War for the Overworld (Spiritual Successor to Dungeon Keeper) Development Team AMA - Take 2

The sex appeal of the mistresses is one of the most iconic things from dungeon keeper. Will WFTO have something similar, and if so, will there also be something to cater for female/gay fans?

Succubus!

And probably :)

Perhaps the ability to choose between a Succubus and an Incubus as an aesthetic difference.

It's certainly possible, unit variants are something we want to do but they would come in later down the line.

Question: Will you let me write code for you :) ?! (free, I'm a bored student) I want the sodding thing out, NAO :P

PMing you my email.

What will your stance be to "online-only" like Diablo 3 or the whole Ubisoft/Uplay story? Will you have a proper offline/singleplayer mode without needed internet to activate the version? No worries, im not a pirate ($160 backer here :D). If there is no other way to make sure that you dont get cheated out of well earned cash, then so be it.

The game will definitely be playable offline, and there will be a single player campaign.

Thanks for your pledge!

Okay I got another question,

Because Horny / The Horned Reaper is licences by EA you can't put him in the game. Are you guys going to replace Horny by an other Monster/Demon you evil minds came up with to fulfill his roll in WftO?

We have a few creatures that we personally love as much, or more, than the iconic Horny figure -- we're certain that you'll learn to fear them as much as The Horned Reaper ;)

Another question, Will there be a replacement to the arena? and if there is one will the minions be able to watch and bet on fighters in the arena?

We have something similar planned :)

Yes there will be something like the arena for sure

Will there be a map editor?

Better - full mod support!

I don't have any questions for you guys but instead just want to thank you for developing this. Dungeon Keeper 3 being cancelled has been the bane of my life for the last decade and I was really hoping that Bullfrog would change their mind and develop the damn game. I'm super excited at your game and helped contribute to your project on Kickstarter.

Can you please do Theme Hospital or Theme Park next? :)

We'll think about it ;)

Can't rule anything out. Once we're confident WFTO is fully complete and to the quality it needs to be at, we can begin looking at "The Next Big Thing" but until then, WFTO is our one and only love. :)

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There were great points from both games. One of the areas that I enjoyed was the whole dynamics of a dungeon, where certain units simply did not get along with one another. The first thing that comes to mind is vampires and warlocks. That mechanic was in DK2, but really limited to interactions between heroes and creatures. For WFTO, I can definitely see the DK1 dynamics coming back.

Beyond that, we're aiming towards more of the dark and gritty feel of DK1, including the blood/gore (it was much more satisfying when you killed the Lord of the Land), and combat will flow a bit more like DK1 than DK2.

Gentlemen, which side of the Bunnies vs. Piglets war are you on?

Seriously though, can you reveal anything about what kind of food our creatures are gonna eat? Will there maybe be support for multiple types of hatcheries? Will it maybe be possible to change a hatchery's type by some in-game action? I had this idea about dropping a giant spider in a hatchery turning it into a spider hatchery...

Bunnies 100%

Will we get bonus levels based on the cycle of the moon?

If I have anything to say about it

This comment is my favorite thing I have seen on reddit.

Garrett is actually a werewolf in real life.

Yes, yes I am

There are two categories of creatures. Does that mean there will be two categories of hatcheries? It's just not like a cultist to have to eat bunnies LIVE. Think of the salmonella! :P

Intelligent units are going to be eating cooked food. Food safety is very important in the underworld.

Id like to request some clever rhyming in the opening sequences of a mission.

Nothing like a funny rhyming.

You don't need to request it, because there's no other way as far as our writer is concerned.

From the IRC channel, the question is this : How many unique creatures (No Color Clones) are you going to create for War For The Overworld? I.e. Is there a Total number of them planned, or will you supply supplemental DLC's later down the line when plied with more inspiration.

The current number is around 30, but this is subject to change (and more likely to increase).

