For over 20 years, the two brothers Tarn and Zach Adams have been working on Dwarf Fortress. For a long time, the complex game with simple graphics was available for free. But since December 2022 it can now be purchased on Stream and itch.io. This has made the two brothers millionaires overnight.
Many of you have probably already heard about the most complex game of all time. If you haven’t heard of it yet, we’d like to introduce you to Dwarf Fortress. It is a mixture of dungeon crawler, strategy, base building and economic simulation. Almost every action can have far-reaching consequences, which makes the gameplay very complex. In combination with the simple 2D graphics, which only make do with ASCII characters, the mainstream could not make friends with the title.
Since 2002, the two brothers Tarn and Zach Adams have been working on Dwarf Fortress under the name The Bay 12 Games. The game has been available for free since 2006. On6 December 2022 the game appeared for just under 30 euros on Steam and itch.io). What happened next, even the brothers could not imagine.
Within the first week of release, 300,000 copies were sold. This made the pair of brothers millionaires practically overnight. Tarn Adams expresses in (their own forum) as “Toaday One” his enthusiasm for the incredible support of the community, without which this immense success would not have been possible at all. “We’re winning … and it’s your fault!” he writes.
What to do with the windfall from Dwarf Fortress?
Of course, one might think that after this success with Dwarf Fortress, the brothers would now be living it up. But in fact they will probably have other plans. Already 4 years ago they explained to (PC Gamer) that they will only keep the bare necessities to make ends meet.
It is likely that a good portion will go towards the health insurance of the two Americans. After all, a few years ago Tarn was diagnosed with cancer, which had cost around 10,000 US dollars to remove. Even though the health insurance covered much of it, the brothers realised they could no longer live off Crowd Founding. Instead, they needed a nest egg on the high side. However, they wanted to donate everything that went beyond the necessary living expenses.
You know, there are many people, animals and other things that are in trouble. Children who don’t have school supplies. All kinds of things. It’s like “To hell with the coals “, isn’t it? You just gotta get rid of it, man, that’s how I feel about it. (Tarn Adams).
If you too are looking for a real gaming challenge, you can still download the classic version of Dwarf Fortress( for free). If you want to support the brothers, you can find the spruced up version with improved graphics on (Steam) and (itch.io) . For more indie fun, check out our review of Choo Choo Charles.
