After being launched on the platform, a small number of Steam users who lacked knowledge referred to Dwarf Fortress as a “Rimworld imitation”, to such an extent that Rimworld is likely the most prosperous among these games. In titles similar to these, you are tasked with gradually constructing a functional society in a challenging environment and looking after a few independent characters. The game known as Dwarf Fortress has had such a profound impact that it has spawned a whole genre of games.
If you’ve played either game before, you’ll immediately notice the visual similarities. The first thing you do is create a new procedurally-generated world from scratch. From there, you’re given orders to a little bunch of guys, but you don’t directly control them. Instead, you allocate tasks to each character based on their skill levels and according to what you’ve collected from the settlers. The player then lays out certain objects and blueprints, giving orders to create them. It’s literally a top-down perspective of looking at the god of perspective itself, so you are still ultimately in charge of everything that happens.
Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress have vastly distinct tones as games. This disparity stems from the way they each narrate stories.
The game Rimworld has what it refers to as AI Storytellers, which essentially function as game modes that determine the frequency of predetermined events. “Cassandra Classic” consistently sends a wild animal to attack your fortress in the early stages, while “Phoebe Chillax” always provides you with an additional character. “Randy Random” is not entirely random, but rather designed to present unexpected challenges and disrupt the flow of gameplay. It sends something significantly more difficult than usual one day, followed by something much easier the next.
In Dwarf Fortress, you won’t be seeing 100 settlers in your fort anytime soon, which makes your dwarves feel more like disposable settlers. You are tasked with dealing with a much smaller group of colonists, which differentiates itself from Rimworld in several ways, including the animations it has.
Rimworld is a game where you don’t have to strive too hard to become attached to your settlers. As a result, you will always lose a smaller number of characters and scripted events, as combat and managing resources add a mix of strain. However, in Rimworld, the frequent deaths of characters means that the practice of storytelling models high impact, high drama moments in the already often dramatic gameplay of resource management sims and colony games.
The world of Dwarf Fortress is so mind-bogglingly complex that you don’t need help to create moments of dramatic storytelling in the game; the difficulty and frequency of these events depend much more on the world you generate at the beginning of the game than on your attempts to create them. For example, you might start your fortress in a place where a dragon instantly incinerates all of your dwarves, or you might be located too close to a goblin civilization and never be able to get far away. Alternatively, you might experience a goblin siege every winter. These events in Dwarf Fortress are not scripted, but rather occur in a non-linear manner. The game does not have the same storytelling engine as other games.
I usually become very attached to my dwarves, particularly after they survive harrowing events. This means I often honor them by commissioning statues or engraving memorial slabs, and giving them nicknames that reflect their personalities. However, the lack of a gamified storytelling approach means I have to make up my own story.
In comparison to the scripted events of Rimworld, these moments truly feel unpredictable, creating memories that will never be the same for another person. In my playthrough, set in a world with a history of 2000 years, every single one of my dwarves was infected by a ghoulish and contagious affliction that drove them to attack and infect my other dwarves, resulting in the death of everyone in my civilization. Even the two humped camels or other afflicted dwarves were not spared from this virus. Sometimes, it is difficult to keep track of all the infected dwarves, as there are hundreds of them. This makes it even more challenging to prepare for the next gameplay event.
I don’t want to replace them and mourn over them, but there are plenty of dwarves who are vain and don’t want all their deaths to be in vain. I’m driven to keep going in my fortress, even when I’ve lost eighty dwarves to a deadly beast generated procedurally, and even when things get dire.
Rimworld focuses on providing a high-quality video game experience, rather than attempting to simulate an entire world and history. While Dwarf Fortress allows you to command dwarves to attack, Rimworld takes it a step further by allowing you to individually select and place colonists in specific locations. Additionally, combat in Rimworld is much more comprehensive compared to Dwarf Fortress. This greater control over outcomes allows players to fully immerse themselves in the game mechanics, as there are fewer options to overwhelm them. Searching for specific features is also easier in Rimworld, saving players time. Furthermore, Rimworld has a more user-friendly interface, smoothing out the rough edges that Dwarf Fortress may have. Overall, Rimworld excels in certain aspects when compared to Dwarf Fortress.
Created with the intention of unbounded amusement, as opposed to a meticulous plan by the developers, Dwarf Fortress is a game that exists solely due to the fact that the developers were not particularly concerned with the user experience during its creation. Prior to the release on Steam, it was often best enjoyed with the assistance of community modding tools, and its status as a commendable video game appears to be a result of chance. Being a good video game is not one of Dwarf Fortress’ main objectives. It can be seen as a distinct entity in the gaming world.