This game seized me by the throat and would not let me go for some time. It is an open source game of rather staggering complexity, which generates an entire world (I'm talking /huge/) from scratch, graphically represented using ASCII characters, complete with extended history and (for the most part) geologically accurate formations, including aquifers, magma vents, mineral veins and whatnot. The player commands a group of dwarves, autonomous, small scale AI's with personal preferences, who are tasked with building a fortress on the grounds of a territory that takes up a /tiny/ portion of the total map, but which can extend into three dimensions. This makes possible, using a basic physics system, engineering systems using the channeling of lava and water in to creation of various accommodations, be they moats, irrigation or even artificial waterfalls.
Add to this an increasing population of dwarves with cultural norms, personal requirements and skills, and eventually a fully functional dwarven economy/justice system, and you have a game of breathtaking scope, designed by a more or less by single individual that has provided no manual, forcing all players to form a community wiki to serve as a guide, essentially 'reporting' the rules they uncover /through/ playing the game. It is an amalgam of open source software, community support, virtual space exploration, system simulation and open ended gaming. It's an incredible artifact, worth investigating.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to carefully use wind-powered pumps to channel water into a reservoir, use a lever system to shut the water supply down and redirect the power to drive magma into the same chamber, producing obsidian that my craftsman can fashion into jewelry and weapons.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment