Dwelvers Alpha v0.8f has now been released, it took a little longer than expected because I started on the first part of making the buildings moddable.
So now all the buildings have separate folders in media/xml/buildings with separate textures instead of loading them all from a big image with tiled textures. Also, all the buildings content such as textures, models etc are now loaded from xml files, and these xml files can be modified by anyone.
It is not fully moddable yet, you can't add new buildings but you can change the models and textures, and also alternate the current content with other content with the purpose of creating more variation in the game. I will try to get a manual on how it all works asap :)
Possibility to remove the GUI by pressing ALT+G, good for when taking screenshots.
Plans for the next patch
I have noticed that the FPS have started to get a little low, so I will probably spend a couple of days optimizing the game so that the not-so-new computers can play the game smoothly as well.
There have been some complaints about the huge amount of creatures produced by the Dark Mother, I will probably give the player an option to limit the creature production somehow. Not everyone wants 120 imps running around in the dungeon, no matter how cute they are :)
It is now time to take a look at the equipment system, the initial idea was that all the creatures should be born naked, and that the player will dress them. But this has not been an option yet because I find the equipment system way too tedious atm, and it needs to be a lot more automatic and a lot less micro management.
Bugs... I haven't had the time to go through the current bugs with this version, but this is something I will deal with in the next one.
I will implement than more what is listed here, but this is what I find the most urgent to add atm.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to limit the creature production and make the equipment system simpler, then you can your suggestion here at the forum and help me with the development.
I hope you all like this patch, happy playing :)
Patch 0.8e has been released 25/09/2014
Hello people!
Rasmus is busy packing his underwear and preparing for his trip to stockholm where he will have a public talk at DreamHack with the sole intent of converting all the world's top Esport players into competitive imps slappers. that speech is going to be live streamed and we will publish a link to it as soon as we get it, so check the community hub frequently if you are interested in listening to Rasmus discuss some finer details of game development.
Since we have been pretty busy and distracted with the release, we haven't had time to implement new features or fix a few bugs we intended, but we did fix some of the more urgent ones and thought we should make the build live before rasmus leave for a couple of days.
Patch 0.8e change log:
-- The Steam version is now DRM free.
-- Mines now have a timer and health.
-- Buildings are now built simultaneously if there are enough resources.
-- Rally flag can now get cancelled from the the main UI, no need to enter the radial menu.
-- Rooms only get highlighted when the player right clicks them.
-- Tutorial - now has Ropes from the start.
-- Tutorial - Human Knights start at level 1 and wont train at the training room.
-- German And french language translations has been added. (still not in the tutorial though)
If anyone is living in stockholm, you are more than invited to search rasmus to have a chat (And he wont object to free beer either) during the DreakHack event!
The update should already by live at the time of this update. we hope you'll understand the need to release such a minor build and we encourage you to keep sending awesome screenshots, suggestions and bug hunts.
Ben.
Dwelvers first day on Steam
So how to sum up the first day on Steam... First off, it has been a lot of fun :D And I am very relieved that we haven't had any unexpected incidents! There are some bugs with the game of course, but that was expected.
Blitzkriegsler has uploaded his latest Dwelvers videos, and for that I am really grateful! This goes out to all the other YouTube reviewers of Dwelvers, don't forget to add them here, you will get a lot of views and Dwelvers will get publicity, so it is a win / win situation :D
http://steamcommunity.com/app/276870/videos
I have been a little worried about the Steam forum and that Dwelvers wouldn't be ready for it. But so far everything has gone well, and the players have been really nice and understanding that Dwelvers is an Early Access game. The only bad publicity topic is the Towns <-> Dwelvers connections, but I was expecting that. I have nothing to hide and I am not afraid of taking the discussion, neither do BurningPet, and when Dwelvers updates keeps on coming in I hope people will calm down.
The sales has been okay, we were on steam top 100 for an hour or two and then we disappeared again. But it is nothing that worries me, Dwelvers still has a year of development left at least, and I would be really surprised if Dwelvers don't get a good bump now and then during that time. Also, remember that Dwelvers is still an Early Access game, and those are waaay harder to sell on Steam than full games.
I don't know how many steam keys I have given away to reviewers that has asked for them, some of them were really big while others was a little smaller. Hopefully some of them will review Dwelvers so that we get some extra publicity before the end of week :)
Steam keys
All the steam keys to the pre-orderers has been sent out now, if you haven't gotten one, then contact me from http://dwelvers.com/contacts/ and I will send the keys.
There was also a issue that some people thought that I meant that the pre-orderers should get four steam keys and not three, they thought that they paid for the first key and get three keys for free. While I meant that you get to download the game from the website and also get three steam keys. I have made a topic about it at the steam forum:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/276870/discussions/0/616187839234753040/
So if you feel like I tricked you and that you were expecting 4 keys, please contact me at: http://dwelvers.com/contacts/ and I will send the extra key :)
Future updates
Right now there are a lot of administrative work that is keeping me away from the development, and I hope everyone can understand that. I will focus on getting the steam page ready with a to do list and a FAQ so that new players knows what stage of the development Dwelvers is and gets some of the more common questions answered. I will make a fresh coding start on Monday and also explain what we have planned for the next version, and as usual, the more feedback the better :)
