At least he’s pretty based for someone in the niche of nerdy ass games. He said BLM during the 2020 protests and during the Palestinian protests in ‘21 he said Free Palestine, that US was backing an apartheid, and gave a bunch of resources to donate to Palestinians. Good guy and you should purchase his game because it’s pretty cool.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html
Even if he wasn’t politically on my side, I’d have bought it day one because it’s genuine art. Two brothers devoting their entire lives to one project, almost 20 years so far with no end in sight, that’s always been free and completely moddable. They pretty much singlehandedly created a genre while making the most detailed simulation in any game. Dwarf Fortress is the gold standard of passion projects and indie development.
That article says he was living off of like $30-$50k a year in 2011 but his Patreon alone is bringing in over $10k per month. Fuck I’m so happy for them!
https://www.patreon.com/bay12games
Edit from the FAQ
Why is Dwarf Fortress on Steam and itch.io now?
Dwarf Fortress is going premium because we want more people to encounter the game, grow the community, and some of the creator’s close family members have developed serious health issues within the past 6 months, and money to support them is tight. As it’s a sensitive and difficult matter, please respect Tarn and Zach’s privacy about this, but keep some well wishes in your hearts for them.❤️
American “healthcare” system robbing them :guts-rage:
Also, the aristocrats in the game are parasites who basically add nothing of value to the dwarven settlements but just make unreasonable demands and punish people for failing to meet them.
I remember making elaborate death traps that would kill and hide the aristocrats bodies.
No, you literally had to lol. They’d activate the capitalist economy and ruin your fucking fortress, dwarves would become homeless because they suddenly couldn’t afford their homes, they’d drag money around and waste hours counting it. It was basically earthbound 3 :pigmask-off:
You can make them an enormous dining hall and flood it. Or make their entire bedroom be supported by a single pillar that falls at the push of a lever. Or just make them cross a hallway with a minecart full of spears that’s heading straight down at full speed. “Stupid dorf machines” as I think the community calls them are bounded only by your creativity.
He also made liberal crime squad which is a hilarious Symbionese Liberation Army simulator where you kidnap and brainwash conservatives and get in shootouts with the cops and CIA. It’s good fun!
I’ve always wanted to play but never had the time to learn! Any tips you could pass over?
Man it’s been a while. I sunk quite a few hours into LCS. There was a fan-update with Toady’s blessing as well, I don’t remember if I played that.
Some tips:
- The controls are easier than you might think at first, just press the buttons
- Losing is fun, you will die while trying to crawl away from a Conservative hotel manager with a surprise pistol
- Recruiting Hippies and letting them sell art and music is an extremely easy way to get some income, just don’t do crimes from where they stay (also guitars + high Heart are decent weapons)
- Your organization is a pyramid scheme: level up, recruit people, level them up, let them recruit people. You can get some extra people in with brainwashing and seduction. For the sake of micromanagement, keep it slim.
- In combat, always get the first strike in
- Have somebody check the news, the most important job in the liberal commune
- There are no police raids while the police station is shut down!
- Going to prison for like 30 years or so (or just playing that long) will give you some fun easter eggs
- Do not alienate the masses
I always like to get a sleeper agent in the police force as soon as possible. A sleeper agent will give you advance warning of raids and can steal weapons for you and stuff so their very useful. Using and leveling disguises can allow you to infiltrate some incredibly sensitive places and it’s pretty easy to get uniforms.
finally if gun laws are max conservative you can legally install an anti aircraft gun at your hideout to shoot down the national guard’s bombers. It’s like 4x more expensive otherwise
In addition to his support for Palestine and BLM, someone on the forums tried to get him to condemn the Russian invasion and he basically said that it’s not as black and white as previous issues and he doesn’t think he would be able to bring much attention anyway, given its mainstream penetration. Obviously a thoughtful guy. I want to try to get him to read Marx for the economic update.
the economic update
I like that his original economic simulation was deep enough that it fucked the game up for completely Marxist reasons (over time Dwarves wouldn’t get paid enough to afford their own apartments, among a host of other problems) and he cut it out of the game because it wasn’t fun, making the Dwarves some kind of centrally planned AnCom society with a nobility.
Also if you need any more convincing to buy this game. At the moment of speaking the game sits at 98% positive reviews with 2943 reviews.
