KickStarter The Dwarves (Die Zwerge), a horde combat RPG from KING Art Games

[vonAchdorf]

After a leak (German), KING Art Games "soft announced" their upcoming "Fantasy RPG with tactical combat" today. Until the game's official announcement in 2 weeks, there is only a quickly cobbled together Facebook page (German only https://www.facebook.com/zwergespiel). The game is based on the novel series "The Dwarves" by Markus Heitz.

• They say the game will be "Fire Emblem" like.
• KING Art made Battle World Kronos and Book of Unwritten Tales and The Raven, so there's hope for a solid game
• 4 heroes against "hundreds of foes" - "think Helm's Deep"
• world map with "dozens" of battle maps and locations to explore
• official announcement at Gamescom – followed by a Kickstarter campaign (which should exclude F2P mobile crap)

 

[CryptRat]

This short description is appealing.

 

[ArchAngel]

Why cannot someone make a game where dwarves are the bad guys for a change that conquered everyone underground and are ruling them with a iron first in a kind of a perverted Roman Empire way.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Will end badly, just like the utterly mediocre Blackguards series.

 

[Ulminati]

Wash you mouth, filthy savage. The first Blackguards was a gud garm.

 

[Cthulhu_is_love]

Why cannot someone make a game where all people are the bad guys for a change that kill the PC in a couple of seconds and with lot's of c&c in a kind of a perverted Roman Empire setting?

I would wish such a game too, but there is none i guess.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Wash you mouth, filthy savage. The first Blackguards was a gud garm.

 

[vivec]

Wash you mouth, filthy savage. The first Blackguards was a gud garm.

So much this. The first Blackguards filled me with hope. Haven't played the second due to the lack of time from work. It had great encounter design supplemented with skills that felt satisfying to use. I would improve upon it by increasing spell variety AND interaction with objects in the world a la Divinity OS.

The premise of this game, the Dwarves, is quite appealing: it immediately reminded me the defense of the Lone mountain by Thorin's company. I would certainly expect that 4 swarves vs. a horde of goblins implies a lot of situational interaction with environment (traps, siege weapons, ambushes) to defeat them instead of hack and slash. If it *is* hack and slash, I have no sympathy whatsoever.

 

[ArchAngel]

Why cannot someone make a game where all people are the bad guys for a change that kill the PC in a couple of seconds and with lot's of c&c in a kind of a perverted Roman Empire setting?

I would wish such a game too, but there is none i guess.

Isn't Age of Decadence like that? At least my time in demo with Mercenary seemed that way.

 

[Jack Dandy]

ArchAngel is right. AoD is that.

Anywho, game sounds neat! And they've shown that they can deliver, so I might chip in for the KS.
Anybody here read the original novel? What's it like?

 

[Dorateen]

Why cannot someone make a game where dwarves are the bad guys for a change that conquered everyone underground and are ruling them with a iron first in a kind of a perverted Roman Empire way.

Because dwarves are the pinnacle of sentient beings. And the driving philosophy behind dwarven culture is "Leave us the hell alone!". So there is no desire to enslave other peoples, since dwarves actually revere work and enjoy partaking in labour. Naturally, other races grow envious of their wealth and contented lifestyle, which is why you always find hoards of enemies assailing a stronghold leaving dwarves to fight from a morally defensive position.

 

[JarlFrank]

This is gonna be gud. They did Battle World Kronos and that one was a very solid Battle Isle clone so they showed that they can do tactical turn based gameplay competently.

 

[Darkzone]

As someone who has listen to the audiobook "Die Zwerge" by Markus Heitz in original german, i have to tell you something very important: This will be only shit.
There is shit that is so shitty that it is good, and there is shit that is just shit, and this books are just shit. In the end of this books i hated the dwarfs and the heros. And worse is that i have discovered that i'm a fantasy masochist, because nobody in his right mind would listen to this shit. Alone the imagination that someone would buy this books and would read them, wasting his precious life on this shit, lets me puke. And someone who wants to make an RPG out of it is retarded beyond any degree. Against this shit is Salvatore a magnificent writer. EOM

 

[Excidium II]

Shovelware alert

 

[ArchAngel]

Why cannot someone make a game where dwarves are the bad guys for a change that conquered everyone underground and are ruling them with a iron first in a kind of a perverted Roman Empire way.

Because dwarves are the pinnacle of sentient beings. And the driving philosophy behind dwarven culture is "Leave us the hell alone!". So there is no desire to enslave other peoples, since dwarves actually revere work and enjoy partaking in labour. Naturally, other races grow envious of their wealth and contented lifestyle, which is why you always find hoards of enemies assailing a stronghold leaving dwarves to fight from a morally defensive position.

Lol. I still want a game where all the dwarven grit and organization lets them conquer the known underground.

