“In most role playing games, they play only a supporting role” says the Kickstarter video, “and you barely learn anything about their culture and history.  We think that they deserve to be in the spotlight for a change.”

The game was announced at Gamescom and a number of visual and story elements should be instantly familiar to Lord of the Rings and Warcraft fans alike.  Desperate battles against vast hordes, heavily armored dwarves in the thick of the fight swinging about massive hammers and axes and epic stone halls along the lines of Erebor and Khaz Modan are all in abundance.

Players will control a primary hero, Tungdil, and the growing number of warriors who follow him into battle on his adventure.  Each character will bring unique skills to the battle and the player will have to pick the four best suited for a given situation before each engagement.  The developers looked at games like Fire Emblem for inspiration, according to an earlier announcement.

The game draws from the world and characters of the novel series, The Dwarves, by Markus Heitz, who is also consulting on the project.  The story is based specifically on the first book, in which Tungdil, a dwarf raised by humans, is suddenly forced from his quiet life as a blacksmith and thrust into battle alongside his people to save the land.  Oh, did I mention he’s never seen another dwarf before?  Talk about culture shock. 

While the high fantasy franchises that have dwarves (so just about all of them) with the best developed worlds and universes certainly do share plenty of information about our stout friends, it is true that players, or readers for that matter, rarely get to experience a fully dwarf-centric story.  The Hobbit came close but even then, the focus was very much on Bilbo and his development over the journey to the Lonely Mountain - the dwarves, aside from their respect for Bilbo, remained the same.

If The Dwarves is indeed even remotely following the story of the book, then that may be about to change as we witness Tungdil’s transformation from blacksmith to warrior and finally, leader.  That would be as refreshing as a drought of fine dwarven ale.

The game is currently planned for a mid-2016 release.  You can follow the Kickstarter campaign progress here.