Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:18:00 GMT
Finally got around to reading this Gamasutra interview with Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams (the other half being his brother, Zach). It’s a really great read that covers a lot of Dwarf Fortress’s history and pre-history, and also gets into a lot of geeky stuff like pathfinding and fluid dynamics.
But this is the best part:
What’s left to answer is why’d we be so into doing a fantasy game. That’s probably the same as everybody else: Tolkien, D&D, myths, and of course, the movie
Beastmaster. (We like the part where the evil priest is like, “You’ll be sacrificed to ‘The God of AAaa,’” like they didn’t even bother thinking of a name, just powering through on the power of their badassedness.) But there were all kinds of things like that. In the movies, books, the arcade, PC, consoles, we were surrounded by that sort of thing.
Yes, frickin’ Beastmaster! I love that movie! I love you guys!
The image depicts YADFA (Yet Another Dwarf Fortress Anecdote), from DF forum member goldminer:
Its [sic] pretty fun to capture invaders and then devise crazy ways of getting rid of them. My current method happens to be a gold arena over an active volcano with an enraged bronze colossus. Goblins get dumped in through a hole from above.
Every year or so, the dwarves lower the bridge, re-capture the colossus and ‘clean’ the arena for future use. I had to build walls around the arena because too much precious iron was getting thrown into the magma.
Via this DF forum thread.
Posted in Roguelikes, Community, Interviews | Tags TarnAdams | 7 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:15:00 GMT
I don’t usually post about each new DF release, but I wanted to point your attention to creator Tarn Adams’s post with the release. Recently, he’s been adding infrastructure to support religion for all the races, and he wrote a mini-story about one of his encounters at a goblin temple.
It’s not often that Tarn writes in length about his personal experiences within the game, so… I’ll transcribe it here for you, after the jump. It’s pretty awesome.
Read more...
Posted in Roguelikes, Community, Windows, Freeware | Tags TarnAdams | 12 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:07:00 GMT
I love trawling the Dwarf Fortress forums looking for interesting stories. Given the open-ended nature of the game, you never know what kinds of things will come up. Remember the rat that was killed by spinning vomit?
Here’s a real gem, though:
I hit the adamantine pits prematurely and ended up getting my entire fortress slaughtered… except for one lone baby. The baby was extremely sad and slowly crawled its way through the limbs of his dead mother and father and through the carnage of the fortress.
The baby found its way to a pool of water and proceeded to drown itself. The baby comitted suicide.
Part of a thread titled “The most horrible thing you have seen so far.” Dwarven life is not easy, my friends. Oh no.
Posted in Community | Tags TarnAdams | 18 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:28:00 GMT
Dwarf Fortress player sinoth has developed a great utility called “3dwarf” that lets you rip map data from the popular Roguelike, and then view them in 3d. 3dwarf lets you explore the maps via a floating camera, and has various helpful options for viewing the map, like “height map mode,” which colors each layer based on how high it is.
Now if only there was a “dwarf mode” to let you walk through your fortress FPS-style!
(Image Source: Dorten)
Posted in Roguelikes, Community, Mods / Hacks | Tags TarnAdams | 35 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:27:00 GMT
There’s a great podcast discussion with Tarn Adams on GeekNights. Tarn, as you may or may not know, is one half of the Dwarf Fortress team, and its sole programmer. The other half, Zach (also Tarn’s brother), develops stories which Tarn makes work within Dwarf Fortress’s intimidating game engine.
The podcast focuses on Dwarf Fortress, but Tarn touches on a variety of subjects, from his older games to his thoughts on gaming and game design in general. I found it to be pretty fascinating.
And, I gotta say, for a self-described introvert and the developer behind one of the most insanely detailed games ever made, Tarn is very well-spoken and sounds really down-to-earth. Respect!
Posted in Roguelikes, Community, Interviews | Tags TarnAdams | 11 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:18:00 GMT
For those that missed it, Mike Mayday has compiled various Dwarf Fortress graphics tilesets into a single package that includes the latest release of the game. The tilesets are already linked, so all you need to do is download it and run. So far, this is the easiest way to play DF with graphics, and even though it’s not perfect, it looks pretty darn good!
