A Freeware Game: Dwarf Fortress

Have you ever heard of The Sims? You know, that popular life simulator where you create a family of virtual people to populate your imaginary world. Well take that game and crank up the awesome to 150 and you get Dwarf Fortress. One of the single most intricate and interesting games designed, Dwarf Fortress is a fantasy world generator that is really fun to play, once you get around a lot of its turn-offs.

Basically, the entire premise of Dwarf Fortress is that you lead a small troupe of dwarves in creating a fortress, thus the name Dwarf Fortress. The entire fantasy world is randomly generated and goes through a 1000 year  history simulator before the player even starts a fort. After the random generation process the player can start their very own dwarfish city, and this is where the game gets really fun. You have almost absolute freedom in the construction of your colony. If you want to dig out a gigantic Moria-like mine in the side of a mountain range, go for it. If you want to construct giant Aztec pyramids in the middle of a lake, it is possible. The game truly does combine the best of fantasy, sandbox, real-time strategy, and simulator games to create an unbelievably unique experience.

The game also boasts an incredibly deep and graphic combat simulator as well. Seeing how this is a fantasy world populated by demons and goblins, fighting is usually inevitable. Limbs can bruised, broken, and entirely chopped off. Every single creature has an intricate body full of muscles, bones, and nerves that can be damaged in the most horrifying of ways. It is a delight when you see one of your favorite dwarves break every bone in his body and then die from a goblin arrow through the heart.

However, while Dwarf Fortress may be the pinnacle of gaming, remember that it continues to be in development. It is solely put out by independent developer Bay 12 Games. In fact, the entire development team consists of two people, with help from volunteers.

This fact is perhaps what contributes to some of Dwarf Fortress’ major turn-offs. For one it’s the graphics. If you’ve been looking at the pictures throughout this article and wondering why you’re staring at alphabet soup, it’s because Dwarf Fortress is entirely in ASCII Symbols. ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, which basically means it’s made up of all the standard letters, numbers, and symbols on your keyboard. Dwarf Fortress doesn’t have fancy graphics, but if you’re one those people who can’t stand reading then there are tile sets that replace the symbols with little pictures.

Another big problem with Dwarf Fortress is its massive learning curve. Seriously,  it is a really difficult game to learn. There are so many things that need to be memorized or understood before you even start playing that it will seem daunting to a lot of new players. However, I urge you to try out this wonderful game, because it is quite amazing in its scope and originality.

The Dwarf Fortress Website

The Dwarf Fortress Wiki (Great for new players, not updated for the new version)

The Bay 12 Forums (DF has a vibrant internet subculture, ask questions here)

Dwarf Fortress Tutorials (Not updated for the latest version, but still helpful)

Boatmurdered (The funniest Dwarf Fortress story I have ever read)