Welcome to DeepForge

DeepForge is a colony management game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, blending deep simulation with emergent storytelling.

The World of DeepForge

You begin with a company of 7 dwarves, each with unique interests, dislikes, names, and specialties. Unlike mindless drones, your dwarves think, work, and struggle to survive in a fully ASCII-generated world—ensuring every playthrough is unique.

Your task? Build a thriving nation while defending your dwarves from dangers both inside and outside the fortress. But be warned—this game does not hold your hand. There are no tutorials, only discovery, and dwarven ingenuity.

There is one ongoing problem with the game, Dwarves that spawn on water will not move. This is because dwarves do not collide with water and prefer to go around it as it's flagged as an obstacle in the game logic.

Getting Started - How to Play 101

Step 1: Gathering Resources

Your first task is simple: chop down a tree.

• Click on a nearby tree. Your closest dwarf will cut it down and collect nearby items along the way.
• Red X's indicate flat land, perfect for construction.

However, wood is currently useless—most structures require stone.

Step 2: Constructing Your Settlement

To build structures, hover over flat land and use the following hotkeys:

• 1 - Stone Wall: Provides fortification and defense against goblin attacks.
• 2 - Floor/Bridge: Allows dwarves to walk across gaps and water.
• 3 - Bed: Replaced House starting v0.05> used to increase dwarf health
• 4 - Wheat: Essential food source, grows best near water for healthier yields.
• 5 - Table: Used to provide adequate furniture for dwarves, used for taverns, houses, and living spaces.
• 6 - Chair:  used to provide seating to dwarves, lessens fatigue
• 7 - Cabinet: used to contain items such as meat so dwarves can easily access it.
• 8 - Statue/Monument: created with stone and increases dwarf happiness. 

Step 3: Growing Your Settlement

When users start in DeepForge, they will encounter a few things:

• This game does not hold your hand at all, you learn by experiencing things.
• This game will get monotonous after you build your dream fortress.

This is normal when a player starts the game, the game is meant for you to WORK.

And if you don't do one of the main mechanics of the game, then you'll get nowhere.

The real fun starts when you reach 80 dwarves, as you start taking control of a nation rather than a colony of dwarves. But to get here you have to do a lot of quality-of-life structures, and tasks for your dwarves.

a new dwarf spawns every year (which is 3 minutes in real life)

this means that More Dwarves = More Population Growth

this is the reason why your beginning feels monotonous, it's usually because you aren't close to 80 dwarves, but the more dwarves you have the more growth you start to experience. If you get lucky, a dwarf migrant will come along, which is usually what happens in the beginning.

The Flow of Time

• 1 in-game second = 1 real-time second.
• 3 minutes = 360 in-game days. (which equals a year)
• Each year, a baby is born, and at any moment, a dwarf may die.
• Death is predetermined at birth—each dwarf has a set lifespan, and when their time comes, nothing can stop it.
• Time cannot be paused or reversed, so if you do something drastic, then the effects of it will last for the remainder of your 

Why ASCII Graphics?

Some may ask, "Why ASCII?"

The answer? Gameplay comes first.

A game is more than just graphics—it’s about systems, depth, and player-driven storytelling. If a game focuses too much on visuals, it risks becoming a painting rather than an experience.

Dwarf Fortress was released over 20 years ago, and its classic ASCII version still has a dedicated fanbase. Graphics can enhance a game, but they should never replace the game itself.

That said, DeepForge uses color-coded ASCII, making the world easy to read while maintaining its raw simulation-driven nature.

This game is meant to also be driven by your imagination. Instead of relying fully on graphics, you can visualize, for example, a dwarf tripping over a half-eaten fish he had thrown away for supper.

That being said, I will not be replacing ASCII art.

Recent Updates

Update 0.01 - Fluid Dynamics

• Refined Time Scale Handling: Improved fluid update consistency for better water propagation and system synchronization.
• Expanded Water Shading: Introduced depth-watercolor color grading for better terrain readability.
• Flow Stability Fixes: Fixed water desync issues that caused inconsistent spreading.
• Enhanced Visual Feedback: Flowing water now cycles through hues based on velocity, making currents more immersive.

Update 0.02 - Fluid Dynamics & Customization

• Flowing Water Implemented: Water now spreads, drains, and interacts with the terrain using pressure-based mechanics.
• Time Scale Adjustments: Water movement is now smoother and prevents stuttering issues.
• Expanded Water Aesthetics: Different tones for water based on velocity, depth, and biome.
• New Settings Menu: Adjust simulation speed, difficulty scaling, and graphical preferences.
• Bug Fixes & Optimizations: Improved performance in high-flow areas, and water updates are now more responsive.
• Added Water Flow Delay: To prevent frame rate drops, water updates now refresh every 0.3 seconds instead of every tick.

