- Development Update #24 - Guard Posts - 25 August 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! The time has come for us to revisit one of the most interesting parts of the game - combat! We have decided to start with the building that could have been a bit hard to use. We are reworking the Garrisons by introducing the Guard Posts system to them. Guard Posts In the Demo build, all the Dwarves have stayed near the main Garrison building, where the warrior units were assigned. But this approach was hardly comfortable to use. Garrison building was large, and sometimes it was hard to place it next to the gates, where the attacks came from. Guard Posts are new, small structures, related to their main Garrison building, that can be built from within its building panel. In the simplest terms, the dwarves assigned as Warriors will now station themselves in those Guard Posts. Additionally, the player can select one of the desired behavior patterns for the dwarves…
- Development Update #23 - Decorations - 2 July 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! One of the things that surprised us during the Demo was the number of players who were willing to spend a long time with the game, just to refine their settlement and make it look better. You have requested upgrades towards stairs, carpets, and some of those changes were introduced during the demo itself. Now we are exploring this area further to ensure that you can shape your Kingdom into a true dwarven stronghold. New Decorations Some of the new decorations we are working on include: Stone Arches Marble Star Tiles Golden Small Ornaments Golden Big Vertical Ornaments Golden Dwarven Heads Of course, what you see in the video is a work in progress. We are still experimenting with different visuals to ensure that the decorations look appropriate. Do you think that the game is missing any specific decorations that properly convey the theme of a dwarven settlement?…
- Development Update #22 - Post-Demo Changes - 14 April 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! It has been about a month since we closed the Demo down. After analyzing all the feedback, we have rolled up our sleeves and gone into full development mode again. Many hard decisions have been made and today we would like to share some of them with you. In the end, it's your feedback that has shaped them all. And we are absolutely grateful that you shared your honest opinions with us. Research System Let's start with the most controversial area. Since the beginning, we have wanted to introduce a unique research system that would require constant knowledge upkeep instead of the traditional system known from other games. This system has been iterated upon several times. We have made the penalties for an insufficient number of researchers lower. We made the whole system optional and adjustable from the settings. But your feedback made it clear. We need to take a…
- Demo Ending Soon - Last Chance to Play - 4 March 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! Thank you for playing King of the Dwarves for the past month! We have seen a lot of you playing the Demo of King of the Dwarves. We have seen you joining our Discord server. We read all the Reviews and analyze the feedback that you send to us via Surveys. It's trully awesome to see a community that cares about the game getting better. Last Chance to Play Having said that, we have decided to close the Demo for now. If you still haven't played the King of the Dwarves Demo, now is your last chance. The Demo will be deactivated on Monday morning of next week, CET time. Don’t miss your chance to dive in one last time - and thank you for all the support and feedback you’ve given us along the way! Demo Stats Here are some cool stats from the Demo: Over 33,000 players have played the King of the Dwarves Demo. 43% of players have spent 1 hour or more with the demo, 6% o…
- Demo Update #2 - Lithuanian Language, Translation and Text Fixes - 27 February 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! Thank you for playing King of the Dwarves Demo! This update focuses on minor improvements to in-game texts and translations, ensuring greater clarity and overall polish across all supported languages. Changelog Added Lithuanian translation. Updated "Knowledge capacity reached" notification to show only while fewer than 3 Studies are built. Updated the knowledge tree node to have more space for the title and also be narrower on the sides. Fixed some tooltips not updating their translations when changing the language during gameplay. Fixed some other minor issues with different translations, including updated fonts in the Polish language. Best regards, King of the Dwarves Team
- Demo Update #1 - New Translations, More Solid Rock, Increased Brewery Production - 23 February 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! Thank you for playing King of the Dwarves! We are extremely happy to see that the Demo is seeing a positive reception on Steam and that there was a peak of 391 players upon its launch. Having said that, we are aware of the issues that the Demo is facing. We have read all your reviews, community threads, and surveys. This Update addresses the biggest issues that you reported and the ones that were reported most often. New Translations are now available, too! Changelog Added translations: German, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Chinese. Added "balance" icon to Knowledge Point balance number in top bar. Added hotkey for demolish structure tool. Added button with a link to our Discord server. Increased the amount of Solid Rock in the mountain. Increased Brewery production. One Brewery should now make enough beer for 50+ dwarves. Increased max zoom-in a bit and le…
- King of the Dwarves Demo is now available on Steam! - 4 February 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! he day has finally arrived. The sound of dwarven horns echoes through the mountain hills. The King of the Dwarves Demo is now publicly available on Steam! If you missed the previous closed demo - or want to see how the game has evolved - now is the perfect time to dive into the latest version. Have fun! Changelog Added Stairs as a structure that can be built in the mountain. Added Stone Wall Blocks as a structure that can be built in the mountain. Added a new Priority system that should make the dwarven management even easier. Added "Reset to Default" settings buttons. Added a confirmation dialog when the player clicks "New Game", while in an existing game. Added build version displayed on the game's screen. Updated the game's lights/shadows to provide a bigger contrast and more lively colors. Updated Throne visuals and made King sit on the Throne. Updated some…
