Dwarf Fortress · game

core loop

embark and dig -> designate jobs, stockpiles, and workshops -> dwarves self-assign labors and craft -> needs, emotions, and stress accumulate -> migrants, caravans, sieges, and beasts arrive -> fortress thrives or collapses into the world's legends

design notes

Tarn Adams's stated principles are to break a system into parts, avoid overplanning, and base each model on a real-world analog; he describes the game as a story generator. The fortress is embarked inside a world whose geology and history were already simulated, and the fortress's own events flow back into that history through Legends, so a collapse becomes a record that a later adventurer can visit. Strange moods let an inspired dwarf seize a workshop to make a named artifact and go insane if materials are missing, which turns the production system into a story source. The game was free and donation-funded from 2006; a paid Steam edition with sprite graphics followed in December 2022, still short of a 1.0 version.

relations

30 stored edges

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Designation orders

The player designates digging, chopping, construction, and workshop jobs; dwarves with the matching labor enabled pick them up, and a manager can queue work orders automatically.

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Fluid and gas simulation

Water and magma flow tile by tile with up to seven depth levels per tile, so breaching a river, cavern lake, or magma source floods connected tunnels.

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History chronicle

Legends mode lists historical figures, sites, artifacts, and civilizations with a historical map; fortress deeds and retired adventurers are added, and the archive exports to XML.

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Simulated history generation

World generation builds elevation, rainfall, drainage, temperature, and vegetation layers, then simulates civilizations, sites, and historical figures for a player-chosen number of years before the fortress is embarked.

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Injury body model

Body parts are layered tissues (skin, fat, muscle, bone, nerves) damaged individually in combat; injuries can be permanent and are treated in a hospital with traction benches, casts, sutures, and splints.

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Mood and breakdowns

Emotions add to or subtract from a hidden stress value (-1,000,000 to +1,000,000) with effects from +10,000, +25,000, and +50,000; stressed dwarves throw tantrums, fall into depression, or wander obliviously, prolonged stress leads to insanity, and one breakdown can spread unhappiness.

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Stress accumulation

Emotions from events add to or subtract from a hidden stress value (-1,000,000 to +1,000,000) scaled by facets such as stress vulnerability and bravery; above +10,000, +25,000, and +50,000 dwarves risk tantrums, depression, obliviousness, and insanity, and long-term memories keep adding stress.

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Vertical layers

Z-levels, added in 2007, let the fortress descend level by level through soil and stone to caverns, the magma sea, and the underworld, connected by stairs and ramps.

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