We have some exciting news: Dwerve has been selected for PAX Rising, so we'll be at PAX East! Don't worry, other fantastic and long-awaited news is coming soonish too. Our party of humble devs can see the light at the end of the dungeon!
Dwerve Makes PAX Rising!
PAX Rising showcases indie games that PAX believes have the chance to rise about their modest beginnings, by growing as a company, establishing a fan base or pushing the industry. PAX East takes place at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center from Thursday, April 21 through Sunday, April 24. If you want to attend PAX EAST and hang out with us in person, you can purchase badges here.
Dev Update + Cool Art!
In case you missed our last Kickstarter updates, here's a summary of what we've been working on this year so far!
â Turret & Trap Upgrades
Awhile back we gave Sla's Shop, where you use scrap to upgrade your turrets and traps, a big UI makeover (these icons are placeholder):
We also designed all of the turret & trap upgrades! Each turret & trap has its own upgrade tree with a total of 100+ upgrades! Check out the actual upgrade icons (adding in soon) that Enchae just finished:
đĨ Hero Abilities & Artifacts
We also implemented all of the artifacts, which give Dwerve abilities, some active and some passive! Check out the artifact icons:
Here you can see the Warhammer Smash in action:
đ Localization
Translators have localized a majority of the game to Spanish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese!
đ World Map
All of the world maps are done for each biome! Now we're implementing the world map in-game. Here's the overworld map of the above-surface locations:
And here's a preview of the Fungi Caves biome which is inside the mountain:
đ¨ Updating Art Assets
We've spent a lot of time adding and improving art assets! We want the game to look amazing! Check out this Gnobling Shrine:
We've also been giving the character portraits a makeover:
Esben (Dwerve's Grandpa)
Karvemup the Butcher
Witch-Queen Vandra
Thanks for reading this update! We hope you enjoyed it and look forward to sharing more news soon!
This update will be short and sweet! As we mentioned last update, we had the honor of being selected for The PAX 10 Indie Showcase. Well, September 3 has come! And now both the brand new PAX West Trailer and the Dwerve Prologue are live! Check out the trailer:
The Prologue features the same portion of content from previous demos, but with bug fixes, better balancing, design improvements, new HUD art, full controller support (including menus), difficulty options, graphics settings, new dialogues and other improvements.
đ Attending PAX West? Visit our booth!
If you're attending PAX West, come visit our booth and hangout with Peter, Enchae, and I (Percy)! Mordi and Mladen will be there in spirit! We'll be there for the entire convention from Friday, September 3 to Monday, September 6. If you are attending, make sure to read the safety guidelines and policies that PAX implemented to help provide a safe environment.
Dwerve has been selected for The PAX 10, an Indie Showcase at PAX West. Each year a group of 50 industry experts select the ten best indie games in regard to gameplay and overall fun-factor, and invite the teams to showcase their games at Pax West!
If you want to attend PAX West and hang out with us in person, you can purchase badges here. Due to Covid-19, they have implemented safety guidelines and policies to help provide a safe experience. PAX West takes place at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle on Labor Day Weekend, Friday, September 3 through Monday, September 6.
đšī¸ Play Dwerve Prologue on Steam on Sept 3!
Dwerve: Prologue releases on Steam on Friday, September 3, the first day of PAX West! Prologues are important since they help us reach new fans and get feedback from a large number of players. The prologue will feature the same portion of content from previous demos, but with bug fixes, better balancing, design improvements, new HUD art, full controller support (including menus), difficulty options, graphics settings, new dialogues and other improvements. Wishlist Dwerve: Prologue on Steam to get notified on launch.
If you can't make it to PAX West, you can still look forward to Dwerve: Prologue and a brand new Dwerve PAX West Trailer both of which premiere on September 3! It will showcase content we have added since the last trailer like backer-designed enemies, the stretch goal enemies, the stretch goal turrets, and a cute little critter. Subscribe to the Half Human Games YouTube Channel to get notified when the new trailer premieres!
Hi, everyone! It has been a fun and productive year for us so far! Despite the immense progress we have made, we have unfortunate news to share regarding the launch. On the flip side, we have exciting news as well: Mladen, a narrative designer and game writer has joined our team to breathe life into the characters and world! We want to show you all that we have been working on and discuss the delay in more detail to make sure we are as transparent as possible with you all.
Mladen is a professional narrative designer and game writer from Serbia! He has worked in the industry for over 5 years and contributed to titles like Warlander. He has joined our team to help us design the world, story, characters, and locations. He will breathe life into these by writing the dialogues for the game, as well as the text for interactable items that you can discover while exploring the levels. He will also collaborate with Peter and Enchae on visual storytelling to make sure each location reveals more about the lore of the world.
Dev Update
â¨ī¸ Programming | Percy
I (Percy) have been implementing miscellaneous features like proper graphics settings, remapping controls, improved controller support, and difficulty settings! Our Beta Testers have also kept me busy with bug reports. I have been fixing tons and tons of bugs! On a more fun note: I just added the harpoon turret! Now all turrets and enemies are in!
đšī¸ Level Design | Peter
Peter has been hard at work building levels. This includes painting tilemaps, designing battles, crafting puzzles, hiding secrets, setting up cutscenes, and of course playing through the levels over and over again to make sure it all works just right! He works closely with Mladen to make sure the levels align with the narrative, and with Enchae to make sure we get all of the art needed for each level. After we get bug reports and feedback from the Beta Testers, he iterates on the levels to fix bugs and make improvements. It's a very long and tough process. While we don't want to show any level spoilers, we're happy to note that we are more than halfway done with the levels!
