Dwarf Fortress is a bit like caviar—not everyone's into it, but the people who are describe their experiences with it like a religious awakening. But the game's legendary co-creator, Tarn Adams, didn't even know it had a big following for many years, as he told PC Gamer's Joshua
Dwarf Fortress is a bit like caviar—not everyone's into it, but the people who are describe their experiences with it like a religious awakening. But the game's legendary co-creator, Tarn Adams, didn't even know it had a big following for many years, as he told PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens in a recent interview at Gamescom 2026... Read more.
Back in 2024, Dwarf Fortress surpassed 800,000 copies sold, more than enough to make co-creators Tarn and Zach Adams millionaires . At the time, they seemed to be taking a low-key approach to the whole mo' money thing, so when our intrepid interviewer Joshua Wolens caught up with
Back in 2024, Dwarf Fortress surpassed 800,000 copies sold, more than enough to make co-creators Tarn and Zach Adams millionaires. At the time, they seemed to be taking a low-key approach to the whole mo' money thing, so when our intrepid interviewer Joshua Wolens caught up with Tarn at the recently-concluded Gamescom, he asked if, in the two years since then, he'd more fully adjusted to his moneybags lifestyle... Read more.
While the legendarily absurd complexity of fantasy simulation in Dwarf Fortress provides countless perils for dwarven health and happiness, the most insidious threat to any mountain hall emerges from within: Nobility. As a fortress flourishes, it inevitably draws the attention of
While the legendarily absurd complexity of fantasy simulation in Dwarf Fortress provides countless perils for dwarven health and happiness, the most insidious threat to any mountain hall emerges from within: Nobility. As a fortress flourishes, it inevitably draws the attention of dwarven nobles who'll needlessly burrow themselves into industries they're not qualified to direct, issuing demands and mandates without any care for whether they're feasible or sustainable for the rest of dwarven society... Read more.
Dwarf Fortress has an endless capacity for telling stories. It's a game built on procedural generation, and any longtime player'll be able to spin up a dozen yarns about some absurd thing that happened to their gaggle of miners... Read more.
Dwarf Fortress has an endless capacity for telling stories. It's a game built on procedural generation, and any longtime player'll be able to spin up a dozen yarns about some absurd thing that happened to their gaggle of miners... Read more.
The game industry is—to use the lightest possible language—in an interesting spot. While videogames are as profitable as ever on paper , we've had a few consecutive years of brutal layoffs and studio closures , as well as all of the knock-on impacts that the advent of generative
Even as it achieved fractal complexity by modeling feline alcohol poisoning, procedural bardic traditions, and delayed-action thermonuclear dragonfire , the creators of Dwarf Fortress—brothers Tarn and Zach Adams—have maintained still loftier ambitions for their legendary fantasy
Even as it achieved fractal complexity by modeling feline alcohol poisoning, procedural bardic traditions, and delayed-action thermonuclear dragonfire, the creators of Dwarf Fortress—brothers Tarn and Zach Adams—have maintained still loftier ambitions for their legendary fantasy sim. In recent years, that effort has been guided by one goal: Creating magic. Procedural, universe-specific magic, interwoven with the unique cosmology and mythology modeled each and every time the player clicks the "create new world" button... Read more.
Hey Urists, We're back and celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dwarf Fortress this week with a special show, Myth & Magic at and music updates and a patch. While Myth & Magic work is very much underway, we also have patch 53.16 today which fixes a bunch of things. We are
Hey Urists,
We're back and celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dwarf Fortress this week with a special show, Myth & Magic at and music updates and a patch. While Myth & Magic work is very much underway, we also have patch 53.16 today which fixes a bunch of things. We are also preparing to go to Gamescom at the end of the month to show a first-look of Myth & Magic gameplay that you'll be able to watch at home! Dabu and Simon also released their latest Dwarf Fortress track today.
