Dwarf Fortress from Bay 12 Games and Kitfox Games just had a big tech upgrade, and it sounds like their Native Linux release is coming quite soon.
In a recent announcement on Steam they mentioned the game has now been upgraded from the ancient SDL to SDL 2, along with many optimisations. SDL 2 being a good "stepping stone to ports" and they have "Linux compiling and playable; it just needs some testing" — so we're getting close.
Not only that they've also added in experimental multithreading to make the game faster and smoother. Additionally some new tree graphics and grass ramps were added as well. While all this is going on they're also working on the adventure mode, the "long work" of updating various menus and adding in more audio has begun.
Game Features:
- Not just generated geometry -- a whole simulated world. Generated rise and fall of civilizations, personalities, creatures, cultures, etc. Infinite hours of gameplay.
- Now with beautiful pixel graphics!
- Learn the basics with in-game tutorials.
- A lifetime “living” project - created/updated since 2003, with no end in sight.
- Generate your unique world and manage a bustling colony of dwarves, even as they probably mine towards their eventual demise.
- A new endless hobby, just for you!
Overall the Steam release has gone well for them, as they made over $7 million in January. Sales fall off pretty rapidly though but according to their June 2023 report they're still seeing around 200-300 sales per day. Considering how much they've made this year, they'll be able to work on it for a very very long time.
You can buy Dwarf Fortress on Steam. It currently has an Overwhelmingly Positive user rating from over 19,000 players.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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20 comments
For the glory of Boatmurdered! 
Seriously, though, I can't believe that Dwarf Fortress is 20 years old already!
Hopefully it will continue to be a well-deserved success - can't wait to see the Steam Linux release add to that.
Seriously, though, I can't believe that Dwarf Fortress is 20 years old already!
Hopefully it will continue to be a well-deserved success - can't wait to see the Steam Linux release add to that.
4 Likes, Who?
If there's any dev I actually believe when they say "Linux support is coming, we're working on it", it's Bay12.
6 Likes, Who?
When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
4 Likes, Who?
When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
Up until January 2021, you could play it natively for free. But they've been Windows-only since, presumably focussing on their Steam release and graphics upgrade. I'm amazed that they've landed $7M. Superb.
I mean, it's also Platinum in Proton, so I don't really get the reticence, but whatever - I used to be the same, but since the Steam Deck, I don't have the energy for "no tux" anymore.
1 Likes, Who?
I mean, it's also Platinum in Proton, so I don't really get the reticence, but whatever - I used to be the same, but since the Steam Deck, I don't have the energy for "no tux" anymore.Oh my god, the Steam Deck has been draining his energy! So they're vampiric. Knew they were too good to be true!
8 Likes, Who?
Philadelphus Jun 29, 2023
Oooh, multithreading! Building megaprojects with lots and lots of dwarfs has always been my main interest, and of course that tends to slow the game down when you've got ~200 little simulated dudes running about the place. I should benchmark my in-progress fort with Proton and the native version when it comes out.
2 Likes, Who?
When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
Out of curiosity, why is Proton a bad thing? I recently got my Steam Deck and haven't noticed any major performance dip using it compared to native??? It's a genuine question, I'm new to Linux and I'm trying to learn the basics.
1 Likes, Who?
When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
Out of curiosity, why is Proton a bad thing? I recently got my Steam Deck and haven't noticed any major performance dip using it compared to native??? It's a genuine question, I'm new to Linux and I'm trying to learn the basics.
!https://media.tenor.co/images/c20cb897a883ab6242bbebedfc5df625/raw
Welcome to GOL though!
Last edited by Cyril on 30 June 2023 at 12:44 am UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Oooh, multithreading! Building megaprojects with lots and lots of dwarfs has always been my main interest, and of course that tends to slow the game down when you've got ~200 little simulated dudes running about the place. I should benchmark my in-progress fort with Proton and the native version when it comes out.
Never mind megaprojects, just start breeding chickens!
