They Have Been Developing Dwarf Fortress For 20 Years. It Made Them Millionaires In A Few Days

The title Dwarf Fortress from the Canadian studio Kitfox Games, began its journey on Steam at the beginning of December 2022, after two decades of development. Right from the beginning, it was clear that something special was being born here. The creators noted that the game made more in the first 24 hours than they expected to make in the first two months.

After just six days, more than 300,000 copies of the game, which they call a colonization-existence simulator, have been sold. More than half of that on the first day, and since one copy costs €28.99 and the soundtrack another €9.75, you can easily calculate it.

Valve takes a commission of 30 percent, but it's still a decent sum. However, Kitfox Games co-founder Tarn Adams emphasises that it should be budgeted for 20 years and, and if we do so, typical IT salary will be created.

What Dwarf Fortress is all about

Visuals are very important here, and true gaming veterans will surely get an idea if we suggest that the pixel graphics style of the title resembles something between Civilization, Dune and Tunneler. The basic principle of the first-mentioned game is perhaps a little similar.

In Dwarf Fortress, you create your own simulated dwarf fortresses or worlds with generated geometry, in which you experience the rise and fall of entire civilizations, but also the emergence of personalities, creatures or cultures. The tiny inhabitants of your worlds will need help with survival, but also in the fight against enemies, lava, hunger or floods.

An original element in the game is the madness that the dwarves can succumb to. The creators themselves describe it best:

“Dwarf Fortress contains textual descriptions of violence and static 2D images that may end violently. In order for the dwarven fortress to run smoothly, alcohol consumption is essential, as we describe in the text. Dwarves can experience psychological problems, and in extreme cases, they can lead them to the point of ending their own lives or those of others."

You could run the game on a washing machine or a more powerful calculator

It is not difficult to guess that with such a graphic version of the game, no game cannon is needed. Even a dusty computer with a Dual Core processor, 4 GB of RAM and Windows XP in Aunt Agatha's attic will be enough for you.

The game has been in development since around 2003 and basically allows for endless upgrades, while the gameplay is supposed to be just as endless. The reviews are extremely positive and from the comments it seems that most of the reviewers have been playing the game in the original free versions all these years and couldn't wait to buy it and give back to the creators.

Despite the fact that some players have pointed out the outdated controls and unclear instructions, at the time of writing Dwarf Fortress already had almost 13,000 reviews, and overall they are extremely positive. So it was once again confirmed that even the most perfect graphics with ray-tracing will not win over the catchy gameplay.