Hello everyone! We've been a bit quiet the last weeks, but not because nothing was happening - quite the opposite. We are extremely busy working on getting the game ready for Early Access. A large part of our roadmap for Early Access has already been implemented by now and we want to give you an update on what we've been up to since the demo has been released.
Where we are at the moment:
After giving it a lot of thought, we did eventually end up allowing for up to 4 party members. We liked the idea of making the player take trade-offs by limiting the party size to 3 but eventually we found it a bit too limiting after all and went with a more classic 4 character front/back row layout.
Captain Richard will now provide you with a constant stream of randomly generated characters to recruit. From time to time, certain pre-made "hero characters" will show up that will be familiar to you if you played the demo ... ;) There's also a "battle fatigue" system in place now where characters will have to rest for some time in the camp after taking a certain amount of punishment during a dungeon run, forcing you to switch your party roster from time to time.
Skills/spells can now be upgraded in a (simple) skill tree-like fashion when a character levels up.
Added enemy infighting: certain enemy types don't like each other and can start infighting. There is also a new mage spell that can make an enemy attack his own.
We reworked how mage spells worked - mages still only have 3 skills that represent their spells, but which spells those are exactly will depend on the staff they have equipped. Over time, we'll add more staff types, allowing for a wide variety of spells.
Added 3 new dungeon levels and will rework the demo level to make it feel fresh even if you played it before and finished their basic layout. Expect plenty of new labyrinthine corridors, new environment designs, epic battles in large rooms with lots of enemies and mysteries to uncover!
Added 2 new quests in addition to the one that's in the demo along with a lot of new dialogue. Some dialogue contains choices that will affect your reputation you have with certain characters, leading to different outcomes later in the game.
And yes, your progress in the game gets saved now ;)
What still needs to be done:
Flesh out and decorate the new dungeon levels
Implement the camp upgrades: You will be able to build new elements in the camp, allowing for better upgrades and additional options. For instance, father Kai, the camp's priest, only has a simple makeshift shrine in the beginning, which you can upgrade to a proper worshipping place, unlocking new types of blessings for your characters.
A system for randomly generated character portraits that combinest a set of base faces and adds different beards, hairstyles, jewelry, scars etc. to create a set of unique portraits.
Adding a bunch of new enemy types
Balancing and gameplay tweaking/playtesting
Polishing visuals and UI
And of course, fixing bugs
We are currently aiming for Early Access in June but will take whatever time is needed to present you with a polished result. Dverghold is very dear to our hearts and the reactions so far have been very positive, we don't intend to tarnish this with a rushed release. Images speak louder than words, here are some pictures to show you what we've been up to.