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The Minds Behind Dwarf Fortress

Zach and Tarn Adams spent 11 years in obscurity working on one game. Now it's in the MOMA.

May. 8 2013

Posted by: Drew

In This Episode:

Dwarf Fortress

73 Comments

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headphonehalo

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Edited By headphonehalo

@vuud said:

Too bad this game will never be anywhere near finished.

Let's hope so.

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Dagbiker

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@onarum said:

@scampbell said:

@mikelemmer said:

@flint0 said:

hoe about some fuking GRAPHICS

That's what the usermade tilesets are for. The brothers make the game, the community provide the graphics.

Also the game is extremely power hungry because of the amount of calculations it has to do.

I would be unlikely to really work with 3D graphics. Besides after you've been playing it for a while your mind does the "rendering" for you.

Nah, the game is power hungry because all of the code is single threaded, if it was multi threaded and using the GPU for graphics rendering it would be 100% doable, never going to happen though.

I really don't mind anyway, the user made tilesets are more than enough for me, phoebus's are pretty nice, and DF is the greatest thing ever, can't play with the ascii stuff though...

You are right, but he has found a way to program what he wants and get paid to do it. He hasn't programed multithreading because it wouldnt be fun, or perhaps he has tried several times and couldn't get it to work. I say this with C# open in my second monitor and c++ on my desktop, this is exactly how i program. If I start a project try to get something working and cant, then I get bummed and drop it for a while, so I often focus on things I know I can get working. Things that are relatively easy to integrate such as non windows or hardware functions.

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bgdiner

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Edited By bgdiner

I think I like these video interviews more so than those on the dumptruck.

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Dan_CiTi

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@luck702 said:

I think we need some more Dave Fortress.

...and Blade Runner :(

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Dan_CiTi

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Edited By Dan_CiTi

Very cool game, while it is not something for me (an extreme amount of mechanics and complexity with a large time commitment), it is nice to see the depth of ideas bleed into games like The Elder Scrolls, RDR, and Minecraft just to name a few.

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GasparNolasco

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Must... resist... urge... to download... Dwarf Fortress... again!

Seriously checked their site to see how the development is going, but they didn't add any update since the last time I played :/. Good thing, though -- had they updated I'd probably fall prey to my DF addiction again.

Those merchant drowning floodgates wont build themselves.

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BigD145

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Edited By BigD145

I forgot before, but Tarn made a speech at the EVE Fanfest. It can be found on twitch at http://www.twitch.tv/ccp/b/396300023. Tarn starts about 5 hours 21 minutes in.

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viking_funeral

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Edited By viking_funeral

I love Dwarf Fortress. I love that Dwarf Fortress exists. I love that people like Toady are out there.

EDIT: "And it's not Civ 5"

Thank you! Gah, what a horrible transition from Civ IV.

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CptMorganCA

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It looks like the Youtube version of the interview is only 2 mins long for some reason :O

Has the video player been buggy recently, more specifically the video randomly stopping playback for no reason? I'm running Chrome.

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ectoplasma

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Ha! Those guys know their games ;).

Civ, U7 & U:UW are some of my favorite games ever.

Also: Civ4>Civ5.

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kycinematic

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These dudes are on track to making one of the greatest games ever.

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Scampbell

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Edited By Scampbell

@onarum:

@onarum said:

@scampbell said:

@mikelemmer said:

@flint0 said:

hoe about some fuking GRAPHICS

That's what the usermade tilesets are for. The brothers make the game, the community provide the graphics.

Also the game is extremely power hungry because of the amount of calculations it has to do.

I would be unlikely to really work with 3D graphics. Besides after you've been playing it for a while your mind does the "rendering" for you.

Nah, the game is power hungry because all of the code is single threaded, if it was multi threaded and using the GPU for graphics rendering it would be 100% doable, never going to happen though.

I really don't mind anyway, the user made tilesets are more than enough for me, phoebus's are pretty nice, and DF is the greatest thing ever, can't play with the ascii stuff though...

Right, in retrospect that makes a lot sense for a game that has been in development since 2002.

Like you I've gotten used to a tileset (Mike Mayday's compilation) which means anything else just doesn't do it for me.

Man, all this Dwarf Fortress talk really makes me want to play it.

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RVonE

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@dan_citi said:

@luck702 said:

I think we need some more Dave Fortress.

...and Blade Runner :(

Unfortunately, Dave is no longer with the site.

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Nerolus

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Edited By Nerolus

Man, Zach is a nervous nelly.

Great interview.

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SatelliteOfLove

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Edited By SatelliteOfLove

"We don't care about expanding the audience at all."

Simultaneously, millions of Dogma-chuggers worldwide gasped as one.

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PopBot

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Edited By PopBot

That dude's blue sweatshirt with green pattern... Bay Hay & Feed for life!

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Vyper

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Edited By Vyper

Finding the Dwarf Fortress guys at EVE is a perfect analogy for the games.

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Baal_Sagoth

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Edited By Baal_Sagoth

Excellent interview. Very interesting to get some insight into their development process and unrelated interests. Plus, they just seem like pretty nice and relaxed dudes.

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

I totally forgot about Dave's Dwarf Fortress videos. He needs to do another one of those when he stops by the office.

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scarslasher

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I like the comment he made about the UI.

Adventure mode needs a less confusing UI.

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csl316

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Watching this after the full release in 2022 is fascinating.