Dverghold - Old-school grid-based dungeon crawler with base building

[RolandKvltgames]

I've only seen the one adventure screenshot, are there another three characters on the other side, or is it a three character party?

And does the player select from premade characters, or is there a customization option?

The underlying concept, of course, is wonderful.

You will be able to recruit party members that arrive at the "base camp" every time you return from the dungeon. You have a pool of recruits and can always pick 3 to take into the dungeon. Similar to how it works in Darkest Dungeon or a bit like X-Com. You can costumize the characters as they level up and if they die, they are gone and you have to recruit someone else (and train them).

[Acrux]

Does it have invisible doors that you'll need to bump into every wall to discover?

Serious question: What's the mapping planned to be like? Auto-map? Paper and pencil? Something else? While Jettatura left a lot to be desired, I did like the map spell that was dependent on the caster's perception for long-distance accuracy.

[WhiteShark]

Does it have invisible doors that you'll need to bump into every wall to discover?

Why did this not get the serious question label? This is a very serious question.

[RolandKvltgames]

Does it have invisible doors that you'll need to bump into every wall to discover?

Serious question: What's the mapping planned to be like? Auto-map? Paper and pencil? Something else? While Jettatura left a lot to be desired, I did like the map spell that was dependent on the caster's perception for long-distance accuracy.

We were planning for a straight up automap that just shows you everything you already explored, however I find the idea of making it a spell or an item with limited uses interesting, as well as playing with accuracy. Maybe we'll do something with that. Of course there's always the option of pencil & paper ^^

[rusty_shackleford]

@RolandKvltgames have you played the Might & Magic games?(Specifically, WoX)
Later Wizardry entries?

[RolandKvltgames]

I did play M&M 4 and 5 back in the day a bit, yeah. Last Wizardry I played was 7 (also a long time ago). My favourite RPGs from that era were the Ultima games, the Goldbox games, the 3 Realms of Arkania (or Das Schwarze Auge in Germany) titles, Amberstar and Lands of Lore.

[rusty_shackleford]

I did play M&M 4 and 5 back in the day a bit, yeah. Last Wizardry I played was 7 (also a long time ago). My favourite RPGs from that era were the Ultima games, the Goldbox games, the 3 Realms of Arkania (or Das Schwarze Auge in Germany) titles, Amberstar and Lands of Lore.

If you get the time, play Wizardry 8. It's great!

[RolandKvltgames]

I remember playing the 7th for some time and giving up because it was too dififcult for me back then ^^

[RolandKvltgames]

Some new character portraits by @Neocrius

Our Elves are going to be Chads

[Neocrius]

If that's too masculine for you, we have halflings and chicks too.

Halfling-Archer-M.jpg

Elf-Archer-F.jpg

[stormvermin]

You should add female dwarves but make their portraits identical to male dwarves.

[DemoGraph]

You should add female dwarves but make their portraits identical to male dwarves.

Denying females their double quota of beard jewelry is a crime against dwarfity.

[RolandKvltgames]

You should add female dwarves but make their portraits identical to male dwarves.

In the game's lore, it is implied that female dwarves do in fact look the same, but you never get to see any during the game.

[Finarfin]

Some new character portraits by @Neocrius

Our Elves are going to be Chads

Ahem, might I ask for a blonde Finarfin-like Elf?

[maidenhaver]

@RolandKvltgames are slings in your game, and are they good? The admin here memed slings pretty hard, so I watched a few videos about slings on yewtoob, and now I use them all the time over crossbows. They're maybe not practical for human dungeoneers, but hobbits are small enough they could sling in dungeons. More practical than toy-sized bows and arrows for hobbits.

[RolandKvltgames]

@RolandKvltgames are slings in your game, and are they good? The admin here memed slings pretty hard, so I watched a few videos about slings on yewtoob, and now I use them all the time over crossbows. They're maybe not practical for human dungeoneers, but hobbits are small enough they could sling in dungeons. More practical than toy-sized bows and arrows for hobbits.

At this point we actually don't have slings but thanks for the reminder. We will put them in at some point in development for sure. Great weapon for hobbits/halflings for sure.

Some new character portraits by @Neocrius

Our Elves are going to be Chads

Ahem, might I ask for a blonde Finarfin-like Elf?

Up to @Neocrius , really.

Also, dev update: as has been pointed out, the blood effects weren't amazing and I redid them here. Also, another graphics update: we threw away Unity's default postprocessing stack and replaced it with our own which doesn't just look better but is actually faster. You can also hear a snipped from the actual game's soundtrack here. Sound effects are still mainly placeholders at this point:

[RolandKvltgames]

Also cool rocks as requested by @Oyster Sauce have been added.