DLC plans are up in the air right now. Our content updates for the game are going to be entirely dictated by the community :)

Are you planning to have an awesome map for the campaign of the game? I really liked it in DK1 & DK2 especially when you saw that conquered parts become darker as in DK1 =D

There is going to be a map where players will be able to pick their next challenge from. How it will exactly work it's a bit soon to tell as we are exploring different ways to incorporate the overworld and the way player's decisions affect it as the story unfolds.

This is a strange question but I run a LAN center in Calgary Alberta, and was wondering if you would want to get in contact with the I-GAMES network for showcasing the game?

We would love to support your title in our shop here and I personally threw down a chunk of backing along with my regulars : ) Dungeon Keeper was one of the first PC titles that actually peaked my interested in sandbox-style management strat. games and ever since I have lamented the lack of a proper modern sequel.

Posters, themed events, giveaways, whatever, we will help support it!

But outside of our store, http://www.igames.org/ can be of big help getting the word out! Especially if you create an excellent multi-player extension of the core game! (I personally would kill a whole horde of idle farmers in the name of a darker power just to have some form of Co-op campaign or group dungeon defense.)

And on that note my second question is will you be including cooperative multiplayer content of any kind?

Thanks again for undertaking this project! Your bringing a much needed darkness back into the world. :D

PMing you my email, we can talk later in the week :)

Three from me:

I only got an answer out of Simburgur, what did the rest of you think to getting fanart so fast? :) And keep that concept art in non thumbnail it makes my life eaiser!

What was Richard's reaction to a spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper finally happening if you're allowed to say? I know there was mention he loved doing DK but I'm really curious!

Has there been anything you've managed to pull off you're really proud of? Like a critter design or a room maybe?

Huge <3 to the Stumpy bar as well, his party hat was adorable!

Thank you as the creator of and operator of the stumpy bar it has been a lot of fun updating and adding in all these surprises. The part hat was one of my favs too.

I'm also interested in what Richard Ridings thought? did he remember well doing the originals? Does he play games at all? probably not I suppose

I sat in on the recording session with him. Both him and the studio technician were very enthusiastic about it :)

Yes he loved doing the original games and said that he still gets asked to do the voice by fans

Will you be improving & varying the art styles from DK1 & 2? The current preview builds seem more of the same (a good and a bad thing). Can we give our dungeons character in anyway? IE a black & white chess world, an ice dungeon, a funhouse etc...

I believe what you're asking for is something that we recently revealed called "Dungeon Themes"

These themes will change the skins for -- workers (Blood Imps), fortified walls, dirt, claimed ground, Dungeon Heart, and emblem.

Here's an example: https://wftogame.com/images/themes.png

That looks awesome! Is that something we will be able to do ourselves with the mod tools?

Definitely. That and much more :)

Hi Guys, Really liked that you guys backed Maia! On to my question, will the temple make it's way back into this game in a form (Or rather it's function with recipes and etc)?

Lastly, as DK3's teaser at the end of 2 and ofcourse the name of your game, will there be any above ground interaction?

Keep up the great work! (Also try and get TotalBiscuit / Jesse Cox / Yogscast to voice a character or something similar. Having the product attached to a personality like those could only lead to good things!)

We are very excited to see Maia coming to life! There's definitely going to be a room with a similar purpose and atmosphere, involving sacrifices. The name, looks and exact mechanics of it are not totally fleshed out yet, but it's something you can definitely count on.

There is a new room replacing the temple... think blood & rituals :)

Will creatures have equipment/ experience. I think it would be cool if you could loot fallen heros and sometimes find unique gear, or possibly craft your own.

Imagine making a vampiric dagger or something. Heroes attack, kill some of your monster minions and scarper with the loot. Then you shake your gangly disembodied fist at them and vow revengence!

I think this would be a cool feature.

Creatures definitely have the potential to have equipment, and will always have experience. The Foundry will play a big part in your own equipment, but there is always the possibilities of hidden caches in maps that can be excavated and used to your advantage.

Extremely excited for this game btw. I love the ideas for the flex goals, but I know that only some of them can be implemented in the time allotted. Would you guys consider doing DLC in the future with the other flex goals and other features? I highly doubt any fans of the game would be opposed to that.

