[GameSpot] - Dwarf Fortress Arrives On Steam With Fancy Graphics December 6

[343iBot]

Dwarf Fortress will arrive on Steam this December with fancy representational graphics, brand-new UI, as well as new sound design and music.

For the unfamiliar, Dwarf Fortress is a strategy game with a procedurally generated world. The player takes control of a clan of dwarves seeking to found and expand a mountain home. The landscape and resources are part of the procedural generation, but the level of simulation is truly ambitious. History, poetry, musical forms, unique creatures and monsters are all part of the world and are unique for every playthrough. It has been regularly updated since its original release in 2003. The primary development team consists of two brothers, Tarn and Zach Adams.

An example of Dwarf Fortress's new graphical interface showing... a dwarven fort.

The original version had ASC-II art, meaning art that is entirely made up of keyboard symbols--much like the original Rogue. While tileset mods have existed nearly as long as the game itself, this will be the first official release of the game with sprites, representational graphics, and all the bells and whistles one might expect from a contemporary Steam release. The game will also come packaged with in-game tutorials for the first time. Dwarf Fortress is still updating though, with Bay 12 estimating that they are sitting at around 44% completion after nearly 20 years of development.

According to a Dwarf Fortress roadmap, the game will add more tiles for baby animals and plants, Mac and Linux versions, an Adventure mode, among other changes in the coming weeks, months, and years.

Dwarf Fortress will release on December 6 on Steam and itch.io for $30.

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