Dwarfheim will let your friends join you even if they don't own the game
Bearded playdy
As bearded strategy game Dwarfheim drills down into its development strata, they’ve sent up some ore to be refined into shiny news. I've been digging around in the bucket for riches and found a nice chunk. The biggest nugget revealed that you will be able to invite friends to play multiplayer with you even if they don’t own the game.
Developers Pineleaf Studio really want you to play the game in multiplayer. Each class, builder, miner, warrior, and diplomat, has a part to play in your base’s expansion, meaning it’ll be tricky to succeed without someone manning dwarfing those roles. Nate got very excited about this concept when he first heard about it. So Pinleaf are making a special Dwarfheim game client that will enable players to join friends who own the game and fill in those roles, via a friend-pass. You can order your BFF Geoff to get online and then force him to work in the mines.
It’s very generous, particularly when you consider that the game will also have a single-player mode, which presumably has AI capable of shouldering things. But I expect they want the game to flow without you needing to micro-manage other roles. As far as those modes go, it’ll have a survival mode for those looking to fight against waves of foes, a sandbox that’ll be a more sedate, and multiplayer conquest and skirmish modes. All pretty standard. The asymmetric roleplaying they're going for could probably use some basic touchstones in order for the players to work out how the classes blend together.
There’s no release date specified, but they’re looking to release the game into early access in the autumn, on Steam.