Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress is a fantasy strategy game of building and management for Windows, developed by Tarn Adams of Bay 12 Games. It is ASCII based, which means all graphics are made of text characters (though tilesets are available). It has plausible real time.

It's similar to Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius in the way you create and manage your fortress, but its economy is highly detailed - even more so than in, for example, the Settlers series.

Players typically start out with seven dwarves. They then choose a starting location on a huge, random-generated world map, and customizes the team with a variety of skills and items to bring along. They then dig out a fortress (the default setting allows up to 200 dwarves), complete with Nobles living in lavishly decorated quarters, craftsdwarves toiling in many workshops creating masterpiece items (many of which can be equipped by dwarves), farmers, cooks and brewers working to keep everyone fed, and a large military to fend off any goblin attacks. Dwarves can gain experience in dozens of skills both civilian (among them mining, farming, gem cutting, cooking and brewing) and military.

The game also provides an 'adventurer' mode that allows to explore the world and your fortresses as a hero and his party.

Dwarf Fortress is currently in the "alpha" stage of development, but is generally stable. It already has very deep gameplay, with many features being added in regular updates.

Multiple aspects of the game can be altered due to its alpha nature and an active modding community provides packs of custom creatures and materials.

Game data
See the Wikipedia entry, or the game's website, for more information.

Links

 * Bay 12 Games
 * Dwarf Fortress website and download page
 * Dwarf Fortress Wiki
 * Dwarf Fortress Stories