Dwarf Fortress is coming to Steam – just as it has been for the past several years. The venerable, intricate fantasy survival simulation game is getting a major graphical overhaul for that Steam release, with no clear indication of how long the wait for launch might take. The end, however, is now in sight. Sort of. Depending on how badly you want to play the revamped Dwarf Fortress this year.
Basically, the devs are debating whether to simply launch the standard Fortress mode as soon as it’s ready, or wait until the visual and other upgrades for Adventure, Legends, and Arena modes are complete before launching the full package all at once. Simply finishing off the final Fortress mode upgrades, “our earliest possible launch date would be in the fall”, the devs say in a new Steam blog.
If the game launched early with just Fortress mode, those other modes would come in later via free updates. It’s likely that additional Steam features, like achievements or Workshop support, could be delayed to a further update in this scenario, too.
“We’ll be pondering this and considering feedback. We’ll eventually get to everything; it’s just a matter of the best order to do things, with a different right answer for different players, frustratingly enough! I’m grateful for how patient people have been in general, especially with everything going on, and thankful for the support we’ve gotten from the community and Kitfox as we try to get this initial release together.”
Dwarf Fortress still has a listed Steam release date of ‘time is relative’, but as the devs note, “the path ahead is now shorter than the path behind”.