That is certainly a possibility. We are also going to allow people to support us through Paypal after the end of the Kickstarter campaign, and try to reach as many of those goals as possible. Development time will have to be extended to add such features though.

Aside from obvious graphical updates, what are some ways that WFTO will improve on the original Dungeon Keeper games?

WFTO will improve on the original recipe in many ways, check out these "locked in the foundry" design updates: Shrines , Area of influence , Unit types , Veins of Evil

We have a lot in store here for unique updates for example different modes, shrines, Bosses and other unique surprises

Game looks awesome.

Which character/environment was your favorite to create?

So far, the Augre was my favorite. I'm partial to giant, mean, merciless beasts. Sketching him was fun.

I did a few of the concept art pieces my favorite one that I did was the for the Gargoyle

How much support for the modding scene will there be after the initial tools release? Will we be able to provide feedback/suggestions on the editor(s)? Will components of the editors be opensourced?

Thanks!

As Dungeoneer is something we are personally using for development, we will continually update the tools as we progress. At the same time, we want to hear from map designers and modders, with Nexus being the center for our modding community. There will be systems like our Founder's Forums where you will be able to work with us as we bring new patches for the game, to ensure that your mods work properly before the patch releases while also working with us to possibly get the content built right into the game.

You guys are doing an admirable job and I can't wait for the game.

Here's my question:

In update 24 you guys have given us information about these so called "Dungeon Themes", There is gonna be the "standard" theme, the "kickstarter" theme and the "frostbite" theme. Are there going to be more themes? Because I really love the idea of the themes which gives the players the opportunity to customize their dungeon even more.

Most definitely, and because of our partnership with Nexus, it will be very easy for modders to create new ones that are easily available for everyone.

You can most definitely count on several themes to choose from. For players to customize their dungeon, but also to give some variety to enemy underlords during the campaign. On top of this, we aim to provide users with enough tools to make their very own.

Will there be animated gore, similar to DKII?

Yes don't worry there will be GORE!

Yes, there will be animated gore. Perhaps not nearly as bad as, say, God Of War gore, but we want the atmosphere to match the dark and gritty nature of DK1/DK2.

How late can richard ridings be funded? What is our deadline for paypal on him? Or is there none, and the moment you get the money you will add him in...

Are there any other addons planned for the last bit of kickstarter?

and finally, with Veins of Evil- Will we be able to eventually research EVERYTHING? The way it was sold at first sounded like it was limited by something other then time. If it is limited, will we be able to unlock it in a sandbox mode?

1 - Probably less than a month from now. We'll have more information about this post-Kickstarter if we haven't hit the goal by tomorrow.

2 - Yes. The Veins are designed to pace the game out for a more competitive and challenging experience, but you can very easily wait it out and research everything - the only hard cap on research is when everything is unlocked.

Sandbox mode will allow you to unlock everything straight away.

Are there plans to have gameplay above ground as hinted by the teaser at the end of DK2?... And well, the title of the game! Personally, I don't think it'll make or break the game, but I'd imagine it'd effect the gameplay quite bit. Apologies if this question is a) obvious b) already answered! Really looking forward to getting this game when it's done

We don't plan on having direct overworld gameplay, however we do have some internal ideas where the player can interact with the surface, although in an indirect method.

What's your current stance on DRM? Will there be DRM free versions of the game or will they all be on Steam?

Our goal is to release it on both Steam and GOG.

Given that the cultist can turn into a 'blood mage' (might've remembered the name wrong!) and the Augre can modify his body with scraps, will there be other interesting creature 'evolutions' and development? With this, will there be different classes of a given creature, and individuals with unique abilities? If so, how might a keeper influence a creatures' class/specialisation - e.g. through skill trees or by what task the keeper has a creature do?

Most units will have some form of progression outside of normal levelling, some of which can be influenced by the choices you make in the Veins of Evil.

