This updates includes several small fixes, with some more important gameplay bug fixes in the mix.
One change I wanted to point out especially is the "Pet Charming Multiplier" bug. As it turns out, the pet mini-game has been far more difficult than we intended, because the timed-hit and interest multipliers were broken! With this update, the interest level and timed-hits will make a significant difference in how quickly animals can be befriended!
The patch also addresses a few important UI usability issues, some camera adjustments, a few issues that could cause a puzzle to become stuck and unfinished, and some minor performance improvements.
Release Notes
FIXES
<*> Fixed pet charming timed-hit multipliers not always displaying <*> Fixed pet charming timed-hit multipliers not taking full effect <*> Fixed lit fuses getting stuck mid-animation after it has been reactivated while the end animation was still playing <*> Fixed rare cases where the warp wells in Vigil Pines could cause the character to slip out of the dungeon and under the main map <*> Fixed one of the ladders in the Forest trials where the character could fall behind it and get become trapped [final ladder at the end of the water room puzzle] <*> Fixed a ladder bug where the player characters could become stuck permanently in a ladder pose (Gloia could exit this pose with her hammer, but Horbir was trapped forever) <*> Fixed UI Scale settings not properly being restored <*> Fixed Artifact description popup to work with UI Scales > 1.0
CHANGES AND BALANCING
<*> Reduced how jumpy the camera can be in tight spaces <*> Increased the Sprint Stamina heal rate <*> Slightly increased the Jackalope befriending difficulty (to counter pet charming timed-hit fixes) <*> Reduced timed-hit multipliers (to counter pet charming timed-hit fixes) <*> Added something to the Alternate Climb puzzle to reduce confusion when finding it before having the tools to complete it
SMALL THINGS
<*> Reduced the game launch time before the title menu for some systems <*> Memory optimisations <*> Reduced the frequency of Steam queries for achievements
One Year Anniversary
Happy Birthday to Dwarrows!
February 28th 2021 is the 1 year anniversary since release. We released the game just before the pandemic really hit Canada. While the launch party was the last time we've seen most of our peers, friends, and family in person (and we miss their company terribly), it was also an incredibly memorable day for us.
This huge day when we finally release the game we'd worked so hard on for so many years, and we didn't know if anyone would care. But so many of these lovely people showed up to be more supportive than we had any right to expect, and it meant the world to us.
We've been equally grateful for all of you reading this, all of you who have been such a positive bunch! While it is a small community, you have all been wonderfully kind and helpful to new players trying to learn the game, solve a difficult puzzle, or to find the last Spirit Sprite by creating tutorials, guides, answering questions, and adding entries to the Wiki. You've also been instrumental in helping us solve bugs that were found with thorough bug reports and sending your save games for us to use as a troubleshooting tool. For all of this, we thank you for being the fine and fantastic people you are!
Like many of you, as the pandemic rolled on our priorities shifted and we didn't have as many updates going live as we had planned, but rest assured that Dwarrows is still our baby, and there is still more to come. Thank you for being a part of this journey with us and for joining us in the little world that we handcrafted with love!
As always, if you've enjoyed the game and think others would enjoy it too, please do leave a quick review! We love to hear your thoughts and it really helps in reaching new people.
On to the Update!
This update primarily contains bug and performance fixes, but one larger change is one we've had been planning for a while: Improved Camera Movements! There have been more than a few complaints about the camera's movement and position being a jarring experience over the year, and I've toyed around with our options to come up with something that's more comfortable to play.
The main goal was to reduce unnecessary camera movements, like when walking a small ledge, or when jumping up slightly. Let us know what you think!
