By Jim Rossignol on February 16th, 2012 at 9:00 am.
‘Twas just a few days past that I had a chat with Robin Flodin of Zeal Game Studio, the folks behind Paradox’s forthcoming game about dwarves, A Game Of Dwarves. The game seems to be a mixture of the old Bullfrog games and, well, a rather more recent experiment in dwarf simulation, and certainly warrants deeper investigation. I asked Mr Florin about what he was actually trying to do in a game where dwarves dig deep, and build shiny things.
RPS: Can you tell us a bit about your inspiration for A Game Of Dwarves? What sort of game is it exactly? What is it similar to?
Flodin: It’s a dangerous thing to talk about inspiration in the video game industry, people will rush to either point out differences between the games or sometimes turn right away since they did not like the inspirational game in question. So when I say that we’re inspired by the old management games of the 90′s we don’t mean the game themselves as much as we are trying to capture the genre. The fun but hard time sinks that used to rule PC-gaming.
RPS: So how much direct control do you have over the dwarves?
Flodin: While the control of your dwarves are excellent, we try to limit the direct control as much as possible. Having to micro several dwarfs individual quickly becomes tedious and in really large settlements near impossible. So the approach is more god-game than RTS, you tell the dwarves what you want done, and the game sends idle dwarfs to do your bidding.
RPS: How close to “finished” are the visuals we have seen so far?
Flodin: We still have loads of pre alpha art in the game right now, they will all be replaced before release. Especially the textures on objects and dwarves are very much unfinished in the screens that have been released before. I can assure you that the game will look absolutely delicious before release.
RPS: What’s the scale of the game – how many dwarves do you expect us toe able to control? And how big will your bases be?
Flodin: The Campaign is divided into several levels and each of those levels are large enough to keep you entertained for hours, you also have the option to return to a settlement on a earlier level to continue build and maybe complete some side missions or grab an achievement. The actual size of the levels and the bases, still fluctuate some and depends heavily on play style, a spartan player could complete his levels while building very small settlements and on the other hand players might build humongous creations with unique rooms for each individual dwarf.
RPS: Are the comparisons to Dwarf Fortress fair?
Flodin: As I said earlier inspiration is a dangerous word, there are similarities between aGoD and DF but the focus is different. At this point in time aGoD is nowhere near as hardcore and complex as DF although if this is something people want we’re not below adding features at a later date.
RPS: Do you anticipate any multiplayer aspect to the game?
Flodin: I can’t really answer that at this moment, I can say that it’s something we’re looking into and right now it could go either way. Expect more news on this some time after GDC.
RPS: Thanks for your time.
16/02/2012 at 09:04 Drayk says:
A game of thrones…. sorry Dwarves.
Looks a bit stiff in the animation and lacks graphic variety. Hope that it will really be better as they promised.
16/02/2012 at 17:30 Kdansky says:
Seems just unfinished to me: Some animations exist, others are utterly absent (dwarf near ladder just disappears), and some buttons are clearly place-holders (huge W or S). The parts that look polished actually look quite nice.
16/02/2012 at 09:13 eleclipse says:
Seems interesting.
I would really love a more “casual” dwarf fortress.
16/02/2012 at 09:57 Kent says:
I think it’s pretty obvious that the game will be more like DK or EG than DF. A more casual DF however, there’s actually a game that’s very similar and called Towns.
16/02/2012 at 11:48 DodgyG33za says:
@Kent
Strictly speaking there is not a game called Towns. At least not a finished one. Maybe in 6 months. Maybe in a year.
16/02/2012 at 12:26 Malk_Content says:
@Dodgy: Strictly speaking there isn’t a game called Dwarf Fortress. At least not a finished one. Maybe in 6 generations.
16/02/2012 at 23:40 Geen says:
Honestly, Towns has horrible UI too, but as a hardened DF veteran I can use them.
16/02/2012 at 09:22 Prime says:
This one looks like a Keeper.
16/02/2012 at 09:40 MyPetHamster says:
It’s a work of Genius
16/02/2012 at 10:03 apocraphyn says:
It’s a good Theme they’re going with. I do like me some Dungeons.
16/02/2012 at 13:47 RianXD says:
A true Dungeon Keeper :)
16/02/2012 at 14:51 Muffalopadus says:
I hated Dwarf Fortress, Hopefully its not as ASCII as that game.
16/02/2012 at 19:58 Phantoon says:
DON’T RUIN THE PUN CHAIN OR I’LL THROW YOU IN THE DUNGEON!
16/02/2012 at 09:36 hatseflats says:
I hope a sandbox mode a la dwarf fortress will be included. I would love to play that game but I really need a good tutorial and GUI…
16/02/2012 at 09:56 Eagle0600 says:
Tutorials for DF can be found all over the place: Video Tutorials, a wiki, read-through tutorials, lets-plays, and follow-along tutorials. A tutorial to fit your tastes, almost guaranteed. As for UI, there currently exists no real alternative to the one in-game. While visualizers exist, and one can even run in real-time side-by-side with the game, you can’t play the game in any of them.
16/02/2012 at 10:46 Joshua IX says:
DF is not as daunting as it looks. Just start with a graphics set like Mayday and watch some video tutorials. It becomes fairly dynamically once you know the basics.
16/02/2012 at 14:18 Randomer says:
The are plenty of tutorials. The hard part is finding one that isn’t horribly out of date.
16/02/2012 at 23:41 Geen says:
Just try to learn one thing every try, it’ll help if you focus.
17/02/2012 at 00:53 thebigJ_A says:
While there aren’t many tutorials for the very newest version, you don’t want to play that anyway. the Lazy Newb Pack hasn’t been updated for it.