Yes there will be more interesting creature evolutions and unit development. Certain veins of evil will influence certain creatures and there upgrades this aspect will be a lot of fun and we have a lot of surprised in store for this

When/if War for the Overworld is on Steam, will you make mods accessible through Steam Workshop?

We are still weighing up our options for content distribution, and we will be consulting the modding community when it comes to these decisions.

In how long do you think we'll see a beta for the game and in how long approximately will the game be released?

Bedrock Beta is scheduled for March 2013, with final release scheduled for August 2013

My dungeon is full of Yoghurt, please advise me on what to do!

Order your minions to jump up and down.

Have you minions dig out a pool and fill it with the Yoghurt of course

Are you going to animate the hand? make the fingers move like DK 2?

We have already animated the hand to do a lot of motions, but for the demo we only had the one idol animation present

The hand already internally has a large variety of animations.

Oh, word of advice - Please for the love of everything unholy, never sellout to EA Games. I know you guys probably won't, but they kill game studios and production offices, etc. No small company that has ever joined them, has ever survived.

We have no plans to sell the studio. There are some plans in motion already for after we complete WFTO, but they are just ideas at this point until we're 100% confident WFTO is the best game we can make.

Is there any possibility of making the file formats open and releasing them to the public? I'd greatly enjoy making open source tools for the modding community. Seriously can't wait until the game is out!

Better!

I just wanted to commend you for picking this up. I'm really looking forward to what you're doing with this.

A couple questions:

• In DK, room size and configuration played a key part in how the rooms were set up (e.g. torture chambers had varying devices and varying numbers of devices depending on the size and layout of the rooms) is this something that you'll also be pursuing or will it be more like other bullfrog titles, where room items are placed manually?

• From playing the demo, it seems like a modern Dungeon Keeper. What differences is your team making to the original formula that will change gameplay from WFTU's spiritual predecessor?

• Although there was a dearth of management-style games over the past decade, it looks as though there are a number of games in varying levels of completion that are reviving the genre both from established studios and "Kickstarter studios" (e.g. Maia, Impire, Game of Dwarves, DF, Gnomoria, Towns, etc., etc.). What are your thoughts on these games? What are your thoughts on the revival of the genre? How do you see WFTU fitting into this?

Again, I appreciate what you're doing and am looking forward to seeing this game develop. If you've answered these questions in previous KS updates (I've only pledged in the past week or so), feel free to link me to the posts.

Good luck!

It is one of our goals to make room layout and placement influence the overall efficiency of the dungeon, as well as suit the player's strategy. Manual placing of furniture is not something we want to force players to do, as it implies a degree of micromanagement that could potentially affect the game's pace.

will there be leader type unit(s), that actually let you command your forces more directly? or what way does an underlord have to command his units except relying on AI? "attack this unit"/"conquer this room" flags? (majesty like)

We've discussed bringing more elements from Majesty into WFTO (such as the armor/weapons/potions being a part of the game). One big thing was potentially having "Flags" to ensure that your workers don't continually run into a dangerous area. Leader wise, there is always the potential for creatures meeting into parties, with someone taking the lead. But it has not been discussed in-depth. I'll see if we can put it into some designer round tables for January to see if we can flesh it out. :)

there's going to be a well balanced set of spells allowing underlords to command units into battle. There's not going to be direct control of units as it exists in most RTS games, though.

I'm staggered at how much money it would require to get Richard Ridings involved. Could you explain where that money mostly goes? Studio rental? Ridings' agency?

The £75k needs to pay for writing his lines (we're going to put substantially more effort into it if we get him on board), Richard's fee, transport, the studio costs, a studio technician for recording, mastering the audio, rewards for backers, taxes on all of the above, as well as 9-10% in Kickstarter & payment fees.

Will there be secret room designs for "elite" units?

We might see something like this, no spoilers

How future proof will WFTO be? Will the game be playable in 2/4k resolutions a few years down the track without becoming an ant farm? Will it have DX11 features such as tessellation and 2k texture maps for those of us with high end PC gaming rigs or will those need to be created by the mod community? Just out of curiosity - Can Unity 4 create a graphical experience similar to that of say Crytek 3 or the ID 5 engines? I have backed WFTO, congratulations on being funded.

