Dwarf Fortress News

Dwarf Fortress is a huge success story on Steam. It sold nearly 500,000 copies less than a month after it debuted on the storefront—which, for the record, happened more than 16 years after its initial standalone release—earning its two-man development team more than $7.2 million in revenue. And it's still shifting units: Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams told us during a GDC chat that the total figure has now climbed to roughly 630,000 copies sold on Steam...
Read more.

When I last talked to Tarn and Zach Adams, the brothers and co-creators of Dwarf Fortress were just wrapping their heads around a new reality: becoming millionaires. It's only been three months since then, but when I sat down with the brothers this week at the 2023 Game Developers Conference, I had to know: Were they treating themselves to a little well-earned luxury yet?..
Read more.

Dwarf Fortress has long had babies, but if you're using the recent Steam release and its sprite art, they look like adults. That's going to change soon in what Kitfox call their "cutest update ever", which will add baby sprites for every creature in-game, from aarvarks to dwarves to troglodytes.

Read more

Break out the swaddling blankets, fashion the tiny pickaxes, and roll back the child labour laws: Dwarf Fortress' next update has been announced and it's going to make everyone baby. The prosaically titled "Baby Update" doesn't have a firm release date just yet, but it'll give "every living thing" a distinct baby (and child, if applicable) sprite, from aardvarks to gorlaks. You can see a couple of the new sprites from the official Baby Update Preview (BUP) below...
Read more.

Hey Urists!

It's Alexandra back again for another update from the Dwarf Fortress team! Tarn and Zach will be at GDC and PAX East while the art team have been busy the past month working on baby sprites for dwarves, animals, plants and monsters.

[h2]The Baby Update [/h2]


This might be the cutest update we ever have for Dwarf Fortress. Every living thing will be getting a baby form (and in some cases, child forms). This will make it much easier to identify units and what stage of life they are currently in. We know this is especially important for child dwarves who are currently depicted as adult dwarves with red shirts.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the sprites:





There’s still a few more sprites to do so we don’t have an exact ETA on the baby update but we will know more in the coming weeks! We really appreciate your patience between these updates as Tarn and Zach finish with their post-launch work.

[h2]PAX East Party and Panel[/h2]

We are going to Pax East with Tarn and Zach and if you’re going to be there Friday and Saturday, you won’t want to miss our Dwarf Fortress events!

There are tickets still available for our after party on Friday March 24th. There will be food, drinks and games and you’ll be able to meet all of us!

RSVP on Eventbrite now to avoid disappointment.

Tarn and Zach are hosting a panel about some of their favourite games on Saturday March 25th Learn about the design inspirations that led to the creation of Dwarf Fortress and get the chance to ask the brothers your questions!




For those who are unable to attend Pax East, the panel will also be streamed on https://www.twitch.tv/pax2. We will also make sure to upload the VOD to Youtube when it’s available.

We will see some of you next week so until then!

-Alexandra