Dome Keeper News

Hey hey,
i hope you had a chance to play the Demo already, because i'd like to play a round and talk with you about it! We can also go into what the future holds for Dome, or how we got here in the first place. We'll just hang out, have a good time and try to not get our dome smashed.



See you then :)
-René

[h2]Hello Keepers,
[/h2]
we are so hyped to finally share the new Demo with you today! You’ll quickly see just how much has moved and improved since Dome Romantik, while staying true to the original version. I can’t overstate how much we were looking forward to finally putting the new Demo into your hands, and how thankful we are for playing Dome!



Obviously the graphics got a major overhaul. The music was updated too, and we have lovely new sounds for everything in the game. You’ll find that the underground is more complex now, with different biomes and rock densities, as well chambers you can excavate. Two new monsters and a new gadget will also spice things up for you, if you played Dome Romantik before. There are many more things, but it’s best you find that out on your own!



I’ll stream tonight at 19:00 UTC, just playing a bit and having some fun with you in the chat. We’ll also be in Steam Next Fest next week, in which we’ll do some fun streams too.

As always, I'll roam through the Steam Forums and carefully read all the feedback you got, and fix any bugs as quickly as possible. I’m also active on our Discord, which is also a great place to talk to other dome players.

I hope the wait was worth it! And talk to us - you can really make a difference here :)

[h2]Have fun :)[/h2]
-René

PS: Also keep an eye out on youtube, as there will be some great people making videos on Dome! If you want to see more of that, a very impactful way to support Dome is to recommend it to your favorite content creators.

[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