 

[Notorious]

The books were a badly written piece of shit. (Only read the first two... I was young(er)...) But King Art Games are really good at what they do so ... keeping an eye on it.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

As someone who has listen to the audiobook "Die Zwerge" by Markus Heitz in original german, i have to tell you something very important: This will be only shit.
There is shit that is so shitty that it is good, and there is shit that is just shit, and this books are just shit. In the end of this books i hated the dwarfs and the heros. And worse is that i have discovered that i'm a fantasy masochist, because nobody in his right mind would listen to this shit. Alone the imagination that someone would buy this books and would read them, wasting his precious life on this shit, lets me puke. And someone who wants to make an RPG out of it is retarded beyond any degree. Against this shit is Salvatore a magnificent writer. EOM

Heitz is kinda popular in the German nerd-scene, basically just by virtue of being a German author. Based on this popularity I once made the mistake and slogged through two of his books and I am not exaggerating in any way when I say it was the worst shit I ever had the misfortune of reading.

That is not to say that the game is going to be bad of course. But I am certainly not excited by the IP that much is for sure.

 

[Johannes]

As someone who has listen to the audiobook "Die Zwerge" by Markus Heitz in original german, i have to tell you something very important: This will be only shit.
There is shit that is so shitty that it is good, and there is shit that is just shit, and this books are just shit. In the end of this books i hated the dwarfs and the heros. And worse is that i have discovered that i'm a fantasy masochist, because nobody in his right mind would listen to this shit. Alone the imagination that someone would buy this books and would read them, wasting his precious life on this shit, lets me puke. And someone who wants to make an RPG out of it is retarded beyond any degree. Against this shit is Salvatore a magnificent writer. EOM

So what are those books about, just d0rfs killing endless hordes of örks?

 

[JarlFrank]

There aren't too many prolific German fantasy authors, so Heitz is very popular because he writes a lot of books. Kinda like Hohlbein, who has a few quality books but also a lot of crap (more than 200 books in total, with at least 10 large series or at least trilogies or whatever).

Still, nobody gives a fuck about setting in a tactical game about fighting. I just want the combat to be good, and I trust King Art to deliver.

 

[Renevent]

Sounds cool, looking forward to hearing more about it.

 

[Excidium II]

Still, nobody gives a fuck about setting in a tactical game about fighting.

Speak for yourself

 

[JarlFrank]

As someone who has listen to the audiobook "Die Zwerge" by Markus Heitz in original german, i have to tell you something very important: This will be only shit.
There is shit that is so shitty that it is good, and there is shit that is just shit, and this books are just shit. In the end of this books i hated the dwarfs and the heros. And worse is that i have discovered that i'm a fantasy masochist, because nobody in his right mind would listen to this shit. Alone the imagination that someone would buy this books and would read them, wasting his precious life on this shit, lets me puke. And someone who wants to make an RPG out of it is retarded beyond any degree. Against this shit is Salvatore a magnificent writer. EOM

So what are those books about, just d0rfs killing endless hordes of örks?

Basically, yes.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I didn't read any of the books, only a couple of pages you get for free as an extract at eBook retailers. The title played a role in that, lacking creativity – even for someone like me who is interested in dwarves.

Some tidbits from an interview (German only again) with the creative director, unfortunately most news aren't great :

• he mentions Fire Emblem only in regard to collecting heroes and world map dialogue
• he namedrops PoE for location exploration
• the battles will be realtime, 4 "specialized" heroes (out of your bigger group) against hundreds of enemies
• you will only control one hero at a time, but can switch between them
• the other 3 heroes will "auto-attack, like in an MMO"
• enemies will have "swarm behavior", when a hero crushes into a crowd, enemies will be pushed around, stumble, drop from cliffs (exaggerated physics like in the concept art?)
• attacks will charge the heroes' special attacks which can only be unleashed by the player and have great influence on the battle
• no FE like permadeath
• you can pick heroes and change their abilities and items before a battle
• the world map will have "several hundred" locations, the player can freely choose his route
• one of their game designers created the official "The Dwarves" boardgame
• the author Markus Heitz will contribute some characters or quests "if he has the time", they are quite free to adapt the world / characters if necessary
• they want to convince the non German public, which largely doesn't know the books with their combat system
• they art style is of course "gritty and mature", "more GoT and LotR than WoW"
• engine will be Unity5
• full voice over, less text than Book of Unwritten Tales 2
• they are looking into the impact of C&C, there will be at least some ("save a village from orc marauders -> they like you" duh)
• console port not ruled out

Main character with improbable helmet:

This kind of dwarves is unfortunately all but extinct in fantasy:

Spoiler

 

[Duellist_D]

As someone who has listen to the audiobook "Die Zwerge" by Markus Heitz in original german, i have to tell you something very important: This will be only shit.
There is shit that is so shitty that it is good, and there is shit that is just shit, and this books are just shit. In the end of this books i hated the dwarfs and the heros. And worse is that i have discovered that i'm a fantasy masochist, because nobody in his right mind would listen to this shit. Alone the imagination that someone would buy this books and would read them, wasting his precious life on this shit, lets me puke. And someone who wants to make an RPG out of it is retarded beyond any degree. Against this shit is Salvatore a magnificent writer. EOM

I have to second this.
I read the first "Die Zwerge" book and it was even worse than some of the utter bullcrap HOhlbein spew out. If they draw heavily on the books, the game will be a steaming pile of feces. If they only take the rough setting and use it as the background for a game, it might work out though. There is a Co-op Boardgame set in the World of the books and that one is quite solid.

 

[CryptRat]

This longer description is not appealing at all.