Hail Bravemule! Read The Dwarf Fortress Writeup That Stands Out From the Herd

Posted October 6, 2010 by Matthew Lee in News.

While the Let’s Play movement is all over the internet now – people documenting their experiences with a game so others can enjoy it by proxy – there are still some hidden gems to be turned up. Into PC indie games? Like the idea of terrifyingly detailed fantasy survival sim Dwarf Fortress, but the graphics hurt your eyes? Then Bravemule might be for you.

Yes, there’s been plenty of Let’s Play Dwarf Fortress projects before, but this one’s different. Writer Kevin Snow and artist George Kavallines have dreamt up a backstory and cast of characters, planned much of it out in advance (as much as you can predict a game of Dwarf Fortress) and illustrated it.

But there’s more – Snow has also adopted a writing style designed to sound as if the bizarre madlibs status updates Dwarf Fortress spews out on everything in the game world were a reflection of how the dwarves think and speak. It takes a little work to follow but the sly, deranged humour is well worth the effort.

The art’s great, the writing’s clever, witty, and creepily psychotic by turns, and about the only downsides are first, Snow doesn’t update that often, and second, it’s got a finite run. But then hey, losing is fun, as Dwarf Fortress keeps reminding you. Go read.

Tagged as After action, Artist, Bay 12 Games, Dwarf Fortress, indie developer, Indie Game