Dwarf Fortress gets first major update in two years

Dwarf Fortress received its first major update in two years, according to the release notes for version 0.40.01 posted on developer Bay 12 Games' website this week.

The "world activation release" brings new features like birth, invasions and succession and much more to the ASCII text-based world building game, fully titled  Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter 2: Dwarf Fortress. Other features include the abilities to travel through tunnels and retire and "unretire" fortresses, which could  mean that players need to conquer their abandoned fortresses to reclaim them.

"Getting all of that to work led to a meandering route through various pieces of the game, some of which are described below," the developer wrote referring to the release notes. "Aside from any bugginess, a lot of it will still feel rough and unfinished as things bump around."

You can download the latest version of the Linux, Mac and Windows PC game, mods for which can turn its text-based interface into real-time 3D graphics, from Dwarf Fortress' official site.