Revenue numbers on that page don't include the Steam numbers since the launch in December ~ $15M is revenue in one month!!<p>To go from $15k to $15M, x1000, in a matter of weeks must feel incredible. Particularly after 15 years of hard work.
So they've used some of this to hire a second developer.<p>I wish them the best of luck, entering a codebase developed by a single dev for 15 years.
Having dabbled in dwarf fortress over the years, I think they did a really nice job on the steam release. It must have been a daunting project to streamline most/all of the features in DF.<p>Congrats to the team on their success!
I used to play DF a lot back in 2009, was a real geek about it.<p>Then life took over and I lost all the muscle memory.<p>Since the Steam release came out I've been playing DF almost DAILY again. It's so much FUN!<p>Adventure mode will take the world by storm again, so that will probably mean a huge uptick in sales once it's finished.
Note that if you buy it on itch.io you also get a Steam key.
So if you count both separately and add the numbers, you'll probably count too many.<p>Anyway, i bought one of the copies and the game is fun, whenever i feel like doing unlimited amounts of micro-management ;-)
I love Dwarf Fortress and it's the inspiration for many modern simulators (and I put my $30 for Tarn with this release), but I do think that Oxygen Not Included, Rimworld, Factorio, et.al. have surpassed it.<p>My main issue with DF is that the main challenge of the game, combat, is pretty boring and rife with issues. For example, let's say I'm new to the game and want to put some XBow dwarfs behind a few fortifications in my base. Will the dwarfs intelligently do this when a siege happens? Is there a specific way to tell the AI that specific spots are where the Dwarfs should stand to defend? No and No.<p>Instead I will either have to painstakingly set up individual zones / burrows for each individual defender or the dwarfs will just ignore the fortifications, even if they are in a burrow! And they'll just sit there and ignore invaders breaking through your kill zone unless you specifically micromanage them into 1-wide spaces with fortifications facing the kill zone, and even then they might just run outside your fortress on the <i>other</i> side of the fortifications so they're close to where you ordered them to.<p>Rimworld on the other hand, (for all of its flaws around random and explosive damage), will at least let you draft a pawn, order it to stand behind a wall, and the pawn will get a significant cover bonus even without fortifications. They're smart enough to lean out and attack on their own too.<p>I say all this not to criticize DF but to say that the genre has come a long way, and I hope that with this success they're looking at weaknesses like this in the gameplay loop so that folks don't just take 20+ years of goodwill as a replacement for the possibilities ahead.<p>PS: Fuck cancer
Just did a 7-hour-each-way roadtrip with my 12 year old son and my ears were filled by him with the minutiae of Dwarf Fortress in both directions.<p>So I hope the developers are getting paid handsomely, someone should be, with that level of intense obsession being produced :-)
Having enjoyed DF immensely, for free, in the past, I bought DF on Steam to support the Toady One and Three Toe. The UI changes make the game much more approachable. It still has a steep learning curve. But, I don't need to run a dwarf job manager alongside the game. The one thing that I would love to see added is the ability to create and reuse blueprints. Third party macro tools did this job in the past.<p>Congratulations on your much deserved success Toady One and ThreeToe.
It's gonna be 500,001 when I'm done with my current game. It's at the #1 spot on my Steam wishlist. I try not to buy a game until I'm actually ready to play it these days, so it's coming soon just not quite yet.<p>Congratulations on the well earned success!
It's crazy how much money they were leaving on the table this whole time.<p>My mind is trying to wrap my head whether their lives would have been better or worse had they done this much sooner. I'm not sure I have a conclusion.
I'm so excited to see where they go from here. My fantasy is a version of DF where entity movement isn't locked to a grid, that would open the door for real animations, smooth movement, or even a 3D version.
Subthread: anyone else wants to join my support group for people who don’t get these games? I tried rimworld, which seemed much easier to get into, and it seems like a sims-like game except that unlike sims it’s very unintuitive. I’ve been trying to figure out how to enjoy this game the same way I enjoyed sims when I was younger, and it dawned on me that I never really played sims the “correct” way and rather just did things because I wanted to see these things happen in my sims people’s lives. That makes sense. But what’s a colony? What do I want to do with that colony? I got confused by the lack of feedback from my decisions (or the complexity and depth of every decisions you can make) and realized at some point that I was not enjoying the game coz I was just trying to figure out the mechanics in order to win. Maybe I’m playing it wrong. Maybe the whole point of this game is to have some sort of digital terrarium?
I wonder if the experience of playing Rogue and NetHack is more akin to being an “individual contributor” in a project, whereas in Dwarf Fortress you are a “manager”?<p>Maybe now is the time to find out. I look forward to buying it!<p>Congratulations to the devs!
This is pretty awesome news!<p>I’m happy to see them doing well. I remember playing DF a bit in college and just blown away by the devs and their undying love for the game, all whilst doing it for free no doubt.
This really makes me happy, what an achievement! And to think that free game is still available... I'm glad it turned out so well! Congratulations!