Hi everyone, hope you've all had a good start to the new year! It's been a while since our last post, so I thought I should give you all an update on our progress. We resumed work on The Dwarves of Glistenveld a couple weeks ago. We're still in the middle of adding some new content, including new buildings, resources and a proper introduction of granite to the game. We've been trying to follow the principle that any new features should be functional when they go in, or at least clearly indicate that they're not implemented. That way when you see new content in the game you can be excited about it, without worrying about whether or not it works. That does mean however it can take us a bit longer to release new features, while we try to make sure it's all working. For those of you who feel like your dwarves don't get around quick enough, the next version will feature: Cobblestone. Found on the second page of infrastructure, you place it like you would a building and it converts the ground into cobblestone, which provides a small buff to movement speed. So if being speedy is something you like, try putting well-fed, hyper dwarves on a cobblestone road!
We've also been working on adding buildable doors to the game, which will block enemies but allow allies through. Originally we tried implementing it as a cleverly textured wall that dwarves can toggle, but we just couldn't get it to look or behave right. In the end we decided to make it a rotatable building in which the player chooses how it's placed using the mouse wheel. It'll have a placeholder sprite for now which we'll work on later when we have time. Note, some enemies will be able to break your doors down or get around them; so Dungeon Keeper fans, watch out! There's a new mineral going in: coal. We've been meaning to add coal to the game to fuel forges and fires, but this alone wasn't enough of a reason for us to introduce it. After a bit of research and brainstorming however we have some other uses for coal now, like a fertiliser for farming, and with a few ideas to balance it we feel there's enough now to justify adding it to the game. Now we have the sprites for them, we've been working on a new enemy: Spiders. Spiders are incredibly agile creatures, and can get around rocks and other objects that would normally block a unit's path. They also place down sticky webs and have a poison attack that drains a dwarf's stamina before eventually knocking them out. So don't go exploring a spider's nest by yourself! While spiders won't appear in the campaign until chapter 2, we will be introducing them as part of a new map we've been working on, which leads me onto the final update for this post: We're planning on releasing an early version of a new mode called 'Caverns' as part of the next update. You start in a single cave and it generates the world around you as you explore. One thing I noticed as I was testing this map is it's a great way to present all the features of the game in a single level, and that we feel is something our game has been missing. Although it's less guided and there's no main plot to follow, it's already a mechanically and aesthetically vibrant map. Still, this mode is early days, and it does have a few remaining issues, so I don't want to build up too much hype for it yet. Anyway, it shouldn't be long now before the next update. As usual we will accompany the update with patch notes in the news feed. So, stay tuned, and have a good week!