đ¨ Art | Enchae
Enchae has been working on art for key locations like this... Hmmm! What could this be?
And environmental props for the different biomes, like this flaming tree!
And this building! I wonder where one might discover such fine architecture...
đĩ Audio | Mordi
Mordi will not leave any stone unturned! He has updated all of the turret and enemy sounds, making sure to replace any shared sounds with personalized ones. Now, events like building a turret provide unique audio feedback depending on which turret it is. Check out the sounds!
He has also been implementing dynamic music that seamlessly transitions from one section to another by adding and removing layers of music. Give the Fort Stonewall preview a listen!
Over the past couple of weeks, Mladen has helped us expand upon the history and lore of the world, elaborate on characters and locations, and refine the overall storyline. He just finished writing the dialogues for one of the chapters, and we have to say: it has been exciting to see those designs and ideas translate to in-game experiences. We can't wait for you all to experience the story of Dwerve!
Launch
Unfortunately Dwerve won't be ready by summer. Since AAA games market aggressively during the holiday season, we cannot launch over fall or winter either. Press and influencers are crucial to indie game success. During the holiday season, press and influences cover all of the AAA titles that are released over the holidays. We don't want to risk Dwerve not getting enough coverage at launch, because we want Dwerve to do well so we can continue to make awesome games for you all. Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to delay the launch until early 2022.
While the game itself will likely be done over summer, other important tasks like the Switch port, localizations, and QA will require more time. We want to assure you all that we are, to the best of our abilities, working hard to make sure that Dwerve is the best possible game it can be. After 3.5 years of development, we have grown even more passionate and excited to make Dwerve a reality. This unfortunate but necessary delay will give us more time to make sure we can realize our complete vision for Dwerve.
We're excited to announce that the Dwerve Demo will be made available for 1 week during the Steam Game Festival which lasts from February 3 to February 9!
Join us on the Steam page for 2 livestreams to watch Pixel Pete play Dwerve:
February 3 at 8 pm EST/GMT-5!
February 4 at 12 pm EST/GMT-5!
Dwerve is a tower defense dungeon crawler RPG. It tells the story of a young dwarven tinkerer that adventures into dwarven ruins to unearth the lost technologies of the ancient warsmiths - turrets and traps, the only weapons that can protect the dwarves from the witch queen known as Vandra the Wicked and her army of bloodthirsty trolls and monstrous creatures.
Key Features
Tactical turret-based combat. Combat involves making strategic decisions about which turrets and traps to build and where. During a battle you must rebuild, swap out, and reposition turrets to adapt to new waves of enemies and a dynamic battlefield!
Upgrade your arsenal. Unlock 15+ turrets, each with it's own unique upgrade tree. Purchase upgrades that make the turrets stronger. You decide which turret upgrades best cater to your favorite strategies and play style!
Discover powerful artifacts. Discover all 5+ artifacts â an arrow-blocking shield, dashing boots, a bouncing boomerang, a ground-shaking hammer, and more! These artifacts give the player special abilities to fight and outmaneuver foes!
Story-based campaign. Unravel the history of the dwarves and the trolls in a story that features diverse characters, unpredictable plot, and a fantasy world with it's own mythology!
Explore ancient dungeons. Explore 30+ dungeons in 5+ biomes, each with hidden secrets, mysterious puzzles, and interesting lore!
We're excited to announce that the Dwerve Demo will be made available for 1 week during the Steam Game Festival which lasts from February 3 to February 9!
Join us on the Steam page for 2 livestreams to watch Pixel Pete play Dwerve:
February 3 at 8 pm EST/GMT-5!
February 4 at 12 pm EST/GMT-5!
Dwerve is a tower defense dungeon crawler RPG. It tells the story of a young dwarven tinkerer that adventures into dwarven ruins to unearth the lost technologies of the ancient warsmiths - turrets and traps, the only weapons that can protect the dwarves from the witch queen known as Vandra the Wicked and her army of bloodthirsty trolls and monstrous creatures.
Key Features
Tactical turret-based combat. Combat involves making strategic decisions about which turrets and traps to build and where. During a battle you must rebuild, swap out, and reposition turrets to adapt to new waves of enemies and a dynamic battlefield!
Upgrade your arsenal. Unlock 15+ turrets, each with it's own unique upgrade tree. Purchase upgrades that make the turrets stronger. You decide which turret upgrades best cater to your favorite strategies and play style!
Discover powerful artifacts. Discover all 5+ artifacts â an arrow-blocking shield, dashing boots, a bouncing boomerang, a ground-shaking hammer, and more! These artifacts give the player special abilities to fight and outmaneuver foes!
Story-based campaign. Unravel the history of the dwarves and the trolls in a story that features diverse characters, unpredictable plot, and a fantasy world with it's own mythology!
Explore ancient dungeons. Explore 30+ dungeons in 5+ biomes, each with hidden secrets, mysterious puzzles, and interesting lore!
Hi everyone! The Kickstarter has 40 hours to go and we just need $6,000 more to reach the Nintendo Switch stretch goal! It looks like we might reach Localization 1 later today!
Live Stream Finale!
Join us tonight and tomorrow night for the Live Stream Finale! The event starts at 8 pm ET/GMT-4 and will take place on the Dwerve Steam page and Pixel Pete's YouTube channel.
We will be playing the game, discussing what we plan to work on after the Kickstarter, and answering any questions you might have about Dwerve and game development. Thank you all for helping us spread the word and making the Dwerve Kickstarter successful! We look forward to hanging out with you tonight and tomorrow night! See you there!
