Well, it is a top down micromanagement game that gives you indirect control of a small population, and your primary objective is the survival of this population by handling problems such as food supplies, water levels, and invaders. It also has noticeably simplistic graphics, so much so that they are hard to read if you are not accustom to such games.
Now there are several games I could be describing here, DF being one of them. I'm sure that this game took other influences aswell! But the fact that this game adds another layer of similarities by making it a population of dwarves, and has what is almost a trademark of DF, magma, it makes me wonder maybe the developers were trying to ride on Toady's coat tails.
I know this is old but I just had to comment! This is horrible, I bet you haven't even played the demo when you said this. There are no food supplies, the art style is simple because it's an ARCADE GAME! It's not some fancy smancy game with bloom or cell shading 3D effects, it's simplistic. Water is blue because water is blue, it can be murky but it's blue. If dwarfs and magma was to be always referred to DF and everyone criticized a new game just because it has these then what is the point of making a new game? Give these guys a break, they made a small neat game that is fun to play when you only have 5 minutes to spare or just want to shut down communication and be alone for a bit.
Anyways sorry I quoted a old post but it was driving me crazy.