'90s style Command and Conquer spiritual successor DORF smashes its Kickstarter to raise $300,000

I've accepted that Command and Conquer is unlikely to return in any meaningful way at this point, but that means there's room for new blood to prove that RTS games are just as good as ever. It brings me great joy, therefore, to see DORF, the '90s-inspired newcomer with a tremendous modern twist on the visuals of the era, blasting dramatically past its Kickstarter goal. Raising nearly $300,000, it's picked up sufficient funding along the way to introduce full co-op campaigns and even another programmer to speed up development.

DORF doesn't waste time in laying out its biggest inspirations: its Steam store page opens with a cheeky nod to C&C. "Take command of one of three unique factions and conquer your enemies in a twisted vision of the future." Despite this, developer DORFteam says it wants to be more than a throwback to the '90s, expanding the genre "with rare or otherwise entirely new mechanics and systems, from constructing resource logistics operations to seeing terrain warped and destroyed from weaponry and construction."

I fell in love with DORF's unique style and bizarre units the moment I first saw it. The visuals give it the feel of Command and Conquer built with hand-crafted, stop-motion models. It's packed with the kind of weird units that would make the C&C veterans of Westwood Studios proud: landship tanks with far too many turrets, giant zeppelin bombers, 'reconnaissance cavalry' riding ostrich-like birds in gas masks, and even infantry that toss out tiny mutants strapped with dynamite vests.

Expect full single-player campaigns for its three factions: the militaristic Union of Imperial States, the high-tech, spacebound Collective, and the relentless wasteland fighters of the Warbands. There's also the originally planned offering of skirmish vs AI, online multiplayer, and a map editor - but thanks to DORF's kickstarter success, there's now even more.

We'll also be getting special online co-op campaigns for each of the three factions, a wider range of unique voice lines for every single unit (as opposed to shared sound effects across different units and actions), and more environmental zones with unique mechanics. Snowy regions will present problems such as freezing temperatures and ice floes, while vast megacities comprise giant, terraced structures that your units will have to fight through.

The additional support has also allowed DORFteam to hire a new developer, which it hopes will help bring DORF to a fully playable state at a faster speed. It notes, "We'll most likely be bringing in a programmer rather than an artist, although we'll likely also be adding some other dedicated members to the team further down the line."

In particular, the team is on the lookout for some "dedicated mappers to help create the campaign and skirmish/multiplayer maps." DORFteam has been speaking to some C&C modders with "years of experience creating both multiplayer and single-player maps in those games," and says several of them "are very interested in helping us develop the game."

While the initial DORF Kickstarter listed a 2028 release date, DORFteam says this is "just a very cautious estimate we've given, just in case things go wrong." It hopes that the game will be "out in a 1.0 state in 2027." While the Kickstarter comes to an end today, you can wishlist it on Steam to stay up to date with its continued development.

DORF is shaping up to be something special, and I'll be watching it with close interest. It's got all those fundamentals of building a base, planning your logistics carefully for maximum efficiency, and deciding whether to turtle and power up, or to amass a force and crush through your enemy's defenses. Add in the fantastic style that strikes the perfect balance between '90s throwback and something completely new and fresh, and I'm hopeful that DORFteam will deliver a real winner for us old-school RTS heads.