Rock and… no wait, wrong game. Strike the earth! Better. Since December 6th, the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress has been sending players deep into the mountains of randomly generated, insanely complex calculated lands and is already digging up everything there is to win.
All metrics speak for themselves in the game that inspired RimWorld, Prison Architect, Terraria and countless other building games. The graphical version of Dwarf Fortress is well received, sells well and plays well. Good thing for the developers at Bay 12 Games, who have been working on the original for over 20 years.
Previously, Dwarf Fortress was available for free, but now it comes with a $29 price tag. And apparently many fans were eagerly waiting to finally be able to pay something for it, as the thousands of Steam reviews show after a very short time.
A Reddit post summarizes this curious fact:
link to Reddit content
Everything glows green
The story is not entirely unexpected, as Dwarf Fortress is one of the most influential building games ever. A version that finally adds nice pixel graphics instead of ASCII characters should have been eagerly awaited by many players.
Nevertheless, the success is remarkable:
- Steam top sellers: On release day, Dwarf Fortress was the #1 Steam top seller, which is no mean feat in the competitive holiday season of blockbuster releases like Need for Speed, Call of Duty, and AC Valhalla.
- Extremely high agreement: Fans are buying and rating positively in droves, currently the counter is 97 percent of around 5,000 reviewers.
- Active players: The previous maximum number of simultaneously active hobbyists on Steam is over 22,000. Also a strong number for a niche product with hardcore claims.
In the trailer you can take a look at the newly developed Dwarf Fortress:
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Dwarf Fortress: New trailer confirms upcoming Steam release
Congratulations from the industry
Many studios and individuals whose products they say were influenced by Dwarf Fortress also publicly shared their congratulations. For example, the developers of Terraria:
link to Twitter content
Now it will be exciting to see whether the zenith has already been reached with the release or whether Dwarf Fortress can even go one better. In addition to Steam, the new version of the hardcore building game was also released on Itch.io.
Funny guy confesses:
I play hardcore games to relax
Are you one of the hardcore fans of the title? Did you slip into the genre via RimWorld and Co. and if so, do you plan to play Dwarf Fortress sometime? Feel free to write it in the comments!
