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

[rusty_shackleford]

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

I miss custom mouse cursors in games

[RolandKvltgames]

We overhauled the UI, added some nice status bars and changed the font (still used in the status messages but that'll change too). As much as I feel nostalgic for the Goldbox font, this one's just fitting the style better plus having lowercase letters is kinda nice.

[roldet]

How long is the estimated playtime? Also, does the game feature procedural generation for its dungeons, enemies, and loot?

[RolandKvltgames]

How long is the estimated playtime? Also, does the game feature procedural generation for its dungeons, enemies, and loot?

Estimated playtime is a bit hard to really say at the moment but we are aiming for something around 25 hours, approximately.

There will be randomization for enemies and loot, but at least in the beginning when we start our early access in a few months, the dungeon layouts will still be static. We plan partially procedurally dungeons (so static parts mixed with some randomized segments) for the final release version.

[RolandKvltgames]

Been a bit silent over the last weeks, mostly because we are crunching to get a demo ready for NextFest. Here's a little updated screenshot with the current UI!

[RolandKvltgames]

btw on a side note - I just randomly stumbled upon this thread here on RPG HQ about The Great Rebellion, which I am actually the dev of Happy that people here also took note of our game ^^

viewtopic.php?t=1528-heimat-defender-2- ... r-dystopia

Dverghold will be the next game we'll release after TGR (and we are also already working on a quasi-sequel to The Great Rebellion, it will be called "Hyper Rebellion").

But now back to Dverghold, I don't want to derail my own thrad lol

[AmericanMonarchist]

Will this game have Steam Deck support?

[RolandKvltgames]

Will this game have Steam Deck support?

We will have to adapt the controls a bit, currently everything is geared towards mouse (+keyboard) but yes, eventually it will definitely.

[RolandKvltgames]

Alright, we have started internal playtesting for our demo. We aim to release it in the next few days and are still ironing out bugs and other issues. Let me know if anybody wants a Steam playtest key for the current build

Just send me a DM

[stormvermin]

Alright, we have started internal playtesting for our demo. We aim to release it in the next few days and are still ironing out bugs and other issues. Let me know if anybody wants a Steam playtest key for the current build

Just send me a DM

You guys are trying to have the demo out for nextfest, right? Content to wait until then. Good luck!

[RolandKvltgames]

Alright, we have started internal playtesting for our demo. We aim to release it in the next few days and are still ironing out bugs and other issues. Let me know if anybody wants a Steam playtest key for the current build

Just send me a DM

You guys are trying to have the demo out for nextfest, right? Content to wait until then. Good luck!

Yep, in fact we'll release it already pretty soon, a few days before NextFest so we can get into press preview.

[RolandKvltgames]

The first demo for Dverghold is live!

Download now to get a first look at the old-school dungeon crawling of Dverghold, dive into the world of Hyrdengard and hack & slay your way through the first level of the depths under the isle of Rekestt. The demo also gives you a chance to listen to multiple exclusive new tracks by Dungeon Synth artist Splendorius! Here is the link to the Steam page again: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4216280/Dverghold

This is an initial demo that does not contain all the features that will be available in Early Access yet (we left out everything to do with upgrading your base and focused on the dungeon crawling part for now). It is going to be our submission for Steam NextFest, so we have until then to polish and fix bugs (there are definitely a few still in there). Have fun and let us know about any issues you can still find, bugs, balancing issues etc.

Gameplay trailer:

[stormvermin]

@RolandKvltgames is there a way to resume a playthrough after closing the game? I killed one of the mole dudes, got a runestone, and teleported back to the camp to recuperate, but now I can only start a new game after opening it again.

[RolandKvltgames]

Not in the demo, no. That is only intended for single runs. In the final game progress will of course be saved.

[stormvermin]

Not in the demo, no. That is only intended for single runs. In the final game progress will of course be saved.

Got it. I am enjoying it all the same. Favorite character is the witch that has the lightning spell.

20260213210539_1.jpg

And her.

[RolandKvltgames]

Who doesn't like her ^^

[Tangerine]

The i and the l are hard to tell apart in font you're using above the character portrait.

[RolandKvltgames]

Hm yeah I can see that, noted.

[Stack of Turtles]

The i and the l are hard to tell apart in font you're using above the character portrait.

I rather like it that way as it gives it the sense of a medieval manuscript, but I also don't have any actual trouble telling it apart in practice, so I might be biased.

[RolandKvltgames]

We are participating in Steam NextFest, LFG We already crossed 3000 wishlists, Millie wants you to have some ale in celebration!

[roldet]

Tried the demo. Liked it. Felt like Darkest Dungeon though unlike it there is no reason to use all chars since they do not need to take a day off. Leveling up three chars and forgetting rest of them seems viable. Some mechanism to force you use all of them may be thinkable. Enough class/skill diversity. Some backstory and characters saying stuff when you click on them, chests with no loot not spawning and crafting (or more items) would be nice. The part with several traps felt bizarre.

[Acrux]

Some mechanism to force you use all of them may be thinkable.

[Rand]

Looks good. Hope it does well in the Fest.

[Oyster Sauce]

@Kalarion and @Finarfin played it and should share their thoughts

[Orvas Dren]

demo was actually pretty fun

[RolandKvltgames]

Tried the demo. Liked it. Felt like Darkest Dungeon though unlike it there is no reason to use all chars since they do not need to take a day off. Leveling up three chars and forgetting rest of them seems viable. Some mechanism to force you use all of them may be thinkable. Enough class/skill diversity. Some backstory and characters saying stuff when you click on them, chests with no loot not spawning and crafting (or more items) would be nice. The part with several traps felt bizarre.

Yes, we are aware of that and this is really just a limitation of the demo - quite frankly, mainly because we just couldn't get more features in before the NextFest deadline. In the Early Access version, there will be mechanics that makes it necessary to switch out characters like disease or exhaustion, however you can still play with only a core party. However, if you only train the same 3 characters and they die, you will have to fall back to lower class recruits again so it might be better to try and bring them up to more even levels. Also, different parts of the dungeon will demand different skillsets, so it makes sense naturally to sometimes swap. That is one of the reasons why we limit the party to 3 characters, so you can't really have a party that combines everything.

The DD influence is definitely there, one of our initial ideas for the game was literally "what if you took Darkest Dungeon and crossed it with a Blobber". A sort of crafting mechanic will be in the final game - it is planned that the player will be able to build a forge where items can be tinkered with using materials you find.

[Kalarion]

I liked that I couldn't find a way to resurrect characters, it gave a very different feel to dungeon crawling. Skill variety was pretty good. Finding new equipment was a rush, it was always impactful (for me, at least).

I'm getting hyped.

[rusty_shackleford]

[rusty_shackleford]

Watched about 10 minutes, looks excellent, looking forward to the full release.

[RolandKvltgames]

We've been a bit quiet the last months, but certainly not because we were lazy....we published a new development update for Dverghold on steam here with some news:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/421628 ... 4044158994