- Development Update #21 - Upcoming Demo Changes - 23 January 2026
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! The Closed Demo tests are concluding. At this point, we really want to thank all the participants who have joined us and decided to submit the survey with their feedback. There were a lot of responses and we went through them all. There are some great suggestions in there and countless amazing ideas. Still, for now we had to group them and answer two important questions: Which changes are the most important and requested the most often? Which changes are possible to quickly introduce before the start of the Steam Next Fest? Answering those questions helped us create a list of changes that we want to introduce during Steam Next Fest in February. Upcoming Demo Changes Stairs Stairs were among the most popular requests. Even though there are Ladders in the game at the moment, we have seen several requests for more traditional stairs, which would allow dwarves to m…
- Development Update #20 - Closed Demo Test has started! - 28 November 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Kings! The much anticipated moment has arrived! We have just sent the invitations to our Closed Demo Test. If you have registered, but don't see the email in your mailbox, please check the "spam" and "offers" folders. Hopefully, the invitation should be there! Survey After you finish playing the Demo, please take a moment to write down your honest feedback via in-game Survey. You'll find it in the Main Menu or right after finishing/exiting the demo. Don’t hold back: share what you love, what frustrates you, and any ideas for improvement. Your responses will help us polish the demo and make it even better in time for the Steam Next Fest in February! Late Sign-ups If you have just learned about the Closed Demo Test right now, don't worry. You can still sign up via this Google Form. We will send another batch of invitations somewhere next week. Thank you for your support…
- Development Update #19 - Tutorial Sneak Peek - 7 November 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! The Closed Demo Test is getting near! We are finishing the Tutorial and making some final fixes to the Demo. We can't wait to show you what we have been working on for the past few months. Check our progress and let us know what you think about those first few minutes of the game! Tutorial At the moment, we want to introduce the player to all the basic mechanics through the tutorial. This tutorial will cover the whole length of the Demo. The tutorial panel will serve two main roles: Include a to-do lists with actions required to achieve the next step, Provide more details on the currently covered systems, when clicking on the tutorial panel. We hope that it will be both engaging and informative for the players. You can see the first few steps of the tutorial in action in the video below. It's also the first gameplay video that we have shown in a long time. We h…
- Development Update #18 - New UI - 1 October 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! We are happy to let you know that King of the Dwarves is starting to look better with each passing day. If you are closely watching our announcements, you might have noticed that here and there, we were showcasing screenshots or videos from the game with a very placeholder User Interface (UI). But not anymore! The new UI is here, and we are eager to show you the early preview! New UI The new interface takes inspiration from the sharp, minimalistic shapes of Nordic runes, giving it a clean yet striking look. But it’s not just about style - the layout follows familiar patterns from other games in the genre, so it feels natural right away. And most importantly, all the key info is right where you need it - no digging deep (pun intended) through menus and panels required. InspirationsWe looked at many other games while designing the UI: Timberborn, Against the Stor…
- Development Update #17 - Closed Demo Test - 25 August 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! We have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that we have decided to withdraw from participating in Steam Next Fest in October. The good news is - we still want to provide you with a playable build for the Demo this year. Steam Next Fest In short, we have decided that our demo is not polished enough yet to be released as a part of the Steam Next Festival. While it's certainly playable, it's rough around the edges. The tutorial is not ready, sounds are missing, and we tweak the balance of the game every week. While we won't participate in Steam Next Fest in October, we want to join the next edition that will take place at the beginning of next year. Closed Demo Test In the meantime, we still want to provide a group of players with access to the early version of the demo. So our plans for the upcoming months look like this: August, September, October…
- Development Update #16 - Survey - 16 July 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! We continue introducing substantial changes into the game. But during the development, there are some questions that come back on a regular basis and spark discussions among the developers. That's why we have decided that it would be best to ask YOU, the community, directly about them. Survey The survey is rather short (8 questions) and shouldn't take long to complete. Here is a quick preview of questions that you can expect in the survey: Which of the following games you know and consider a great reference for King of the Dwarves? What would be your preferred approach towards the Research System? How important is combat for you in King of the Dwarves? And more! Every single answer is incredibly important to us. So if you want to have an impact on the game's development and influence important decisions related to its design, now is your best chance to share yo…