Just download the most recent LNP. The version in it has been around long enough that there are plenty of accurate guides. Go on Youtube and see excellent ones from cptnduck and 51ppycup, and you’ll be good to go.
Hell they even have tutorials on the Lazy Newb Pack itself (don’t let the name fool you, it’s not just for newbies, at all).
16/02/2012 at 09:55 Zanchito says:
There are some really good tutorials in the Dwarf Fortress forums. About the GUI, yeah, it’s a pain at first, but you have graphics sets and several tools that make the game way more playable than the raw thing. Also, you don’t need to go hunting for them, there’s a conveniently packaged “Newbie Pack” with all the stuff you need to get started: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.0
16/02/2012 at 10:19 hjd_uk says:
In fact, once you have the hang of it its faster to hit three keys than it is to navigate am menu or two and click on a button and then do something. i.e [b Shift-C w] = build -> construction -> wall.
16/02/2012 at 11:41 DodgyG33za says:
+1 to not playing DF vanilla.
To be honest though, even once you get something slightly better than ASCII art you still have to deal with keyboard controls that are not even internally consistent (mark area for example).
And a word of warning, I managed to infect my gaming rig with a nasty virus courtesy the DF Lazy Newbs pack. Can’t recall where I DL’ed if from, but you have been warned.
Back on topic – terrible voice over on the vid, but IF the game is a more accessible DF, I will be in. The problem with DF is consolidated access to information. I can never be sure if the reason why my commands have not been followed is my fault or a bug.
16/02/2012 at 13:50 Dominic White says:
“And a word of warning, I managed to infect my gaming rig with a nasty virus courtesy the DF Lazy Newbs pack”
It’s a false-positive. The DFHack tools in the newb pack use some logic structurally similar to a virus in order to make tweaks to the Dwarf Fortress EXE, so virus scanners think it’s malicious.
16/02/2012 at 15:08 sPOONz says:
“It’s a false-positive”
Yeah thats correct, eveytime I install LNP my AVG anti-virus gets set off. Ive spent some time at the DF forums too and have not seen any threads detailing people getting infected from the download. So, should be safe.
16/02/2012 at 10:00 hjd_uk says:
Definitly not enough Cats, or Socks or !!Booze!!
Looks promising though.
And considering just how insanely detailed Dwarf Fortress is this would have to be “Dwarf Fortress Hyper-Ultra-Lite”
16/02/2012 at 10:25 BlackestTea says:
hm… as much as I want to like this game, I’m failing to get a good impression of what it actually is. Also, this must be among the least informative interviews I’ve read on RPS so far – not in terms of the questions being to vague, but rather the answers containing no substantive content whatsoever!
I mean: “how big will the bases be and how many dwarfs will you be able to control? – They can be small or big” – seriously? I wouldn’t have thought.
16/02/2012 at 10:32 Incompleteness says:
It would be dangerous for me to actually tell you things about this game. In fact, my boss only agreed for me to do this phone interview so he could have a shotgun pointed at me to make sure I don’t say too much. Yes, that dangerous.
16/02/2012 at 13:36 BlackestTea says:
Sounds dangerous indeed. Sure, I understand there need to be quite some limits to what is disclosed. It just made me wonder – what does this kind of coverage give me, the potential consumer. From a dev/publisher perspective it’s obviously good to keep the word out there that the game exists and continues to be developed. Sure that’s also something I appreciate to know. But beyond that, it feels a little like a case of non-news, where I eagerly open the tab with the interview because I want to learn more about the game only to discover that yes, it is what has been said in previous coverage – that’s it. Hm.. not sure where I’m going with this post, to be honest. I may be exaggerating.
16/02/2012 at 18:00 Davie says:
Well, from this interview we may deduce that the game will be good or bad, perhaps average.
16/02/2012 at 12:10 HexagonalBolts says:
Please let me throw money at it! This looks amazing! Please keep all the ridiculousness of Dwarf Fortress – that really is what makes it amazing. I turned it on for five minutes this morning and saw a small dog grab a 50kg tiger fish out of the air and shake its head until it exploded.
16/02/2012 at 13:32 Blackcompany says:
Yes, but…can we toss them?
16/02/2012 at 15:11 sPOONz says:
Not the beard!
16/02/2012 at 14:00 SquidInABox says:
This trailer is the reason why game trailers shouldn’t ever have voiceovers.
16/02/2012 at 15:43 wodin says:
How can he not say he was inspired by DF!!!!
Also why do they have to wait for a later date to add more advanced features!!
Why not add them as options now!
Oh most likely because it isn’t a sandbox game..
16/02/2012 at 19:02 LionsPhil says:
Early stage of development?
16/02/2012 at 16:00 JackDandy says:
It looks kinda mediocre at the moment. Not enough to steer my attention away from DF.
But I’ll wait till release before I decide.
16/02/2012 at 19:01 LionsPhil says:
Yeah. Notch’s development lacks any real questioning of “how does simulating this make it a better game, and can I get that same benefit from something cheaper?”. Which is part of its character, and somewhat succeeds at making it a story generator (which I think was somewhat his intent?), but doesn’t really make it a better game.
16/02/2012 at 22:16 theleif says:
I think you mean Tarn Adams and not Notch, right?
16/02/2012 at 22:31 LionsPhil says:
Yeah, that I did.
17/02/2012 at 00:38 Ironclad says:
Those who say this is a Dwarf Fortress clone will be the first ones against the wall when the revolution comes.
In the mean time, go play Dungeon Keeper you dolts!!