The Insanity That Is Dwarf Fortress

It has been awhile.

I am utterly fascinated by the game Dwarf Fortress. It is simply the most complex game I have ever seen and  one of the most engrossing. Even months into play I am still learning new things.

What is more fascinating is that the New York Museum of Modern Art has included DF in an exhibit on video games, along with Eve Online, and classics such as Pac Man and Sim City.

EO is also a fascinating choice as both DF and EO have spurred countless stories generated from within the game (the length tales of treacher in the Great War stories from EO are brilliant).

The fact that DF, a game that is as far from eye candy as can be, has inspired such fascinating works of the imagination is the testament to the creators, Tarn and Zach Adams.

Example annotated screenshot.

Some of the more interesting DF stories:

1) Bronzemurdered - obviously inspired by #2, but a nice quick graphical display of all of the FUN! that can occur in DF, and so very very quickly.

Bronzemurdered - a graphical DF tale.

2) Boatmurdered - a succession game (multiple players play for one year of game time each - then pass to the next player). This received a great deal of attention and is a hilarious read (at least up to the Elephant rampage - StarkRavingMad section) and has inspired many other works. 

Winter - 1055:I've started project "Fuck The World", a top secret attempt to funnel magma to the outside. I'll kill those elephants. I'll kill allthose fucking elephants.

 Boatmurdered Wallpaper - the Elephants are Prominent

It also has a nice introduction to the game for the uninitiated.

3) Oilfurnace - a new fortress by the same artist (Tim Denee) who drew Bronzemurdered.

4) Bravemule - a mixed media tale, part screen capture, or even animation using a third party tool (stonesense + DF Hack) - some inspirational drawings, and a few videos at important interludes.

Stonesense view of Bravemule Tower

Stonesense view of Bravemule tunnels

 

This tale is a fascinating next generation graphical novel. The text mixes the game's computer logic + invented dwarf logic for a bizarre and possibly impenetrable commentary. For anyone who has played DF, the in-jokes more than make up for it. 

27th Obsidian 1050

    The arm of Matul Remrit is severed and we dregs are left scattered. The broker is too dead to count for me. I cut off his fingers and he is not faking. I will do what best I can to describe the situation: a sunrise happened since the wooden sword pierced my side. I am with enough dregs to fill a squad. No dwarf reports the strength to move the mule corpse off this cursed wagon but I cannot find my whip to verify these claims. When we split from the brothers, some were run through and dead in the bellies of animals at last correspondence. I do not know if the brothers live. They are not coming for us, and I hear the wolves howl.

The poem "Ode to Mittens" - by Exi the Poemhaver is worth the price of admission.

16th Slate 1051

    Oh Mittens how your fur shined

    Oh Mittens how your head purred

    Oh Mittens how your feet landed (when hurled)

    Oh Mittens where have you left

    Oh Mittens do you miss me too

    - "Ode to Mittens" by Exi the Poemhaver

I have to admire someone who has declared the coding of this game their life's work.

If games are not art, they are at least a paintbrush and a canvas.