- Development Update #15 - Trees - 7 July 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! We have recently done some internal tests of King of the Dwarves. The game was played thoroughly by the internal teams of the Developer and the Publisher, which resulted in a lot of feedback for us to discuss. As a result, we have decided to redesign some aspects of the game to make it flow in a more natural way. We have started with the trees. Trees vs Roots Previously, we have made wood available only inside the mountain. The players had to dig out roots, which provided them with the wood resource. More than that, the game's playable area was limited to the inside of the mountain, too. During our playthroughs, this felt too limiting and unnatural. Hence, we have decided that the trees should grow outside the mountain, and our dwarves should leave the mountain to cut them down. You can check our first attempts at this new change in the screenshots below. Chang…
- Development Update #14 - Dwarf Names - 27 May 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! Today we would like to talk a bit about dwarf names. We wrote a couple of posts ago that we are fans of both, Tolkien’s world and Old Norse mythology, and it is common knowledge, that Tolkien used names for the dwarves taken from the Poetic Edda (a collection of Old Norse narrative poems). We also intend to use dwarf names that were used in the Old Norse texts. Currently, we have about 200 names attributed to male dwarves, which we mostly took from “Dwarf-Names: A Study in Old Icelandic Religion” – the research article written by Ch. N. Gould in 1929. In the image: an excerpt from “Dwarf-Names: A Study in Old Icelandic Religion” shows some names with explanations of their meanings. Missing Female Names But what about female names? While talking about female dwarves we already mentioned, that there is a problem with the names for them. “The reason why we do not…
- Development Update #13 - Demo Plans Unveiled - 15 April 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! We have noticed several comments under the recent announcements asking about any news regarding the playable version of the game. It's not our intention to hide our plans, and we are fully aware that many of you have been waiting for this game for a long time now. Let's take a look at our upcoming plans for King of the Dwarves. Demo Plans Unveiled When it comes to launching a Demo, most developers on Steam are currently taking advantage of the Steam Next Fest events, which occur 3 times per year. Steam has officially announced the following dates for their upcoming Next Fests: Next Fest | June 9 - June 16, 2025 Next Fest | October 13 - October 20, 2025 Let's be fully transparent with you - we won't make it in time to join the Steam Next Fest in June. But we will do our best to attend this event in October. It might require us to channel our inner dwarven stubbo…
- Development Update #12 - Enemy Types - 3 March 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! It's time to discuss the most common enemies that threaten our settlement in the mountains. While your Dwarves must overcome many challenges - such as floods, lava, and strategic planning - when it comes to natural foes, two types stand out the most. Trolls and goblins. Every dwarf hates those two races with a burning passion. Trolls You have probably already seen the Trolls in our trailer. Let's take a closer look at their characteristics: Trolls are strong and resilient, but also slow and thick-skulled. Plan your defense accordingly. They destroy everything in their sight. Trolls will demolish the buildings within your settlement with ease. Trolls can deal damage to several units around with one hit. Trolls attack alone, most of the time. On rare occasions, Trolls can form bigger groups, but it's a rare and deadly occurrence. Goblins Goblins haven't been show…
- Development Update #11 - Female Dwarves - 28 January 2025
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! Making a game is not only programming, making art, sounds and music, it also involves research into various themes. Dwarves in the popular culture were first popularized by Tolkien and his stories in “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”. Also, you might know that Tolkien was inspired by Old Norse mythology. As fans of both, Tolkien’s world and Old Norse mythology, we delved into research how we should present dwarves and female dwarves in particular. Tolkien Dwarves First, lets look into what Tolkien had to say about females. In the appendices of “The Return of the King” we can find this: It was said by Gimli that there are few dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole people. They seldom walk abroad except at great need. They are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears…
- Merry Christmas from them King of the Dwarves team! - 13 December 2024
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! Christmas is getting near, and we wanted to share a light-hearted update with you. The Development team is still working on the new iterations of the King of the Dwarves, polishing things like the Research System and the Enemy AI. But let's forget about it for a moment to enjoy the holiday scenery right under the mountain. Christmas Card Below you can find the Christmas Card prepared by the development team for you! Who would have thought that the Dwarves were willing to exchange gifts with each other? While some of them are greedy (and simply offering a lump of coal - still very useful), others offer shiny gold bars. Do they have any interest in this? We prefer to believe not, it must be Christmas magic. Wood Resource Quick fun fact - did you know that at the beginning, we wanted the player to start outside the mountain and collect the wood from the trees grow…
- Development Update #10 - Dwarf Management - 21 November 2024
Greetings, Dwarven Lords! The development of King of the Dwarves continues. Today we would like to talk with you about the Dwarf Management system. As a King, it is your duty to ensure that everything is working like a clockwork. Learn a little more about the basic system of assigning the Dwarfs to their works. Dwarf Management In short, you assign the Dwarfs to their job by using the sliders. It's a convenient tool that makes the whole job a lot easier. In every given moment you can decide whether you need more Miners, Warriors, or Workers, who will provide the Settlement with the food and beverages. We are still experimenting with the functionality and the looks of this Panel, but you can see some early prototype versions below. Let us know which one you like best! Of course, you still have to remember about a few core elements: You still need to build some necessary structures in ord…
