It’s an increasingly intangible world we live in these days, made more evident by the fact that many gamers are purchasing digital copies of their games rather than boxed ones. Yet against all odds, indie developer Subterranean Games’s upcoming War for the Overworld has garnered enough interest to warrant both the obligatory digital release and a physical, boxed version.
The physical release of Overworld has been made possible through Subterranean’s partnership with the aptly named Sold Out, a UK-based PC publisher whose credits include Worms Battlegrounds and Sniper Elite III. This physical version will be subtitled as the ‘Underlord Edition,’ and will include a few bonuses worthy of those willing to actually get out of the house and go buy the game the old fashioned way. These include a soundtrack, a digital artbook, and two additional dungeon themes.
Sold Out’s Sales Director James Cato spoke of the partnership:
Subterranean Games’ massive success with its Kickstarter campaign underlines the powerful desire that exists out there for the next big dungeon management game. The team has put an unbelievable amount of time, effort and passion into making sure War for the Overworld will more than satisfy that demand – and we’re delighted to be able to work with them to bring together a special edition which will retain pride of place in any collection.
Like most indie games of late, Overworld found its spark after achieving massive success on Kickstarter in January 2013, where it was funded to the tune of £210,000, over £50,000 over its initial goal. The game, which takes influence from the likes of Dungeon Keeper (which Overworld is envisioned as a spiritual successor of) , Overlord, StarCraft and Evil Genius, revolves around real-time management and development of one’s dungeon empire, which entails assigning minions to work on various aspects of the dungeon, laying traps, ensuring an ample flow of food and gold, and slaughtering invading heroes.
The game has attracted plenty of positive attention from high profile figures, most notably Peter Molyneux of Dungeon Keeper and Fable fame, who went out of his way to encourage the community to support Overworld’s creation.
Subterranean anticipate that the game will be ready for release during the first quarter of 2015, but impatient fans can get it now through Steam Early Access at a 10% discount that will last till the 24th of this month.