As mentioned in IRC, we will generally be aiming for 1024 resolution textures which is an improvement over many games so quality will be great. Unity also supports DX11 and DX9 (we are using DK11 in the pre-alpha demo). In terms of a graphical experience versus CryEngine 3 or ID 5, that really depends mostly on the quality of assets we produce moreso than the engine itself. Unity 4 so far hasn't disappointed. :)

As for future proofing the game, that will really be in the hands of the modding community. Nearly every game to date that offered modding has some talented modders build texture packs, upgraded meshes, etc. Considering Dungeoneer makes it easy to pull all the textures out of the base game and modify them, we can expect 2k and 4k texture packs to be available sooner than later.

You talk alot about what you have learned from DK1-2, but what about the rest of the games you mention, can we get a little more insite on what you guys have been learned from them and what we can expect from there. :)

Majesty: Followed very closely to DK but on the surface. We've taken inspiration with the equipment based approach in WFTO, parties, and finding loot and such throughout the maps.

Starcraft: A solid multiplayer experience, matchmaking services, maps and modding, good story, etc.

Overlord: Gnarling has taken on some traits from the minions where they scavenge equipment and work in numbers. There is no central unit that is "you" per se, but you still have possession so any creature can be you. Possibly in a party-based environment, being able to dictate what creatures in your party do (especially said Gnarlings) in a process similar to Overlord.

Evil Genius: Really, it pulled a lot from Dungeon Keeper previously while having elements of a central character/mastermind versus some object like a heart. We have been discussing the potential for approaching the Overworld in a similar system of sending henchman around the world, but it hasn't been fleshed out heavily yet.

Honorable Mention:

Stronghold: Personal favorite of mine, and opens up what can be done to make attacking other hero castles/underlords more interesting with sieges. Still very up in the air on these mechanics, if they get into the game. Also, it has been thrown around about having talking heads so the mentor has a face to his evil voice, as well as other underlords/heroes taunting you in all their (not so wondrous) glory.

Have you guys chosen a solid role for Dante in the game? I dont mind if he sticks with voicing a German Mentor but Id prefer to have his epic voice in English lol

Yes, he will be doing English voices as well :)

Will there be ways to influence the types of creatures that spawn to your dungeon as you could with DK1 and DK2?

Yup, the rooms you build will influence which units spawn.

Yes certain creatures will only spawn to your dungeon if you have the rooms built

What will be the player limit? And can we increase this with dungeoneer? If I wanted to make a map with say 24 players would this be possible?

No player limit. In Dungeoneer, the map designer would define the amount of "Factions" for the map which can be any number. Now obviously, the more Factions, the more stress on the system so there would be a soft cap really set by how strong a PC folks have for that map.

what will the minions in WFTO eat? like the Chickens in DK

We are going more toward Bunnies but not 100% on this one yet

The appetite for our minions will probably be quite disgusting. Chickens, bats...who knows.

How will a keeper acquire minions? You made mention of creatures that dwell underground (such as the oculus) so I assume you come across such creatures during exploration. But as for attracting intelligent ones will there be a level entrance as with DK where creatures appear depending on rooms in the dungeon, along with other means, e.g. through torture, sacrifice etc.? Any new ways of getting creatures?

Creatures will be attracted through a Gateway similar to Portals in the DK-series. There will also be other ways to gain creatures by searching maps, different room functions, and evolution.

okay another questions about the dungeon themes ... how will you adress color schemes in Multiplayer --> kickstarter theme is green right? what if both player choose the same dungeon theme?

They will all be tinted to the player colour, the concepts we posted just show them with an example colour.

It's been mentioned that the Augre and Goblins will become more armored/armed via bolting things on and picking up discarded weapons/armor.

Where does the armor and metal plates come from? can you make some at a forge?

Scavenged from the ground, off fallen enemies, hidden caches, etc.

