For over 20 years, developer Tarn Adams has been working together with his brother Zach on Dwarf Fortress, a complex strategy simulation with thousands of excellent reviews on Steam. In an interview, the developer recently revealed which games occupy his own time.
What kind of developer is he? Tarn Adams is the co-creator of Dwarf Fortress, a simulation in which players build their own dwarf civilization. However, the game is so deep and complex that it leads to completely absurd events:
- In 2015, there was a mysterious cat plague after the developers introduced taverns to the game. House cats wandered into the bars, collected spilled alcohol on their paws, and became drunk as they licked their paws.
- On Steam, players continuously report their wild experiences, such as axe-wielding nine-year-olds, ghost babies, and an 80-year-old beast slayer.
- Occasionally, the developers are even afraid of their own creation, especially when aquifers can wipe out entire fortresses with a single pickaxe strike.
After Dwarf Fortress managed for more than 15 years without proper graphics, a Steam version with (comparatively) nice pixel graphics was released in 2022. Since then, Tarn Adams has been spending his time supporting the game and working on new additions.
In an interview with PC Gamer, he revealed what he plays in his spare time.
Winter is Factorio Time
What does the creator of Dwarf Fortress play? Unsurprisingly, the developer has a weakness for simulations. Recently, he has been especially taken by terraforming games like The Planet Crafter and Terraformental. Dwarf Fortress just doesn’t offer that “sci-fi thing,” according to Adams.
However, he has spent the most hours in Factorio, where players build increasingly automated factories.
Adams tells PC Gamer he has spent 1,454.5 hours in the game, which he says is quite dangerous. The game is essentially about building a rocket to escape the planet. But the developer thinks: Why stop? You can also get the “Space Age” expansion and complete that. And then there are the mods.
Why should you stop at 5 planets or so, we can add 8 more. And that’s exactly what I did. By the end of last year, there were more like 12 or 15 planets or so. That was a lot of fun.
Tarn Adams on PC Gamer
The developer further states that he goes through phases. Winter is Factorio time for him. It started with the death of his father a few years ago. He played Factorio continuously for 25 days, and the following winter, he started playing again.
Do you have similar gaming traditions? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Tarn Adams is not the only well-known fan of Factorio. The German Twitch streamer Trymacs also has a fondness for the simulation, so much so that it has even haunted him to bed in the evenings: A construction game on Steam has been fascinating tens of thousands of players for years – Trymacs explains why it is dangerous