Update 0.03 - Cows, Animals

• Animal Logic implemented
• Cows exist along with the Meat variable
• soon you'll be able to trade with other civilizations with meat as an option
• dwarves can slay cows to grab their meat, making it a good food source for the dwarves

Update 0.04 - Debugging, Bugfixes, Quality of GameWith this

This update I spent more time debugging parts in the game that I didn't fix. 

• I set up bugfixes for flowing water, the option in settings is deprecated until further play tests, I only initially added it so it raises the frame rate, but after the quality of gameplay changes, the flowing water on my computer runs at a decent 40-60 fps. of course there is going to be lag, but depends on your specification.
• I did more quality gameplay changes like changing the spawn rates of cows to a range of 0-1000 for x and the same for the Y, drastically improving performance.
• Dwarves use meat so they don't starve. I'm adding wood logic so you can build quality-of-life upgrades to your fortress. as I'm removing houses for beds.
• Wood is starting to play a bigger role in the game loop. I'm adding traders who can give you good trades such as flags, which make your dwarves more nationalisFixedfixed issues regarding cows and harvesting. a simple numerical error where the dwarf was heading to the cow's X as it was Y and the other way is a simple fix but now your dwarves will attack and hunt animals

Update 0.05 - More Building Types

• This update is gigantic increasing buildings from 4 -> 8 types of buildings, making wood a lot more valuaTradersaders are yet to be added but there are chairs, tables, beds, and statDwarvesarves can feel closer to their gods by being near to a statue.
• Hills and Mountains are more different with a new ASCII letter representing hills.
• World Generation is currently being sped up for faster World Generation speed. 
• In the future, future I hope to add Goblins, Traders, and usage for meat besides a natural resource.

Update 0.06 - Precise Tonemapping

• fixed hills to be darker, and worked on bug fixes regarding the World Generation
• updated it so dwarves worship their gods whenever their happiness is low
• subtracted Wood variable instead of Seed variable when placing wooden furniture.
•   fixed hills and mountains to be smaller font size.

Update 0.07 - Better ASCII

• changed ASCII especially grass in into a more suitable form
• Mountains have been replaced with hills, still give you stone.
• Zoom changed to 0.5 for more precise placement and view

Update 0.08 - Grass Update

• Made grass more common with 4 types
• made grass font size larger and more visible
• made pathfinding more smooth especially on grass
• fixed bugs

Update 0.09 - Bugfixes for 0.08

• fixed errors regarding pathfinding
• Cow Hunting is more functional
• Cows can now reproduce like dwarves and create children when around 400px another cowcow of the opposite gender
• adding dwarf satisfaction

Update 0.1.0 - Changed Keybinds

• changed numerical building select to I and O to tab between them, right click to build
• this allows me to make more building types without needing to use more and more keybinds as this restricts it to two.
• I am currently adding dwarf reactions, AI

Update 0.1.1 - Fixed Lag

• Animated Water lags the game a bit, added an option to disable it rendering it functional.
• fixed un-needed calculations and fixing lag spikes rasing FPS

Update 0.1.2 - World Size Option

• added world size option in the setting
• fixed lag spikes during gameplay

Update 0.1.3 - Optimization, Fixing

• Turns out, I forgot the deduction of resources so I fixed that alongside bugs
• I fixed some time-consuming bugs that made World Gen take a long time.
• just want to say, that if you make a big world, it will take longer. the best optimization settings is a world size of 50x25, water animation is worse for larger worlds though. the optimal way to use it is to simply make a smaller world.

Update 0.1.4 - Fixing... again

• turns out I forgot how decimals work, and values would shoot through the roof when you placed something
• this is all fixed though! so don't worry!
• also please edit your preferences in settings and set your preferences. 

Update 0.1.5 - Changing the order of the Menu

• made settings forced to go through in the beginning to ensure proper terrain gen, leaving it blank gives you normal terrain generation and ensures you don't forget to do it.

Update 0.1.6 - Fixing AGAIN?!

• I'm losing my mind because I forgot to fix the right condition!
• I know I know.... you don't want to hear this but I need to inform the user on every build of the game. no bugfixes, just a behavior matched with the right condition

Update 0.1.7 - Fixed Building Type 6

• turns out 6,7 were being placed in the same type of building! 6 was being placed as cabinets instead of chairs.

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Final Notes

DeepForge is a living, evolving simulation where every playthrough tells a different story of survival, industry, and expansion.

Your dwarves are waiting. Are you ready to forge a new legacy?

PS: My updates are not in the form of itch.io dev-logs, I only post updates here for now.