3 Likes, Who?
When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
Out of curiosity, why is Proton a bad thing? I recently got my Steam Deck and haven't noticed any major performance dip using it compared to native??? It's a genuine question, I'm new to Linux and I'm trying to learn the basics.
There are three common schools of thought:
The first school thinks Proton is bad because it discourages developers from making native Linux ports. Implicit in this argument is that native ports are superior to running windows native games using translation layers like wine and dxvk. Adherents of this school tend to also skew towards being anti DRM and being free software (as espoused by the GNU project / Free software foundation) advocates. When pushed some of them will admit they would prefer the platform remain "pure" even if it means Linux will not be seen as a viable platform by the mainstream.
School two maintains that Proton is good as it establishes Linux as a viable target platform for games. Adherents of this school sometimes argue that as Linux (via the Steam Deck) becomes more popular as a target platform developers will start to produce native ports in order to get better performance. They claim that Proton solves the chicken and egg problem of bootstrapping Linux as a viable gaming platform.
School three doesn't really understand half of these acronyms and religious arguments, they just want to play some games and think that the Steam Deck is great as its focused on producing a platform designed from the ground up to support PC gaming.
These are Gaming variants of religions wars that have very long histories in the UNIX world, for example Linus the pragmatist (school 2) vs Richard Stallman the purist (school 1) vs big business (school 3) that adopted open source and Linux on the server because it just works better than anything else.
Last edited by Nod on 30 June 2023 at 5:19 am UTC
9 Likes, Who?
There are three common schools of thought:This is a brilliant post, and easily the best I've ever seen this explained. I might have to bookmark it for pointing people to in the future, if that's alright with you!
The first school thinks Proton is bad because it discourages developers from making native Linux ports. Implicit in this argument is that native ports are superior to running windows native games using translation layers like wine and dxvk. Adherents of this school tend to also skew towards being anti DRM and being free software (as espoused by the GNU project / Free software foundation) advocates. When pushed some of them will admit they would prefer the platform remain "pure" even if it means Linux will not be seen as a viable platform by the mainstream.
School two maintains that Proton is good as it establishes Linux as a viable target platform for games. Adherents of this school sometimes argue that as Linux (via the Steam Deck) becomes more popular as a target platform developers will start to produce native ports in order to get better performance. They claim that Proton solves the chicken and egg problem of bootstrapping Linux as a viable gaming platform.
School three doesn't really understand half of these acronyms and religious arguments, they just want to play some games and think that the Steam Deck is great as its focused on producing a platform designed from the ground up to support PC gaming.
These are Gaming variants of religions wars that have very long histories in the UNIX world, for example Linus the pragmatist (school 2) vs Richard Stallman the purist (school 1) vs big business (school 3) that adopted open source and Linux on the server because it just works better than anything else.
I've sometimes found that Schools 2 and 3 have some overlap - indeed, I'm that way inclined myself (i.e., I think that today's "Let's look at official Proton support." devs may become the future's "Let's look at native support." ones, but in day-to-day practical terms I just want to play video games on my favoured OS and I'm just going to run with whatever works for that).
2 Likes, Who?
There are three common schools of thought:
Well, thanks for trying to be neutral, I guess. :D
... but I'd remove everything about "religous".
My stance for school 3: They just want to play games and don't care how they are running, but that they are running. They don't want to restrain themselves to some 10 to 20% of the Steam catalogue, mostly indies, that are running natively.
2 Likes, Who?
1 Likes, Who?
That's good to hear 
The game is in my wishlist since it was announced on Steam but I won't buy a windows version if a Linux one is coming.
Looking forward to its availability!
The game is in my wishlist since it was announced on Steam but I won't buy a windows version if a Linux one is coming.
Looking forward to its availability!
