It’s been a delight to see the graphical version of Dwarf Fortress heading towards release. Things we’d take for granted in most games are little thrills for Dwarf Fortress players: things like cute pixel art and mouse and tab support will make the game easier to play and analyze than its old keyboard-only ASCII interface. Now, wonder of wonders, one of the most intimidating computer games ever made is getting a tutorial. What crazy idea will they think of next?

“Dwarf Fortress rightfully holds the title of being one of the most torturous games to learn,” co-creator Zach Adams wrote last week. Steam Update. “There’s a lot going on, even after we’ve changed all the ridiculous keyboard commands and replaced the Matrix-like interface with some understandable and impressive pixel art. It still needs something. Something to alleviate the need to jump straight to a wiki just to understand what’s going on. The answer is the tutorial, of course.”

Based on screenshots from the Steam post, the tutorial will cover many of the main obstacles for new Dwarf Fortress players: controls, mining basics, creating and assigning stockpiles of goods, and dividing your fortress into zones so you can properly sleep, work, and get grog. Text boxes with some interesting color-coding for important features introduce these concepts and walk you through them.

Coupled with mouse controls and a clear graphical interface, I suspect this tutorial will take a bite out of Dwarf Fortress's reputation for sheer complexity. It's an incredibly deep game, but once you get past the byzantine interface, it's not that hard to get a fortress up and running.

Surviving is another story. The tutorials probably won't teach you how to avoid digging into an aquifer and drowning your entire fortress, or how to protect yourself against your first invasion of bloodthirsty elves, but some lessons are best learned the hard way.

(opens in new tab)

Dwarf Fortress is developed almost entirely by Tarn and Zach Adams, and the new tutorial is still a family affair: It was tested by Zach’s wife, Amy, who isn’t a Dwarf Fortress player. Or wasn’t, until the tutorial. “After a failed attempt with the original, the latest version of the tutorial allowed her to get good enough at the game to dig a tunnel under a swamp and drown her fortress,” Zach wrote. “Our goal is to make this level of play achievable for anyone. We want the world to be able to lose this game and have fun doing it.”

The Steam version of Dwarf Fortress doesn't have a release date yet, but I'm optimistic that we'll be playing it in 2023.