For the first time in history, a non-Adams brother is now working on Dwarf Fortress code
Also, an update now lets you swap back to ASCII
Legendarily complicated (and just generally legendary) colony sim Dwarf Fortress launched on Steam a few weeks ago, bringing sprite graphics, more players and millions of dollars for developers Bay 12 games. Brothers Tarn and Zach Adams have spent the past 16 years relying on donations, so actually selling their game has now allowed to expand their team and hire someone from their community to help with the programming. They say "Putnam" will be the first non-Adam to ever see the code behind the curtain. Cue the Indiana Jones face-melting gif.
An update yesterday also added Steam trading cards, as well as giving you the option to flick between classic and premium graphics.
Here's the update page, where they also mention they're hiring content creator "SalfordSal" to help manage their community and do some streaming. It's not a huge update, but I can see people getting a kick out of peeking at the impenetrable ASCII versions of their fortresses. There are some bug fixes and minor graphics updates, too.
Caelyn Ellis hailed the game's newfound accessibility in her Dwarf Fortress review, though still found herself spending half her time on the Wiki:
"Survival is easy; the challenge is in achieving prosperity. I’m still a long way from getting there, but I’m excited to try. I’m still spending half my time reading the wiki, but it’s because I want to learn all the ins and outs of the game’s systems, not because I don’t know how to get something as simple as sand anymore."
I've been tempted to start some Dwarven dabbling myself, but from the sounds of it I'm still far too likely to bounce away. My plan is to get my Rimworld-adoring partner into it instead, so I can enjoy listening to her shenanigans without putting in any of the work. If that fails, I can always re-read Nate's Basement Of Curiosity.
You can grab Dwarf Fortress from Steam or Itch.io for £25/$30/€29. If you're not fussed about the graphics, the free version is still free, and will continue to get updates.