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Jul 1, 2023
They haven't been Windows-only since. You can literally 'apt install dwarf-fortress' to play it. Pretty sure the only reason they brought it to Steam was to get some funding so they could develop it full time, make it easier to include a bunch of stuff out of the box, and to get more of the 'normies' to play it. I did find it kind of odd they didn't include Linux support initially in the Steam release, not sure of the story behind that. But you can totally still install it (at least under Debian, I haven't checked other distros yet).When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
Up until January 2021, you could play it natively for free. But they've been Windows-only since, presumably focussing on their Steam release and graphics upgrade. I'm amazed that they've landed $7M. Superb.
I mean, it's also Platinum in Proton, so I don't really get the reticence, but whatever - I used to be the same, but since the Steam Deck, I don't have the energy for "no tux" anymore.
0 Likes
They haven't been Windows-only since. You can literally 'apt install dwarf-fortress' to play it. Pretty sure the only reason they brought it to Steam was to get some funding so they could develop it full time, make it easier to include a bunch of stuff out of the box, and to get more of the 'normies' to play it. I did find it kind of odd they didn't include Linux support initially in the Steam release, not sure of the story behind that. But you can totally still install it (at least under Debian, I haven't checked other distros yet).When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
Up until January 2021, you could play it natively for free. But they've been Windows-only since, presumably focussing on their Steam release and graphics upgrade. I'm amazed that they've landed $7M. Superb.
I mean, it's also Platinum in Proton, so I don't really get the reticence, but whatever - I used to be the same, but since the Steam Deck, I don't have the energy for "no tux" anymore.
The version in the Debian repos at least is 0.47 - which is the last version before they went Windows-only.
1 Likes, Who?
I'm planning to get it once it's released. I have too many unplayed games to jump on Early Access at this time.
0 Likes
slaapliedje Jul 1, 2023
Weird, I don't even know of anyone who uses Windows would enjoy the detail of Dwarf Fortress. It feels very much like something who likes to do overly complicated things :P Probably why Minecraft took off like a missile, while dwarf fortress has been relegated to hardcore players. (admittedly I haven't tried to play it past an initial 10m or so.)They haven't been Windows-only since. You can literally 'apt install dwarf-fortress' to play it. Pretty sure the only reason they brought it to Steam was to get some funding so they could develop it full time, make it easier to include a bunch of stuff out of the box, and to get more of the 'normies' to play it. I did find it kind of odd they didn't include Linux support initially in the Steam release, not sure of the story behind that. But you can totally still install it (at least under Debian, I haven't checked other distros yet).When it does release, I'll buy it.
I'm just glad nobody has yet yelled that I should just run it in Proton.
Up until January 2021, you could play it natively for free. But they've been Windows-only since, presumably focussing on their Steam release and graphics upgrade. I'm amazed that they've landed $7M. Superb.
I mean, it's also Platinum in Proton, so I don't really get the reticence, but whatever - I used to be the same, but since the Steam Deck, I don't have the energy for "no tux" anymore.
The version in the Debian repos at least is 0.47 - which is the last version before they went Windows-only.
0 Likes
Philadelphus Jul 3, 2023
Weird, I don't even know of anyone who uses Windows would enjoy the detail of Dwarf Fortress. It feels very much like something who likes to do overly complicated things :P Probably why Minecraft took off like a missile, while dwarf fortress has been relegated to hardcore players. (admittedly I haven't tried to play it past an initial 10m or so.)Tarn Adams himself primarily uses Windows, according to the linked interview from 2019.
My main operating system is Windows 10, and I use Mac OS X and Ubuntu for porting.
0 Likes
slaapliedje Jul 3, 2023
Weird. I always assume someone making a game that essentially started out as being ASCII only would be someone who thinks GUIs are for suckers. 😜Weird, I don't even know of anyone who uses Windows would enjoy the detail of Dwarf Fortress. It feels very much like something who likes to do overly complicated things :P Probably why Minecraft took off like a missile, while dwarf fortress has been relegated to hardcore players. (admittedly I haven't tried to play it past an initial 10m or so.)Tarn Adams himself primarily uses Windows, according to the linked interview from 2019.
My main operating system is Windows 10, and I use Mac OS X and Ubuntu for porting.
Ncurses 4 LIFE!
2 Likes, Who?
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