Release Notes
CAMERA CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS
<*> Reduced harsh snap-jumps during sudden character movements by decoupling the camera from the character movement <*> Pulled the camera further away from the character to reduce how much movement is needed to keep the character on screen <*> Significantly reduced the performance cost of camera collision tests
FIXES
<*> Fixed UI Scale support on screens that would fail to scale properly <*> Fixed Quick Load to no longer corrupt save games by resetting the level <*> Fixed key remap support for the Drafting Table camera (instead of being fixed to W, A, S, D) <*> Fixed Photon Projectors fluctuating on and off, especially with low frame-rates <*> Fixed broken gamepad cursor in Demolish modes during town building <*> Fixed a bug during the tutorial that could cause the game to get stuck facing the drafting table permanently <*> Fixed a bug that would cause the game to get stuck after leaving a conversation with certain characters <*> Fixed a rare crash after returning to the main menu from a game and starting a new game <*> Fixed villager counts on HUD not updating <*> Fixed artifact sound playing even once it has been picked up <*> Fixed townsfolk failing to start their tasks once arriving to work
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS (especially for slower CPUs)
<*> Reduced the game 'hitching' frequently while running around Duskenvale and Dusken Woodlands <*> Reduced a drop in performance when picking up resources <*> Slightly reduced memory usage <*> Improved game load times <*> Many small frame-rate optimizations
SMALL THINGS
<*> You're all fantastic, we love you!
Major Pet Update!
Hey everyone!
We have an exciting update for you all with some fun changes and new features! The main theme of this update: PETS!
NEW PET TRAINING MINI-GAME
As the many tutorial videos and guides have made clear, the original Pet Training game was tricky to explain and didn't quite achieve its purpose in the game, so we've completely overhauled it! This mini-game makeover follows the same principles of gaining the animal's Trust, but with a shiny new look and feel that's easier to learn and fun to play.
NEW PETS & BADGES
How is it even legal to have shipped this game without DOGS?! That's right, Dwarrows now has dogs and puppies, several breeds to choose from!
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We didn't want the dogs getting bored, so we thought we'd give them something to chase: Squirrels of course!
These new pets carry with them the secret to keeping the interest of animals and gaining their trust.
PETS ACCESSORIES
Lastly in the realm of pets we have added pet accessories. Gone are the tragic days of not-being-able-to-put-a-monocle-on-a-bird. That sad era is over. Hats, glasses, moustaches! Lots of silly aesthetic items to give your pets personality and throw your crowns at. Find these items at your General Merchant in town.
This may not be for everyone, but it's an important part of the fun for those who prefer to use gamepads. We have done a reworking of our controller support and I think controller users will be pleased! A majority of our UI has been changed to treat gamepads as a first-class control scheme wherever possible, meaning it will no longer be treated like a mouse on menus that could support this change.
ENJOY!
We have also made a ton of little quality of life and bug fixes which, there is a lot of, so I'll leave you to the patch notes below if you want to read about it! Thank you as always for being our amazing supporters and players. We hope you like the new update and features.
Cheers, The Lithic Team
Release Notes
NEW
<*> NEW PET: Dogs and Puppies! Several varieties of dogs and puppies can now be found throughout the land :D <*> NEW PET: Squirrels! Find and befriend a variety of these adorable little rodents to help you in your travels! <*> New Badges: Intriguing and Trustworthy. These badges increase your starting interest and trust when charming new pets. <*> New: Pet Accessories! Hats, glasses, and facial hair for your animals! Fashion Accessories for pets are now sold at the Merchant in the Dusken Keep. Merchant inventory is refreshed hourly (as in: real-life time). <*> New: Pet Charming mini-game. We've reworked the whole mini-game to be a lot more intuitive and, hopefully, fun! (*more details below). <*> New: PROPER GAMEPAD SUPPORT in menus! Gamepad navigation no longer behaves as a mouse and instead snaps to buttons and important UI elements.
NEW PET TAMING MINI-GAME
<*> Overhauled the Pet Taming mini-game. The game has been reworked to be simpler to learn and balanced to be faster paced. <*> Changed Timed Hits during pet taming minigame into a separate stage of the minigame. You'll now be able to take your time and time your 'hits' more accurately. <*> Pet taming Timed Hits are now affected by the game speed option. <*> Fixed 'Give Item' during pet taming to properly work with timed hits. <*> Added a new celebration/information screen when a pet has been charmed.
