The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#1

Post by pcestrada » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 2:23 PM UTC

The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
nytimes.com

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#2

Post by pohl » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:14 PM UTC

My teenage son - who, raised right, grew up on Nethack - absolutely loves this game, and will occasionally stay up all night and be found still feverishly working on some elaborate construction in the morning. From what I have seen, it is ASCII crack.

edit: I guess it's modified code-page-437 crack:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437

edit again: This article really is a very interesting story behind the development. Even if you don't play, it's worth reading.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#3

Post by LakatosI » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:22 PM UTC

Nice to see such a great game receiving some well deserved exposure.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#4

Post by bcl » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:25 PM UTC

Here's the game's homepage - http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

This looks very cool, and there are versions for Linux/OSX/Win

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#5

Post by mvzink » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:33 PM UTC

Having never been really involved with the Dwarf Fortress community/cult, but having played the game quite a bit, this exposé on the creator is extremely interesting. I always thought it must have taken a certain level of cleverness to build such an impressive simulation, but I honestly didn't think he'd be a Stanford Ph.D. Also, I'm honestly surprised they get that much in donations. It's very well deserved indeed and I'm happy to hear that they do.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#6

Post by exratione » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:40 PM UTC

bcl wrote: post #4

Here's the game's homepage - http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ This looks very cool, and there are versions for Linux/OSX/Win

You're better off with your first experience being the mayday set that uses tiled graphics:

http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.php

Here's the wiki, which has some quickstart guides:

http://df.magmawiki.com/

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#7

Post by klbarry » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:42 PM UTC

Dwarf Fortress is an outstanding game with features not available anywhere else, and I would highly recommend it. The background music, which the creator also composed and performed, is very soothing, as well.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#8

Post by joshklein » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:45 PM UTC

For those of you who are seeing this for the first time and have any love for games like Minecraft, Civilization, etc... please take the time to break through the very steep learning curve to give this game a fair shake. It is truly a work of art.

Please note that the Wiki helps make the game playable: http://df.magmawiki.com/

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#9

Post by joshu » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 4:47 PM UTC

pohl wrote: post #2

My teenage son - who, raised right, grew up on Nethack - absolutely loves this game, and will occasionally stay up all night and be found still feverishly working on some elaborate construction in the morning. From what I have seen, it is ASCII crack. edit: I guess it's modified code-page-437 crack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437 edit again: This article really is a very interesting story behind the devel…

freakishly, the game actually uses opengl to display the grid of character sprites...

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#10

Post by MrFoof » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 5:28 PM UTC

A few things.

First, as mentioned in the article, the Museum of Modern Art in NYC will be featuring Dwarf Fortress as part of its "Talk to Me" exhibit. The exhibit will be open from July 24th through November 7th. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1080

Second, for those looking to get into the game, the two recommended video tutorials are SippyCup's (humorous) http://www.youtube.com/51ppycup, and Captain Duck's (down to business) http://www.youtube.com/user/captnduck#p/a/u/1/yn1iW1QN7_s.

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Tarn has The Fisherman Parable philosophy and I have a tremendous amount of respect for that. Doing what you love, no matter the "sacrifice", above everything else. He's probably the biggest reason why I've been working on the side to try to create my own games, so I can get the heck out of finance and do what I wanted to since I was 6 years old. Until that works out for me, I send a monthly donation to ensure that at least someone can fulfill their dream.