Dwarf Fortress’ big makeover will be out on Steam in December

Dwarf FortressSteam will bring you a beloved and byzantine colony simulation game called ‘The Simulator of Colonies’ on December 6. Tuesday’s announcement marks a major milestone for Bay 12 Games’ Tarn Adams and Zach Adams, who began work on the game since 2003.

Original title The God of Blood Chapter 2: Dwarf Fortress, the game’s primary mode of play involves taking a small group of dwarves and carving a home for them out of the unforgiving wilderness. The game blends classic Tolkien-inspired fantasy lore with an incredibly complex simulation that models everything from individuals’ moods, manners, and madnesses to glacial flows and fluid dynamics.

Dwarf FortressIt is known for being a very ugly game. The primitive sprites are all based on ASCII characters. New pixel art tilesets and mouse functionality are part of the new version. You will also find a tutorial and an interactive encyclopedia.

Tarn Adams explained that the addition of around 200 animal folk-sprites to the game was one of its most appealing features. He also spoke out about how hard he and his brother worked to include them in the game, as well as Kitfox Games’ team that he partnered with for 2019. Add on gigantic versions of those creatures, and there’s 200 more. There’s fantasy animals, which adds another 50 sprites, and the normal animals of course — another 200. The total number of animals and people is now around 650. These include both dead and living versions. You can also add in procedurally-generated creatures such as the Dwarves who have 8 pieces from which the game may choose during creation and it all starts to add up.

“I’ve forgotten the Forgotten Beasts, of course,” Tarn Adams said with a laugh, “which have a giant grid of pieces that are put together from shells, antennae, mandibles, trunks, wings, tails, and various numbers of eyes. […] There’s quite a lot.”

The new version of the game isn’t just tailored for new players. Dwarf FortressThe brothers stated that veterans can expect bug fixes to be plentiful. Also, dwarves themselves are a bit easier to corral thanks to a new “custom work detail” system (which replaces the legacy view/profession/labor system). They are also excited by the new endgame.

“I don’t know how much people are going to yell at you for spoiling things,” Tarn Adams warned. “It’s been out for like 16 years, I guess, so it’s kind of like spoiling an ’80s movie or something.”

“To become a ‘mountain home’ is kind of the general thing that you’re supposed to be doing,” Zach Adams said. After a fortress is built, it will be inhabited by a small group of happy dwarfs. Players have chosen to drown these nobles instead of spend their time and treasure appeasing them. Narratively it’s a bit abrupt, but mechanically it’s much easier than grappling with capricious and sometimes untenable demands. While the brothers didn’t want to spoil too much, their refinements should make that endgame scenario — which involves quite a bit of mining and exploration — much more playable than it was previously.

Grid View

Tarn Adams also said he’s personally interested in seeing the Dwarf FortressSpeedrunning communities pick up speed again.

“It’s not impossible to do,” Tarn Adams said. “It only took Zach 47 hours. We think people could do it much faster.”

It has been free for download since 2006 and its development was funded by crowdfunding. One of the big reasons that the brothers set out on this path with Kitfox was to improve their financial security, and with the launch they’re finally looking to make that personal goal a reality.

“We haven’t gotten COVID yet,” Tarn Adams said, his brother nodding along in our Zoom call. “The main goal was to get better health insurance and stuff. And that’s not going to be a thing until we release the game. We’re almost there.”