Dwarf Delve

This looks really cool, but right now, it's a hard no. Controls are not explained well, terrible optimization, gameplay loop is hard to get into due to the fact that you have to spend most of the time figuring out how to even get started. I might come back to this in the future, but right now it's not even worth the $10.39. I know the dev is making this solo, but this is a good example of why some games should be delayed from releasing instead of forcing it into early access so we can pay for the dubious privilege of playtesting.

[h3] Have I played almost 8 hours STRAIGHT so far despite it being moderately buggy, of course but did I love every second of it anyways?[/h3] [h1] Hell yeah![/h1] [b] *Pros & Cons edited to update post first 2 updates from dev[/b] [hr][/hr] But onto a more in-depth review [h2]Pros:[/h2] [list] [*] Absolutely flibbing magnificently gorgeous game, pixel art and all the models, etc. [*] Currency safes at base reset after every delve, which keeps you from getting locked out if other bugs occur keeping you from gaining money. [*] There is no timed limit/calendar events so far, so sleeping to refill your vitality/save the game doesn't feel like a waste or that you'll be missing anything and I absolutely love that. [*] You can delve repetitively in the same day, not having to sleep or save in between ([i]intended feature or otherwise, it was very helpful on good luck days being able to reset the gold safes at base.[/i]) [*] I was able to run another game alongside it, getting 25-50fps on the secondary/idle game so there is minimal strain/load on the processing power my pc is able to put out but there could definitely be more graphical options to find tweak settings more in-depth. [*] The gameplay loop at the basic level is satisfying and makes sense as you progress but needs more balance to bring it fully to fruition. [/list] [i]*There is likely more I enjoyed about the game but I am writing this review post playing instead of actively while I was experiencing it, so more in-depth examples other than 'Its great, try it out' are hard to find after almost 8 hours straight. *Additional side pro, the community so far has been wonderfully helpful in the discord if you have any questions about bugs, the game or otherwise![/i] [h2]Cons:[/h2] [list] [*] At first glance, things don't feel as intuitive as a general audience would like it to be, and getting to the tutorials in the tome to figure out what you've forgotten how to do something took a long time, especially if you sped past the page you needed and have to start over from the top. [*] It took a long time to actually get down to crafting as a lot of the systems feel clunky/or aren't explained in enough detail to make it easy to remember or accessible enough to refer back to. [*] Menus are clunky at times and animations feel very slow when first starting so it feels like you're doing a lot of waiting for things to happen ([i]but the time waiting didn't seem as noticeable/didn't bother me much after a while[/i]). [*] [strike]Currently(as of initial review posting [i]7/27/26[/i]) mining with your hammer takes vitality and you can only mine a couple of bits of ore until you need to return back to base[/strike] [b]Updated the morning after to update the vitality [i]but I personally haven't tested it yet so I don't know specifics[/i][/b] [*] But the above point was alleviated by punching the dirt with your hands and only mining the ore/coal/wood bits with your hammer, leading to larger hauls. ([i]granted, dirt not taking vitality with hand mining might be a product of my buggy save that I kept brute forcing through, more testing is required[/i]) [*] There was a long stint of getting only bad luck tarot card days while experiencing a bug that didn't give me any money from selling ores very early in, leading to a gold drought for a decent while that would likely lead to a lot of people quitting before continuing on past that point. ([i]I kept trying and got the chest card which is the best luck you can have for a day[/i]) [*] Gold gain/item cost balance could definitely be updated to feel like you're actually making progress, with the added bonus of not feeling like time was wasted when bugs steal items from you ([i]I grinded up the backpack to start working on the workshop materials, only to sleep with it on the ground next to my boombox and it disappeared after the second sleep. Same with my hammer disappeared when being repaired/left in the repair machine when I went to sleep[/i]) [*] There is no auto save/save menu, as you are started right in at your last game save and if something breaks you're just kind of SOL which sucks but I also haven't experienced anything that doesn't have a work around so far. ([i]lose hammer/hammer break before repair machine, die on a delve and you can repurchase your hammer for free[/i]) [/list] [*] Biggest con for me personally; the lack of storage in your mining vessel for micro components to take back. For majority of the game up until you have the 10k to get your backpack(of which might break or get lost via bug), you have to bring back the micro-components one by one in your hands. Would be infinitely better if you started with a backpack or had one fully incorporated into your character that wasn't able to be lost, so tossing it didn't leave you with an ever growing backpack every time you pick it up after its been tossed on the ground or be such a progress set back when it bugs out and disappears. [h3]All in all, its not a bad game; most of the bugs are relatively minor, any complaints I have are mainly personal preference based and it has the potential to be truly great with some balance tweaks, as well as some necessary bug fixes and QOL/UI improvements but that comes with time and this dev is pretty on top of things.[/h3] I would definitely 100% recommend the game if you have the time and patience to learn via experience and potentially restart to experience all the features, I plan to restart/wipe my save once the bug fixes are out to keep playtesting and progress further in the game.

