Dwelvers News

Hi all,

We’re getting closer to the next major release of Dwelvers! But before that, we need your help to test it and squash any lurking bugs. That’s why we’re launching this beta version, and you're invited to join in.

At Divine Robot, the company where I work, and which is supporting Dwelvers, we recently brought on a level designer—who’s built a new campaign introducing the Dark Sister. I asked him to describe her, and he said:

Originally posted by author

"She's blue, she's got evil to do, and enemies to subdue... and in the last hour, her true self will come through"

[h3]How to Access the Beta[/h3]
To opt into the beta, use this code:

tuK82JR1JgNsK1OC

1. Right-click on Dwelvers in your Steam Library
   
2. Choose Properties → Betas
   
3. Enter the code and select the beta branch
   

[h3]What to Expect[/h3]
This is a work-in-progress build, and we’re eager to hear your feedback. Some things are still incomplete:

• The Dark Sister voiceover is not implemented yet
  
• Campaign Level 3 is missing
  
• Campaign Level 4 is incomplete
  
• Some placeholder text/icons remain
  
• Some UI elements still use the default red color
  

[h3]New Campaign: The Dark Sister[/h3]
We now have a new campaign with 4 levels. The first level is back to basics, but it will get harder as you progress. What is special about this campaign is that the Dark Sister have a character arc—a first for Dwelvers! Which is something that me (a cold, logic-driven programmer) was happy to explore.

[h3]Optimization[/h3]
Dwelvers has been optimized and now runs up to 60% faster on most machines. Enjoy smoother gameplay!

[h3]Color Coding[/h3]
Players are now color-coded. While red is still the default, skirmishes and custom dungeons let you pick your own color. This affects:

• Creatures
  
• Room flags
  
• Roads
  
• UI elements
  

[h3]Variety and Building Changes[/h3]

• There are now two types of reinforced walls
  
• Roads are no longer upgradable; instead, choose among three road types before building
  
• Stairs will auto-generate when building roads on slopes
  

[h3]What’s Next?[/h3]

• Finish the campaign
  
• Add the Dark Sister’s voice
  
• Polish, bug fixing, and balancing based on your feedback
  

[h3]How You Can Help[/h3]
We’d love your input! Please:

• Report bugs
  
• Share balancing issues
  
• Let us know if something feels missing or confusing
  

I’ll open a beta-specific forum here on Steam for your posts.

Thanks for playing and supporting the game!
/ Rasmus

Hi all!

As usual, I've been struggling to find time to work on Dwelvers. In my last news post, I talked about introducing an enemy keeper AI. This would, of course, require a lot of work to get right, and once it’s implemented, I’d need to design levels where you face off against this enemy keeper. If I followed that plan, it might be a while before you see the next release.

So, I’ve been thinking...

Dwelvers already has a lot of game mechanics, and most updates I’ve made have focused on introducing new features or mechanics. Perhaps it’s time to concentrate on adding more content instead. This approach is much quicker for me to implement, and I believe it would significantly enhance the gameplay.

For example, we need to get the workshop up and running. The game is highly moddable at the moment, and that potential should be fully utilized.

Another example is that the game currently only has one type of reinforced wall, one type of reinforced floor, one floor type (even if it can be upgraded), and a limited selection of tables. Imagine how much more fun it would be to design a dungeon with a variety of options.

Plus, being able to choose the color of the Dark Mother is already implemented (though not yet released), and it adds an extra layer of fun.

And let’s not forget more levels—each new level with fresh objectives can add many hours of gameplay.

So, even though an enemy AI would be exciting, I think it should be paused for now. We have a lot of low-hanging fruit that needs to be picked as soon as possible, and focusing on these will mean more frequent releases.

What do you think about this?

Dear Dwelvers community,

Since the last post in March, I was able to put down quite a lot of work on Dwelvers, and my intention was to continue doing so. I was able to continue on the computer AI for the Dark Mother and reached a point where the computer could build rooms in an orderly way, and repair them if they got destroyed.

Unfortunately, life got in the way again. My regular job, together with me prioritizing my family first of all, made little time for development. In the past, when this happened, I always hoped to get back to the development as soon as possible, and the longer it took for me to get back, the harder it was.

To be honest, I have found out that the time of year I usually have time for development is in the autumn and the winter, so I think this will be the case this year as well. I soon go on vacation, and that will make it impossible for me to find any time as I want to spend as much time with my family as possible during this time.

I wanted to make this announcement telling you all that development will probably continue in the autumn, because I don't want to keep you in the dark about what is going on, as I've done before.

I hope you all enjoy playing the current (full) version of Dwelvers, and I will try to get some new content in there as soon as I have time!

Take care all, and I hope you all get a good summer (or winter depending on where you live).

Sincerely,

Rasmus Ljunggren
(The only developer of Dwelvers)

Dear Dwelvers community,

This month I have been working on something extra. It wasn't my original plan but when it came to me I just had to pursue it.



So what is going on here? Do we have more than one Dark Mother in the picture?
Yes we do :D

[h3]Computer Dark Mothers[/h3]
Since the first time I started developing Dwelvers I always had the design in my mind that more than one player should be able to play the game at once, either it be in multiplayer, shared screen or just a computer player. Even if this was a long time ago and nothing I have prioritized during the 10 years of development I've always kept the original design intact. So when I tested to just add another computer player in the world another Dark Mother came forward!

[h3]Telling them apart[/h3]
Before I even wanted to go into all the bugs the new Dark Mother took with her into the underground, I first needed to be able to seperate the Wardens with all their creatures apart. So now we have rooms with green or red room flags depending on which player the Dark Mother belongs to.



And the creatures needed to be color coded as well.



Together with the roads.



And a very green Dark Mother!


(Perhaps too green??)

[h3]New Gameplay[/h3]
This opens up for a whole new campaign with the player fighting against, or cooperating with other Dark Mothers.

Scenarios that comes to my mind are the following:

• Player fighting against other Dark Mothers.
  
• Player fighting against other Dark Mothers and Humans (that are cooperating).
  
• Player cooperating with other Dark Mothers to fight other Dark Mothers or Humans.
  
• Player rescuing other Dark Mothers from humans.
  
• And so on..
  

I also have this idea that if a Dark Mother is killed she will spew out her heart and her creatures will become neutral, and whatever imp takes the heart and feed it to their Dark Mother, gets the killed Dark Mothers' creatures. This could add a lot of tactics to the game play!

If you have more game play ideas please let me know here: Multiple Dark Mother's gameplay suggestions

[h3]In the far future[/h3]
This also takes the first steps towards actually being able to play the game in multiplayer! First I need to add supports for gamepads (which also increases the Steam Deck support), and once that is done we could have split screen multiplayer!

[h3]What is left to do?[/h3]
It went surprisingly well adding another Dark Mother to the dungeon, there weren't many bugs and most of them are already fixed! I bugtest by switching between players and make them build bases and fight against each other. Once all the bugs are fixed I will start working on the computer players AI, and I am not sure how long this will take because there will probably be a lot of tweaking and bugtesting.

I want computer played Dark Mothers to have different "personalities", like if they prefer to defend or attack and also how efficient they are at building up dungeons.

With that said, my mind is bubbling with inspiration right now, and I can see that this is very feasible to add into the game without it taking to long time to develop!


Thank you all for your support and I will see you soon again :)

Sincerely,

Rasmus Ljunggren
(The only developer of Dwelvers)

Dear Dwelvers community,

A hotfix has been release to solve (or to get more information about) the issue some are having with the sound not working.

Sincerely,
/ Rasmus