But first, we'd like to reveal breathtaking new artwork by Thea Kent for the Myth & Magic update featuring a dwarven wizard, a bunch of wild looking creatures and the God of Blood Armok himself:
Release notes for 53.16:
This patch adds some quality of life features, fixes some bugs, and addresses some issues with the extinct creatures patch. A key cause of overindulging tavern patrons was fixed. Dinosaurs grow more slowly and dinosaur people have their missing attack types. Divine objects are visible, generally, and visiting scholars should stop walking off with your books and scrolls. And many more!
General updates
Fanciful (but existent) creatures like unicorns appear again and have their materials tracked. This also caused some issues with zombies coming back to life (and then dying immediately because of their rotted state.)
Tavern goers will no longer order a drink from every single tavern keeper in the bar and drink them all, causing them to die of acute alcohol poisoning.
Tavern keepers will now refuse orders for drinks if the one ordering it is sufficiently drunk (if their personality allows.)
Dwarves will exercise self-control and not order alcohol from tavern-keepers when drunk (if their personality allows.)
Saves can be sorted by most recently played now.
Ordered potential memorial slab engraving jobs by urgency and added some coloration.
Visitors should no longer steal fortress library books (or other fortress items.)
Disabled "be with family" need until isolated residents have ways to visit, be visited by, or contact distant family.
Added confirmation for changing or clearing hotkey recenter locations.
Added various missing attacks to the extinct creature people.
Changed growth rates for various extinct creatures.
Changed egg size and clutch size for various extinct creatures.
Stopped caravan from bringing food when it wasn't needed due to seed and drink overcounting.
Strengthened effect of unconditional surrender.
Stopped player messengers from being given conflicting diplomacy goals (such as declaring war and making an alliance.)
Stopped dwarves from being trapped in guildhall skill demonstrations when they have unmet social needs.
Strange mood dwarves will no longer make equipment types from outside of their civilization.
Fixed broken xml export for historical negotiation events.
Wilderness creature type number further depends on the size of each region.
Click the bottom stockpile button now goes directly to adding a new stockpile.
Gave recenter information to building destruction and toppling announcements.
Stopped tantruming dwarves and others from targeting farm plots for destruction.
Announcement and report recenter buttons should properly close their menus again.
Added description to top of burrow menu.
Graphics updates
Procedural weapons and armor images appear, and procedural weapons appear when held (worn armor will have to come later.)
Stone short sword should now appear as held item properly.
Made skill blocks of administrator candidates easier to parse.
Improved display of game load/worldgen errors.
Quern and millstone cursors appear properly when placing them.
Displayed cauldrons properly in night troll lairs.
New Song: Myth & Magic
Inspired by the Myth & Magic update, Dabu and Simon Swewer have just released one of two new Dwarf Fortress songs for this year. A song about a dwarven wizard experimenting with the amazing, destructive powers of magic...
We're celebrating the 20th anniversary of classic Dwarf Fortress with a special show. Join Tarn and Zach as they play the first ever build of the game from 2006 and reminisce about the olden days. It’s been a while since they’ve played the build and it’s very unstable so who knows what will happen? They are also hosting the Beyond Quality Awards, recognizing the devs and community members who have contributed throughout the years.
Dwarf Fortress is part of the Kitfox Publisher sale which is running all week. All our games are on sale so now is a great time to get a friend into Dwarf Fortress.
Updated Beginner Tutorial
And if you're new to Dwarf Fortress, we just collabed with BlindiRL to create a new updated version of the beginner tutorial guide. It's a great place to start your learning journey:
Hey Urists! August 8th marks the 20th anniversary of classic Dwarf Fortress and we've put together an exciting show to celebrate the occasion. Join Tarn and Zach as they play the first ever build of the game from 2006 and reminisce about the olden days. It’s been a while since th
Hey Urists!
August 8th marks the 20th anniversary of classic Dwarf Fortress and we've put together an exciting show to celebrate the occasion. Join Tarn and Zach as they play the first ever build of the game from 2006 and reminisce about the olden days. It’s been a while since they’ve played the build and it’s very unstable so who knows what will happen?