Game may already be abandoned by dev with game breaking bugs outstanding. The discord server appears to have been removed. I was actively reporting bugs and feedback. The dev was down about sales and reception of the release, understandably. There was potential here, the game has cool concepts and a lot of love put into it you can tell. Even if all that changed was fixing the bugs and maybe some balancing I think it would be enjoyable. Like enough promise that I tried to learn how to do Unity game patching to fix things myself when the dev went silent…

I instantly soft locked myself before I ever did my first dive. I thought it said to hit the lever on the outside of the elevator and run in to start the mission. No, this soft locks you into the elevator. Not gonna refund because I will come back to this game in a bit but I can not recommend this for any amount of $ in it's current state. Unplayable unfortunately. Hoping it gets some love.

This game has a lot of potential I feel there is a lot of love here! But it's really frustrating to play, everything feels slow and clunky. For example the letter box, does it really have to open the each letter sooo slowly and do we really have to wait for the entire animation cycle to repeat again? I know this sounds minuscule but do it enough times and it really gets on your nerves. And the menu is really frustrating to work as well, you can't use your mouse (Or at least I couldn't) and every time you press back you don't go back to the previous menu but it kicks you out and you have to reselect where you where, again it sounds like no big deal (and to some its not) but for me trying to rebind or just to learn what buttons do what it becomes annoying quick. The gameplay loop is weird you do the first day no problem and leave in a hurry but the second day you are introduced to a lot of new mechanics like durability and energy (yaaayyyy...) I get it for a game design perspective but you swing your hammer four times and pass out and lose everything? So at it current state I sadly can't recommend it.

I am writing in two languages ​​at once so that everyone can understand. The game isn't bad, but the ONLY THING worth praising is the visuals. Unfortunately, that’s where the pros end. It’s as if the developer decided to go for an arthouse approach, forgetting all about mechanics and gameplay. Now for a sore subject: 1. The character interface only appears after completing the tutorial. I don't know if that's how it's supposed to be. 2. Time and again —CONSTANTLY— whenever you load a saved game, your hammer disappears, and the lantern along with it. And this happens when you're at home and no longer able to dig properly. And it’s like this EVERY SINGLE FREAKING TIME. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALREADY!! 3. Machine for exchanging resources for money. It’s unclear how it works or why the buttons occasionally stop responding; the interface gets stuck on coal ore, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. 4. On top of that, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ crafting hammer in the store costs more than the workbench itself. What’s the deal with that? And that would be fine, but how the f*ck am I supposed to save up for it if the exchange machine is still broken?? There are only four unpleasant issues, but they are precisely what make the Dwarf Delve unplayable. Simply because, damn it, the most important mechanics are completely broken—and the funny thing is, not a single damn person has said a word about it... Dear Developer, I strongly urge you to pay close attention to these issues and fix them as soon as possible! Пишу сразу на двух языках, чтобы было понятно всем. Игра неплохая, но ЕДИНСТВЕННОЕ, за что её хочется хвалить - визуал. На этом, к сожалению плюсы кончаются. Разраб как будто бы решил вложиться в артхаус, забыв о механиках и геймплее. Теперь о наболевшем: 1. Интерфейс персонажа появляется только после прохождения обучения. Не знаю, должно ли так быть. 2. Из раза в раз, ПОСТОЯННО, как только заходишь в сохранённую игру - у тебя пропадает молот, а вместе с ним и фонарь. Причём происходит это, когда ты дома и больше ты уже копать нормально не в состоянии. И так КАЖДЫЙ ГРЁБАНЫЙ РАЗ. СДЕЛАЙТЕ УЖЕ ЧТО-НИБУДЬ С ЭТИМ!! 3. Автомат обмена ресурсов на деньги. Непонятно как работает и непонятно почему кнопки периодически перестают работать, интерфейс зависает на угольной руде и ♥♥♥ ты чё сделаешь с этим. 4. Вдобавок ко всему, в магазине сраный молоток для крафта стоит дороже самого верстака. Что к чему? И ладно бы так, как 6л*ть копить на него, если автомат обмена всё так же поломан?? Всего 4 неприятных момента, но именно они дают понять, что дворф делв - неиграбелен. Просто, блин, потому что самые важные механики работают через одно место, и об этом, самое интересное, никто, нафиг и слова не сказал... Товарищ Разработчик, очень прошу вас обратить пристальное внимание на данную серию недоработок и поскорее их исправить!

