‘Dwarf Fortress’ Steam version arriving “sooner than you might think”

Dwarf Fortress may be getting its Steam release soon following a Tweet from publishers Kitfox Games.

It was announced in 2019 that the famous freeware management simulation game Dwarf Fortress would be getting a paid enhanced release on Steam – as creator Tarn Adams is looking to monetise his popular creation. Adams has partnered with Kitfox Games, developers of Boyfriend Dungeon to handle the business side of development while Adams’ Bay 12 Games work on the enhanced edition.

In response to a fan question about when the Steam version would be released, the Kitfox brand account replied “Sooner than you might think!” Of course, this still does not provide a concrete release timeline. The Steam page for Dwarf Fortress has not been updated, with the release date still reading “time is subjective.”

On Tarn Adams’ blog, he shared on August 8 that “…we don’t have a release quite ready” giving a brief update on the game’s development. However, included in his August 22 update is the mention of an “exciting announcement” that he is working on. This announcement relates to the Dwarf Fortress demo that will be shown off at PAX West. As this event is set to take place next week (September 3 – September 6), it stands to reason that this announcement will be arriving soon.

The Steam version of Dwarf Fortress will be replacing the ASCII art with charming tile-based sprites. Also coming with the enhanced edition are a major UI overhaul and mouse support in menus. There will be numerous other general quality-of-life updates added. The PAX demo will likely reveal more about the current state of the game.

In other news, The Callisto Protocol and PUBG Battlegrounds stopped being in a shared universe due to narrative difficulties associated with the link.