By Jim Rossignol on January 21st, 2012 at 9:45 am.
We mentioned Paradox’s upcoming dwarf-management game, A Game Of Dwarves, earlier in the week, but there was also an announcement trailer, which you can see below. I had a quick chat with the team when I was at Paradox’s event in Sweden this week, so I’ll post that as soon as I’ve got it written up. I should say though that they were super-keen to stress that all the stuff we’ve seen of the game so far is super-earlier, and that it is not yet feature-complete.
21/01/2012 at 09:52 Moonshine Fox says:
That voice acting made me cringe. Looks kinda interesting, but the animations really need a touch of work. I’m not sure if this is some kind of indie game, but it didn’t quite attract me much. I kinda felt “I’ve got Dwarf Fortress, what does this have that DF doesn’t have?” Aside from graphics, that is :P
21/01/2012 at 09:55 Jim Rossignol says:
It’s in the tradition of the Bullfrog games, not Dwarf Fortress.
21/01/2012 at 09:55 The Army of None says:
(Which is still good by me!)
21/01/2012 at 10:18 LuNatic says:
I hope they do copy a lot from Dwarf Fortress. If it has a DF style crafting system (More experience = better quality items), and food/booze/sleep management I could see myself spending a lot of time on this. I’d also like to see different materials providing different benefits(Silver weapons do bonus damage vs vampires and lycanthropes, mithral armour absorbing magic damage, but not as good against an old fashioned axe, etc). I’ll be very disappointed if they don’t flesh it out with some good depth.
21/01/2012 at 10:19 Gnoupi says:
You obviously can’t make a game with dwarves and caverns without people comparing it to dwarf fortress or calling it a copy, nowadays. See Dwarfs!?! or Delve Deeper, for example.
Besides, glad to see that Paradox has a Dungeon Keeper game in preparation, really hope it turns out good. Because the last one, from other people (Dungeons), was not very exciting.
21/01/2012 at 10:45 Bhazor says:
What I love about DF is the level of simulation and the resultant chaos that can result as things spiral out of control. That and it has some of the funniest glitches since Boiling Point.
If this has those two things I’ll be very very happy.
@Jim
Well given that DF was originally a Dungeon Keeper clone…
21/01/2012 at 11:09 Jim Rossignol says:
@Bhazor, i think “clone” might be stretching the definition of being inspired by something.
21/01/2012 at 11:09 Kent says:
Ugh, I hate to be reminded of Dungeons. Horrible piece of work that was. I tend to look at Evil Genius as the spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper… because EG were actually a pretty good game… even through taking over the world got boring after a while.
21/01/2012 at 11:25 HexagonalBolts says:
The design references very heavily to dwarf fortress, if you’ve spent a lot of time playing dwarf fortress then the ASCII pretty much looks like this trailer to your deluded mind.
I really hope there are over-ground invasions that you have to fend off.
21/01/2012 at 11:44 LionsPhil says:
Evil Genius is still one of the most slickly presented games I’ve seen, and it makes up for so many mechanical shortcomings.
21/01/2012 at 11:58 MSJ says:
I can’t wait to see how the game tie-in for The Hobbit will compare to Dwarf Fortress.
24/01/2012 at 02:34 TBPx says:
Unfortunately, in order for me to feel hopeful about this game, which I will be shamelessly comparing to DF, I’ll expect a similar level of detail. I say unfortunately, because even half of the intricacy of DF rendered for the above graphics seems like it would be a monster to run. I built myself a lovely new system that eats everything else on ultra settings, and I still live in fear of the Catsplosion.
That said, I am praying to the Blood God that this game offers me the disturbing satisfaction of un-wedging goblin corpses from my spear traps in 3D.
24/01/2012 at 23:33 Dave Mongoose says:
@Jim – I think it’s fair to say that it overlaps the concepts of Dwarf Fortress quite a lot, even if it’s not intentional… The last part of that trailer (where the voiceover talks about digging “as deep as you please, what’s the worst that could happen?” with a sinister shadow looming over the king) is very suggestive of DF’s ‘hidden fun stuff’…
Granted that in itself is based on the Balrog of Moria from The Lord of The Rings, but you can’t ignore the similarity.
