About this project
The Dwarves - A New Storydriven Fantasy RPG
$310,091
The campaign is over. If you want to support us, please go to www.dwarves-game.com
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If you need more beer, beards and battle in your life, The Dwarves is for you!
- Learn all about the coolest fantasy race out there
- Explore a huge game world with an ever-growing group of companions
- Experience an epic story with many optional side-quests and tough decisions
- Discover unique traits about your 15 different companions and improve their skills
- Fight against hundreds of enemies in epic real-time battles that combine dynamic action and tactical depth
Release planned for Mid-2016 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, Mac & Linux!
10/08/2015: Update #12 - The final hours! Stretch Goal?
10/06/2015: Update #11 - Stretch-Goals explained; The last three days!
10/01/2015: Update #10 - Funding Goal reached! New gameplay video!
9/29/2015: Update #09 - The last 10 days have started!
9/23/2015: Update #08 - More Rewards, GIFs & Keenfire!
9/23/2015: Update #07 - The Dwarves feat. Blind Guardian!
9/21/2015: Update #06 - 75% reached; Plans for the next weeks
9/18/2015: Update #05 - Designing the Dwarves
9/15/2015: Update #04 - Music & Voices
9/10/2015: Update #03 - Game Concept & Gameplay Overview
9/7/2015: Update #02 - Halfway through, Stretch Goals, Mac & Linux Version, PayPal Shop online
9/3/2015: Update #01 - The first 48 hours, PayPal, Mac & Linux
8/27/2015: We showed some industry veterans our Kickstarter presentation and here is what they had to say (Thanks a lot, guys!)
9/1/2015: The campaign is LIVE! Woo-hoo! Please help us make this a campaign a success and tell your friends about it! Dwarves@Facebook
OUR VISION
We at KING Art Games are thrilled that story-based tactical RPGs are making a comeback thanks to Kickstarter. We always loved these games and we work hard to be part of this renaissance!
We had the idea to make a game with epic battles between a handful of heroes and hundreds of enemies (think "Battle of Helm's Deep" in "The Lord of the Rings") and combine these cool battles with a great story and a unique group of playable characters. The result is "The Dwarves".
OUR CROWD COMBAT SYSTEM
Our Crowd Combat System uses physical parameters like mass, dimension and momentum of individual characters to calculate a realistic flocking behavior. If an enemy in the front is hurled into an ally behind him, the information instantaneously travels across the entire group and causes them to react accordingly - everyone is affected.
That results in a very natural and cool-looking behaviour for the whole enemy crowd. Everybody pushes and shoves, squeezes and stumbles all at the same time.
You can, and have to, make use of this “physical chaos” to hold your own against huge enemy hordes. Additionally each hero has a range of individual attacks available that you can combine into powerful combos.
But how does combat feel besides all the physics-based havoc? Think about an RTS like Warcraft 3. In some missions you play only one (or a couple) of powerful heroes. These heroes fight against enemy minions without your help (auto-attacks), but you are the one who moves the characters and who chooses when to use which of their powerful special abilities. These abilities have a cool down, so you have to switch between your heroes to make the most out of them.
Add combos and the environment into the mix and you get an idea of what the combat feels like. You’re in control of an elite group of fighters that can fight for themselves if you’re not around, but who need you to close the deal.
Dwarves is a single player game and to give you enough time for your decisions there is something we call “Combat Focus”. It’s basically “bullet time” that slows down all the action, so you can solve critical situations.
THE GAME WORLD
“The Dwarves” is based on the first novel of the international best-selling fantasy series by German author Markus Heitz.
You play as Tungdil, a dwarf who was raised among humans and gained his knowledge of the five Dwarven Kingdoms primarily from books. He sets out on a grand journey across “Girdlegard” - a conglomeration of kingdoms that’s now more dangerous than ever.
You’ll travel across the game world on a world map that is alive with allied armies, enemy hordes, and NPCs, such as travelling salesmen. When you meet allies or merchants you can talk to them, buy things, and maybe receive a quest. There are also random events and encounters that can occur anywhere in the world. Sometimes it’s just minor things, sometimes these encounters call for tough decisions and might have far-reaching consequences.
There are a few hundred waypoints on the map you can travel to. There will be frequent switches from the world map to a more detailed view, where you can explore important locations and solve hidden puzzles.
It is important for us to stay true to the books whenever possible. But at the same time Markus gave us the freedom to change things if necessary and the game offers a range of new adventures and side quests – a few of them written by Markus Heitz himself.
