PAX West 2022 was in full swing last weekend, and for Dwarf Fortress (opens in new tab) developers Tarn and Zach Adams, plus publisher Kitfox Games, it meant an hour (opens in new tab) show time. was. Dwarf Fortress Steam Edition in all its unwrapped glory, complete with imported barrels of crow blood. For those who know DF intimidating by its reputation and hard to play, it will be a real revolution in how you view this venerable simulator.
In the hour-long video, you can see deadpan narration from the Addams brothers as well as several examples of what the in-development game looks like. They look at stuff like how easy it is to set up rooms, designate mining, and start a business. There’s also a nice overview of the neat new information system for big events.
Later in the stream they dive into the fully matured fortress, checking out things like artifacts, throne rooms and volumes of procedurally generated books.
Zack Adams also shows off his innovative solution for disposing of garbage and/or corpses: “You can bury your dwarves in coffins, but I throw them in lava and make gravestones so the ghosts don’t haunt me. ” They also installed a minecart system so that it would have automatic garbage and/or corpse disposal.
It’s really nice to see this new version of the game come together. It’s been a little over three years since it was first announced (opens in new tab), and more than two (opens in new tab) since they actually got to work on the Steam version honestly. The fruits of that labor are really visible now, with the ambitious world of Dwarf Fortress laid out for the first time in 32×32 sprites and tiles with an interface that can almost be considered modern.
In related news, and discussed during the demo, is Dwarf Fortress’s shiny new soundtrack. The only music that has been in play for long is a looping guitar track, a four-minute classical guitar piece played by producer Tarn Adams.
Kitfox Games recently featured some samples from the new, full soundtrack of guitar pieces by various professional musicians, some of whom even sang in Dwarf Fortress’s in-game Dwarfan Tongue. They really maintain that musical spirit that people have been playing DF for over two decades.
As someone who sank for more than a thousand hours in the Dwarf Fortress since 2008, just before the world’s z-axis debuted, these are delightful things to watch. The accessibility and polish layer may not bring Dwarf Fortress into the mainstream, but it will certainly bring it out of the niche-within-the-niche it currently resides in. It’s a magnificent place and all that, gilded and honed like a holy icon, but it would be nice to see some daylight for it.
Otherwise, I bring news from the houses of the mountains: the world is as it has always been. You can find the page for Dwarf Fortress on Steam (opens in new tab), where it will release whenever they finish their new UI.
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