Hammerting is released! It feels amazing. We have been at this for five years. Did I ever mention how scope management is the hardest part of game development..? There has been some delay due to the fact that we have built our own engine, but now we have it, and the next game will require less effort.
It started out as a rather small game, but as the team grew, we wanted to incorporate their strengths into the design as well, and we have always felt it was the right choice in the end, the game is so much better for it.
At the bottom of this post there is an image where you can see some of the updates we have made during the year in Early Access. This is by no means an exhaustive list though. The most complete list can be found either in Steam or in our Discord, where we have a channel for all updates.
That we are releasing Hammerting now does not mean we will stop working on it though!
Achievements for example, is something players have requested, but that will have to wait until post-release to be added.
I’ll give you a few more examples on what we have done, and what will come.
Fishing & Farming
This update added fishing, and changed farming completely. Instead of “crafting” the plants, the dwarves now actually plant them in soil for example. And don’t worry! The fishing is not a mini-game. 😉
Since this introduced two new systems, they are not perfected yet, and will receive more updates in the very first patch.
Spiders
We introduced spiders, and we learnt how some people were REALLY uncomfortable with them. So we also added an arachnophobia option in the settings. When you have that on, what you see above is actually what you get in the game. On a white box, so the legs are not animated, because that seems to be the trigger for many people. I find these guys adorable, the arachnophobic people we asked actually also called them adorable, and I’d say this is a win-win.
Critters & Rats
To make the cave feel more alive, we added some small, harmless critters. They also contain meat and parts like monsters, but they will not attack the dwarves first. This to the left is a concept that our artist made as suggestions, not all are in the game. How many have you found?
The rats, on the other hand, are not harmless. Especially the ones accustomed to the harsher living conditions of the lower biomes, those can be a threat to the entire colony! Explore with care.
Anyway, Some key points from the Early Access development can be found in the image below, and as for the future, we will focus on the feedback get get, so please join the discussion, and lets make Hammerting the best game it can be!
