f13.net

Do you love civ-style games?  Miss the days of ASCII graphics?  Wish you were your micromanaging boss?  Need alcohol to get through the working day?  Then why aren't you already playing this game!?

The concept is simple.  In Fortress Mode, you take seven dwarves on an expedition to colonize an area.  You generate a huge random map (or use a seed), then select the tiny region you want them to settle.  You can select their skills and equipment or take pre-generated dwarves.  Once they embark your goal is anything you want.

The basic skills your dwarves will need are tree cutting, mining, carpentry, masonry, and farming.  The other fifty skills will improve the lot of your fortress and range from hunting and fishing to several types of crafts.  You tell your dwarves where to dig or what to chop, and assign tasks in the many, many workshops available.  Traps can be made to catch enemies.  Elaborate systems can be designed to move water and magma from one location to another, whether for irrigation, defense, or to make a pretty fountain dedicated to your grandeur.  The options are staggering with goals as crazy as building a fortress entirely underwater using only glass walls possible.

If you survive your first winter, migrants will begin to arrive.  You can assign them to tasks as you like, but they will let you diversify the things which get done and can be recruited to the defense of the fortress.  They are also drunken little bastards who will drain your stocks if not prepared for their arrival.  Traders will also visit from the dwarf, elven, and human nations.  They will bring vital supplies and buy your overpriced knick-knacks from your gift shop.  Nastier things will visit, too, whether it be goblins trying to kidnap your children, or elephants upset at your (alleged) ivory trade.

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Buy it, more than worth the cost of "free."

Sent in by Lantyssa.

For anyone that has played it before but not recently, the game now has a "z" coordinate to move up and down through levels.  It opens up all kinds of new possibilities with defenses, traps, fortress building etc....

And is also available as an Intel OS X binary - for those who care. Like me.

The Z axis just totally confuses me.  I was quite adept with the old 2d environment and fought off many a goblin invasion just using traps and floodable rooms but with the recent changes it's hard even getting your bearings to start out.  Sadly going to shelve this one until the programmer fellow starts serious work on his UI or includes a 2d mode for spatially challenged people.