We're also excited to reveal the new Myth & Magic update key art AND a brand new song from Dabu and Simon, which is also called Myth & Magic. There’s also going to be special guest appearances throughout the show from other game devs, community members and maybe even a reality tv star or two…
Then, Tarn and Zach will host the first ever, Beyond Quality Awards, honoring those who have made an impact on Dwarf Fortress in the last 20 years. You don’t want to miss it!
From the archives: This feature was originally published in PC Gamer #305 (UK, June 2017) . It appears below as originally written, with only minor changes in formatting and presentation. .. Read more.
From the archives: This feature was originally published in PC Gamer #305 (UK, June 2017). It appears below as originally written, with only minor changes in formatting and presentation... Read more.
Dwarfs versus dinos? Yep, that's now a thing. The deep sim Dwarf Fortress has a big free update out now adding in a whole lot of extinct animals. Read the full article here:
Dwarfs versus dinos? Yep, that's now a thing. The deep sim Dwarf Fortress has a big free update out now adding in a whole lot of extinct animals.
Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/06/dinosaurs-have-arrived-in-the-latest-dwarf-fortress-update/
Hey Urists! The dino update is live now adding 100 extinct creatures to the game. All sprites and portraits are created by Dwarf Fortress artist Guido/Neoriceisgood. We hope you enjoy this update as we continue with development on the Magic update. Here's Tarn with the details: T
Hey Urists!
The dino update is live now adding 100 extinct creatures to the game. All sprites and portraits are created by Dwarf Fortress artist Guido/Neoriceisgood. We hope you enjoy this update as we continue with development on the Magic update. Here's Tarn with the details:
This patch adds a hundred animals that went extinct in the real world. Each of these animals also gets an animal person. You'll need to create a new world to see them. There are five options for the frequency of the extinct animals. You can have them in untamed wilds, small isolated areas, every wilderness, or even domesticated by most civilizations. You can also keep them extinct.
This release also brings a graphical update to existing animal people. You can now see their held equipment and some of their bodywear. This should work in your old saves without a new world.
Patch Notes for 53.15
100 new extinct animals (requires new world.)
100 new animal people based on the extinct animals.
Many of the new animals can be trained for war or hunting.
Keep the new creatures as pets or use them in industry.
Be terrorized by the extinct creatures as elves and others ride them into battle against your fortress.
You can set the frequency of extinct animals, from often domesticated to untamed wilds only to isolated areas to still extinct.
All animal people are shown wearing their equipment and some of their bodywear (works in old world.)
Anniversary Celebration Stream
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Dwarf Fortress, we are hosting a celebratory stream on August 5th. You'll see Tarn and Zach play the original build from 2006, and we'll also be giving out awards to gamedevs and creators who have inspired us over the decades. You won't want to miss it! More details to come, but feel free to follow the Kitfox Twitch channel ahead of time.
Celebrating Dinos!
We received a sample of the gorlak plushie that will be included in the Serenity Forge 20th Anniversary box set. It looks like he's also encountered some dinos of his own kind! You can still pre-order the set which includes the gorlak plush here.
Tarn's cats Gus and Coco are also dressed up for the update!
Enjoy the update, we look forward to seeing how your forts hold up.
No matter how many new sandbox and simulation games come along, Dwarf Fortress remains tough to beat for its sheer level of depth and intricacy. Developer brothers Tarn and Zach Adams of Bay 12 Games continue to build out its world with a relentless vigor, and we're about to face
No matter how many new sandbox and simulation games come along, Dwarf Fortress remains tough to beat for its sheer level of depth and intricacy. Developer brothers Tarn and Zach Adams of Bay 12 Games continue to build out its world with a relentless vigor, and we're about to face a veritable explosion of new creatures. The Dwarf Fortress dino update is pretty self-explanatory, but its sheer scale is impressive, counting 100 "dinos and extinct creatures" across its new roster.
Dinos? In my fortress? Oh no. A big update for Dwarf Fortress has been announced to arrive on June 25th featuring a lot of new content. Read the full article here:
Dinos? In my fortress? Oh no. A big update for Dwarf Fortress has been announced to arrive on June 25th featuring a lot of new content.
Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/06/the-big-dino-update-for-dwarf-fortress-announced-for-june-25/
We're back and excited to announce that the Dino Update will be arriving June 25th! Featuring: 100 dinos and extinct creatures, including baby and dinomen versions Dinos can be used for war, as a pet or as food 5 new settings to adjust how dinos appear in your world Animal people
We're back and excited to announce that the Dino Update will be arriving June 25th!
100 dinos and extinct creatures, including baby and dinomen versions
Dinos can be used for war, as a pet or as food
5 new settings to adjust how dinos appear in your world
Animal people graphical update with held equipment and some bodywear
...and more!
There will be a wide variety of creatures from the Cambrian Explosion all the way to the extinct mammals and birds of the Holocene era. You'll need to create a new world to see the dinos but you should see the animal people update in existing saves. Dinos are totally optional and there will be some new settings so you can adjust how they appear in Create New World.
Here is just a small sample of the sprites, organized by era (Cambrian creatures too small to show up on graphic):
Interview with Dino Artist!
If you'd like to see even more examples, I talked to artist Guido/Neoriceisgood to get the inside scoop on how the team selected and depicted all the dinos:
We're celebrating the 20th anniversary of the original Dwarf Fortress all year and we've got some fun things lined up for this summer (details coming soon). We've also been sending out prize packs for folks who are organizing their own Dwarf Fortress gatherings. If you're interested in running your own event, feel free to fill out this form and we might send you some goodies! The form will only be open for another month.
We'll have more dino info and full patch notes on update launch day! See you then!
Hey Urists, We’ve got another patch/community news hybrid post today! There’s lots on the go right now as we prepare for a packed summer of news and updates. The artists are finishing up dinos and continuing with the art for the Myth and Magic update. You can expect to see the di
Hey Urists,
We’ve got another patch/community news hybrid post today! There’s lots on the go right now as we prepare for a packed summer of news and updates. The artists are finishing up dinos and continuing with the art for the Myth and Magic update. You can expect to see the dinosaur update next and we'll be sharing a release date very soon. Tarn is also in full Wizard-mode but in the meantime, he has a new patch with a focus on diplomacy and bugs:
Release notes for 53.13:
This patch gives messengers more tasks, like the ability to make peace and improve or open trade relations. You can assign messengers in the same menu where you assign other positions like the manager and broker, and you can give them missions from the world screen (button on the lower right.) There are also some optimizations and other fixes.
Diplomacy
Your appointed messengers can now do a variety of diplomatic missions from the world screen. Make peace, declare war, make contact, and improve trade. You can also seek alliances if you have the monarch in your fortress.
Increased the priority of messenger actions.
It's possible to open trade with humans and elves before their usual time if you send a messenger. You can also open trade with multiple civilizations of the same type.
If traders don't make decent profits and you do not engage in negotiations, trade will taper off.
Added confirmation to mission interface.
Changed some colors on mission interface.
Added a dialog line for dwarven traders from other civilizations.
Fixed issue where turning enemies off lead to early caravans (requires resetting difficulty to apply).
General updates
Optimization: zombies don't consider their surrounding until disturbed.
Optimization: throttled creatures trying to repeatedly failing path.
Added announcements for residents and creatures that have begun throttling pathing.
Can view activity details again from the residents list.
Stopped scroll bar from disappearing when closing bins near the bottom of the trade list.
Increased the maximum number of announcements that can be saved.
Prioritized the removal of sparring announcements from the announcement list.
Tries to repair corrupted musical instruments upon load.
Did some exception handing for map saving and loading.
Added the ability to display all logged errors on screen (useful for debugging mods etc).
Tarn and Zach open their Magic: The Gathering cards
In case you missed it, Tarn and Zach just received their copies of the new Secret Lair x Dwarf Fortress collection of Magic: The Gathering cards. They open their packs together and reminisce about ascii Dwarf Fortress and getting into Magic in the 90s. You can still pre-order the cards here.
