In the upcoming building strategy game King of the Dwarves, you build an underground dwarf fortress. We tell you why this could be really good.
What is an exciting race that lives underground and would make an excellent theme for a building game? That’s right, moles. But since there is no decent mole strategy game yet, the second best option will have to do: Dwarves!
What is King of the Dwarves about?
In King of the Dwarves, as the title suggests, you take on the role of an aspiring dwarf king who builds a complex underground fortress. You dig your way step by step through a procedurally generated underground cave and can expand three-dimensionally in all directions – at least until you come across a lava river or a water source. Then you have to think of something to bypass the source or use it to your advantage.
And then there are such disruptive factors as earthquakes, floods and orc hordes: glorious! To fend off the latter in real-time battles, you should be able to train hundreds of dwarves as warriors, but there are also other jobs to choose from – miner, builder, explorer and blacksmith, for example.
Besides your ambitious building project and the fight against all kinds of fantasy goons, you will also forge weapons, make diplomatic decisions and research new technologies. According to the developers, the whole thing will be spiced up with role-playing game elements. Exactly what these will look like, for example, whether your dwarf king will have his own character values, remains to be seen.
You can see how the three-dimensional building looks in action in the current trailer:
For whom is King of the Dwarves exciting?
King of the Dwarves seems on the one hand to be a mixture of several building game models. The underground fortresses that we defend against invaders are of course reminiscent of the classic Dungeon Keeper. At the same time, there are survival elements and natural disasters à la Banished and Frostpunk. But mainly, King of the Dwarves seems to become something all its own – with a fresh fantasy setting and the exciting gameplay idea of three-dimensional underground building, which turns the classic city-building simulation on its head.
Developers Tag of Joy are a blank slate except for a few experimental AR apps and mobile games, so of course there’s a risk that King of the Dwarves won’t live up to its potential and will join the ranks of indie building games that had a lot of good ideas and fail because of too little developer experience – like the actually promising Frozenheim.
What do we like so far? What remains open?
What do we like so far?
- Fresh setting: The world of the dwarves has hardly been explored in building games so far. Their special way of life as well as their strengths and weaknesses could be an exciting twist for the genre
- Three-dimensional building: Those who have only been used to horizontal building from the iso-perspective could get a whole new challenge with underground building in all directions.
- Gameplay variety: If it all worked out, King of the Dwarves wouldn’t run out of motivation so quickly with research, diplomacy and war.
What remains open?
- What will be the focus? At the same time, too many game elements can also be the wrong choice for a building game. Is it more building, real-time strategy or diplomacy simulation
- Can the developers handle it? Building strategy is a difficult genre to balance and long-term motivation is one of the biggest challenges. Can the rather inexperienced developers really pull it off?
- What does the role-playing game look like? Is it about the character values of your dwarf king or can you even take control yourself like in SpellForce?
Furthermore, we don’t know yet if the female dwarves will have a beard in King of the Dwarves – but we’ll stay tuned for you. There is also no release date yet, but we have every reason to keep a closer eye on the building game.
Conclusion
I. Love. Dwarves. The “noble dwarf” story from Dragon Age: Origins is one of the most gripping game stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. What’s more, they always have the best armour, which they can forge themselves, wear the undoubtedly best beards and appreciate gold and gems. I love meeting dwarves in unusual game genres, such as the co-op shooter Deep Rock Galactic. That’s why the building game King of the Dwarves made my ears prick up right away.
What’s more, the three-dimensional underground building seems like a really exciting new approach – at a time when construction games sometimes lack a bit of courage. At the same time, I’ve become increasingly wary of projects from unknown studios, as even the best ambitions and genre love are sometimes not enough to deliver a well-rounded game. But at least King of the Dwarves has already made it onto my watch list.
