Dwarf Fortress developing team Bay 12 Games (composed of Tarn “Toady One” Adams and his older brother, Zach “ThreeToe” Adams) was interviewed by Patreon as part of the highlight “Creator of the Week”.
One of the most important titles in video games history, Slaves to Armok: God of Blood | Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress (also known simply as Dwarf Fortress) is an ambitious project started by Tarn “Toady One” Adams back in 2002. In a seemingly perpetual alpha state, Dwarf Fortress is a 2D ASCII mix between god game, fortress management, simulation, RPG, and rogue-like. What makes the title so special are the procedurally generated worlds with their own centuries worth of history, mythological creatures, pantheons, and civilizations, all of that happening in real time with advanced and unforgiving 3D physics.
An example of a tile set mod. Source: Ars Technica.
Wanting to keep the game free to anyone interested, Adams decided to open a Patreon page in April 2015 to make donations easier and continue on giving some benefits to backers without making the content of Dwarf Fortress exclusive to a selected few. Their hard work paid off in many ways throughout the years, and earlier this week they won the award of Creator of the Week on Patreon. To help give a better insight on the Adams brothers hard work, the crowdfunding platform did a special interview where they ask how Tarn Adams started programming, why he decided to make Dwarf Fortress available for free, the tribulations of being an indie developer, and even what ocean creature he would be.
The full interview is available on the Patreon Blog. Dwarf Fortress is available for free on Windows PC, Mac, and Linux through Bay 12 Games’ official website.