Just thought I'd share this absolute gem of a game for anyone who hasn't heard of it. I stumbled on it a couple weeks ago while checking out a youtube video of another game. It's programmed entirely by one person, Tarn Adams, which is pretty amazing in and of itself, although his brother helps with the design. He's an independent developer and receives no paycheck, instead allowing people to donate as they see fit, so the game is free to download. The game's been in development for years and is technically still in alpha, but there's an almost bug-free, stable release available at his website.
Dwarf Fortress is a "rogue-like" game that's a builder/sim type, where you generate a huge, detailed world and then embark with 7 starting dwarves to begin digging out your new home. The game is without any real graphics, using only ASCII code for everything, although thankfully several people have made simple graphical tilesets which I'd recommend using. The learning curve of the game will be like a cliff at first, but it's worth it. There's also a couple great tutorials out there I'd recommend checking out. If you download and try it, be sure to get the last stable version,
40d. He's recently released new versions that are still quite buggy.
Dwarf Fortress website:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/Stable version "40d":
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/df_28_181_40d.zipSite with some graphical tilesets:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/The Dwarf Fortress wiki:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Main_PageExcellent video tutorial on the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koZUS2h-Yzc (You can click to the author's youtube channel to find the entire series)
A funny narrated succession style game of DF:
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/The complexity of gameplay is astounding. As you construct your fortress, seasons will pass and you'll attract dwarven immigrants from your homeworld boosting your population. You'll get human, elven, and dwarven trading caravans, kobold thieves and huge goblin sieges, and tons of other wild animals and creatures. You can mine and discover dozens and dozens of various metal ores and gemstones, underground rivers, chasms, magma, etc. Each of your dwarves has their own personality, likes and dislikes. The list goes on and on.
As an example of the type of dynamic gameplay that can emerge, during the chaos of a goblin siege a mother dwarf can lose her infant, floating down a river, where a goblin can snatch it up and take it back to their home, raise it as their own, only to return many years later as part of another goblin siege on
their side. Fun stuff.
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