Source · Primary · interview

Dwarf Fortress' creator on how he's 42% towards simulating existence

Fenlon, Wes and Tarn Adams. 2016. “Dwarf Fortress' creator on how he's 42% towards simulating existence.” PC Gamer.

Cite as
PC Gamer, Tarn Adams interview, 31 March 2016
Original
http://www.pcgamer.com/dwarf-fortress-creator-on-how-hes-42-towards-simulating-existence/3/
sha256
92c34d493c8e09c8c731ad0fabb7ba0793cd24b70ca856e5140bb25454c5594e
Archived
https://web.archive.org/web/20160923190216/http://www.pcgamer.com/dwarf-fortress-creator-on-how-hes-42-towards-simulating-existence/3/
Accessed
2026-10-26
Licence
© Future plc; Wayback capture
Credit
Wes Fenlon's interview with Tarn Adams, page 3 of 3, where Adams names his own game influences.
Notes
Adams says Hack 1.03, Starflight and the Ultima series "almost exclusively" explain what Bay 12 is doing, and describes the Hack bones file as the root of Dwarf Fortress's persistent worlds. Page 3 holds the influence passage.

Cited on

Claims (2)

Tarn Adams said in 2016 that the Hack 1.03 lineage was largely inspirational for Dwarf Fortress, especially the bones file, where something of a dead character carries into a later game, which he traced directly to Dwarf Fortress's persistent worlds.page 3Interview
In the same 2016 interview Adams said Hack, Starflight, and the Ultima series were almost exclusively "why we're doing what we're doing".page 3Interview