The brothers Tarn and Zach Adams are in their 40s and have been developing the indie game “Dwarf Fortress” since 2002: The story generator is considered a precursor to modern survival hits like RimWorld and is known for its immense depth of gameplay. But now, after 20 years, the brothers are planning a commercial launch of their passion project on Steam. At some point, being an indie developer living off GoFundMe campaigns has to come to an end. At 50, it just isn’t that cool anymore, the brothers say.
Why is Dwarf Fortress such a unique game? Dwarf Fortress is known for its immense depth of gameplay. The simulation of a fantasy world has been in development for 20 years and the brothers have tried to simulate every detail of their universe as accurately as possible in the game.
Dwarf Fortress tells stories. The brothers say they are not great storytellers, but somehow their game has become something special over the years because they just kept working on it.
Forever and ever, for 20 years, Dwarf Fortress has received more features, becoming more complex and deeper.
The story of the “dead cats” in dwarf pubs from 2015 is legendary:
- Cats roam around in Dwarf Fortress in pubs where dwarves get drunk
- Drunken dwarves often spill beer on the floors of the pubs: The puddles are alcoholic
- Cats, in turn, walk over the beer puddles and their fur soaks up the substance
- Cats regularly clean their fur in Dwarf Fortress by licking it. They absorb substances that stick to their fur this way
All of this is simulated in Dwarf Fortress in the code.
However, due to a bug in the code, the amount of alcohol the cats absorbed during the process was calculated incorrectly. The amount of alcohol was too much for the small bodies of the cats, which died of alcohol poisoning. As a result, the pubs in Dwarf Fortress were once filled with dead cats – not even the developers could tell at first glance what exactly went wrong.
Aside from these little details, Dwarf Fortress practically simulates everything: The game generates gigantic fantasy worlds with hundreds of characters, a backstory, and much more.
After 20 years, the game gets music and graphics – Plans to launch on Steam
What happens now? This Dwarf Fortress has been running for 20 years, but without “real graphics”; the game is actually text-based. Everything is represented in ASCII code.
The brothers say that they decided to forego graphics in the classic sense because development could proceed much faster.
In December 2022, Dwarf Fortress is now set to be released in a “premium” version on Steam, featuring pixel graphics, music, and a range of items to make the mammoth project easier to enjoy.
Fear of becoming ill in the USA without insurance brought about the turnaround
Why is this happening now? As the brothers recount in an interview, their priorities shifted in 2019: Zach was diagnosed with skin cancer. The treatment costs amounted to $10,000, which a health insurance he obtained through his wife covered to a large extent.
But he started to worry: What if that had happened to his brother, Tarn, who is even worse insured than Zach?
Especially at their advanced age, the previous lifestyle just wasn’t sustainable anymore:
It’s just not sustainable, not at our age. You can’t keep running GoFundMes forever until you can’t anymore, and then you die at 50. That’s not cool.
Tarn Adams
Therefore, the two have teamed up with a Canadian publisher and now want to release a “premium” version of their game in the hope of achieving a steady income.
According to their statements, things have been going “incredibly well” so far.
Dwarf Fortress will be released on December 6 on Steam – the classic version is free.
If anyone is interested in playing “something similar” to Dwarf Fortress now, we recommend RimWorld:
