The demo has just received a large update so I thought it time to post on the main page again to let you all know where I'm at with the development of DWARRF. But first, the changelog:

- Reformatted the Mines I floor & added Mines II to the demo (for now)

- New pinball & battle boards (I've lost count of what's new & what's old but altered)

- Added 6 events (8 total)

- Added 24 new Relics (including some gravity-defying buddies)

- Renamed 'Scatter Shot' to the more accurate 'Chain Shot'

- Added a new ball: Scatter Shot (not confusing at all)

- Added a new ball: Salty Caltops

- Added a new ball: Battle Axe

- Added a new ball: Throwing Axe

- Added a new ball: Zomball

- Added a new ball: Sackball

- Added a new ball: Arrow

- Added a new ball: Haemorrhage

- Added a new ball: Pickaxe

- Added a new healing drink to Chug's cart

- Significantly reduced post battle healing

- Added in-game settings menu

- Added readability options such as ball outline colour & trail length

- Added boss specific relic drops

- Chests can now drop relics & gold, not just balls

- Chests found in battle now have random drops

- The mine can now collapse, watch out!

- Added overkill tutorial popup

- Completed events are now tracked to remove duplicates

- Completed mining phase boards are tracked to reduce duplicates

- Completed battle phase boards are tracked to reduce duplicates

- Added new traversal tracks

- Added 'last time saved' information to the pause menu

- Changed battle ball physics, to allow more tactical bouncing from geometry

- Changed peg outline colour

- Changed the 'mine track' mining board based on feedback

- Altered the navigation choosing board (much less frustrating now)

- Balls can no longer get stuck when refreshing (or just generally on ores)

- Removed spawn points that appear outside of the map

- Made the spin menus easier to understand

- Ball traits from different sources now stack (instead of being ignored)

- Increased the size of some enemies

- When recording/streaming the game, it automatically removes any tracks that might flag contentID

- Doubled frenzy the necromancer skull gives

- General rebalance of enemies damage / health

- Fixed Chain Shot physics (formally 'Scatter Shot')

- Fixed weird sub ball behaviour when in cannon / portal

- Multiballs now correctly copy all the traits of the parent ball

- You can no longer shoot the mining phase ball whilst reloading

- You can no longer purchase healing drinks when full HP

- Fixed sub balls getting caught out of the map

- Goblins now drop the correct amount of gold

- Fixed enemies getting stuck in 'Troll ruins' map

- Balls no longer appear behind used pegs

- Spawned balls (such as loose rocks) no longer spawn inside walls

- Fixed various memory leaks

There's still a few more mining/battle boards I need to make for 'Mines II' in this version of the demo, but I was playing the live version yesterday and realised how different the two versions were. So here's a mostly stable up-to-date version, with some updates coming out over the next week or so.

This new version takes you through 1-and-a-bit floors of the game and already has a large amount of relics/balls/enemies/events. There will be another large update for Next Fest later in the year, where you'll be able to complete the full first 2 floors for a limited time.

Most of the games' systems are now in place, so I just need to keep creating the events, balls, enemies etc. that are on my list and the game will be ready to be released. I'm estimating that it'll be around Q3/4 2026 but we'll see.

If you find any issues with this version, please use F8 to report them and use the feedback form for any suggestions.

Thanks for giving DWARRF a go - grab your balls and set sail!

Sam :)