Honestly, even though I received this game for free, it ranks in the top 3 worst games I've played in recent years. I love indie games and genuinely want to support independent creators, but this one just doesn't work on almost any level: The gameplay loop is painfully slow. You spend long stretches waiting for animations to finish — going up or down into the mines, mining with the hammer, basically everything takes forever. The mail system is frustrating, especially early on. You wait a very long time just for the envelope, and then the package, to become available. The game is seriously lacking in explanations. I get that part of the gameplay is finding pages to learn mechanics, but this goes way beyond that and becomes unacceptable. For example: you can open chests in the mines, but there's zero explanation of how to actually bring the materials inside back up to the surface. You can mine, but it costs health — even though there's a separate stamina bar. This mechanic is genuinely baffling. I eventually figured out that resting longer restores more energy, but the game never explains this. On top of that, jumping is supposed to consume stamina, not health — yet once your health bar is empty, you can't jump anymore either, even though you still have stamina left. The two systems seem to bleed into each other in a way that makes no sense, and the result is that you can softlock yourself very early on. Nothing warns you that you can't mine the ground itself. If you do, you end up clipping outside the map geometry and die. You can collect chests in the mines and secure them to bring them up — that part works fine — but then it's impossible to actually open them. The guidebook says you need a workbench. I have one, but nothing happens when I stand in front of it, and I can't find any way to activate it (if there even is one). The backpack, once unlocked, faces in random directions, sometimes blocking your view entirely, forcing you to drop it just to see. I hit a bug with lights disappearing after being purchased and placed — I had to restart the entire save to fix it. I was able to buy the boombox, but it doesn't play any music. So what's the point of buying it? I genuinely spent three hours trying to figure out how to open those chests. I kept thinking it was user error on my part — and maybe it partly is — but even so, this shouldn't be this broken. I strongly suspect it's actually a bug. I do love indie games, and I know this was made solo, by one developer, with clearly a lot of love and care put into it. But that doesn't excuse or forgive everything — especially when comments on the demo already pointed out these exact same issues, and they weren't fixed. Worse, it seems like they weren't taken into account at all.

Прошёл обучение, сходил в пару вылазок, рефанд. Из плюсов: - Игра визуально очень хорошо выглядит, видно что автор делал упор именно на этот аспект - всё? Из минусов: - С оптимизацией явно какие-то проблемы, при первых движениях камеры видны статтеры и приходится лезть в настройки и думать в чем же дело (скорее всего в дополнительных настройках) - Ожидаемо, но баги присутствуют - в рандомный момент пропал молот, искал минут 10, потом решил выйти на вылазку и он появился опять. Иногда кнопки на автоматах перестают что-либо делать, хотя до этого прекрасно работали. Если это какая-то механика игры, то автор явно забыл об этом сказать - Игровой процесс особо самой игрой не объясняется - просто копай, а дальше сам поймёшь. Почему-то в обучении решили просто скрыть весь игровой UI, который появляется на вылазке после обучения. Стамины хватает на ударов 6-7 (так называемое six-seven), потом ты не можешь ничего делать - в том числе и прыгать, поэтому если вы застряли в дырке высотой в 1 блок - лучше стукнуть ещё раз и умереть. Скорее всего в игре есть что-то вроде еды в магазине, но автор забыл рассказать когда её можно будет получить и единственный способ это делать вылазки на несколько ударов молотом и спать в кровати - так по-кругу. Про игровые локации, влияние глубины на окружение, прогрессию - ничего в начале тебе не расскажут (хотя возможно я просто быстро вышел и не познал всю суть). - Возвращаясь к анимациям - они хоть и классные, но длиннющие ожидания закрытия/открытия лифта и прочего надоели после пары вылазок, а скипнуть никак не получится. - Ужаснейший звук приземления игрока, сразу выкручивайте Player Sound на 3-4, чтобы не убивать уши