Dwarf Fortress

Game Description

Welcome to Dwarf Fortress

The world is hostile place for a lone dwarf. It is filled with hungry monsters looking for a meal, arrogant elves that feel he is not worthy of being spat upon, and terrible plagues of disease that would kill him in a most dreadful manner. If dwarves want to survive, then they need to band together, pool their combined wits as one, tame the land, and get even tougher than everything the universe can throw at them.

Dwarf Fortress is far and away the most minutely-detailed civilization-building game ever devised. Starting with a small band of dwarven survivors, you will create a thriving civilization by mining for precious metals, crafting exquisite goods, establishing complex trade routes with the neighbors, fighting legions of terrifying creatures, and getting completely drunk in the process! Amidst it all is complete freedom to construct your world and develop your civilization in any way that you like.

Starting Out

Dwarf Fortress is a sandbox game right from the very start. Before you can begin digging your tunnels and mining for adamantine ore, you'll first need to create a world for your dwarves to settle in. There are many options for this.

• Procedurally generate a world to your specifications. Set the map size, mineral density, number of civilizations present, monster populations, and so on.
• Decide how many years of history you want to generate at the beginning. This will determine how advanced the existing civilizations will be at the start, among other things.
• Start out with seven dwarves. Determine their names, attributes, starting inventories and known skills.
• Look at a sprawling world with mountains, rivers, lakes, fields and forests.
• Pick a spot on the map where your civilization will be built. Keep in mind what resources and dangers will be present.

Rule Your Empire

Are you familiar with the dwarves of Middle Earth, Warhammer or Faerûn? Dwarf Fortress allows you to recreate those civilizations and a whole lot more with its incredibly flexible empire-building tools.

• All dwarves have unique name, attributes and behavioral patterns.
• Make sure to keep the stills topped off with booze. No dwarf can function without alcohol for very long.
• Cut down trees and use the lumber for a variety of purposes. Build homes, storage centers, barrels, beds, fires and much more.
• Use nearby rivers to catch fish, irrigate crops, provide fresh water, and/or to provide power with a water wheel.
• Dig deep into the earth. Create a subterranean empire and mine for the most valuable metals of all. Just be wary of the horrors that lurk under your feet.
• Set up workshops to manufacture hundreds of tools, weapons, crafts and other goods.
• Converse, trade or wage war on the other sapient races of the world.

So Many Ways to Lose

Your dwarves are going to walk constantly on a knife's edge. Nearly everything in this world is going to want to kill them, while those that don't might still do so by accident. Tread carefully; one wrong decision in Dwarf Fortress could spell the end of dwarven civilization forever!

• Watch battles unfold via a series of detailed textual descriptions.
• Fight against hundreds of enemies, from wild animals on the surface to evil demons in the underworld.
• Make sure most of your dwarves are happy, sheltered, well-fed and healthily drunk, or else you might have a riot on your hands.
• Manage your resources. A lack of food, water and beer is just as deadly to your empire as the most ungodly of creatures can be.
• Keep your tunnels well-maintained. Cave-ins and mining disasters can, do and will happen to a poorly-kept fortress.
• Ensure your fortress doesn't get flooded by water or magma.

Dig Deeper with the Dwarves

It's no exaggeration that Dwarf Fortress is well and truly one of the biggest and most detailed games ever coded. The number of ways you can develop your empire is absolutely mind-boggling, as are the tools needed to do so. You can farm, hunt, gather, mine, dig, craft, trade, research and fight in any combination or order you like.

Dwarf Fortress is so huge, that what you've just read does not even scratch the surface! Not only are there a lot of ways for you to play, but there are even more details programmed in that attempt to simulate the actual physics, biology and chemistry of the world in as realistic a manner as possible.

If you want to see everything this game is capable of delivering, just download it for free right now and prepare to be astounded.

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