21/01/2012 at 09:55 Davie says:
Aaaand now we know what constipated dwarf babies sound like!
All voice-acting silliness aside, this looks like it could be a reasonably fun sort of Dungeon Keeper/Dwarf Fortress lite. Really though, if DF’s mechanics were transplanted even to this graphics engine, it would make my year. Or possibly life.
21/01/2012 at 09:57 Nutrion says:
I think it looks great.
View distance probably needs to be longer, some glitches going down with the elevator, but overall I’d want to try it out NOW. Hehe
21/01/2012 at 09:58 Prime says:
Heh. The ghost of Dungeon Keeper lives on. Fantastic.
21/01/2012 at 10:00 Inigo says:
I miss Funnybones.
21/01/2012 at 10:08 Icarus says:
I’m glad it’s not just me who got the reference, then.
21/01/2012 at 10:24 frenz0rz says:
Do you think the reference was intentional, or just coincidence? I cant see the two things having much in common. Still, I’m pleased I’m not the only one who immediately started reciting the theme tune.
21/01/2012 at 14:09 Koozer says:
GAH I didn’t know what you were on about until I heard the trailer. I’ve been ambushed by memories.
21/01/2012 at 14:23 McCool says:
YES! These were my thoughts as well. Is this the mischief of one Quinns we are experiencing again?
21/01/2012 at 16:57 Jackablade says:
The “in a dark, dark wood” story predates Funny Bones.
This is the original version:
https://secure.lynbrook.k12.ny.us/mflannery/in_a_dark,%20dark%20wood%20poem.htm
It’s a little more effective if there’s only two lines on each page of your storybook.
21/01/2012 at 10:04 BurningPet says:
They should have just called it “World of Dwarfcraft: Dungeon digger”.
Name issues aside, it does look extremely cute and here’s hoping it will not disappoint like that other “dungeon keeper-like-game” which turned out so flat and boring that it only took the genres a few steps back rather then advancing it.
21/01/2012 at 10:14 Brumisator says:
I apologise in advance for my following meme use:
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
21/01/2012 at 10:59 Belsameth says:
+1 :D
21/01/2012 at 10:19 Legionary says:
So tired of this art style.
21/01/2012 at 12:05 Ninja Dodo says:
As opposed to photo-realism? You’re not tired of that? Personally with the handful of games that manage to pull off a solid cartoony visual style I think we could do with a few more.
21/01/2012 at 17:50 Scandalon says:
Ninja dodo, show me a current, real-time game that looks photo-realistic…
21/01/2012 at 19:01 Ninja Dodo says:
OK, I should’ve said ‘photo-realistic’… but you know the style of graphics I mean. Certainly, some games are best served by something more or less realistic, but it’s a shame it has to be the default visual style for nearly everything.
22/01/2012 at 19:24 Phantoon says:
I think he means he just hates brown.
Rooms should have tiled floors, like in Dungeon Keeper, to keep the color from just being brown, everywhere.
24/01/2012 at 23:19 Dave Mongoose says:
So tired of these one line complaint posts. If you’re going to give a negative opinion, at least elaborate; otherwise you just look like a lazy troll.
21/01/2012 at 10:19 Tuco says:
Sounds interesting, but some more effort/investment in a better production value couldn’t hurt a bit.
In other words: “it looks ugly as hell, please do something about that”.
21/01/2012 at 10:29 SketchyGalore says:
A game of Dwarf Fortress that doesn’t have the accessibility of a ten-foot greased wheelchair ramp? I’m there. Just more Dungeon Keeper than Dungeons, please!
21/01/2012 at 10:36 Kollega says:
Ever since Wiggles/Diggles, that German-made epic dwarven quest simulator made in early 2000s, i love me some dwarf management games. Unfortunately, Dwarf Fortress is fairly impenetrable even with a tutorial and i am an impatient git.
I also liked Evil Genius, which i heard is close to Dungeon Keeper in terms of gameplay, so this game might turn out to be my kind of stuff.
21/01/2012 at 12:52 Stoygroff says:
Smells like Diggles: The Myth of Fenris alright… Hopefully it isn’t another Dungeon Keeper rip-off like ‘Dungeons’ Kalypso pooped out a while ago.
