During PC Gamer’s most recent event, Dwarf Fortress and its ambitious Adventure Mode were shown off. Kitfox Games subsequently dropped their own trailer and I’ve added it below for your viewing pleasure.
In the trailer we’re given a quick tour of the Adventure Mode, and then introduced to the idea that we can retire a Fortress Mode save and then visit that site in the distant future in the new roguelike mode. That is cool if you ask me, which you kind of did by continuing to read my nonsense!
The key detail is that the Adventure Mode that I’m so eager to play is coming in April, 2024. That’s just five months from the time of writing, and that isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things.
What is Dwarf Fortress and its Adventure Mode?
The Adventure Mode in Dwarf Fortress is particularly interesting to me because it’s the roguelike portion of this most storied of games.
Dwarf Fortress is an extremely deep sandbox simulation about dwarves, amongst other things. The game, an ASCII classic, has been in development since forever (it first landed back in 2006), under the guidance of Bay 12 Games (Tarn and Zach Adams).
However, the game more recently landed on Steam along with a major visual overhaul back in 2022. Here you can see the Steam launch trailer that was shared by publisher Kitfox Games at the time.
The main offering of the Steam version then and now is the Fortress Mode. This remains the case while the team works to bring the rest of game – Adventure Mode – up to the same level.
Now the developers are starting to pull the various pieces together on their roguelike mode, with tons of new things being added to it. These additions include giving face to even more aspects of the game’s simulated world, but visualising so many complex systems isn’t easy.
What will be in Adventure Mode?
The new mode will build on the structure of the existing ASCII mode, but with a bunch of new features baked in as the devs look to make the game bigger, better, and more accessible.
Maps are going to be overhauled from the top down. The studio promises that it’ll be iterating on sprites until launch, adding detail and richness to the world in the process. There’s also going to be a mini-map for players to consult in-game.
In fact, the whole interface is getting tweaks, although there’ll be a lot of crossover with the Fortress Mode. Players will also be getting procedural portraits, so expect to meet – and maybe recruit – lots of animal people. See below.
Adventure Mode’s most important features
The developers outlined a number of features that are being added to Dwarf Fortress. However, they noted that many of them are going to be difficult to implement due to the level of complexity in the underlying base game. I feel like they made their own bed with that one, though.
Inventory management was highlighted as a tough nut to crack, as are combat and conversations – they’ve got to work out how to visualise how all of these different tiles interact. The studio’s plan also includes updating the character generator, which is very complicated.
Less challenging to implement will be various in-game menus, audio integration, and of course they’ll be making sure you can pet animals whilst out on your adventures. Priorities.
First look at the Adventure Mode
The most recent update details how the team have been hard at work on procedural portraits, which will be added to both Adventure and Fortress modes.
To that end, the screenshot above shows an interaction with a hippoman in a bar, during his potential recruitment to a party. We were also directed to look at the buttons at the bottom of the screen, which show possible interactions and your own portrait.
The second image shows a map, and you can see the level of detail that’s going into making a small town. You can see fields, paths, and a map marker for players to use while exploring.
Finally, the devs shared an update on their new Bugtracker. Hit the link to visit Steam and find out more about that and their new merch.
When can we play Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode?
Adventure Mode is already present in the free ASCII version of the game, however, players on Steam are going to have to wait until it’s good and ready.
When will that be? As noted above, the studio has confirmed a release date of April, 2024.
Update: This article has been updated with the latest information shared, including the release date of Adventure Mode.