This year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress. To start, we have a new special logo for the occasion featuring Armok himself, who has never been depicted until now! Credit goes to artist Jacob for the new portrait. You can expect to see more 20th anniversary events throughout the rest of the year. If you’re interested in hosting your own Dwarf Fortress gathering, we’ve opened up a form where you can apply for merch support here.
Hey everyone, We’ve got a jam-packed update today with a big quality of life patch along with a new Tarn Time video with news about Magic (the update), Magic (the cards) and another surprise! You’ll just have to watch and find out…. Patch Notes for 53.12 General updates Added dis
Hey everyone,
We’ve got a jam-packed update today with a big quality of life patch along with a new Tarn Time video with news about Magic (the update), Magic (the cards) and another surprise! You’ll just have to watch and find out….
Added display of accepted petition building projects (guildhalls and temples).
Added standing orders to automatically accept or reject citizen petitions and various residency petitions.
Added standing orders allowing mining designations to globally ignore new warm/damp stone warnings.
Squad disband icon is no longer a red X that looks like it closes the menu.
Disbanding squads now requires confirmation.
Items suffer less damage from age and worn items wear down more slowly.
Traders bring clothes properly sized for all fortress citizens and long-term residents.
Added tooltips showing products and required materials when adding new tasks in workshops.
Changed behavior of bin selection in trade menu. Clicking the bin now selects all items inside as well, and these can be unselected one at a time. Clicking a selected bin unselects all of its contents.
You can now click anywhere on item listings in the trade/barter menus to select the item.
Added a select all button to the move-goods-to-depot menu.
Made squad soldiers remove shoes properly if they conflict with their uniform's boots.
Reordered work order buttons.
Clicking on name of work order or shop text allows number entry.
Made the difficulty setting "priesthood unit count" properly effect temple petitions.
Closing the unit selector no longer also closes menu that opened it.
Made stone use and children's chore scrollbars work properly.
Changed citizens label to residents in unit list to reflect all who are listed.
Show residency vs. citizenship status on unit summary sheet.
Shows the deity being worshipped in meeting hall location info box.
Shows the deity being worshipped in location assignment list.
Shows location type in meeting hall location info box.
Shows location type in location assignment list.
Shows current guildhall existence/petition status when choosing a new guildhall.
Shows current temple existence/petition status when choosing a new temple.
Dwarf Fortress Magic the Gathering cards!
We’re excited to announce that Dwarf Fortress is coming to Magic: The Gathering with a Secret Lair drop on April 27th. The drop includes a set of 5 cards featuring classic ascii art created in collaboration with Tarn and Zach Adams and the amazing artists at Wizards of the Coast! You can sign up for email alerts on the Secret Lair website.
Organize a community gathering
Thank you to everyone who came out to the Dwarf Fortress gathering at PAX East, we hope to make next year’s event bigger and better! Want to host your own Dwarf Fortress meetup and want us to send you some merch? Fill out this form with all your details. https://forms.gle/1MPRqaiU4zv1hL229
Dwarf Fortress music in concert
The Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra presents Ballads of Earth and Ore. This concert has been programmed to highlight a suite of tunes arranged from Dwarf Fortress. "Songs of Zavazsil" is a symphonic adventure into the procedurally generated musical forms found and described in one world of Dwarf Fortress. For more info: https://givebutter.com/WMGSOSP26
That's all for today. We'll have more details about Myth & Magic and the dinos in future updates.
Hey Urists, Alexandra here with with today’s patch and a bunch of community news! We've got an AMA on r/dwarffortress, some support for creating your own Dwarf Fortress gatherings and some cool stuff from the community. But first, patch 53.11 from Tarn: Patch Notes 53.11 Here's a
Hey Urists,
Alexandra here with with today’s patch and a bunch of community news! We've got an AMA on r/dwarffortress, some support for creating your own Dwarf Fortress gatherings and some cool stuff from the community. But first, patch 53.11 from Tarn:
Patch Notes 53.11
Here's another routine patch. Notably, good food should make dwarves happier and they should seek out better food. I've been sick through February so the changes are a bit sparse, but I should be back at things now.
