Dwarf Fortress News

Hey folks!

Tarn is back from Germany and covid positive! Even a week later! Ouch! Thanks to all of you who visited Tarn at Gamescom. Despite the illness, it was rejuvenating to meet a continent of fans and watch people build succession forts at the booth. Putnam continues tinkering and improving, but in terrible luck, Tarn & Zach are also dealing with a family emergency that unfortunately continues to worsen.

But the good news is that a patch is incoming, as promised, just a bit behind schedule. Tarn is back at work, mostly recovered, fixing bugs and implementing some new graphics you should be able to see by early next week at the latest.

Stay safe and vaccinated!
Kitfox & Bay 12

Hey Urists,

A short update this week as we prepare to head to Germany for Gamescom. While art and audio and other developments for Adventure Mode continues, we also have two much-anticipated updates coming soon(ish) for Fortress Mode.

The Linux version is almost ready, and in about two weeks we will be looking for beta testers, after Tarn gets back from Germany... in fact, it's already on the Public Beta Branch!

A patch in the works will also soon give you the ability to view all reports, pausing when a new announcement is added, and viewing a particular creature’s reports.




I also heard rumors of giant animals, but those must be further off on the horizon. I guess I can already see them coming because they’re so big.

Kitfox will be at Gamescom this year with Dwarf Fortress, Caves of Qud and the soon-to-be-released Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out. Tarn Adams will be at the Kitfox booth from 2-4pm every day of the show to meet you! You can find us at booth 91 in the Indie Arena Booth. We can’t wait to meet you in person!



We are also hosting an after-party on Thursday August 24th from 6-10pm. Join us for an evening on the Rhine with food, drink and tavern tales among Urists. Meet Tarn and pixel artist Carolyn (ask her about procedural faces!). Get tickets on Eventbrite

So that’s all for now, but you should be seeing another update real soon!

-Alexandra

Hey Urists,

It's Alexandra here from Kitfox with a seasonal video update from Tarn. We have updates on the art and programming side of development as Adventure Mode work continues. Watch the full video on Youtube:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

One of the most exciting new updates is that we have started creating procedural dwarf faces. This means that a dwarf's appearance will reflect the personality from their description. Here are some of the prototypes that our artist Carolyn has been making:



Watch the full video to hear about updates to Adventure Mode, the Linux version and to see a Giant Capybara!

We are also working on a new beginner-friendly tutorial series with Dwarf Fortress content creator BlindiRL. We have a complete starter guide and a tutorial on making wells with more to come. It's never been easier to learn how to play Dwarf Fortress!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

To discuss all the latest with your fellow urists, please join our Discord.

-Alexandra + Bay12

In this release, we're updating the engine from SDL to SDL2, and there are many optimizations to go along with it. Aside from the optimizations, SDL2 is also the stepping stone to ports. We have Linux compiling and playable; it just needs some testing.

Moreover, there is now a(n experimental) multithreading option in the game settings that makes the game even faster!

We also have some new individual tree graphics, and an update to grass ramps as well.

This has been mostly the hard work of Putnam! Meanwhile I've started up on adventure mode - the long work of updating menus and adding audio has begun! Hopefully we'll have some progress to show their soon, as we continue updating fortress mode as well.

- Tarn, the Toady One

This month we have several goals. We're going to start by getting the experimental branch moved over to the main line. The update of the engine from SDL to SDL2 is stable, and there will also be a multithreading option. It's off by default until we get some more testing done on the experimental branch, but the speed gains are significant, so it will be available in the settings as well. The update to SDL2 was the most important change for ports, so Linux and Mac versions are much closer now.

[h2]Adventure Mode Update[/h2]

Adventure mode work is underway! I have an adventurer running around in the graphical play area. As with fortress mode, the game already exists, but now we need to work through the interface for every possible action and event, as well as creating the sound landscape with our new audio engineers. This will be a long process, but it'll be fun to watch it come together, and we'll be able to update regularly on our progress there now that adventure work has finally begun.

[h2]Fortress Mode Update[/h2]

Over in fortress mode, Putnam's almost ready with a menu to review old reports and announcements and is working on making filterable-sortable lists more consistent. Between the adventure work I should have a chance to look at ammunition issues this month as well. And we've got additional tree and plant graphics coming down the line, as well as graphical improvements to engravings, bookshelves, and more.

-Tarn