Dwarf Fortress
2006 · Bay 12 Games · ~100h to finish
Not difficult so much as undocumented — everything that kills you was perfectly legible, in a menu you did not know existed.
The game is the antagonist. Good luck.
Price on Steam
USD · United States · checked 2h ago
The fingerprint
- Punishment drops 1.7 points — you handle this better than most.
- Obscurity drops 1.1 points — you handle this better than most.
- Assist options shave roughly 4.3 points off, if you use them.
These are generic numbers. Calibrate and this whole page re-scores around you.
CalibrateScreenshots
IGDBWhere it bites
SPOILER-SAFE BY DEFAULT- 15% · ~6hStrategy
the first winter you did not plan a food supply for
▲ 17 - 55% · ~40hPunishment
the point where the fortress is too large to hold in your head
▲ 9 - 85% · ~80hPunishment
the reward for digging as deep as the game keeps encouraging you to
▲ 15
Assists & accessibility
0/4 SOURCEDCHALLENGE RELIEF
- Save anywhere [unsourced]
- Difficulty modes [unsourced]Invaders can be switched off entirely at world generation.
VISION
- Scalable UI & text [unsourced]
GUIDANCE
- Replayable tutorials & glossary [unsourced]The 2022 Steam release finally added a tutorial and hoverable tooltips.
Claims marked unsourced have not been checked against a published accessibility review. Nothing here is inferred from genre — where we do not know, we say nothing.
What it is
A colony simulator of extraordinary depth, generating a world with centuries of history, then asking you to run a dwarven fortress inside it. Losing is the expected outcome.
Where to go from here
Argue with these asksNearest fingerprints in the catalogue. The same demands, a different game.
Talk about this game
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The full community — every channel, including the voice ones.
Game metadata and images provided by IGDB. Cover art and screenshots remain the property of their publishers.
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