The Dwarf Fortress Steam release date has now been made public. The iconic systems-driven city builder’s new Steam edition will debut on December 6, but according to the makers, there will be a number of features that won’t be completely ready at that time and will be added in the weeks and months after the release.
“As we suspected back in February, we won’t be able to squeeze in everything we’d have liked without the potential of a major delay,” developers Tarn and Zach Adams explain in the announcement. The team is currently working on the last few graphics for creatures and buildings, and will have Legends mode prepared for launch.
Here’s the trailer, featuring some of that lovely music the team revealed recently:
However, it’s not 100% clear that Arena mode, Classic Mode, or Steam Workshop integration will be ready by the ship date. The Adams brothers say that if these components do indeed need a bit more time, they’ll be added via patches in the weeks after launch.
Later on, the pair says, the team will hopefully be implementing new plant-specific sprites, as well as custom art for baby animals (rather than scaled-down versions of the adult sprites). Another feature the team is looking at is ports for Mac and Linux – but Bay 12 Games and Kitfox are seeking outside help to do that properly.
The Steam edition of Dwarf Fortress isn’t just a tileset for the legacy ASCII version of the Adams brothers’ game – it has a full graphical user interface with countless enhancements that make it far more accessible and better organised than it’s ever been.
We’ll be ready to strike the earth when Dwarf Fortress arrives next month.