aren’t very clever and have their own ideas about living happily together. Nobody would think of stealing your winter supplies, would they?
Only me
I work alone on the project. From the code and gameplay to the music. Why? I haven’t found anyone yet who would be enthusiastic about working on the project until 2 or 3 in the morning after the family goes to bed instead of watching Netflix 😉
I like challenges. I like doing new things and learning new things. I love programming. Am I the best at it? Certainly not. But I do enjoy it.
I’ve always wanted to develop my own game. Whether it’s successful on Steam or not is not important to me. I want to develop something that I would play.
Who knows what the future holds. Maybe one day I’ll find a publisher or another opportunity so that I can work on the project full-time. Maybe I’ll find some helping hands.
We’ll see.
Developed with Godot
Why Godot? I was looking for an engine with which I could develop in C++. As I’ve been doing this for over 15 years, I naturally wanted to stick with this language. And seriously, C++ is still the best language ;D
Godot not only gives me the opportunity to develop in C++, but also to extend the engine. My code serves as a kind of extension. This gives me maximum influence on the engine and more possibilities to improve the performance.
I was also looking for an engine that would make it easier for me to get started. I haven’t developed a standalone game yet. My only experience in this area would be the plugin X-CPL-Pilot for X-Plane (a kind of management game).
The Unreal engine overwhelmed me with its possibilities. So I started with Godot and have now stuck with it.
When is it coming out?
Its still very early in development. There are still many components that are constantly changing. First and foremost, the generation of the world. This is generated randomly as is usual in the genre. I’m close to the goal, but it still needs some fine-tuning.
In the future I will also need someone to help me with the character models and animations. I’m currently using models from kenney, but I’ve reworked them a bit.
Videos
Just a few excerpts from the current progress.
Music
Changing world track
Unmastered track for the game. Well, will probably go in the garbage can. But it’s fun to play around to find the right sound for the game.
Marching Dwarfs track
Unmastered track for the game. Dwarves march into battle.
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