My name is Jamie and I'm the developer behind They Who Dwell Below. Since I've just posted the game publicly on Steam, I felt it might be useful to include some information on the game that didn't fit on the store page, just in case anyone was interested and wanted to know more.
The Whats
What is They Who Dwell Below? They Who Dwell Below is a game that I am solo developing with the help and guidance of some close friends. It's a mix of my strange love of horror, puzzles, exploration games, dwarves, secret lore, and world building. It is very much an indie title and I want anyone interested in the game to be aware of that fact.
What kind of game is it trying to be? As said on the store page: "They Who Dwell Below is an exploration horror game set within the crumbling ruins of a lost dwarven city. The player is tasked with escaping the long abandoned vestige and along the way uncovering the truth of its fall." The target of the game is to have a strong focus on exploration and discovery by setting the player in a small but dense environment and letting them navigate the space as they see fit. As they do, they'll discover puzzles to solve, items to help them unlock new areas/shortcuts, and plenty of notes and journals to reveal lore and hints. During all this, the player is searching for a means of escape from the situation they've found themselves in. There are multiple ways for the player to end their journey in Drau-Dumar but it is up to the player to find them. All the while, they're not alone in the ruins and so must balance everything mentioned above with struggling to survive against a hostile entity.
What is the entity? I intend to stay vague on the specifics of the entity and it's behaviors in order to avoid what I view as "spoilers" but I can share a bit on my inspirations for the creature. Personally, I love creature feature horror games. Some of my favorites include Alien Isolation, to a certain extent Resident Evil 2, and more recently Amnesia: The Bunker. The idea of spending the game being pursued by a single enemy that over time you begin to learn about and adapt against is one I love. When done well, these games build up a personal relationship between the player and the monster. But there is something that tended to annoy me about the majority of the games that use this concept. The enemies often cheat. Some of them teleport and some of them always know where the player is even when pretending not to. Often this is done on purpose in order to make a more compelling experience for the player but this fact still bothered me.
When I realized I wanted to make a horror game I immediately knew I wanted to have a go at creating the same concept but without the need for an enemy that cheats. With this in mind I set out to create an enemy that can stalk and hunt for the player throughout the game but who also has weaknesses and abilities for the player to discover and come to understand. To be clear, I do not believe that I have made a creature anywhere near the complexity or level of horror found in the examples I've mentioned, but I do hope I've captured at least some of those aspects as well as a few minor unique traits of my own.
The Whys
Why make this game? For context, I work professionally as a software developer and have been programming for over a decade now. Throughout that time I've toyed with the idea of making a game. Many prototypes and unfinished projects lie in my wake. Around Halloween of 2023 however, I watched a video of someone making a short horror game to mess with their friends. The video convinced me that making a small horror game would be fun and that I should do the same. I completed that goal and, by the time October was ending, had a playable horror game. Passing that milestone of having finally completed a game I felt compelled to continue work and try and push on to a true release. Over a year later and that tiny game has ballooned into something a little bit bigger with a lot more content.
Why dwarves? The short answer is that in the winter of 2011 I began watching a YouTube let's play series that would go on to forever alter my opinion on what fantasy race was my favorite. The long answer is that many years of fixation on the ideals of dwarven cultures and aesthetics left within me a deep seated urge to see more dwarven representation in fantasy media. And so, when I finally decided I wanted to complete a game project, I decided to use a dwarven theme as a way to differentiate the game and as an excuse to utilize the dwarven lore/setting I had been developing for nearly three years at that point.
Why post updates on such a small project? You may think that this seems like a lot of hooplah over such a small personal project and you'd be right! The fact is that I never expect this project to "blow up" or be anything more than a small game that myself, some friends, and a few kind souls on the internet play. Moreover, I truly view these posts as messages into the void, content that may never go read by another person. As strange as it may seem, I simply enjoy the act of creating and documenting this game and so plan to continue as I'm doing now purely for the fun of it. If you are someone actually reading this post, hello there! I hope you're having a good day and I truly appreciate you taking the time to dive into this nonsense.
The Whens
When will the game release? My current goal is to release a fully playable version of the game before the end of 2024 with the intention of adding extra details and goodies later in free patches. Being in the horror genre it may well end up with an October of 2024 release. But I want to be clear that I cannot confirm a 2024 release. I am only working on the game on the side and so am only able to work on this project in my free time.
Despite the intention to add more to the game post release, I want to clarify that I do not want it to be an early access game. The game will be fully playable from start to finish upon release. Later patches will just add extra lore, features to increase replayability, and maybe add a few more secrets!
When can I expect more updates? My goal is to have at least a monthly write up of some kind to provide details about the behind the scenes and background of the game. I intend to ramp that time scale up leading up to release. The goal will be to have posts such as this to detail the history of development as well as provide content for those interested.
Word of the Day
As an extra bit of fun (for me), with each of these posts I'm going to include a break down of a dwarven word. Appropriately, I'm going to start off with the phrase that the game gets its title from:
Dazminan-In-Raudik: Literally, "Dwellers in the below" or as it would be more generally translated "They who dwell below".
The End
That's it for now, but if you have any questions of your own, please feel free to ask! I'd love to answer whatever I can. Otherwise, I appreciate you taking the time to read this post and just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you and I hope you have a wonderful day!
The two of us took advantage of the holiday by expanding some of our features and packing in quality of life improvements requested by beta-players. The one we are probably the most excited about is our decorations expansion. Now you will have the ability to... PUT STUFF ON TABLES! It is a small detail that actually adds a ton of fun to the game. Being able to add about 500+ items/decorations on top of your tables adds SO much creativity to your play spaces. Here are some other highlights from our beta updates...
• NEW ability to display your items & decorations on table tops now! • NEW table lamp decorations items. • NEW Auto-Feeder upgrade option for Xeno Pods, to help raise even more Xeno pets. • NEW food items added that can be processed from your machines. • Improved method to pick up your crops. • Improved combat mechanics. (Pausing enemies when needed.) • Improved advanced versions of machines to be even more useful now. • Improved tool stats for Laser Blaster, Shovel, and Microbe Detector. • Lots of small tuning adjustments in loot drops and prices to make things feel even better. • Improved tuning for gift giving benefits with your crewmates. • Bug fixes, dialogue fixes, and many, many smaller details of course...
We are excited to share all of these improvements, which will be coming your way soon in the upcoming demo.
Please join us on Discord for more detailed and frequent updates. Also please consider wishlisting if you have not.
Today starts Minor Cold, a slight chill pierces the bones, and all things are frozen.
In Minor Cold, only wintersweets thrive. Spring's first buds yet to arrive. We've just updated the game to version 1.0.16, fixed some bugs, updated the rendering libraries and optimized the game performance. We will continue to enhance the game version. Feel free to follow us and share your interesting experiences or provide feedback in the community regarding your gameplay of "24 Solar Terms". We will do our best to assist and address any issues you encounter.
Apex Legends™ summons FINAL FANTASY™ VII REBIRTH to the Outlands for a Crossover Event, featuring a new BR Takeover with the Buster Sword R2R5, Materia Hop-Ups, and plenty of other secrets.
Plus, find an avalanche of FINAL FANTASY™ VII REBIRTH-inspired cosmetics, new Iconic skins, and more. Prove that Limits Are Made to Be Broken, on January 9th!
- Bullets are now affected by gravity - Bullets can be disrupted by explosions - Bullets HE explosion size scales with power - Bullets speed is now affected by barrel length - Bullets clipping through geometry fixed (mostly) - Fix issue with weight being calculated incorrectly - Added SHADELESS Paint mode - Fix issues with angle limit