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS
<*> Smashable pots will now respawn when loading a game. Breaking things is fun, why not keep them around? (Bonus: Saves memory and slightly improves save/load speeds). <*> Improved smashable pots to better handle explosions - and by better handle I mean they break more reliably and satisfyingly. <*> Added hotkeys for Structure design table slots. Designing should require less back-and-forth mouse movement. <*> Reduced the number of recycled auto-save games from 20 to 10 (this will not delete existing auto-save games). <*> New look to the Compass - easier to read with cleaner font
PERFORMANCE
<*> Fixed a bug that would cause severe slowdowns when the exit confirmation prompt was visible. <*> Reduced amount of data being saved, reducing how long it takes to save and how much harddrive space is needed. <*> Significantly improved performance for some older hardware. In testing, a computer with an average of 15fps now averages 32fps. Note: This is not likely to be a noticeable improvement for modern hardware.
FIXES
<*> Fixed an issue where clicking 'yes' on a confirmation prompt could complete the action more than once (eg. Agreeing to Discard an item, could accidentally discard 3 of that same item). <*> Fixed memory leak caused by orphaned pet badges when equipping pets. <*> Disabled Gravity on smashable pots. This fixes an issue where Smashable urns in dungeons would sometimes be thrown around when entering the level. <*> Fixed the mini-boss music sometimes not going away after leaving the scarecrow's hilltop near Breezy River Farm
SMALL THINGS
<*> Fixed all bird pets from unlocking the Bluebird only achievement. <*> Fixed typo in wood axe upgrade ('tress' instead of 'trees'). <*> Renamed some actions in Pet Taming. <*> Fixed several gamepad issues that would cause the game and UI to suddenly revert to the mouse and keyboard mode. <*> Fixed the "Back" button on the map to be above the border. <*> Added outline to some fonts to make them easier to read. <*> Fixed several badge icons looking far too bright.
Dwarrows on NVIDIA GeForce NOW
Hey everyone,
We're happy to announce that Dwarrows is newly available to play on NVIDIA GeForce NOW! If you own Dwarrows on Steam, you can search for it and play it on GFN ːsteamhappyː
If you don't know what GeForce NOW is, it's a cloud gaming service that allows you to play the games you've purchased on supported stores (eg. Steam), through their computers over the internet.
What this means is if your computer struggles to run some of your games or you want to play them on your non-gaming device, if they're available on GFN, you'll be able to play them without needing to upgrade, and without needing to even install the game.
You can play PC games on devices that weren't meant to play them, so long as they have a good internet connection and can play HD video, your non-gaming devices could play games. [Even your phone if you want to give that a try, there's a GFN app!]
How much is this service?
There is currently a completely free tier if you'd like to give it a try, though NVIDIA's paid tier has priority service, so you might end up in a queue to play for free.
Will I need to restart with a new game to play on GFN?
No! So long as Cloud saving is enabled and your save game is stored on Steam's Cloud, playing Dwarrows on GeForce NOW should continue from your current save.
Performance and Resource Update
Hi everyone!
In this version, 1.3, I've spent a lot of time improving late game performance and there was quite a gain in my testing.
In our test game, we managed to solve a frequent stuttering problem, and increased the framerate from 35fps to 60fps. I've also shaved off some time when loading games with many structures (though it still takes longer than I'd like). Hopefully these changes improve the performance of some of your games too :)
There are also some town fixes in here, like removing the annoying grass in the middle of our town structures and paths, and fixing edge path tiles not properly re-snapping to the grid on game load.
...annnnddd something else that I managed to squeeze are a few new upgrades for Dwilben's tools, sold by Blake Smith, and some changes & fixes for resource spawns that should make late game resource gathering easier.