[Marcus]

Also cool rocks as requested by @Oyster Sauce have been added.

tenor.gif

[Stack of Turtles]

Also cool rocks as requested by @Oyster Sauce have been added.

The ᚢ in your runic title was bothering me, so I did some research. I thought you should know that it seems that the Fakenham lead plaque is the only runic inscription ever found that clearly uses a form of the word *dwergaz, and it uses the letter ᚹ rather than ᚢ, which is also probably more consistent with the expected pronunciation (ie, almost certainly a semivowel). It's Anglo-Saxon, though, but I still suspect this is probably the better choice.

I would like to apologize in advance that you posted this on probably the only video game forum left with someone who knows runic on it.

[Marcus]

The ᚢ in your runic title was bothering me, so I did some research. I thought you should know that it seems that the Fakenham lead plaque is the only runic inscription ever found that clearly uses a form of the word *dwergaz, and it uses the letter ᚹ rather than ᚢ, which is also probably more consistent with the expected pronunciation (ie, almost certainly a semivowel). It's Anglo-Saxon, though, but I still suspect this is probably the better choice.

I would like to apologize in advance that you posted this on probably the only video game forum left with someone who knows runic on it.

Claude agrees:
_

hm.png

[rusty_shackleford]

If it's meant to be Old English:
dueorg was less common than dveorg, but was used. I believe it's also the form older editions of Websters used for etymology of dwarf in OE.
Ƿið dƿeorh itself later also spells it as dueorge.


Then he shuddered as if a dwarf was clutching him tightly
Awile he rith a swylce he on dueorge sy



... At least according to Hines, I'm unable to find the source material to check for myself. It's possible he wrote it down as that, but that would be odd.


My knowledge of OE comes from teaching myself to read Beowulf, so I have some but am not an expert.

[Tweed]

What about kobolds?

[Stack of Turtles]

If it's meant to be Old English:
dueorg was less common than dveorg, but was used. I believe it's also the form older editions of Websters used for etymology of dwarf in OE.
Ƿið dƿeorh itself later also spells it as dueorge.


Then he shuddered as if a dwarf was clutching him tightly
Awile he rith a swylce he on dueorge sy



... At least according to Hines, I'm unable to find the source material to check for myself. It's possible he wrote it down as that, but that would be odd.


My knowledge of OE comes from teaching myself to read Beowulf, so I have some but am not an expert.

They are very similar sounds (even the English letters come from the same thing!) and spelling is pretty flexible in the relevant date, so yeah, it's just a matter of which one is more formally correct. I just thought it might be helpful information. Also I think it kinda looks better with ᚹ.

[rusty_shackleford]

Minor feedback,


On your Steam page:

DESCEND INTO THE DEPTHS
FIRST-PERSON DUNGEON DELVING

Navigate the haunted depths of Rekestt level by level. Every corner could hide treasure or death. Every step deeper reveals more of what lurks below. Grid-based exploration meets atmospheric tension.

TURN-BASED COMBAT

Assemble your party and engage in challenging turn-based battles where positioning and strategy matter. Resources are precious. Enemies are cunning. Choose your fights carefully - sometimes retreat is the wiser choice.

BUILD YOUR BASE BETWEEN EXPEDITIONS

Transform your beachhead camp into a fortified stronghold. Recruit new heroes at the fireside, upgrade facilities, manage resources, and prepare for your next delve.

DEATH HAS CONSEQUENCES

Will you spend your hard-won resources to reclaim a veteran warrior, or press on with fresh recruits? Every loss matters.

RANDOMIZED ENCOUNTERS

While the dungeon structure remains consistent, monster spawns and loot distribution change with each expedition. Learn the layout, but never assume you know what awaits around the next corner.

This looks AI written, I don't know if it is but usage of emojis like that immediately make me think AI.

(I'm not anti-AI, but it could come off as lazy to potential customers)

---

Minor nitpick if you care for such:
Ghoul is taken from Arabic, if you were intending to keep it with a certain style.

[Stack of Turtles]

Minor nitpick if you care for such:
Ghoul is taken from Arabic, if you were intending to keep it with a certain style.

Most players likely know "draug" by now from other games!

