The game reminds me of a little free game I stumbled across ages ago called
Ants, in which you controlled an army of ants, either black or red, who also built a tower (although you had no control over rooms/design, it was simply a case of how tall it was, or how tall the 'wall' around it was) The game's been remade at least a half dozen times from what I can see after a quick google search, some of them seem to have greatly improved the graphics, others simply made it accessible online without a download.
Like this game, Ants also used the idea of random abilities that would be generated each turn, that you'd use to build up your tower, or destroy your opponents. However it took the direction of a deck of cards. You could draw from the deck, randomly, and didn't have to use up a card, you could hold onto it in your hand until you had the resources to use it (certain cards added resource production to your tower, which could be used to play the various cards you might have in your hand)
Much like Ants, I found myself enjoying Dwarf Tower, despite the simple mechanics, or perhaps because of them. The reason I mention Ants though is that after a couple of rounds of Dwarf Tower I began to feel that I'd experienced much of what the game had to offer, and being at the mercy of the random assignment of blocks I could place at the start of each round, without any means to preserve those I couldn't place, began to wear on me after a while. I wondered if it were fair to really be frustrated by the randomness, after all, Ants employs plenty of randomness in the cards you get dealt. But I think it came down to how the randomness was presented to me as the player; whether I really do have any control over the randomness in Ants, I'm given the illusion that I do (or at least that I can plan around it to some degree), where as DT it's pretty cut and dry that I have no power at all, and some turns I'll literally have nothing I can do for the want of a correct piece or while I wait on mana building up.
All in all though, I do enjoy the game, and will be keeping my eye on this thread to see how things progress