I've been thinking for a while that the creator of Dwarf Fortress should win. Macarthur award. If any nominators read the HN comments, please consider!
Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
121–130 of 139 posts
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I have to install 2 third-party tools and follow 2+ third-party tutorials/guides for a few hours before I can potentially start enjoying the game. Doesn't sound overstated at all...
There are lots of games with some learning curve. When starting with Crusader Kings II, I spent more time reading the game wiki than actually playing the game.
Amen. It's deep, and the UI is complex.
And then there is the regular updates/DLC thing, which often adds whole new, poorly explained features.
Still a lot of fun though. Breath Status: Held for CKIII
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#123I would love to be able to read the Dwarf Fortress source someday. I know Tarn considers Dwarf Fortress to be his life's work, so it would be amazing if he decided to release the source someday -- even if that's 10, 20, 30 years from now.
He's hinted that he could release the sources if the Steam/Itch sales make enough money that he could stop worrying about the stability of his income in the long term. The worry was that if DF got open-sourced and forked, people would give more money to the forked, polished version as opposed to the one version Toady is working on, but he wouldn't mind if he had enough money in the long term.
> He's hinted that he could release the sources if the Steam/Itch sales make enough money that he could stop worrying about the stability of his income in the long term.
The saddest part of Tarn's decision to put the game on Steam is to make enough money to pay off medical bills for his brother.
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I have to install 2 third-party tools and follow 2+ third-party tutorials/guides for a few hours before I can potentially start enjoying the game. Doesn't sound overstated at all...
There are lots of games with some learning curve. When starting with Crusader Kings II, I spent more time reading the game wiki than actually playing the game.
I still don't understand CKII. Believe I had tried noob island last, it seemed comprised of waiting for things then being uncertain whether I'm skipping time too much or too little. I must have invaded a vassal as per tutorial 2-3 times and failing.
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#125Nice to see NoClip getting some love on HN. I'm an unabashed Danny O'Dwyer fan and I think this community would enjoy all of NoClip's work if this is your first taste. His docs cover quite a few behind the scenes stories that I feel all us startup / programmer folks can relate to. His work captures the heart of what it means to be a creator. My dream is that one day he makes a doc about the community around Vim. It'l…
NoClip is fantastic; I also really enjoyed the Rocket League[1] and Half-Life[2] documentaries. Danny just seems like a genuinely nice guy who just loves to tell the stories behind these games, it's awesome to see the success he's had with NoClip.
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was surprised how fast the (frequently inconsistent) keyboard commands just get into your fingers, where you don't think about it anymore. Similarly for the graphics, and that applies to games in general. You really stop noticing the graphics around ~30mins into a session, because you're running this asynchronous simulation in your head that only needs minimal information to update. That might be a reason why we re…
Dwarf fortress are an example I used to bring up in some discussions on UI UX. You are just far more productive with a keyboard, especially once the commands are in muscle memory.
I think it's a really important consideration of design that gets forgotten about in the name of "useability" and "discoverability". With a little practice a consistent keyboard interface is very fast. _Nobody_ is fast with a mouse.
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#127I played DF for a while and seems to me that its main usability problem is not text graphics, but general bad UI design. It can be used as a cautionary example of why action-object (instead of object-action) approach and many-modes lead to bad usability.
Interesting. So it's better to have a character interact with the object and then br presented with action options?
I've been trying to learn game design.
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#128Nice to see NoClip getting some love on HN. I'm an unabashed Danny O'Dwyer fan and I think this community would enjoy all of NoClip's work if this is your first taste. His docs cover quite a few behind the scenes stories that I feel all us startup / programmer folks can relate to. His work captures the heart of what it means to be a creator. My dream is that one day he makes a doc about the community around Vim. It'l…
I went into the Astroneer doc without knowing much about the same or the circumstances of how the game was completed. It hit me really hard...
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#129They are adding graphics to the game! And it will be on Steam. It's exciting to see where they are taking it.
That's great but I wish the creator'd do something about death by FPS. Which is arguably how I end up all the time. I like to build big complex fortresses with a lot of industry and a lot of mining. And oftentimes I end up with a lot of animals to produce meat, leather and bones (had a very promising Draltha industry at one point). It's quite disheartening to put time in a fortress and "die" by FPS just because you a…
I've started enjoying the game a lot more when I lowered my population limit (like to 10-15) and started playing smaller forts. Makes FPS death much less of a problem and means I can actually take care of my dwarves instead of rushing to keep up with population growth. Not breaching the caverns also helps a _lot_ with FPS.
Re: Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains Its Complexity and Origins [video]
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the joke went flying over your head. Edit: It is a Matrix reference, where Neo asks Tank if he can understand what is going on by just looking at the green characters whizzing in the screen. He answers "You get used to it after a while. ... For example, I see blondes, brunettes, redheads ... " Edit 2: I guess I remembered it wrong, it was Cypher!
Small nitpick, it was Cipher, not Tank.
Smaller nitpick, it was Cypher.