General updates
Made happy food thought levels easier to obtain (more in line with newer food values).
Dwarves seek good meals more aggressively and value better foods over worse ones more precisely.
Stopped dwarves from forgetting friends/grudges they rarely meet after a few years.
Added item dimension check to strange moods to make sure they don't gather e.g. infinite cloth from hospital zones.
Stopped world gen interrogations from sometimes disordering known site records.
Fixed crash issue with error-logging for certain modded languages.
Fixed some potential multithreading stability issues.
Added some crash-proofing to conversations.
Worldgen now aborts instead of quitting the whole game when a raw object is missing.
Fixed issue causing deletion of nemesis records for units.
Made several distance calculations euclidean instead of rectangular.
Fixed issue with temperature check so that certain items (butchery products etc.) respond to temperature properly.
Changed filesystem for certain setups to support UTF-8 strings.
Fixed problem causing party tactical AI settings to be unchangeable.
Fixed display problem for desired metal cages and chains in dungeons.
Fixed problem causing generated creatures to not be immune to their own poisons.
Stopped channeling in the undiggable underworld.
Made choreographers and composers use existing music and poems for their works instead of always making new ones.
Made werebeast types duplicate if necessary rather than creating blobs (only applies if werebeast curse number set higher than 72).
Fixed typo in angel descriptions.
AMA with Kitfox Publishing
Tanya, Tina and I are hosting an AMA on r/dwarffortress on March 9th at 11am ET. Ask us about Dwarf Fortress things, publishing things, anything you’d like! You can submit your questions before the AMA starts here and we'll answer in the same thread. Looking forward to chatting with you all on Monday!
Wanted: Your Siege Screenshots
Most of the screenshots on Steam are from community-made forts and we’d like to get some new ones showing off the siege fortifications. If you’d like to show off your fort (with credit) on the Dwarf Fortress store pages, send us your screenshots to [email protected] and include how you’d like to be credited.
Host your own Dwarf Fortress gathering!
In the past, we’ve hosted a few Dwarf Fortress fan meetups called The Fey Mood Society Gatherings during major events like PAX and Gamescom. Since we can’t always make it to those events, and there’s urists from all over the world, we’d like to support you in hosting your own Fey Mood Gathering. If you have a meetup planned for Dwarf Fortress fans, fill out this form and we might send you a merch package and other Dwarf Fortress goodies to use at your event.
Adventure Mode Vinyl Update
The Adventure Mode vinyls have started shipping! There’s still a few copies in stock so if you'd like to snag the limited edition version with exclusive colours, now is your chance. If you've already pre-ordered keep your eyes out for the mail.
Soundtrack Interview with Dabu and Simon
Speaking of music, Blindirl recently interviewed Dabu and Simon Swewer about the creation of the Dwarf Fortress soundtracks. It covers everything from the musical backgrounds of the composers, how the soundtracks were created and the trials and tribulations along the way. Give it a watch!
We wanted to shoutout phlegm7qmtvs for creating the first tileset mod for the Steam version. This mod transforms the game into a classic retro style inspired by traditional roguelikes like Caves of Qud and DF Classic.
The many wonders of Dwarf Fortress are products of its complexity. The intricate interplay of fantasy simulation systems generate uniquely rich moments: Fortress mayhem can provoke a rash of traumatic baby hauntings , goblin highwaymen can be grabbed and thrashed about by their i
The many wonders of Dwarf Fortress are products of its complexity. The intricate interplay of fantasy simulation systems generate uniquely rich moments: Fortress mayhem can provoke a rash of traumatic baby hauntings, goblin highwaymen can be grabbed and thrashed about by their individual teeth, and—as one Dwarf Fortress player recently discovered—sometimes your soldiers might just burst into flames in a way that requires a panel of experts to diagnose... Read more.
We received a sample of the gorlak plushie that will be included in the Serenity Forge 20th Anniversary box set. It looks like he's also encountered some dinos of his own kind! You can still pre-order the set which includes the gorlak plush 