The rest of the team is working on a different Dwarrows update (a new little content update :D), and hopefully I'll be able to join them on that now.
- Al
Release Notes
PERFORMANCE
<*> Fixed a framerate stutter/hitch that happened every second or so in towns with many townsfolk and town structures <*> Fixed an where excessive wildlife would remain active. This should improve performance in later games. <*> Improved tile search when placing structures to be less wasteful. This helps with performance when placing large structures, and it helps reduce the load time of save games. <*> Simplified townsfolk and traveller path following logic when at a distance from the cameras. This should help with performance in games with more populated towns. <*> Reduced game loading times with advanced towns <*> Improved performance on the moving block dust particles in the Trials by the River of Fire
NEW
<*> Blake Smith now has new tool durability upgrades for the Wood Axe and Pick Axe! Increases how long the tool can stay sharpened.
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS
<*> Reduced the Producer achievement to 300,000 resources picked up, from 1,000,000. This is more within a realistic range for picking up resources, and maybe even more reasonable now with the fixes to higher level resource areas. <*> Foliage in town now responds more quickly to structures being placed or removed <*> Drops from resources in Mushroom Grove have been increased by 1 level, and Muktock Swamp by 2 levels. This means they have more resources and will take more strikes to fully extract. <*> Moved several mineral veins that were lost inside of the terrain or stuck in trees <*> Changed Spice Bag status effect to stack duration instead of stacking the bonus <*> Spice is now a bit more rare than before, and more expensive at the merchant <*> Increased the chance of a mining spawn to be a gold vein
FIXES
<*> Fixed happiness modifier time remaining display in the townsfolk list UI. <*> Fixed a bug in Archy's quest where the controls were never returned to the player after the conversation. <*> Fixed Resources not correctly respawning in Vigil Pines, Mushroom Grove, and Muktock Swamp. <*> Fixed tile positioning on the edge of the town grid. This should help fix structures and path tiles on the north edge of tier 3 and 4, which would fail to properly re-apply to the town on load game. <*> Fixed long grass in town growing over structures and paths <*> Fixed a bug in older save games where puzzle tracking would never reach 42/42. Note for those who have this bug: To repair your puzzle tracker, you will need to enter the already complete treasure cave directly east of the keep:
You'll want to enter the tunnel:
and finally enter the Treasure Chamber:
It should be fixed after that, or once you've completed the puzzle.
Puzzle Difficulty Update
Hello everyone!
This is update 1.2 and is mainly focused on providing accessibility/preference options for adjusting the game's platforming difficulty.
The changes provide several new game options for scaling the difficulty of the puzzles:
The options greatly reduce the speed of moving platforms and increase the duration of timed things (like torches or races). Additionally, some platforms also change size to make it easier.
We've managed to squeeze in a few more bug fixes for some of the more severe issues, like Mayor Schtick and Faavi puzzle elements going missing.
NEW
<*> Added new accessibility/preference options for Puzzle Difficulty controls in Options -> Game (Normal | Easier [1/2 speed] | Easiest [1/4 speed]). <*> Added checkered flags near Race Attendants, so they can easily be spotted
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS
<*> The number of required stars in The Archives has been reduced by 1, making the, difficult to find, final star optional. <*> Faavi Kingdom Leaves can scale size with the puzzle difficulty modifier <*> Increased Dwilben's base charge from 10% to 30% <*> Added an upper limit to interest rates at 50% every interest period <*> Simplified a puzzle in the first Trials <*> Improved performance in the Fire and Forest Trials
FIXES
<*> Fixed a bug where a teleport Fountain could place the characters under the map <*> Fixed missing/broken beanstalks in the Faavi kingdom. The puzzle should now be completable in existing and new save games. <*> Fixed (I think) Spirit Sprites loading in a different position than they should (sometimes too high to reach). <*> Fixed Mayor Schtick going missing after loading a game. She should be back in the Dusken Keep now.
