King of the Dwarves News

[h2]Greetings, Dwarven Lords![/h2][p][/p][p] We are happy to let you know that King of the Dwarves is starting to look better with each passing day. If you are closely watching our announcements, you might have noticed that here and there, we were showcasing screenshots or videos from the game with a very placeholder User Interface (UI). But not anymore! The new UI is here, and we are eager to show you the early preview! [/p][p][/p][h2]New UI[/h2][p]
The new interface takes inspiration from the sharp, minimalistic shapes of Nordic runes, giving it a clean yet striking look. But it’s not just about style - the layout follows familiar patterns from other games in the genre, so it feels natural right away. And most importantly, all the key info is right where you need it - no digging deep (pun intended) through menus and panels required. [/p][p][/p][h3]Inspirations[/h3][p]We looked at many other games while designing the UI: Timberborn, Against the Storm, All Will Fall, the Civilization games and even Baldur's Gate 3. All of them had some elements or layout decisions that we liked, but at the same time, every game is unique, so we had to combine different ideas into the final UI. Within the gameplay itself, we wanted everything to be as compact as possible, so that you would see most of the necessary information right on the main in-game screen (by the way, if the UI is still too big for you, you can scale it down).[/p][p][/p][p]We didn't want heavy details that are there just because they're pretty. However, we still wanted to convey the feeling of luxury, so we added golden borders and some decor on the buttons, windows and other elements. All in all, UI is very important in a game like this, since there's a lot of management going on, which is why we took our time with it. Of course, we'll keep iterating, but we're excited to show you what we have now. Have a look![/p][p][/p][h3]Main Menu[/h3][p]In the main menu, we wanted to immerse players right into the world of the dwarves, but keep them wanting to go into the mountain itself. Therefore, we're showing this animated outside view of the mountain with the gates wide open and dwarves going into their new kingdom. You can already see the minimalistic UI design with the subtle decor that we talked about.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Gameplay[/h3][p]At first, we had many foldable elements, like groups of resources, but they covered too much screen space when expanded. But in the end, we put most of the stuff right on the screen. Also, you can once more see some decor around some elements, but it's quite simplistic, so that it wouldn't cover the precious gameplay area too much. By the way, almost every element has its own tooltip when you hover, which provides extra information about what you're seeing.[/p][p][/p][p] [/p][h3]Knowledge Tree Panel[/h3][p]And here's a work-in-progress knowledge tree. There will be more information here, but the overall look shouldn't change much.[/p][p][/p][p] [/p][h2]Closed Demo Test[/h2][p]
Important reminder! If you have missed the last announcement, we have opened the sign-up form for the Closed Demo Test of the game. Join us if you want to play King of the Dwarves before everyone else and share your feedback with the developers. It will be the best moment to share your thoughts about the game and impact the development of our game in a significant way. Closed Demo Test is coming in November 2025.

Best regards,
King of the Dwarves Team[/p]

[h2]Greetings, Dwarven Lords![/h2]

We have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that we have decided to withdraw from participating in Steam Next Fest in October. The good news is - we still want to provide you with a playable build for the Demo this year.

[h2]Steam Next Fest[/h2]

In short, we have decided that our demo is not polished enough yet to be released as a part of the Steam Next Festival. While it's certainly playable, it's rough around the edges. The tutorial is not ready, sounds are missing, and we tweak the balance of the game every week. While we won't participate in Steam Next Fest in October, we want to join the next edition that will take place at the beginning of next year.

[h2]Closed Demo Test[/h2]

In the meantime, we still want to provide a group of players with access to the early version of the demo. So our plans for the upcoming months look like this:

1. August, September, October - we collect sign-up forms for the Closed Demo Test, while working on the Demo.
   
2. November - we start sending out Steam Keys to the game.
   
3. December - we collect your feedback from the game to introduce all the necessary changes to the demo before the next Steam Next Fest.
   

If you want to participate in the tests, register for the Closed Demo Test HERE! Mind you, the Steam Keys that we are going to send out will be deactivated once the tests are over. They won't unlock the full launch version of the game upon release.

We realize that our approach to this matter is rather unusual. Not many developers invite the players to test the demo before it's release. Closed Beta tests are a common thing, but Closed Demo Tests are rather unheard of. Still, we have announced that the Demo will be available to you this year and we really want to provide the community with a chance to play King of the Dwarves.

By the way, thank you for all the Surveys that you have filled out for us in July. We are still visiting this document and analyzing all the new responses that you send our way. There are some surprising responses out there, but all your feedback is invaluable to us.

