5punk

Can Games Be Art? Dwarf Fortress Says Yes
Well, in a literal sense. PCG posted this yesterday, which is a lovely adventure in Dwarf Fortress, illustrated in a highly accessible style. Lovely on just about every level, including being lovely.

Author: Kieron Gillen
Category: RockPaperShotgun Dwarf-Fortress
Publish Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:26:51 +0000



Well, in a literal sense. PCG posted this yesterday, which is a lovely adventure in Dwarf Fortress, illustrated in a highly accessible style. Lovely on just about every level, including being lovely.



Read more... - Read comments...

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I kinda fancy playing this, but all I've seen so far scares me into thinking it may turn out to be another minecrack or traincrack.

buzzmong wrote:I kinda fancy playing this, but all I've seen so far scares me into thinking it may turn out to be another minecrack or traincrack.

Yes. It will. And if you do get into it, it'll bring even the gonkTM to its knees if you build a big fort.

Best bet would be to try the earlier bay 12 game Liberal Crime Squad. That'll show you if you can deal with the sense of humour of DF, and also live with little ascii men and women taking over your dreams.

I love the sound of Dwarf Fortress, but ASCII? In this day and age? I just look at it and want to do something else.

If you read the thread with the art in it, someone's posted a link to a graphical overhaul.

That is an awesome story. Grimmie, if your D&D is any less inspiring I will tug on my own testicles.

Sounds great.

And I'm relieved it'll be your testicles being yanked, not mine.

i tried this a week or two ago and had a similar experience to you but gave up earlier, will have to give it another go

The guide that's linked up there isn't great because I don't think it's supported by this version and it's specific to one map. This has been far more useful (although still out of date).

Oh bollocks, I'm going to have to try this again now. But I know I'll just install it, look at the nice intro, get confused, then quit. Having to read instructions is evil.

Dog Pants wrote:The guide that's linked up there isn't great because I don't think it's supported by this version and it's specific to one map. This has been far more useful (although still out of date).

yeah i tried the guide linked at it was pretty much no use to me, so ill give it another bash later after looking at that one

I have 30 angry badgers in my underpants.

I'm not going anywhere near this, or I might die.

Still getting along. Everything I do I have to fuck off to the Wiki and look up, usually over the course of several pages, but I'm making progress. I'm starting to make traps now.

Worth mentioning is the array of words you can use to name your stuff, Pokemon style. My last (failed) expedition translated to The Big Black Shouting Anus.

This game sounds like it has a surprising amount of depth (no pun intended), or is it just a random events generator picking sentences from a list?

Nope, all part of the game. The mugs are stuff I'm crafting from the stone I dig so I can trade it. The cockroaches hang around in my fortress, but the cats (who you either bring with you or come in with immigrants) kill them and leave them places. Now I've a refuse room any dwarves set with cleaning as a task will pick them up and chuck them away.

There are dozens of jobs for them to do, many types of stone and wood, different foods to cook, beer to make, animals to train, soldiers to train, traps to build. And looking at the story that started it all, some pretty gruesome monsters to fuck your fortress right up.

im finally getting there, this games learning curve is like headbutting a brick wall

a stray horse wandered into my fortress, my drawfs have seemingly tamed it, then it appeared one chased it around with a saw for a while

Joose wrote:Its probably a good thing it has such an inaccessible interface. Slap a decent UI on this thing and it would spell the end of human civilization.

I think we need a split thread for Pant's, Joose's and S2B's Dwarven Adventures.