Have you contacted Richard Ridings on the topic of voicing the mentor, and has he given a price, or is it your own estimate?

When we met with Richard Ridings after he voiced our KS video, we did get initial prices for the game itself which we used for setting the stretch goal costs.

Richard has actually already voiced a boatload of the promotional material.

Hey ;) after reading your posts in the forum and seeing how rare it is that someone gets a response to one of the suggestions it´s clear to me that you have most of the concepts done, everyone on the forum wants to help (and influence the game ;) ) but how exactly can we help the most? (except money most of the guys here will have backed what they can XD)

Helping to spread the word is always a great way to help, and always very appreciated by the team.

Even if suggestions don't get a lot of answers in the forums, they are all read and considered. Some of the things included in wfto actually came from forum suggestions, the shrines being an example of this. So don't hesitate to post there if you have any ideas!

I have been meaning to ask, the Sandbox mode? What does that entail exactly? Is it similar to the My Pet Dungeon in DK 2? Or does it have a list of skirmish maps you can play? Or is it where you make your own maps? Or is it all three? I looked at the info for it and it doesn't specify what it will be specifically used for....can you guys help ease my curiosities?

You get a map and can do whatever you wish - place anything, spawn anything, change the terrain, and build the dungeon of your wildest dreams :)

One of my favourite aspects of DKII was the 'My Pet Dungeon' feature, in which the player was challenged in the creation of their dungeon not through the sorry do-gooders that stumble into your dungeon but rather by the environment. For example, there was a level which consisted of small islands surrounded by lava and the player had access only to wooden bridges at the beginning. This mode allowed people who prefer the dungeon building aspect of the game to the combat aspect to have something to sink their teeth into. Will WFTO have a similar feature?

TL;DR: Will WFTO have a 'My Pet Dungeon' mode or similar?

Most definitely. In fact, the Bedrock Beta's "sandbox mode" will be our take on My Pet Dungeon and will launch end of March. :)

I really like the idea of the goblins picking up dropped/discarded armor. This is a very nice touch and could add to a crazy outfitted army. Are there any plans to have any levels where the army carries over or will it start over every time?

It's possible, but at the moment it's not planned. The main reason being is it takes away from our ability to make unique and interesting levels as we have far less control over what actually gets spawned.

Will some monsters "evolve" when highly or over leveled like they did in dk2?

The only one I can think of is some hero when leveled will level to 11 and turn into a lower level Keeper of the land.

Yes. As an example, cultists will turn into blood Mages when certain requirements are met. If that will be dependent only on the unit level or there's going to be more needs involved it's something we are still thinking about.

when you not get richard, do you have an alternative? would you try to let the crowdfunding longer open at paypal?

Yes we do have a back up plan for this and we will be continuing crowdfunding through paypal on our site so please come and help us reach our other flex goals

Hey all, this is the right place for WFTO questions right?

"This isn't the AMA you were looking for" :waves hand:

It sure is and welcome!

In Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2, you could possess all creatures, and judging from your videos, this feature will be included in WFTO as well.

Are you planning to make it a viable feature or more of a fun mechanic? And, will the creatures see the world in different ways, like in Dungeon Keeper?

We're making units themselves far more deep and interesting when it comes to combat, so possessing them should be a much more rewarding experience. As for seeing the world differently - I can't promise anything but we'll see what we can do. I loved that feature though.

I was wondering, if you plan on adding different underground terrain, like in Dungeon Keeper 1, there was snow terrain.

I really like that, it was nice having a bit of variation

Thanks

Details on different terrain types can be found here.

I couldn't help but notice that you are also supporting us Linux gamers at launch, with Windows and Mac versions as well, of course. For that, thanks loads!

My question; what led you to choose to support Linux on day-1?

Unity 4 supports it out of the box... no reason for us not to :)

Hey i am from Iceland will it be a problem sending it here ?/and when are we going to get our products.($90 backer here :D)

There shouldn't be any problem sending anything to Iceland. :)