Dome Keeper News

[h3]Hello there![/h3]

Keeping it short this time. Tonight i'll do a Stream here on Steam, playing the current Demo, showing and explaining what changed and why. I'm happy to go into any questions you might have, and take your suggestions and feedback.
The Demo will be ready for you to play in June, and also be part of the Steam Next Fest.

[h3]Start is 19:00 UTC, here on Steam, for about an hour.
[/h3]

[h2]Dome gets a Publisher
[/h2]We've got a publisher! And not just any publisher, but one of the best you can get when you want to make great indie games: RAW FURY.

Raw Fury has a ton of fantastic games, which we are very thankful to stand next to in the future. I'm a huge Kingdom fan, starting with the original. Many of you pointed out how Dome reminds them of Kingdom, which is a great sign of how influential it was on me as a Game Designer.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
showreel of Raw Fury games

[h2]How it happened[/h2]
Back in September 2021 we were really polishing basically an expanded game jam version of Dome Romantik. We also had our first playtest over Discord, to prepare entering the Steam Next Fest in October. Two weeks before that, Johan from Raw Fury sent me a little Tweet about maybe having a talk about Dome. I quickly made a pitch deck and sent over the Demo. It seemed to us the whole company took quite the liking to Dome, and so it only took a few days until we agreed we'd want to continue this together. I delayed the Steam Next Fest to be able to do more with it in the future.

one fateful tweet

During the talks about publishing, Raw Fury made a huge impression on us, with how they operate. So much so, that i often stopped to wonder "ok, what's the catch? Is this for real?". It turned out, no catch and very real. I've seen a lot of companies in my IT career, and also talked to a lot of people (lawyers, tax agents, grant people) about Raw Fury, and it's clear they are an absolute outlier in the best sense. A ton of trust and support is put into us, with no corporate loopholes or exploitation. They take big risks to build a environment where we can really concentrate on making the best game we can. I and the many people i spoke to have never seen something like that. So, we couldn't be happier with this and feel like we went from zero to indie heaven.
So, are we still indie developers? The answer for me is a clear "yes we are". The reason for that is that we still have full creative control over Dome Keeper and it remained our IP. It couldn't happen that Raw Fury dictates to make 2 or 10 domes, or to switch to a 3D style, or to add micro transactions. They took care to contractually fix it that way (with all their games, actually). Of course we would be stupid not to also rely on their advice, seeing their wealth of experience and success, so we always seek that.

[h2]What this means for Dome[/h2]
Originall we had plans to be already released by now, with a game still called "Dome Keeper" (we already planned the name change ~8 months ago https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieDev/comments/pcjagu/which_name_is_the_best_for_this_game/).
we even had the assets ready

It would have featured basically what was hinted at in the old Demo. Now with Raw Furies support, we were able to aim higher than that, first pushing the graphics to a new level. The Dome Romantik Demo you might have played was only a hobby project, made in our free time, with the graphics mostly unchanged from the game jam version we made in 3 days.

Apart from the graphics, this is a big win on all levels for Dome. Raw Fury can help with everything - you might have seen the amazing new Trailer Marcus from Raw Fury made, with the awesome intro and outro scene from the amazing Zak Amana. It will also be a big plus on quality with professional help on QA, on localizations and on the game content itself. We speak every week with our Friends Loke and Garnett from Raw Fury, getting their feedback on the build and planning next steps together. We never made a really professional game before, so that's a great support to have.
the graphics upgrade is most notable in (and needed for) the underground


[h2]What this means for us[/h2]
The game is well off now, and luckily, we are too. We don't have to basically crunch next to a 40hr daytime job as we did many years before, but can focus all our energy, passion and creativity on Dome. I still can't quite fathom how incredibly fortunate we are to get into this position, from being small time hobby devs to getting into what feels like the indie dev heaven. After working like this for a month, Anne said to me "it's so nice to see you finally be happy again", and i really felt that. We are filled to the brim with gratitude, both at Raw Fury for placing their trust in us and at you the players, who are sooo engaged with Dome. Thank you!

my current emotional state

Best Wishes,
René

Verteidige deine Kuppel gegen eine Welle nach der anderen von feindlichen Angriffen in diesem Roguelike-Survival-Bergbau-Spiel.

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[h2]Hello keepers of the dome 🙂
[/h2]

[h2]PAX[/h2]
We are entering a hot phase now in April! We'll fly over to Boston to be part of the great indie game conference PAX East https://east.paxsite.com/en-us.html
We'll show and reveal a lot of cool things then. For one, we have a shiny new trailer, that should give a good impression on how the game feels now. We will also reveal the name change, which we planned for so long. Dome Romantik was really only a pun that lived much longer than anticipated, although i appreciate that many of you actually like the name! On our booth there will be a few stations where the current version of Dome can be played, and where we'll hang around and chat. There is another big reveal about to happen there, which i won't spoil yet 😄

[h2]Demos[/h2]
I can also tell we'll be part of the Steam Next Fest in Summer, in which you'll get your hands on the new demo. That demo will look and feel more like the Steam Release we are working on, and not so much like the (expanded) game jam version you've been playing as a demo so far.
With the start of PAX, we'll also finally take the current Demo offline on the 17th ofApril. Initially we announced to only keep it up 3 days, not 60. So there will be no Demo for some weeks, until the Next Fest rolls around. This is because we think some people might see the game on PAX and the new Trailer, and then might look for the Demo, which doesn't fit anymore. We'll do some playtests here and there, organized over on our Discord - come over and hang out, it's a lovely community!

[h2]the wtf part[/h2]
Exactly 2 months back on the 14th of February, when we were still young and innocent, we put the Demo of Dome Romantik live on Steam. We decided that on a whim, spontaneously a few days before the Midweek Madness Event Games from Germany started. This Demo had been sitting in our hands a few months already, and we were happily working on it in our spare time - we were hobbyists back then. We had a good time and were testing the build with our small but amazing community. We expected a small bump from that event. But oh boy, we had no idea.

Fast forward to today and 75.000 people spent a combined 224.000 hours in the demo. On some days, over 5000 people played it. Our Discord exploded from 270 people to nearly 4000. So many fantastic youtube channels and twitch streamers covered Dome, that we couldn't even keep up watching it.
Sometimes we still stop, look at each other and ask ourselves: How insanely awesome is that? That our little game jam entry finds so much love with you? You wouldn't believe how much that powers us to push and push, to make a worthy game, to make this the best we can. In January we switched to working full time one Dome, and i like to think: if we could make something you liked that much in our spare time, what can we do when we can focus on it 100%, when it's not in the late hours after an exhausting day at the offices?

Anyway, i'm just feeling so thankful and happy to be able to work on this with all I got, and i know the team feels a similar sense of fullfilment.
See you at PAX, or maybe some time on a Dome Stream :)

[h2]Have a good time[/h2] :)

[h2]Hi there!
[/h2]

To celebrate the Games Germany event, I'll play a few rounds with the very demanding sword dome. It's not available in the demo, so you can get a glimpse what might wait in the future.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

But mostly, i just want to hang out with you and chat about dome, and hear your ideas, concerns and wishes :)

It will also be my first time streaming at all. Be sure to check out the other games in the event too, like the lovely Curious Expedition 2.

Hope to see you then!
- René