Dwarf Mine – A Design History

Before I get into the design history of Dwarf Mine, I wanted to let everyone know two things.

First, if you are reading this in March of 2025, Dwarf Mine is in the middle of a Mega Sale! You can check it out at each of the marketplaces below:

Second, I just created a Dwarf Mine specific newsletter, which you can join here. If you want Dwarf Mine specific news, this is the fastest place to get it delivered to your inbox!

Now – on to the design history of Dwarf Mine.

2015 Ant Colony

Back before I was keeping design notebooks specific for game design, I made a quick ant colony generator prototype on some loose paper. The idea for the game was that the player would slowly draw tunnels on the paper, gain resources in the form of ant workers, which would then allow the player to draw more tunnels, slowly building an ant colony.

This was in early 2015, and the design was eventually recycled – but I held onto the idea. Then, in June of 2015, after the school year ended (I used to teach middle school), I had a ton of time on my hands. I sat down and sketched out the concept for a new version of my ant colony game, but with a new theme – fantasy dwarves. This was the very first concept for Dwarf Mine.

Dwarf Mine 2015 - Showing design concept — Design concept from a 2015 Google Drive document for Dwarf Mine.

This initial concept for Dwarf Mine was a lot more transactional than the game is today. Each square you dug out resulted in a dice roll, and you would maybe get a resource from that dice roll (or maybe find a monster to fight). It was less structured, and very story focused, and had a lot of dice rolls.

2016 and 2017

Over the next two years I worked on the game on and off for a while. I was (and still am in many ways) very much a hobby game designer. As soon as I encountered a problem, I would put the game down for weeks, months, or sometimes even years.

During this time, the game made progress and I playtested it a few times. I refined the core rules (adding seasons, and relationships with other species), added to the tables you would roll on to see what you found while mining, and expanded the rooms that could be created.

Dwarf Mine 2016 Room Name Generator — 2016 Google Drive document showing the beginnings of the room name generator that is now included in the game!

The game got significantly richer from a story, flavor, and setting perspective, but it got bogged down and bloated from a rules perspective.

2018 and 2019

I started designing with a bit more earnest in 2018 and 2019. I believe I started the Paper Dice Games blog in 2018, so I was excited to get one of my home-grown designs published. I was also getting burned out a bit from my teaching job, so my free time (that was previously devoted to grading or other teaching endeavors) transitioned to game design time.

During this period I started keeping exclusive game design notebooks. I also started playtesting for the purpose of game design, rather than for enjoyment. My design notes reflect the improvement I was making as a designer.

Dwarf Mine 2019 Design Notebook — 2019 Game Design notebook outlining problems and solutions for Dwarf Mine.

I also started utilizing Google Drive as my main space for game design storage. I have quite a few documents from 2018 and 2019 for Dwarf Mine stored in Google Drive, including design documents, a first-draft of a Mine Sheet, ideas documents, event documents, an early names generator, several versions of playtest rules, and a to-do list.

Dwarf Mine 2019 Google Drive — Archived files for Dwarf Mine – most from 2018 and 2019.

Most notably, in late 2019, I attended an Extra Life event that my friend organized, and brought Dwarf Mine as a playtest. I gave an incentive to give a $$ for each copy that was playtested.

One player who playtested at this event gave feedback that was gold. Two or three major game mechanics shifted due to this feedback, and I learned first-hand how important live, external playtesting is. Playtesting is still something I struggle with, because it is a challenge to get set up. However, I’ve always found the results are completely worth the effort.

The Year 2020

Initially, my goal was to release Dwarf Mine in 2020. Then the pandemic happened.

I released this blog post in spring of 2020, which was quite popular. I didn’t notice, because I was busy trying to work from home with my new job, while taking care of my two kids (our child care closed down), and share the same work space with my wife because our basement had flooded due to a broken pipe that winter. For months, life was a major challenge.

We are super lucky that eventually some nearby family decided they could take up child care duties, and eventually I was able to move my “office” back into the basement. Slowly, my capacity for game design increased.

By the fall, I felt it was possible to release Dwarf Mine – in my mind, my first major game release.

I had too many ideas, but more time on my hands now that we had settled into our quarantine bubble of the pandemic. I was able to determine what parts of the game made sense for a release, and which parts were for later expansions. Finally, in late 2020 (I honestly cannot remember the day), Dwarf Mine was released!

Post-Release

Not a lot of people know this, but when originally released, the Dwarf Mine base game was just that – the base game. Since it’s initial release, I’ve added several expansions and appendices to the base game, including:

Mountain Creation – roll to create your own mountain with caves, and hidden treasure.
More than a Dragon – adds three additional “final bosses” to fight, in addition to the dragon.
Bloodlines – Gives a dwarf name generator, and 20 different possible special abilities for your dwarf leader.
More Rooms – Adds more 6 rooms to purchase for your mine.
Player Aid Appendix – A page player aid that outlines all rooms (including the expansion room), all on a single page for easy reference.
Room Name Generator Appendix – A generator for different room names, based on the type of room being built in your mine.
Achievements List Appendix – Gives 13 challenges to accomplish when playing a game of Dwarf Mine.

Starting in 2021, I also began releasing external expansions for Dwarf Mine. Some of these were completely free, and some were paid expansions. These included:

13 Dwarves and a Burglar – A free expansion where you can play a mini game after you’ve finished a game of Dwarf Mine.
Barrier Mountains – A paid expansion that includes a new map, new mechanics, new enemies, and a sci fi twist.
Magestone Mountain – A paid expansion that includes a new map with rich veins of magestone, new enemies, and the ability to cast spells.
Underdark – A paid expansion that includes a new map, new mechanics for building up instead of down, new enemies, and the thematic denizens of the Underdark.
Winter Workshop – A free expansion that includes a new room for holiday gaming.
Beyond the Mountain – A free expansion that gives your dwarves a sci-fi win condition.
Artifacts and Curses – A paid expansion that includes 10 artifacts and 10 curses, and over 100 combinations of ways to start a new game of Dwarf Mine.

What’s Next

I don’t have anything major planned for Dwarf Mine this year (maybe one surprise, if I can pull it off). Next year I do have something on the roadmap, but I can’t announce it yet.

It’s been amazing to see so many people play and enjoy Dwarf Mine. The amount of emails, youtube videos, images, and comments from fans really brings me lots of joy. I’m very proud and happy that I can brighten someone else’s day with a game like Dwarf Mine.

So, to all fans of Dwarf Mine, thank you!