Dungeon Keeping down memory lane: Subterranean talk War for the Overworld

Rose-tinted glasses. We all own a pair, at least figuratively. They’re dangerous items - ones which force us to recall all that is good about certain events, memories or eras of our pasts; conveniently forgetting all or most of what was bad. Hey, it’s human nature, but that’s rarely of consolation when living in the harsh realities of the present day. If you’re a fan of the Dungeon Keeper series, and have visited the latest freemium tablet rendition, all of this may ring truer than you’re willing to admit.

That’s where Subterranean come in - a hobbyist group of Dungeon Keeper modders and fans-cum-indie developers, who have taken it upon themselves to recreate the days of yore. War for the Overworld is their Kickstarted masterpiece, and is a modern day retelling of the late 90s Bullfrog god game classic, complete with traps and imps and chambers and bloody well Richard Ridings.

The dungeon management sim has spent slightly longer in the development room than initially planned - August 2013 was its original ETA - but it is closing in on a March 2015 release. In the interim, I’d like you to do one thing: for every time you begin to lose faith in the at times baffling goings on in this industry, remember projects like this and think to yourself - what an exciting time this is for gaming. And before you read our interview with Subterranean’s Scott Richmond and Josh Bishop: you can now take off those rose-coloured glasses.

GameWatcher: So, Subterranean. Some of you guys were Dungeon Keeper modders?

Scott Richmond: Yeah, some of our origins stem from the Keeper Clan website, which I think was like the last bastion of the dungeon management genre of fans.

GameWatcher: What was it like making the shift from hobbyist group to full time developers?

Scott Richmond: It was a big change for all of us - we’ve come mostly from pretty humble backgrounds. We’ve been pretty lucky, I guess. We’ve really had to grab what we’ve had and go and run with it.

GameWatcher: War for the Overworld’s Kickstarter did pretty well, hitting well over its funding goal. The original accompanying video however suggested an August 2013 release. Given the delay, how does it feel to now be, officially, indie developers?

Scott Richmond: Yeah, I think this comes from us being real amateur developers, I mean this is our first game. We just didn’t have that skill and experience to predict just how long getting a game like this out would take. That said, [the delay] also comes from the fact that we’re just really passionate about the game and we don’t want to release a half-done game and leave it like that.

Josh Bishop: We didn’t really know what to expect at all - we’ve never done anything like that. We weren’t quite going in blind, we did have some advice from people who had been in the industry for a while, David Orry is one, who actually worked on Dungeon Keeper. So yeah, we had some advice, but crucially, none of them had done a Kickstarter before so it’s a very new thing, especially in the UK where it had just launched. We really didn’t know what to expect.

Scott Richmond: Yeah, and I think we sort of went in with rose-tinted glasses with regards to the genre. We knew that we loved it; we knew other people loved it, but we just didn’t know how big of a fan base there was in dungeon games.

GameWatcher: The free-to-play model that Dungeon Keeper has now chosen has faced criticism. This example is obviously explicitly relevant, however, in general, what is your view of free-to-play games?

Scott Richmond: I think there’s definitely room for free-to-play games in this industry, for sure. It’s going to stick around. But I think it works for some types of games, and not others. I think you just need to make sure you identify with what games it works for, and what games it doesn’t.

GameWatcher: War for the Overworld packs in an abundance of traps in its dungeon designs. Why is it video game players find trap setting such fun?

Scott Richmond: I think for me, it’s almost like the idea of Lego - you build something and then you get to sit back and watch it all come together. So when all your traps come together that psychology - build it up, watch the enemy fall, basically.

GameWatcher: Given the length of a short demo, I was quite amazed by how easily I was transported back to the original Dungeon Keeper days. Was there anything in development you felt absolutely had to be captured, or just had to be included to really authenticate the archetypal dungeon management game?

Scott Richmond: For me it was the narrator, Richard Ridings. We were just so excited when we got him signed up. You can just tell as soon as you put the headphones on, you hear it, you look at the dungeon; everything just comes back to that genre and time in gaming.

Josh Bishop: We found out who his agent was and we emailed him. There was a fairly large amount of back and forth to figure it out because it was kind of a weird thing for them, the agencies aren’t really used to that. As a small studio we eventually got there.

Scott Richmond: I guess in the end Richard Ridings himself was excited - he’s a very excitable guy and he loves the team. We had dinner with him and he came down last year to have a play of the game. It was very exciting to see, sort of a celebrity coming down and getting involved in what we were doing. And of course hearing Richard’s voice again is great. You see some older guys come in who haven’t played Dungeon Keeper for a while and you see their eyes light up, that smile. Just instantly, it all comes back to them.

Josh Bishop: It’s interesting - the youngest kids seem to pick it up better than teenagers or 20-year olds who may have not seen games like that before. You know, the adults who have seen the series before - they get it. And then not so much in the middle, but the little kids just seem to ‘get it’. We were at Rezzed earlier in the year and our booth was right next to the Yogscast area. Loads of little kids just came over at one point and they all just got it. It was really weird, but really cool at the same time.

GameWatcher: What are you talking release-wise then, if August 2013 is now slightly past?

Scott Richmond: We are targeting February, 2015. That’s what we’re confident of now.