I’ve been working hard on the update for Dwarven Depths and my website has been feeling neglected. So, over the next two weeks, I’ll be revealing some of the new features for the game. I may throw in some posts talking about the design or development of the game. I’ve also got a top-secret (and delicious) promotion planned for the update.
Today, I’m showing off… explosions! I’m not sure how I sold any copies of an underground mining game without any explosions. A mining game without explosions is like a beardless dwarf. It’s unsightly and slightly embarrassing. Seeking to remedy this, Dwarven Depths now has lots of things that go boom.
There are three main sources of explosions. Two of them are new items. Dwarves can drop bombs that will explode after a short amount of time. They can also lay a new trap, mines that explode shortly after another dwarf walks by. I’m calling the third source Rigged Rock. When the map is created, it will fill in parts of the tunnels with clusters and strings of Rigged Rock. These clusters are indistinguishable from normal dirt. Someone (or something) trying to dig through Rigged Rock will set off a chain reaction and the entire chain will explode, taking any nearby monsters or unfortunate dwarves with it. There’s only a second between a section of Rigged Rock getting ‘activated’ and the explosion. I figured it’s a good way to keep players on their toes when they’re just digging around :)
One of the ideas I’m toying with right now is letting the Stone Priest see where the Rigged Rock is. He already has a substantially better power than before, so it might not be necessary. I’ll be sure to talk about the class balance changes in an upcoming post.
