Dwarf Fortress is getting a sweeping Myth and Magic update this year

Dwarf Fortress is getting a large-scale magic overhaul. The update is called Myth and Magic, it is due later this year, and it was announced with a short preview video.

What Tarn Adams says

Bay12 co-founder Tarn Adams describes the work as a set of procedural systems that "go beyond combining spell effects" and reach "straight to the fundamental cosmological makeup of the universe", allowing for "magical situations that you cannot get any other way."

Magic from world generation onwards

If the takeaway reading is correct, the update will generate a variety of approaches to sorcery during ordinary world generation. Distinct species of wizardry and witchcraft will arise while rivers and mountains are laid down and while the fates of creatures, populations and settlements are charted. That is a substantial jump beyond the game's existing, relatively threadbare magic system.

According to Adams, it lets "your fortresses pursue magical research that really feels like discovery", spanning magic materials, enchantments, rituals and ruins, along with spells that simply blow things up. The video shows a few examples, among them a hex that shreds goblins and doubles as a means of shifting stone. All of it is tied to "how that particular universe works down to its bones", he says.

Why it matters

The feature has been in development for many years. Dwarf Fortress is an intensely detailed simulation even without procedural thaumaturgy, and the Steam edition's more approachable art style did not make it simpler underneath. The game has grown further since, and none of its many imitators has managed to eclipse it.