I’ve been a zealous follower of Dwarf Fortress for a couple of years now. Also enjoyed Evil Genius a lot, so I hope they got some inspiration from those games.
21/01/2012 at 10:39 quickfics says:
Seriously, what IS the worst that could happenin’?
21/01/2012 at 18:05 Swanny says:
I was wondering the same thing.
Hoping for a we-drank-all-the-booze inspired fisticuffs death spiral.
21/01/2012 at 10:40 Rich says:
Hope you can make your tunnels look nicer.
21/01/2012 at 11:00 Andy_Panthro says:
Definitely looks a lot like Dungeon Keeper, which is a good thing I think.
Hopefully you can dig too deep and unleash a balrog.
21/01/2012 at 11:05 LionsPhil says:
>Placing ladders by just clicking and spending money rather than having to create them in a workshop from a felled tree and then have a dwarf get there and place them without the stupid, stupid, stupid AI managing to get itself stuck or it every available dwarf that picks up the ladder getting distracted by hunger, thirst, or kobolds half-way there and dropping it, at which point someone else needs to return it to the stockpile before the whole miserable process can be re-tried.
Dumbed down for consoles!, etc.
21/01/2012 at 11:28 MondSemmel says:
Hey, even in Dwarf Fortress, last I played all you needed to carve stairs from rock was a pickaxe :). Of course, one could also build staircases in the open, which made the process more like you mentioned above…
Are there actually ladders in DF? I don’t remember them being there.
That being said, I approve of the quote.
21/01/2012 at 11:43 LionsPhil says:
(Yeah, I can’t actually remember ladders in DF, but then I haven’t played since whatever the release after 40d was.)
21/01/2012 at 12:01 MSJ says:
When I was younger, with have to arrange individual pixels to make ladders. In the snow! Uphill, both ways!
21/01/2012 at 12:05 LionsPhil says:
Pixels? Luxury! We had to play on a teletype, holding the view of the game in our heads!
21/01/2012 at 15:26 JackDandy says:
It’s looking kind of neat.
Will keep my eye on it.
21/01/2012 at 15:49 Skiv says:
Do ho ho ho. Everyone here said its pretty nice. Ill say the same. Waiting with anticipation!
21/01/2012 at 15:54 HannibalBarca says:
I live for the day when Paradox’s cutesy little strategy of blatantly piggy-backing off of popular games gets them smacked with a lawsuit.
21/01/2012 at 19:41 Lilliput King says:
Popular games like Dwarf Fortress, that household name, that commercial juggernaut?
21/01/2012 at 21:02 FriendlyFire says:
Piggy-backing off what? Dwarf Fortress, Evil Genius, Dungeon Keeper?
I know there’s not a lot of games in the genre, but that doesn’t mean they’re all X-clones.
Or are all FPS still Doom clones?
21/01/2012 at 23:24 Nixitur says:
I wonder what it’s more inspired by, Dwarf Fortress or Dungeon Keeper. If it’s the former, I probably won’t buy it, because I love Dwarf Fortress way too much. If it’s the latter, I am rather intrigued.
Whatever the case, I’ll definitely keep an eye out for any news on this.
21/01/2012 at 23:26 Saiko Kila says:
I want to see a dwarf mother, carrying her dwarf baby which is trailing its dwarf intestines behind. I’d compare my imagination with the game devs imagination, see which one is better. Also, if the shadow at the end was cast by demon, I hope it will be really atrocious.
21/01/2012 at 23:40 Yargh says:
Please Please Please, be good!
22/01/2012 at 00:16 Brotacon says:
I don’t know, I love the idea of a game like Dwarf Fortress with a mouse based UI and updated graphics but this… it just looks a bit bland?
The animation is pretty stiff and slow and the artstyle is alright, but nothing that grabs me.
I suppose I always imagined an updated Dwarf Fortress to look like Stonesense with a Sim City 3000 style UI with contextual mouse menus on right click.
Something like this picture:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ItQOU8AfJ98/TlpR_dEP7bI/AAAAAAAABm8/6WUP0SB6bNA/s1600/Dwarf_Fortress_Futur_Graphics.jpg