My very DNA has been etched with the influences of Dwarf Fortress. It’s in my blood, it’s in this very blog. In fact way back in the day I made the first usable .TTF font based on the Dwarf Fortress Tileset. It was in 2012 in fact, and it’s still one of the most visited pages on the site. You can find it right here if you want to use it for whatever. It was my small contribution to the incredible community that continues to make the game a living breathing beast alongside the incredible amount of work of Tarn and Zach.

These two are finally seeing a proper payday as the game gets a spruced up release on Steam for people that couldn’t decipher the ascii or use every button on the keyboard to move around the menus. In fact you should probably go buy it on Itch.io to give these guys maximum amounts of money. Gabe Newell has enough money already! If you think you can do it, you can always play the game for free in it’s original form right here.

But we’re here to talk about the OST. I remember back around the time I did the font, there was this guy active in the community cranking out these beautiful guitar tracks one after the other. He wrote stories also, and I was even inspired enough to make some pixel art out of it. I remember him telling me on whatever fucking chat apps were used back in 2012 (G+??) that he felt like a Dwarf at a workbench, caught with the mania to create masterworks. Or something to that effect.

His name was Simon Swerwer, and his tracks sat in my Winamp library as a welcome addition to my collection. It wasn’t a name I was expecting to see much of ever again, but then the first plunks of one of his tracks played through the trailers and it felt like the return of an old friend. I’m so stoked to see his work has become an official part of Dwarf Fortress finally. And alongside Dabu they’ve created a truly great soundtrack for the game. I love every track, and you should too.