Dwarf Fortress News

The reworked version of fantasy world sim Dwarf Fortress finally arrives on Steam on December 6th, devs Bay 12 and publisher Kitfox Games have announced. The game’s also coming to Itch.io too. It will introduce pixel art graphics, tutorials, and new music and sound effects into the previously ASCII-only world of dwarven delving. You can watch the release date trailer below to see just how different this version actually is.

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Fantasy construction sim Dwarf Fortress is, by the admission of its designers, difficult to learn and even harder to master. That’s why the game’s Steam version will have its own tutorial. Co-creator Zach Adams has roped in a novice playtester to try the tutorial out, in the form of his wife Annie. Annie bounced off the original, not-so-visually-appealing version of Dwarf Fortress. Yet, says Adams, the tutorial seems to be working to help Annie ease into the game at last.

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Dwarf Fortress has the well-earned title of being one of the most torturous games to learn. There is a lot going on, even after we changed all the ridiculous keyboard commands and replaced the Matrix-like interface with some understandable, and awesome, pixel art. It still needs something. Something to ease the need to head straight to a wiki just to understand what's going on. The answer is the tutorial of course.





To make the tutorial all it can be, we found the ultimate play tester: my wife Annie. There are a lot of base-building games out there now, enough to make Dwarf Fortress easier to get into. She doesn't play any of them. The closest she gets to DF is Overcooked 2. After one failed attempt with the original, the latest version of the tutorial allowed her to get good enough at the game to tunnel under a bog and drown her fortress.









Our aim is to make this level of play achievable by anyone. We want the world to be able to lose this game and have fun doing it.

- Zach

P.S.
A note from Kitfox, our publisher: Very soon, Alexandra will be starting a streaming video series on learning this new version of Dwarf Fortress! Follow along and get ready to stock up on knowledge at our Twitch or YouTube channels.

Hello!

We're continuing along with the art. The last bit we need to update is the buildings. Jacob has put together some amazing workshops. Their color reflects the material they are made from. Here are twelve different workshops made from three different woods:



These workshops were built in a volcano, sadly. Watch the destructive power of lava here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

- Tarn

Hello!

My brother Tarn and I recently returned from PAX West, an entire 30 minute ferry ride across the Puget Sound in Seattle. There we met with the Kitfox community manager, Alexandra, who introduced us to the crowd waiting to see the first ever live demonstration of the new Steam version of Dwarf Fortress! The link to the show can be found here (https://youtu.be/uE-FCtGdwMI), where you can listen and watch as we take a ponderous tour through the new controls and give away the Easter eggs - spoilers!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I would like to thank Alexandra and the many fans who showed up in person to visit with us. Extensive Influencer BlindIRL also came out to meet us. His many Fortresses online are an inspiration, including one that aims to span a thousand years! He and the many other streamers have kept our project afloat for almost 20 years and it soon will be accessible to all.

- Zach


Hi everyone!

It's Alexandra, just wanted to thank everyone who talked to us at PAX and everyone online who watched online. We did not have a booth this year so it might have been hard to find us but hopefully we will be back with one for next con! Now that the game is in a more showable state, we can start making more video updates and hopefully working a lot more with any Dwarf Fortress content creators so stay tuned!



-Alexandra