[Neocrius]

The ᚢ in your runic title was bothering me, so I did some research. I thought you should know that it seems that the Fakenham lead plaque is the only runic inscription ever found that clearly uses a form of the word *dwergaz, and it uses the letter ᚹ rather than ᚢ, which is also probably more consistent with the expected pronunciation (ie, almost certainly a semivowel). It's Anglo-Saxon, though, but I still suspect this is probably the better choice.

I would like to apologize in advance that you posted this on probably the only video game forum left with someone who knows runic on it.

This entire runic thing came about when we were looking for a name for our game. I found some online translator for old Norse I believe (I don't recall the URL, sorry) and I translated 'home of the dwarves' which came back as DVERGR-HEIM. The other guys liked it and I even made a logo for it and everything (with the runes from the translator), but then we found out there's another game with a similar name, also somethingHEIM. So we decided to change HEIM to HOLD and drop the final R from DVERGR, because DVERG reminded us of 'Zwerg' as in German for dwarf.

So I've changed the logo and the runes and here we are. None of us are scholars when it comes to these things, but we also didn't want to just do 'whatever'.

[Stack of Turtles]

The ᚢ in your runic title was bothering me, so I did some research. I thought you should know that it seems that the Fakenham lead plaque is the only runic inscription ever found that clearly uses a form of the word *dwergaz, and it uses the letter ᚹ rather than ᚢ, which is also probably more consistent with the expected pronunciation (ie, almost certainly a semivowel). It's Anglo-Saxon, though, but I still suspect this is probably the better choice.

I would like to apologize in advance that you posted this on probably the only video game forum left with someone who knows runic on it.

This entire runic thing came about when we were looking for a name for our game. I found some online translator for old Norse I believe (I don't recall the URL, sorry) and I translated 'home of the dwarves' which came back as DVERGR-HEIM. The other guys liked it and I even made a logo for it and everything (with the runes from the translator), but then we found out there's another game with a similar name, also somethingHEIM. So we decided to change HEIM to HOLD and drop the final R from DVERGR, because DVERG reminded us of 'Zwerg' as in German for dwarf.

So I've changed the logo and the runes and here we are. None of us are scholars when it comes to these things, but we also didn't want to just do 'whatever'.

Well, good news: you were supposed to drop the final R from dvergr, because it's an inflectional suffix, not part of the stem. Dvergheimr would have been the usual translation, I think. (Although interestingly, the dwarves did not live in a dvergheim in the surviving Old Norse sources, but in Svartálfheim, the "home of the black elves". Scholars debate furiously to this day whether dwarves and black elves were the same thing, and whether either is also the same thing as the dökkálfar, "dark elves". Other names for probably the same place include Niðavellir, "new-moon-fields", and Myrkheimr, "home of darkness".)

You don't really have to worry too much about being exactly historical, but I like when I see runes used well; it's a nice little bonus.

[RolandKvltgames]

Minor feedback,


On your Steam page:

DESCEND INTO THE DEPTHS
FIRST-PERSON DUNGEON DELVING

Navigate the haunted depths of Rekestt level by level. Every corner could hide treasure or death. Every step deeper reveals more of what lurks below. Grid-based exploration meets atmospheric tension.

TURN-BASED COMBAT

Assemble your party and engage in challenging turn-based battles where positioning and strategy matter. Resources are precious. Enemies are cunning. Choose your fights carefully - sometimes retreat is the wiser choice.

BUILD YOUR BASE BETWEEN EXPEDITIONS

Transform your beachhead camp into a fortified stronghold. Recruit new heroes at the fireside, upgrade facilities, manage resources, and prepare for your next delve.

DEATH HAS CONSEQUENCES

Will you spend your hard-won resources to reclaim a veteran warrior, or press on with fresh recruits? Every loss matters.

RANDOMIZED ENCOUNTERS

While the dungeon structure remains consistent, monster spawns and loot distribution change with each expedition. Learn the layout, but never assume you know what awaits around the next corner.

This looks AI written, I don't know if it is but usage of emojis like that immediately make me think AI.

(I'm not anti-AI, but it could come off as lazy to potential customers)

---

Thanks for pointing it out, it is not AI-written but if it comes across as such, we'll remove them, no problem.

Minor nitpick if you care for such:
Ghoul is taken from Arabic, if you were intending to keep it with a certain style.

true, we might rename them to Draugr as has been pointed out.

[RolandKvltgames]

What about kobolds?

I am afraid we don't have Kobolds atm :/

[RolandKvltgames]

Merry Christmas everyone! Here is a first look at the title screen of Dverghold (including gauntlet-shaped mouse cursor).