Dwarf Fortress
![A world being generated and the years being counted. Each game is played in such generated worlds.](/Images/godic/202502/19/Dwarf_Fortress_world_generation3142.png")
![The game uses text symbols for graphics. For example, a dwarf is a colored smiling face and various other letters represent animals. Here, dwarves and livestock around their wagon of supplies can be seen just after embark.](/Images/godic/202502/19/Dwarf_Fortress_embark_scene3142.png")
![Combat messages being displayed during Adventurer Mode. Each message describes weapons striking specific parts of the combatants' bodies with organs getting pierced or limbs getting severed.](/Images/godic/202502/19/Dwarf_Fortress_adventurer_mode3142.png")
![Tarn Adams in 2013; he has been designing games since high schoolHis older brother, Zach, who helped him with his game projects and Dwarf Fortress](/Images/godic/202502/19/Tarn_Adams3142.jpg")
Dwarf Fortress (officially called Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress) is a part construction and management simulation, part roguelike, indie video game created by Tarn and Zach Adams. Freeware and in development since 2002, its first alpha version was released in 2006 and it received attention for being a two-member project surviving solely on donations. The primary game mode is set in a procedurally generated fantasy world in which the player indirectly controls a group of dwarves, and attempts to construct a successful and wealthy underground fortress. Critics praised its complex, emergent gameplay but had mixed reactions to its difficulty. The game influenced Minecraft and was selected among other games to be featured in the Museum of Modern Art to show the history of video gaming in 2012.