More screenshots: 1 | 2 | 3
Also, via Chris Hildebrandt, some wishful thinking for you.
Posted in Roguelikes, Community | Tags TarnAdams | 33 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:42:00 GMT
Dwarf Fortress PSA #1: “Vomit Kills. The More You Know!“
The Great Toady One (aka Tarn Adams) has released a new version of the game that (hopefully) fixes a lot of the issues from the last release, including the lag caused by the weather.
Toady is a developer I really admire. Not only for his Herculean work ethic and dedication to craft, but because, as far as I can tell, he’s a genuinely nice fellow who lives simply and earnestly. He also takes serious care to listen to his fans. One in a million, this guy:
In any case, yeah, I did run myself a little thin here. I think what I’m going to do is put up at least one crash/lag fix release sometime soonish, then take a week. I’ll still be doing forums and email since I can’t afford to let pages of posts and pages of inbox to pile up. Of course, as for what I’ll do with that time… probably mess around with other game ideas I’ve been sitting on. Sad, but I don’t have to worry about bugs or responsibility with those projects, so it’s like a vacation.
What a frickin’ machine. From this thread.
I definitely urge anyone who gets a kick out of this game to send some bucks over to show your support! I’m sending over $30 today so that I can see what Dwarf Fortress is like in the year 2017.
(Thanks, Nikica!)
Posted in Roguelikes, Windows, Developers, Freeware | Tags TarnAdams | 14 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:59:00 GMT
Version 0.27.169.32a of Dwarf Fortress, or, as I like to call it, “Bob,” has just been released. From the release notes:
Well, it has been a while. That means potential instability, so don’t get too attached to your fortresses at this point. I’ll be doing subsequent releases more often now as I solve problems. In any case, dwarf mode now has a z-axis and you can make fortresses that span several levels. Fluids behave much more reasonably, and you can walk across the world in adventure mode in the local view without having to step off of an artificial edge. And various other lots more stuff.
The z-axis is amazing. As you can see in the screenshot, my newly created human swordsman can peer into the bottom of the lake, as well as spy part of a second story in the building. Shortly after, he climbed some logs onto the second story and then promptly fell back down again, stunning himself. Pretty embarrassing thing to do right in front of the Mayor of the city.
Toribash 3.0 and now this. Pants officially esploded.
Posted in Roguelikes, Windows, Freeware | Tags TarnAdams | 37 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:13:00 GMT
One thing I love about games are the stories within the stories – the ones that are not created by the developers, but by the players and their experiences. Dwarf Fortress is a game that is more or less built around this idea. Zach Adams spins fantastical yarns that his brother Tarn then makes possible within the game’s engine. Excitement, tension, and high drama arise naturally from the player’s choices and their interactions with the game’s ruleset.
Actually, while reading this “Let’s Play” succession game of Dwarf Fortress, even the more mundane events that occurred were interesting to me, because of how they were framed. Like this journal entry, for example:
12th Hematite, 1052: Today one of our apprentice carpenters fell asleep on the bridge and was swept away by a flood, never to be seen again. On the same day, the metalsmith gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Doren Clearingsilvers. Also, mandrills stole several objects we had lying around outside, but nothing important. Just a few bits of clothing and an iron helmet.
Diablo took the Roguelike genre and dumbed it down and gussied it up. It’s a fun game, but there aren’t many compelling stories in there that Blizzard didn’t come up with first.
(Source: GameSetWatch)
Posted in Roguelikes, Community, Developers | Tags TarnAdams | 12 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:37:00 GMT
This month’s issue of Games for Windows has an awesome 3 page article dedicated solely to Dwarf Fortress. YES! I love the layout, too.
Zach, for his part, isn’t all that interested in how it works. “If I didn’t have a brother who could program… I would have taken it upon myself to fill his shoes,” he explains. “But as I do have that brother, I am blessed with the opportunity to make my computer-game dreams a reality.”
Very interesting to read about the dynamic between Tarn and Zach Adams and how they work together to create the Roguelike monster that is Dwarf Fortress.
Scans: Pages 1, Page 2, Page 3
(Special thanks to the DMac for the scans!)
Posted in Roguelikes, Community, Windows, Developers | Tags TarnAdams | 14 comments
