DF has a reputation for being impenetrable. Like it requires weeks or months of work or study to get anything out of it. Not true! You can start from scratch and have a crazy little adventure in minutes. Really.<p>Dwarf Fortress: The Detailed Roguelike That’s Easy To Play<p><a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/16/dwarf-fortress-the-detailed-roguelike-thats-easy-to-play/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/16/dwarf-fortress-th...</a><p>>Dwarf Fortress is famous for producing anecdotes by the minute. The two-man, twelve-year, donation-funded indie project weaves together procedurally generated geography, civilizations and histories to create a rich fantasy world. It simulates its characters – standard fare like dwarves, elves, goblins, etc. – down to the most minute detail, and when all its systems combine, the results are often hilarious, occasionally tragic, and always surprising.<p>>It’s also blissfully easy to play. The game is free to download and easy to install, the UI comes with a detailed and handy help system, and there’s a community wiki full of guides – not that you’ll need them. I started from scratch last night and was having fun immediately.<p>>This whole experience has taken around twenty minutes, and while it’s a shame Akan Seasonveiled didn’t get to see more of her homeland, the experience encapsulated much of what I love about Dwarf Fortress. I discovered a town, talked to people and formed a posse. I went on a dynamically generated fantasy adventure and slayed a grim beast. I discovered a camp of travellers out in the wilds, had a tense and hard-fought combat encounter, and finally met my own grisly end. It was exciting! It was just a tiny taste of this world, but I’m itching to go explore more.<p>I actually enjoy simply generating worlds and looking through the history afterwords... even easier.
This game is like what the Sims should have been all along. If you think building a dream home, getting slapped by a neighbor for an ill-timed kiss, and drowning your characters in their own swimming pool were interesting, imagine how you would feel if you could make your house a 100-story skyscraper built from obsidian and glass, with subbasements that pierce three separate underworlds before breaching Hell, witness a tantrum that ends in broken bones, severed limbs, and execution by hammering, and kill your characters by sending them on a rollercoaster ride that ends with their minecart smashing into a mountainside and falling into a volcano.<p>All of EA can produce a game where the tiny people pee their pants instead of using their own toilet. Two guys at Bay12 can produce a game where tiny people can have both arms snipped off by a monster with crab claws and still kill it by choking it out with their legs and then biting its head off.<p>The Sims let you train your stats with mirrors and home gyms and bookshelves. DF lets you train stats by stabbing people with lever-operated spear traps, dropping live puppies onto their heads, forcing them to drown for short intervals, and making them wrestle with naked goblins.<p>And all it costs is a voluntary donation to support a grand total of two people.
Little known fact: it's only due to DF that you can find the solid density for Saguaro wood online.<p>It's ~430 kg/m^3 dry and this was determined empirically by players.<p>EDIT: Fixed units.
My favorite explanation of DF:<p><a href="http://dwarffortresswiki.org/images/4/40/FunComic.png" rel="nofollow">http://dwarffortresswiki.org/images/4/40/FunComic.png</a>
For those who don't know what Dwarf Fortress is, and want to read about the marvelous story behind Dwarf Fortress and its creators: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of.." rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of...</a>.
I always find amazing what one can accomplish when the scope is reduced enough. I don't think Dwarf Fortress would have a fraction of its features if it had sprites, non-tiled graphics, multiple visible layers, sound effects or a sane UI.<p>By taking those sacrifices we now have a game to behold.<p>I'm excited to try the new features.
Absolutely can't wait to go home and try out the latest version of DF, which has been two years in the making if I'm correct.<p>Apparently the entire dwarf motivation system has been redone, so almost every aspect of the game will be changed. I am looking forward to all of the bugs, especially the ones relating to trying to wash difficult to reach areas with globs of sentient-fat soap.<p>I highly encourage anyone who likes extreme detail and gaming to check out DF. DF is probably one of the most creative and most fantastic games ever made, and certainly one of my top five games of all time. The learning curve is easy enough to climb if you watch a series of youtube tutorials and have a mentor to ask questions to. Once you've got the basics down and can build a fort without flooding it or having a tantrum spiral due to not enough rum, then the Fun really begins. The minute to minute can also be very entertaining. I laughed really hard when one of my elite militia captains went into a martial trance while fighting off an invasion of goblins and promptly gave birth to a boy while still swinging her axe.
If you don't see yourself playing this game, consider following the dev blog. It's rare for someone to devote themselves to a lifelong project, and Tarn has been going strong for a decade now. The updates are fun, especially his narrative descriptions of glitches in the world.
Wow, I totally didn't expect to see this headline. This version has been in the works for years and the updates have been infrequent as of late.<p>I remember waiting for the very first version of Dwarf Fortress. I think it wasn't even known as Dwarf Fortress back then, just "the dwarf game". Bay 12 Games was virtually unknown, with several quirky games to its name, and a dozen or so fans on the forum. There was a thread where screenshots and videos of the upcoming game were posted. The full scope of the game wasn't revealed back then: the fact that adventure mode even existed was a total surprise, and so was the fact that it's a sequel to Slaves to Armok. The first announcement was posted on Usenet. Good times.
Dwarf fortress is one of many games that I enjoy following but can't really play... I just like that OTHER people play it. I've grown up on games just like any other form of entertainment (movies, tv etc) and it's great that I can still get some feeling of keeping up on things by watching 5 minute videos or reading summaries of some other much better player's creative output instead of having to invest 50 hours that I don't have...