Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress (usually shortened to Dwarf Fortress) is a part roguelike, part city-building freeware video game set in a procedurally-generated high fantasy universe in which the player takes control of a group of dwarves and attempts to construct a successful and wealthy mountainhome. Along the way the player must face off with the dangers of their environment, invaders and sieges, vampires and other night creatures, and the occasional rampant megabeast, all while keeping their dwarves happy and their fortress alive. A second game mode, adventurer mode, places the player in the shoes of an adventurer as they wander the world and do battle with various creatures.
Dwarf Fortress is modeled on a complex physics engine and is presented in ASCII graphics. Every world is generated completely from scratch, and historical events and figures are documented and recorded as game lore, including any and all sentient characters. The game is programmed solely by Tarn Adams, with input from his brother Zach Adams. Work began in 2002, the first alpha was released in August 2006, and development is ongoing. Tarn Adams has declared it his life's work, expecting 20 years before it is complete; development is supported solely through donations, and contributors receive either short stories or crayon drawings as thank yous from the developers.
The game has accumulated much praise for its rich content and deep gameplay, and holds a small but devoted fanbase. On the other hand, reviewers have pointed out its extremely steep learning curve, which makes picking up the game especially challenging, and mastering it even more so. As there is no way to expressly win the game, every fortress, no matter how successful, is bound to be destroyed somehow; this has prompted the trademark phrase of the community: "Losing is fun."
Famous quotes containing the words dwarf and/or fortress:
“A dwarf who brings a standard along with him to measure his own size—take my word, is a dwarf in more articles than one.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Man is exceedingly well defended against himself, against being scouted out and besieged by himself, and he is usually able to make out no more of himself than his outer fortifications. The actual fortress is inaccessible to him, even invisible, unless his friends and enemies turn traitor to him and lead him there by secret paths.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)