"KING Art will rock the Dwarves game! In the first meetings I immediately realized that KING Art wants more from me than just the license of a successful fantasy-novel. They absolutely love fantasy and channel that passion into their games.
One of their team members, Lukas Zach, has already developed the official board game of The Dwarves together with Michael Palm. So, KING Art has a deep knowledge of the world and atmosphere of The Dwarves, in addition to their 15 years of experience in developing video games.
I am involved as a counselor, but give KING Art lots of freedom and room for interpretation of the world of The Dwarves. So far it’s looking great. And I’m also going to write some new quests for the game. Can’t wait!"
DESIGN
Girdlegard is populated by different dwarven tribes, humans, elves, magi, orcs, bögnils, ogres and Älfar. We’re currently giving all races and characters in the game a unique appearance.
THE SCHEDULE
We started developing "The Dwarves" early this year. This is our schedule until the release in Mid-2016:
The alpha and beta versions of "The Dwarves" are exclusively for supporters (PC only). Like in our previous games we're looking forward to get your feedback and work together with you to make the game great.
THE BUDGET
We’ve been able to acquire a large portion of the development budget ourselves. But we need your support to secure funding and get all planned features into the game.
If we surpass our funding goal we would be happy to implement additional features and content.
WHO IS KING ART AND CAN YOU GUYS REALLY DO IT?
We’re an indie developer with more than 15 years of experience. To this day we’ve developed more than 40 games and are one of the few developers who have already delivered two successful Kickstarter projects.
Our first Kickstarter project - Battle Worlds: Kronos
- “A model Kickstarter project, delivering exactly what it promised, on time.” (82%, Pelit)
- “I have waited 19 years for a worthy successor to Battle Isle 2 and it was worth it.” (82%, GameStar)
Our second Kickstarter project - The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
- “If you love point and click adventures, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is everything you could possibly want and more.”
(90%, Hardcore Gamer)
- “It proves that Kickstarter [...] can significantly contribute to the very high quality of a game."
(95%, Ragequit) - 96% positive user reviews on Steam
WHY KICKSTARTER?
When you launch a game project on Kickstarter, it’s not just about the money. It’s also about getting early feedback on the game and establishing a relationships with a community that cares deeply about it.
Battle Worlds: Kronos and The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 have become better games because you accompanied us during development and motivated us on every occasion. We hope it will be the same for “The Dwarves”.
All icons are visual approximations, not actual look of rewards. Your payment will be processed in US-Dollars. The indicated values for Euro and British Pounds are estimated values.
JOIN US!
Become part of the community and don’t miss a single update.
Legal stuff
- "The Dwarves" based on the correspondent bestselling novel series of Markus Heitz first published by Piper Verlag, Germany
- German law shall apply to the exclusion of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods.
Risks and challenges
There is very little doubt in our mind that we can deliver a great game as promised:
- This is our third "Kickstarter Game", we already delivered two games successfully.
- We know how to make projects of this scope and already made other games with the technology.
- The team has worked together for years and waited a long time to make a game like this.
FAQ
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Yes, you can: http://www.dwarves-game.com/kickstarter_en/
But if possible please support us here on Kickstarter with a credit card, because your PayPal contribution will not help us to reach the funding goal here on Kickstarter (it still helps us making a better game, so of course your help would be appreciated very much).
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There will be a DRM free version. We support GoG.com for example and their version will be DRM free. We'll give you the choice which version you want to get.
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We added the Mac & Linux versions later, so they do not appear separately in the reward descriptions. Whenever we talk about the "PC version" in the rewards we mean Windows, Mac or Linux.
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We're planning to release the game on Steam and GoG. If both agree and provide us with keys (they did in the past), we will let you choose which one you would prefer.
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There will be at least an English and a German version (voices & subtitles). But we hope we'll be able to ship several more languages (subtitles).
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We’re planning to release the game on the Playstation Store and the Xbox One Store. If Sony and Microsoft agree and provide us with keys, we’ll get these keys to you as fast as possible.
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If you pledge 35-40 USD, you’ll get a beta version of the game in early 2016 (if you want). If you pledged more than 40 USD, you’ll get an alpha version even before that (end of 2015), if you want. In both cases you’ll receive the full game Mid 2016 (as a box + download, or just as a download, depending on the pledge-level you choose).
Rewards
Funding period
- (37 days)