Dungeons never go out of fashion – not amongst gamers, anyway. For some reason, the urge to delve deeper burns inside all of us, whether as a party of adventurers or a cadre of miners. Maybe it's the lure of gems and gold, or perhaps it's a fascination with whatever hidden dangers might sleep far below, but we always want to press a little further and dig a few feet deeper no matter what the dangers might be.
A Game of Dwarves is all about satisfying those desires and facing those dangers. Harking back to the PC strategy and management classics of the 90s, such as Theme Hospital and, more appropriately, Dungeon Keeper, it sees players gradually carving out an underground settlement, controlling its economy and supervising its defence. The bigger and beardier your dwarf hold becomes, the more you'll need to look after its inhabitants, making sure they're well fed, well trained and have all the resources they need to do their jobs.
But the game's lead designer, Sebastian Thorwaldsson, insists that it's just not safe down there. Sure, the deeper you dig and the bigger you build, the more powerful your dwarven community becomes, but they'll have to, because there are all sorts of horrors lurking in the depths. Sebastian's team have packed their game with monsters. “We looked for inspiration in classical Tolkien fantasy as well as the more horrorific works of Lovecraft,” he says. “We also added a pinch of the Scandinavian mythos and our own madness.”
Keeping your dwarves safe is going to be one of your prime concerns; you won't want to lose your carefully-tended settlement. But exactly how you do so, whether by building defensively or recruiting a large army, is your choice. “The easiest way is to have a strong and varied military, ready at all times,” suggests Sebastian. “However, high level warriors have high maintenance costs, they eat more and have higher standards for the settlement, so this might not always be the right strategy to follow. The defensive player would most likely cover their entrances and corridors with walls and traps to hinder enemies from getting to the settlement, which of course has its weaknesses as well.”
As well as warriors, your community will also need other professionals, such as craftsmen, farmers and researchers, and with time you'll hope to build huge underground farms, great halls and snug dormitories. Whatever choices you make as you play, the idea is to keep the game simple and straightforward. Digging, farming and training are just a mouse click away; the developers want you to spend your time making all the big and exciting decisions, rather than falling into the dreary trap that is administration.
“One thing that we’ve worked with a lot is the streamlining of the micromanagement,” Sebastian explains. “A Game of Dwarves would be frustrating if it was hard to control your dwarves, or near impossible when the settlements grows large. To remedy this we’ve implemented an order system that allows the player to place orders that send your dwarves to work, while basic needs, such as eating or sleeping, are dealt with by the dwarves themselves.”
The idea is to appeal to both serious strategy fans, as well as more casual gamers, especially because the latter may be put off by an ever-growing wealth of options and content. A Game of Dwarves will start simple, but eventually build into a very complex game. Sebastian says that it will balance this complexity with accessibility: “We don’t feel that casual and hardcore games are always mutually exclusive. Casual gamers are often drawn to games that look good and are accessible, that's something we like. So our goal is definitely to make the game accessible but challenging, since that's the kind of game we love ourselves.”
"The current preview build of the game looks promising and feels a little bit like a subterranean version of The Sims, with dwarves happily going about their business and allowing the player to focus on expansion and development, or instead get carried away decorating their holdings. Still, there is much more to be added, both before and after release, and A Game of Dwarves doesn't look like it's going to skimp on content.
“We’ve gotten the Tech Tree and the Happiness system in place and are now hard at work on the campaign,” says Sebastian. “Of course there will also be a custom game mode where you have the ability to change the rules for how the world is generated to suit your own demands.” The game is set for release this winter, so you'd better start growing your beard now.
Source : http://www.ign.com
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