Game AI Pro 2

Chapter 41

Simulation Principles from Dwarf Fortress

Tarn Adams

41.1 Introduction

Dwarf Fortress is a game built on simulation, generating unique game worlds for the player to experience through procedural content generation (PCG) [Dwarf Fortress 14]. Over the development, four guiding principles kept the game simulation robust and easy to work with. This chapter shares those principles with you.

Dwarf Fortress procedurally generates the entire world from scratch. The process begins with an elevation map, generated based on a randomized fractal. Next, it creates several map layers, which include temperature, rainfall, drainage, vegetation, and salinity. With the raw components of the map defined, the next step classifies each tract of land into ...