Game:

Dwarf Fortress (2006)

Duration: 0:00

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6

Dwarf Fortress is a thing of beauty. A more user-friendly version with easy to understand graphics is being developed, but it won't be quite the same. This footage is from the a game I was playing in 2008. A rough guide to what you're looking at:

0:10 the main entrance to the fortress, including an outer defensive wall, barracks and some small wheat fields. There is blood on the floor of the barracks, possibly from a recent attack.

0:34 Bedrooms, throne room and King's bedroom

0:54 one level up from the entrance. To the right is the upper floor of a guard post, designed so that archers can fire invaders from above

1:20 one level below the entrance. The vast majority of the area is storage for all the mined stone. It turns out that a major issue with looking after dwarves is that they like to live underground, which means digging out rooms, which means any up with vast amounts of stone which has to be put somewhere. Ideally this would be put on the surface outside the mine so this space could be used for something more productive, but that would mean having to carry the stone a much longer distance. Also shown are store rooms and, to the top left, the main dining hall.

1:29 larger, fancier bedrooms for the high-ranking dwarves.

1:54 workshops

2:00 bottom left – my first underground farm, this was a major undertaking as it involved draining water from a river which runs through the mountains above this point. A system of grates, levers and floodgates was required in order to introduce water to the cavern without risking flooding the entire fortress or killing the dwarves working on the project.

2:17 storage and refuse areas

2:32 top: tombs, graveyard. Below: prison cells?

2:41 onwards: mines

3:02 interrupted by a human trader

3:45 mountains

3:58 passages built to channel water from a river to the underground farm

4:14 underground part of a river

4:23 above-ground river