Assignment 2

Introduction

Dwarf Fortress is a free game developed by Bay 12 Games, an independent game developer. It creates persistent gameworlds where players can choose to be an adventurer or choose to manage a group of dwarves who are building a new fortress. It is currently still under development, and the developers have chosen to neglect the user interface and concentrate on adding new gameplay features as well as refining existing ones. Therefore, the game is played solely by the keyboard, with different keys representing different commands. The game's use of ASCII graphics and archaic keyboard interface makes the game daunting for new players to pick up, however Dwarf Fortress has gathered a small fanbase due to its innovative gameplay. It is refreshing to find a game with such interesting gameplay in an time dominated by cookie-cutter games that merely seek to distinguish themselves in terms of graphical detail.

Proposal

I propose to design a new interface or Dwarf Fortress, that is visually appealing and easy to learn and use. The new interface will allow existing users to play the game with greater ease, and allow new users to start enjoying the game more quickly. However, due to the complexity of the game, I will limit myself to designing the interfaces for only a few parts of the game, namely the game creation screens for the adventure and fortress modes.

Screenshots of Dwarf Fortress: