A concept of step 1 of embarking a new colony.
Memories of Old
I remember the first time I read the words Strike the Earth: the epic call to action that opens a new game of Dwarf Fortress. I was working at Valve on Team Fortress 2 and my on and off again obsession with World of Warcraft (that great scourge of productivity) was winding down. I was introduced to Dwarf Fortress by the Something Awful forums, where players recounted tales of newly born children being hauled into battle while their beer guzzling parents fired crossbow bolts crafted of kitten bone, of carp maiming the unlucky, and of total base collapse as frothing madmen carved insane tales of atrocity into stone.
I was hooked by the idea that losing is fun and the oddly rewarding feeling of watching your careful effort burn down in hilarious fashion. I stayed up late at night thinking about how I would avoid things like a catsplosion or an insanity cascade and reading other players strategies and ideas. One classic story from that era is captured in the old Let's Play of Boatmurdered and I laughed in tears reading it and reflecting on my own bad beat stories.
From Dwarves to Darkness
Years passed, I left Valve (after over ten years!), and kept thinking about colony sims and the 'losing is fun' philosophy. When my brother and I started our own small game development studio, we knew we wanted to capture that same chaotic joy. What if, instead of dwarves digging too deep, YOU were what they found down there?
Architect of Ruin puts you in charge of an evil cult rebuilding from ruin. The old ways have been lost and your small band must rediscover necromancy, black magic, and dark rituals while keeping your efforts as secret as you can. Attract attention and you might find yourself under attack from the halfling constable, a paladin and his retinue, or a besieging holy army.
We're hand-drawing everything because we want to elevate the art style of a genre we love. We want to be able to tell the colonists stories not just through text, but through visual transformation. We want to watch the gradual corruption: the casting off of a laborer's shirt for a necromancer's robe and wild eyes instead of a status effect marker as insanity takes its toll.
Development Status
Right now the team is knee deep in the unglamorous work of making things not be broken. Preventing deer from trying to haul stone, getting cultists to cook their food before they eat it, that kind of stuff. Currently you can haul, hunt, craft, fight, and raise the walls of your base. Our next development objective is for a solid first hour of play where you establish a basic foothold on a new map with early, non-magical resource gathering.
The fun stuff, like summoning demons, raising the dead to work the fields, and corrupting the countryside, comes after we know the foundation is fun.
Come Join Us
Our company discord doubles as our workplace and we do most of our development discussion there out in the open. If you're curious how the game is built, or have ideas about the genre, or just want to talk about games you can use this link.
We're excited to share the game, but we're most interested in feedback - good or bad. So reach out and let us know what you think of our work in the Discussions or on Discord. We appreciate any thoughts you might have to share.