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Dwarf Fortress uses version control now
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- DeepHorus
Dwarf Fortress, the famously intricate colony simulation, has entered the age of version control. Tarn Adams, co-creator, confirmed in March 2023 that he had "version control stuff to use now." The change ends a long period in which the game's code was managed without formal source-control tools.
For years, Adams openly rejected version control. In March 2013, he said he did not use it because he disliked committing code into a "black box thingy" with no immediate upside. By March 2016, he acknowledged the disbelief such a practice invited, noting it had been 15 years and his reasons had changed over time.
The shift is notable because Dwarf Fortress is renowned for its staggering complexity. Simulating generated worlds, histories, economies, personalities, and emergent disasters, its codebase would seem to benefit enormously from branching, rollback, and commit histories. That it ran so long without those safeguards struck many developers as remarkable.
Adams's March 2023 comment came during interviews around the game's Steam release. That launch transformed the project's fortunes, making the creators millionaires after years of free distribution and donations. Version control arrived before that commercial milestone.
The end of the no-version-control era is bittersweet. It removes a piece of indie-development lore, but it also reflects a more conventional and sustainable workflow. Discord channels and version-control systems now form part of Adams's routine, he said.
The practical implications include easier collaboration, safer bug fixes, and better tracking of changes across updates. Such infrastructure may help the small team manage technical debt. It could also reduce risk during future patches.
The game's future remains active, with ongoing development and community interest. While the absence of version control was impressive, its adoption signals adaptation rather than surrender. For a project built on deep systems, even its tools now have history.
