Dwarf Fortress News

Urists Rejoice!

As you may have seen on the PC Gaming Show today, we're announcing that we have a release month for Adventure Mode which will be coming April 2024! Watch the brand new trailer with the first ever footage of Adventure Mode in action:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For those who don’t know, Adventure Mode is the RPG mode of Dwarf Fortress, where you can create a character and freely roam the rich simulated world you have made a home in during your Fortress Mode save or start fresh in a newly generated world.

• Characters in the world will now have a face. A dwarf’s appearance will reflect their description, from wounds to clothing to hairstyle. This is possible thanks to the game’s procedural portrait system based on the beautiful pixel art from Carolyn Jong we’ve been showing off in the art updates. This feature will also be coming to Fortress Mode.
  
  We've already shown off the dwarves and the elves but here is a look at goblins and kobolds:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Thanks to a new interface, Adventure Mode brings rich conversations with characters! This will help you bond with your unique party of adventurers and add weight to the stories they create in your world.
  
  
• Combat in the game will also see a visual and mechanical revamp with updated wrestling mechanics. This will encourage those who may have in the past avoided grappling, to maybe look forward to a tussle. It will also spice up your adventures out in the wild and another exciting layer of engagement with their world. Fight as an individual or control your whole party in tactical mode.
  
  
• The world map while in Adventure Mode will also see a change, with important landmarks such as roads, towns, and homes being much more easily visible.
  

Adventure Mode holds limitless possibilities for player stories: Write a poem and recite it in front of unsuspecting tavern-goers, join the group of hearth warriors of a local village to solve local problems, rob a tomb and become cursed by a mummy. This and so much more!

We also remain busy working on Fortress Mode in parallel to development on Adventure Mode and look forward to sharing an exact date for Adventure Mode when ready. In the meantime we will continue to update you on our progress. As we get closer to launch we will be releasing tutorials and other videos for more gameplay action!

As usual you can discuss the update and follow the news in the Kitfox Discord. We have an Adventure Mode channel, in-depth bug discussions, and it's the fastest way to find out about our Dwarf Fortress livestreams!

-Kitfox + Bay 12 Games

The graphical version of Dwarf Fortress released on Steam this time last year sold half a million copies in a month, a spectacular feat for one of the most complex videogames ever made—especially because that release wasn't even the complete game. While the colony management Fortress mode has always been Dwarf Fortress's main draw, the ASCII version of the game also features Adventure mode, a roguelike that lets you take control of a single character and explore your fortress in the style of a roguelike RPG. In a trailer during today's PC Gaming Show, the Dwarf Fortress team revealed that mode is launching in April with spiffy new graphics and mouse controls...
Read more.

Attention Urists!

Do you think Dwarf Fortress is one of the stand out games this year? Annoyed at how mainstream awards shows look over cool, indie games? Well, now is your chance to make your voice heard because you will be able to nominate Dwarf Fortress for the 2023 Steam Awards!



Nominations are open and we want to amass a large squad of Urists to be ready for when it does. We think Dwarf Fortress would be a great candidate for both Hardest Game You’ve Played and Labour of Love. We support you in whatever category you think fits best (Game of the Year?!?!) but we think these are the ones we have the best chances with!

We we will update again if we pass the nomination stage.

Good luck and happy voting 💪⛏

-Alexandra

Hey Urists,

It’s been a little over a month since our big Adventure Mode Roadmap. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, go ahead and do that here. Since then, we’ve been working on a ton of new procedural portraits for goblins, kobolds and animal people which will be added to both Adventure Mode and Fortress mode. Soon you will be able to stare into the face of every single being you encounter in your fort or, bring them along with you in Adventure Mode. Watching humanoids slowly go insane from sobriety or die of dehydration was never so personal.

Here is one of the first screenshots from the new Adventure Mode, featuring an ambitious hippoman at a tavern. Maybe you can convince him to join you on your party? We also see the Adventure Mode UI coming along with your character’s portrait in the bottom left as well as all the new buttons for the various actions you can do.



Below, we also have a first look at the Adventure Mode world map. As you can see, towns are represented in much more detail including roads, farm plots and homes. The little shield acts as the marker for your party as you move through the map to reach new points of interest.



We will have more to show with Adventure Mode as well as a more accurate release timeframe in a couple of weeks. If you're curious to pore over the little pixel icons and implications, Blind did a little livestream grilling Tarn and Zach over the Adventure Mode details, so check that video out here.

[h2]New Bugtracker[/h2]

We are happy to announce that we have a new bugtracker ready to go! The bug tracker has now migrated to a new domain with the old account system for reporting and commenting. The previous address and email reporting will no longer be used, so please update your bookmarks and follow the new instructions here: https://bit.ly/3R2d9t5

Thank you to everyone for your patience and willingness to help to squash all those pesky bugs!

[h2]New FanGamer Merch + European Store[/h2]



New Dwarf Fortress merch has arrived to FanGamer as well as select items on the FanGamer Europe store. We have the vinyl soundtrack, a journal designed to document your favourite forts, a giant desk mat and a hood with customizable menacing spikes! And European Urists can finally rejoice because you can now pick up the vinyl, journal, desk mat and pin on the European storefront, at least until they sell out:

Wave 2: https://fanga.me/r/dwarf-fortress-wave-2

FanGamer Europe: https://www.fangamer.eu/collections/dwarf-fortress

----------------------

That’s everything we have for this update. Thanks for reading! In a couple weeks will have some very exciting Adventure Mode stuff to show off and a more accurate timeframe for the release!

-Alexandra

P.S.

Our friends at Freeehold Games just released one of the biggest Caves of Qud patches ever yesterday! It’s been a year in the making and features a ton of new content including new boss fights and factions as well as the next leg of the main quest and HUNDREDS of new visual and audio effects, plus improved Steam Deck controls. Now is the best time to pick up Caves of Qud or return to it. You can buy Caves of Qud in Early Access and read more about the update on Steam or watch the trailer.

Kitfox and Bay12 have struck the earth, manufactured a thousand stone blocks, and laid out a roadmap for the Dwarf Fortress Steam edition's Adventure Mode, together with some forthcoming updates for the existing fortress management mode. Adventure Mode, in case you've been living under a rock (which I guess you probably have, if you've been playing Dwarf Fortress), is the open world roguelike RPG element of the game, which lets you roam the enormous realm you've generated and even tour/loot/disturb the unquiet spirits of your own, abandoned fortress. Alas, there's no word on a release date for the Steam edition's Adventure Mode beyond "not this year".

Read more