Dwarf Fortress is a cult classic town management sim, first released in 2006 by two brothers who founded Bay 12 Games. Dwarf Fortress is a game about managing a group of dwarves, building their underground stronghold, and making sure the group grows and prospers. The game is set in a procedurally generated world, and focused on emergent game play, dealing with unique situations that arise when the random elements start interacting with each other in unscripted ways. The game was also notoriously difficult. There were a thousand ways the dwarves could die, and if you weren’t managing them all closely they would definitely end up killing themselves. Even simple jobs like fishing in a lake, often ended in your dwarf being eaten by the fish.
The game has been managed and up-dated since that initial release, and has always been a free download. The developers have made a living off donations. Now they are ready to bring their game to steam. The biggest update to this retail version will be new graphics, the game’s GUI previously has just been ASCII style symbols. Which you can still use in the game. The game will also include tons new music that changes with the environments and seasons. Other than that it’s still the same Dwarf Fortress. The devs have stated that this steam launch wont change anything about their maintenance on the game, and they’ll still be updated it into the foreseeable future. There are also have no plans of removing the free standard version.
Dwarf Fortress doesn’t have a set date yet, but estimates are a few months away. The retail version is set to be priced around $19.99.
