Dwarf Fortress abandons text graphics, but not its essence

The transition of the developer from ASCII to two-dimensional graphics is caused not only by the desire to sell more copies - there is also a desire to improve the game and introduce a wider audience to it

The game Dwarf Fortress is difficult to attribute to any category. This is a simulator, and RPG, and rogue-like. A two-dimensional world is automatically created in it, and the player must manage the construction of the fortress and help the dwarves survive in it. In the game there are goblins, gods, puzzles, quests, geese, booze, cats and more - and all these elements interact unpredictably with each other. After one of the updates, the players began to notice that drunk cats were hanging around and periodically vomit. The reason was that taverns appeared in the update, which is why spilled beer that cats used to walk on the streets began to appear. When they later washed themselves, alcohol entered their bodies and they got drunk. So deep is the simulation of this world.

However, players only have to imagine vomiting cats, since Dwarf Fortress is fully displayed in ASCII, resulting in a huge fictional world in which there are no more graphic beauties than in a Word document. There are no more games that would look or be similar in gameplay to this one. But now this situation is changing.

For 15 years in a row, Bay 12 Games handed out Dwarf Fortress for free and developed it thanks to the support of fans through contributions and Patreon. On March 13, Bay 12 Games announced the launch of Dwarf Fortress sales through Steam and Itch.io. Selling a game is not the only radical policy change. The Steam version will abandon the characteristic ASCII graphics in favor of two-dimensional sprites.

The unique style of ASCII graphics determined the appearance of the game for almost two decades. Moving away from a cult appearance will change the game, but perhaps it will change for the better. Developer Tarn Adams (who founded Bay 12 Games with his brother Zach) wants to introduce Dwarf Fortress to a whole new audience. The Adams brothers teamed up with the developer of Kitfox Games (who released Shrouded Isle) and a team of amateur modders to update Dwarf Fortress's graphic style without losing its essence.

In fact, Adams thinks that switching to two-dimensional graphics gives them a unique opportunity to make the game more accessible and fix problems inherited from older versions.

“ASCII was not a completely aesthetic choice, it has its limitations,” Adams told me over the phone.

He says the decision to use ASCII in the game was made by accident. “The Dwarf Fortress project began as an ASCII Mutant Miner game. It was supposed to be such a small and insignificant toy. ”

However, Mutant Miner has evolved. Bay 12 Games added elements to it, tweaked it, and eventually realized that the turn-based ore mining game had turned into a procedurally created strategic real-time simulation. They left the ASCII style because it worked fast. Thanks to this, they did not have to worry about the schedule.

“We released the game in ASCII and continued to work in this style for the same reason - the development went very fast, and we did not know how to draw,” Adams said.

Continuing the development of Dwarf Fortress, the company was faced with the limitations of this choice. The developers have only 128 ASCII characters at their disposal, so the goose, goblin and gremlin use the same letter g. “Even with the use of color, overlays begin to come out,” Adams said. He cited the example of an asterisk, which in Dwarf Fortress is used to denote a turtle, a bonfire and a gem. He said that, as far as he remembers, an asterisk in the game is already used to designate 15 different objects.

Adams understands that, despite the limitations of ASCII, there is something of a cult in this style. He knows that abandoning ASCII will change the game, but wants to preserve its essence.

“In a way, this is not possible,” Adams said. - She has a really unique look. But at the same time, the two people we recruited to create sprites have been in our community for ten years. They are modders. They understand everything and feel the game. ”

Bay 12 Games has teamed up with Kitfox Games. The creative director of the latter, Tanya Short, involved in the development of Dwarf Fortress modders Mike "Madey" Madey and Patrick "Meph" Martin Schroeder, so they drew sprites for the release of the game on Steam. “I really like the dwarf drawn by Mike Mayday,” Adams said. “He has an exhausted look, he is not the happy little gnome of Snow White.” Poor dwarves. They do not know what awaits them. I really like the new direction of development. ”

However, a two-dimensional facelift concerns not only a change in appearance, but also the presentation of the game to more people - simplifying access and correcting old mistakes.

“All accessibility issues are being discussed,” Adams said. “We will look at the interface and structure of the menu, as well as the common problems that players encounter and push them away from the game.”

One of the big problems Adams hopes to handle is topography. Dwarf Fortress allows players to build a fortress with many levels, and in such a world it is difficult to move with ASCII. In the current mode, players move through the layers of the game, and they have to keep in mind the entire fortress. The process is like turning over the pages of a book. With ingenious dimming levels in a two-dimensional graphics, a multi-level fortress is easier to create.

“Before that, with 16 colors, I couldn't do that,” Adams said. - If the lower level is dark green, we don’t have more dark green shades, and it will be superimposed on something dark green at the top. And as a result, the top from the bottom will no longer be distinguished. This is confusing. ”

Adams also pointed out that ASCII style scared away many potential players. People with color blindness and dyslexia had difficulty understanding the game. Dwarf Fortress uses color to distinguish between creatures - g stands for goblin and goose, only with different variations of white. If you do not see the color, you cannot distinguish between them.

Adams really likes the future of Dwarf Fortress, but he knows that some will always be on the side of the ASCII original. “There is a group of ASCII fans who really liked, for example, that the dragon is designated as D, because they can imagine a dragon who has lived in their imagination all their lives,” he said. “Now we have a great looking dragon, but it will have more properties assigned by the artist, not the player.” That is the compromise. ”

However, Bay 12 Games does not abandon the ASCII version of Dwarf Fortress. She plans to continue updating the game using Unicode, and with any copy sold on Steam and Itch.io, the ASCII version will also be included. “Everyone and everyone will be able to perceive Dwarf Fortress as they want it.”