If you enjoy fantasy games with big open worlds and a great storyline, The Dwarves may be the game for you. The game has gotten a lot of attention on its Kickstarter and social media pages. Luckily, I was able to get in touch with Marco Rosenberg, the narrative designer for KING Art Games, and asked him some questions regarding The Dwarves.
GS: First off, what is your experience with developing video games?
MR: In the 15 years of their existence, KING Art Games have completed more than 40 game projects. Among them are point-and-click adventures like The Book of Unwritten Tales and The Raven, as well as the turn-based strategy game Battle Worlds: Kronos.
GS: The Dwarves is based on a fantasy series by Markus Heitz. Do you plan to make more games based off of his other books?
MR: If The Dwarves is successful, we are thinking about making games of other books in the series. But our current focus is on making the Kickstarter campaign a success and finishing the development of The Dwarves.
GS: I understand you want the game to stay as true to the books as it can possibly be, but do you plan to add extra content that isn’t in the books?
MR: Yes. Although the main story is based on the book, but we are adding sidequests and dialogues which make the player face decisions far-reaching consequences. Some of them might even be written by the author of the novel, Markus Heitz.
GS: Besides the books by Markus Heitz, what inspired you to make The Dwarves?
MR: We are huge fans of fantasy literature, movies, and games. Since KING Art Games was founded it was always one of our goals to make an RPG, but first we had to gather the experience and knowledge to take on a project of that scope. We are thrilled that the time has finally come and that we’re able to base our game on an established story like that of The Dwarves.
GS: The game still has 16 days left on Kickstarter. What are your plans if the game doesn’t reach its funding goal? Any chance of a relaunch?
MR: We’re quite confident that we’ll reach our funding goal. This is our third Kickstarter and we know how to engage players to support us. We’ve already raised more than 70% of our funding goal and still have about 50% of the time left to raise the rest.
GS: What was the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far with making and funding the game?
MR: As we let players travel the game world on a huge world map, it was a lot of work to gather all the info about the world from the books and turn it into a landscape that looks and feels geographically correct.
GS: Do you plan to add any DLC to the game once it’s released?
MR: No, there is no DLC planned, but as mention above, there might be sequels based on the other novels in the series.
GS: Do you plan on making any games in the future that are not The Dwarves-related?
MR: Yes, we definitely plan to release more games in different genres. There might be a sequel to The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 one day, we’re interested in making more RPGs and we’re constantly making new browser games.
GS: My final question, what advice would you give to anyone who wants to make their own video game?
MR: Learning-by-doing is the way to go in game development. Start small and gather experience before trying to make the next WoW or Diablo. 😉 And if you ever get stuck or need advice there’s a huge community of indie game developers out there, who are happy to share knowledge and give feedback.
Thank you, Mr. Rosenberg, for your time.
With only 19 days left for funding, it seems that the game will get completely funded. You can check out and even fund the project on the game’s KickStarter page here and be sure to check out the official website here.