Best regards,
King of the Dwarves Team

[h2]Greetings, Dwarven Lords! [/h2]

We continue introducing substantial changes into the game. But during the development, there are some questions that come back on a regular basis and spark discussions among the developers. That's why we have decided that it would be best to ask YOU, the community, directly about them.

[h2]Survey[/h2]

The survey is rather short (8 questions) and shouldn't take long to complete. Here is a quick preview of questions that you can expect in the survey:

• Which of the following games you know and consider a great reference for King of the Dwarves?
  
• What would be your preferred approach towards the Research System?
  
• How important is combat for you in King of the Dwarves?
  

And more! Every single answer is incredibly important to us. So if you want to have an impact on the game's development and influence important decisions related to its design, now is your best chance to share your feedback with us.

Click HERE (or on the image below) to take the Survey!



Thank you your help! Every single survey counts!

Best regards,
King of the Dwarves Team

[h2]Greetings, Dwarven Lords![/h2]

We have recently done some internal tests of King of the Dwarves. The game was played thoroughly by the internal teams of the Developer and the Publisher, which resulted in a lot of feedback for us to discuss. As a result, we have decided to redesign some aspects of the game to make it flow in a more natural way. We have started with the trees.



Previously, we have made wood available only inside the mountain. The players had to dig out roots, which provided them with the wood resource. More than that, the game's playable area was limited to the inside of the mountain, too.

During our playthroughs, this felt too limiting and unnatural. Hence, we have decided that the trees should grow outside the mountain, and our dwarves should leave the mountain to cut them down. You can check our first attempts at this new change in the screenshots below.





[h2]Changes summarized[/h2]

• Trees will be the new main source of the wood, not the roots. We investigate an option for the roots to provide the player with another resource.
  
• Trees will be more stable as a source of the wood resource. Trees can regrow and won't be a finite resource that the player can run out of.
  
• The Dwarves will now be able to move outside the mountain, too.
  
• Some additional elements outside should also make the external parts of the mountain look much better.
  

This is only the beginning when it comes to changes that we want to introduce to the game. Expect more info in the upcoming months. Thank you for following King of the Dwarves!

Best regards,
King of the Dwarves Team

[h2]Greetings, Dwarven Lords![/h2]

Today we would like to talk a bit about dwarf names. We wrote a couple of posts ago that we are fans of both, Tolkien’s world and Old Norse mythology, and it is common knowledge, that Tolkien used names for the dwarves taken from the Poetic Edda (a collection of Old Norse narrative poems).

We also intend to use dwarf names that were used in the Old Norse texts. Currently, we have about 200 names attributed to male dwarves, which we mostly took from “Dwarf-Names: A Study in Old Icelandic Religion” – the research article written by Ch. N. Gould in 1929.



In the image: an excerpt from “Dwarf-Names: A Study in Old Icelandic Religion” shows some names with explanations of their meanings.

[h2]Missing Female Names[/h2]

But what about female names? While talking about female dwarves we already mentioned, that there is a problem with the names for them. “The reason why we do not hear anything about female dwarfs is probably that the gods (not the male dwarfs themselves!) did not need them. Assuming that only male dwarfs engaged in activities that were of direct interest to the gods, such as production of weapons or other objects with magic characteristics, suggests the gods did not have any tasks to be carried out by female dwarfs” (Mikučionis, 2020). That is probably the reason why there are so few mentions of females – those texts mostly talked about gods and their needs.

So what we did was take various Old Norse names that were used for female warriors, mythical beings and queens. As a result, currently, we have about 60 of them.

[h2]Hundreds of Dwarves[/h2]

But our goal is to have hundreds of dwarves! And although 260 names are technically hundreds, we thought we could expand this number.

In the olden days, in the Old Norse territories, they used to give a first name and a patronymic. A patronymic is simply a name that means “Son-of-”. In Old Norse, we see names such as Snorrason (son of Snorri) or Grímsson (son of Grímr), so we thought we could give patronymics to our dwarves as well. So instead of just being Fíli the dwarf could be named Fíli Durinsson. This means we would have more than 50 000 unique combinations!

What do you think? Should we add patronymics? Or should we make them optional with a setting?



P. S. Fun fact, patronymics were phased out in most of the Scandinavian countries more than a hundred years ago, except in Iceland, where they are still used instead of surnames.

Best regards,
King of the Dwarves Team