Not sure why Dwarf Fortress is on the front page, but I will always upvote.

If you're intimidated by ASCII visuals, consider wishlisting the graphics release, scheduled for Dec 6, 2022: https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/

I'm always fascinated by Dwarf Fortress whenever I cross paths with it, particularly from a technical architecture point of view. How did they architect the history simulation? How do they efficiently update everything on each tick? What is the game loop like?

If anyone has any resources or links to articles, either definitive from the DW developer, or conjecture based on exploration and research, I'd love to learn more about how DF works.

The thing that gets me about Dwarf Fortress is that it's a 64-bit text-mode game.

As a grey-haired developer who got excited about "DOS Extenders" that allowed 32-bit mode, seeing a text-mode game written as a native 64-bit application is bizarrely anachronistic.

I get a similar feeling from text-mode GUI frameworks for Rust, which allow multi-threading and 64-bit but are essentially clones of Borland Turbo Vision, where you had to be mindful to keep lists smaller than 64KB: https://github.com/gyscos/cursive

One of the things I love is that you can generate a world, play a fortress, eventually lose (it's fun!™) and then start another fortress in the same world, and your new fortress will have references to your old one - in the carvings, legends, etc.

Frontend UX developer perspective on DF: The ascii interface is actually fine and mostly a superficial complaint. The real problem is just how hard the many interfaces are to navigate and learn, and how unconventional their designs are. If I could pick one thing for the UI team to focus on: DF needs a “command palette” to help find/learn all of the game’s many functions.

It's weird to read a line that feels like typical overhyped advertising copy next to a Steam game but that you realize is probably 100% accurate?

Namely "The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created?"

The story of Boatmurdered[0] has given me a good go-to seed for other games with procedural generation. It's well worth the read if you have an afternoon.

[0] https://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/

I really need to get into this. But on the other hand, if I start playing I have a feeling I might not stop.

Has anyone actually played this? Like, really played it. I've tried a couple of times and never got that far. I'm in awe from one perspective, but not entirely sure what of, from another.

I want to get into this, but the randomly generated nature has always been an (irrational?) turn-off. I guess I want more editorial choice in the level design.

I was really keen on the idea of adventure mode, after watching a fantastic lets play of it [0].

But when I got there I didn't really know what to do inside the sandbox.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDX5hmtjqtw

I'm so happy seeing DF reach a larger audience with the Steam release, it's been such a joy to experiment with over the years, and I feel like Zach and Tarn deserve a lot more recognition.

Here's my personal DF tileset - https://github.com/Hezkore/dwarf-fortress-assets

If you're interested in playing a new game in this genre, I've been developing a city builder game over the last year, heavily inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Rim World, Cities: Skylines, Sim City, etc.

My game will have more granular demand (not just vague "you need more commercial zones"). The player will see the interior of buildings and will be able to watch their sims live their lives.

Im working on getting version 0.2 release by Q1 2023. The game is isometric now! Working on releasing a new vlog to show it off.

I developed a new path finding algorithm to build big cities. Here's an old version of the game path finding 1,000,000 units to their own unique destinations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0HCnQqF5K4

Subreddit:

https://reddit.com/r/Archapolis

What is more spectacular than even the Dwarf Fortress itself (and it is), are the C++ reverse-engineering tools developed in Common Lisp back in 2010-s. DFHack and Dwarf Therapist were rebased on top of them.