SMALL THINGS
<*> Achievement "There's No Fall Damage" should now be working <*> Removed broken Achievement "Going The Distance" <*> Blocked off some areas where characters could get stuck <*> Vigor Potion icon is now a different colour than the stamina potion <*> Fixed a typo in Mac's dialogue
Release Notes: v1.1 Hotfix 2
Just a quick hotfix to fix a few critical issues in version 1.1.
Fixed missing guide NPC at the Kegnade barn in breezy river farm for some players
Fixed a crash when loading from some save games
Fixed a serious issue that breaks The Archives trial, teleporting the character back to town at one of the last steps in the puzzle. (You should be able to resume from a save game where all of your characters were still in the trial, or at least one player can teleport them all back to it from a friendship fountain.) - NOTE: If all of your characters were teleported outside of the archive by this bug, that save game will be difficult to recover; use an older auto-save or email us at support@dwarrows.com with your save game so we could help you out.
Dwarrows - In the beginning there were bugs...
Hi everyone!
Thank you!
The three of us have been so excited to see everyone playing the game! We're so grateful that you gave it a chance and that so many of you are enjoying it! We really appreciate all of the feedback, community involvement, kind words, tutorial vids, etc..
A BIG shout out to all of you who have taken the time on the forums and discord to help out other players. We now know that there are some areas in the game which can be clearer (and we're hard at work about it!) but seeing all you all help each other out is so genuinely amazing. We couldn't have asked for a kinder, more considerate community!
Your positive responses so far have been absolutely humbling for our small team. We've been tuning into streams, reading the comments, checking out your screenshots, and watching your videos and the overall response has been so wonderful!
The Dwarrows Wiki Needs You!
The Dwarrows wiki is well underway and a big thank you to those who have contributed so far! It could certainly use your help if you'd like to fill in some blanks, add some new structure combinations, artifact locations, or quest details. https://dwarrows.fandom.com/wiki/Dwarrows_Wiki
And lastly, if you've enjoyed the game so far, please help us spread the word and leave us a review on Steam! Reviews help us tremendously :)
Now on to the patch notes!
This update especially addresses bugs that have skiddered out of the release build, and we've also added some improved hints to avoid losing time in the wrong places. We'll keep working to address the issues and improving the game, while we work on adding fun new things in the future updates (keep an eye out for those!).
The full list of changes below:
FIXES
<*> Fixed a crash while destroying tiles <*> Fixed bug where Town Rating 5 quest would not properly complete <*> Fixed bug where Special Guest quest would not complete (speak to the mayor to complete it) <*> Fixed an issue where interacting with the large bird nest near Hillcrest, could send your character under the world <*> Fixed an issue where the default dirt tile locations in town could become holes in the ground <*> Fixed a crash that could sometimes happen on game load <*> Fixed a soft-lock situation when charming animals and Mayor Schtick notifies you about the town <*> Fixed a few issues causing pets to be unequipped automatically or unequiping the wrong pet (this also solves an exploit that could work-around the pet follower limit) <*> Fixed several achievements:
Graveyard Janitor
Crossing
Spirit Buster
The Champ
It Was This Big
NEW
<*> Added rebindable keys for each character. Default: F1=Dwilben; F2=Gloia; F3=Horbir; <*> Added a new NPC, standing next to the green barn in Breezy River, who should help with hints regarding the kegnade quest <*> Added force feedback options in the Game Options menu (enable/disable and intensity controls)
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS
<*> Added safety teleports under the world so that characters aren't destroyed if they happen to fall through the landscape <*> Vivace's trigger radius is much bigger so players don't need to be right on top of her before she calls out for help <*> Replaced the puppets' eyes with ... eyes <*> Added some hints to the Vigil Pines trial to avoid missing the final puzzle <*> Added some hints for one of the prankster locations <*>
SMALL THINGS
<*> Fixed misspelling Imporium to Emporium <*> Added some minor visual attractions to hint at the location of some artifacts <*> Improved load game performance a bit <*> Fixed a few dialogues that would show up saying "Player" after interacting with some transporters and dungeon doors. I'm sure I've missed some. <*> Added a treasure blocking volume in Vigil Pines trials to avoid treasure falling into the portal <*> Fixed a dialogue entry that hard-coded Gloia's name
Dwarrows Launched!!
