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Dwarf Fortress Creator Explains its Complexity & Origins | Noclip Interview

/noclip · interview · Watch on YouTube

Game designIndie game developmentTech pioneers & interviews

What it is

A /noclip interview with Tarn Adams of Bay 12 Games about Dwarf Fortress: where the ASCII simulation came from, how it works, and the plans for its Steam release. It includes his telling of the famous bug in which cats were poisoned by alcohol.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN points to it whenever Dwarf Fortress comes up, mainly for the alcohol-poisoned cats bug story and a developer's view of the game's depth.

  • 6 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2022

What HN commenters said

  1. “The obligatory greatest bug report ever. Dwarf Fortress developer gets in depth about it. So great.”

    Developer details the legendary cat bug and the game's complexity.

    overcast, 2021-09 · Strong recommendation · in “2006: Dwarf Fortress”

  2. “This interview with Tarn Adams (one of the creators of dwarf fortress) is amazing”

    Shows the depth and pace of Dwarf Fortress development.

    zer01, 2022-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Dwarf Fortress’ big makeover will be out on Steam in December”

  3. “I was fascinated with this interview of one of the dwarf fortress developers”

    Dwarf Fortress dev tells the alcohol-poisoned cats story.

    christkv, 2020-09 · Recommendation · in “Sid Meier: “I don’t think I could make Civilisation today””

  4. “You may find this NoClip interview interesting”

    High-level, game-design-focused interview rather than technical.

    tempest_, 2022-01 · Recommendation · in “How Dwarf Fortress is built”

  5. “I'd also recommend watching this interview NOCLIP recently did with Tarn”

    Tarn discusses the Steam release.

    ingenieros, 2022-11 · Recommendation · in “Dwarf Fortress Steam Edition – Release Date Trailer [video]”

  6. “Here's a video telling a very famous story about tracking down a bug that involved alcoholic cats”

    Famous story of tracking down the alcoholic cats bug.

    jonchurch_, 2022-11 · Recommendation · in “Dwarf Fortress – randomly generated, persistent fantasy world”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: dwarf fortress, tarn adams, game design, simulation, bug stories

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