I can’t believe that I am typing this, but we’re here! Dwarrows is launched and available for purchase RIGHT NOW!
You can buy it, you can play it!!
If you backed it--you should already have your key so reach out to me on Kickstarter if you don’t. It probably went to your spam filter (like two years ago).
Also, to any of our esteemed backers awaiting their extra pet rewards or custom characters, we will slowly be sending those out asap!
Again. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your support, patience, kindness and belief in us! It is difficult to describe the journey that we have been on in the development of the game and I can’t express how grateful that I am that so many of you have stuck around and followed us on it.
Oh! Also, also...
Come hang out with us on Discord! https://discord.gg/jvy8Szj
We now also have A WIKI! It has only just begun to be filled out so if you start playing and you feel like you have some un-documented info for your fellow players, you are encouraged to hop in and contribute! https://dwarrows.fandom.com/wiki/Dwarrows
Lastly... It may seem trite to say that I am at a loss for words, but there is no speech-template for expressing the sincerity of my elation and gratitude today. I just hope you are all able to find fun or peace in Dwarrows.
Mind you, there is more to come...
Cheers, Lithic Team
New Patch Update - Final Launch Version
We've finally arrived at the final release version of Dwarrows, version 1.0!
This update comes with a small set of changes, important changes, which fix several critical issues.
A bonus addition in this version, are the rebindable Hotkeys for Stamina potions and Transportation Scrolls. I expect this change to improve the enjoyability of exploration with Horbir by making Stamina management more convenient!
Should you have any issues or suggestions of your own, please let us know! Leave us a forum post or find us on Discord (https://discord.gg/dwarrows).
The full list of changes below:
FIXES
<*> Fixed several achievements not completing correctly (Town Rating, Town Tier, Pet training, and puzzle zones) <*> Fixed a bug in the second and third Trial dungeon when loading a saved game that could cause some of the puzzle elements to block the solution path completely <*> Fixed bug where if you interacted with the nest during the quest but before you found everything you'd get stuck with an empty dialogue. You should now get different dialogues. <*> Fixed bug where quickly spawning bubbles would cause one bubble not to launch, and thus could trap a character. <*> Fixed a bug that would cause the Water Treatment Facility puzzles to become partially reset and stuck <*> Fixed a bug where some elevators would sometimes never resume movement after reloading a game <*> Fixed Gamepad panning not working when in Structure Demolish Modes <*> Fixed a saving/loading bug with one of the puzzles in Vigil Pines <*> Fixed a puzzle that was not registering as completed or tracking on the map <*> Fixed a crash when exiting the game (I think!)
NEW
<*> Added Hotkey and UI for Stamina potions and Transportation Scrolls
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS
<*> Improved the UI feedback to show when an Infinite Stamina badge is enabled <*> Stamina potions can no longer be used while another stamina potion is active <*> Changed artifact unlocking to be per set instead of per artifact. This helps avoid wasting Soul Quartz on sets that won't be completed until later on. (Artifacts that have already been unlocked in previous save games will be free - there will be no wasted soul quartz) <*> Jackalopes are now larger <*> Reduced interest decay rate on Jackalopes
SMALL THINGS
<*> Fixed collector names (again) <*> Added sfx for potions and scrolls <*> Adjusted speed of UI collecting sprites and keys - it's more responsive now <*> Fixed a typo in the "Last Witness" Quest ("Abner" to "Ebner")
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