[HN Gopher] After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get u...
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After 20 years the Dwarf Fortress devs have to get used to being
millionaires
Author : robin_reala
Score : 89 points
Date : 2022-12-13 21:32 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pcgamer.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pcgamer.com)
| Aleksdev wrote:
| >"We found a foolproof way of saving our money, which was to not
| sell anything for 20 years and then drop it all," Zach
| deadpanned.
|
| Lol
| chaostheory wrote:
| Congrats to the Adams brothers.
|
| To my knowledge, Dwarf Fortress is the closest thing to Hari
| Seldon's Prime Radiant
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Worth noting that in the Steam store it says Windows only right
| now. (no Penguin/Linux yet)
| brianwawok wrote:
| Yah I just looked today..
|
| Has anyone heard? If it were Linux I would buy it now..
| drmidnight wrote:
| I've been playing on Linux. Both on desktop and my Steam
| deck. Runs fine under Proton.
| brianwawok wrote:
| Sweet!
|
| It's low GPU / high CPU, so it should be a ripe candidate
| for Wine and friends..
| ozarker wrote:
| Works great on Proton!
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Thanks, I have been on Linux for 10+ years but really haven't
| played much games yet, I did buy Portal on Steam for Linux
| ages ago. But, I hadn't heard of Proton until just now from
| you all! I guess I'll go see how to get that up and running.
| kelnos wrote:
| Looks like it runs just fine under Proton, at least:
| https://www.protondb.com/app/975370
| silverwind wrote:
| It should be coming to Linux and Mac once they figure out the
| packaging.
| fwsgonzo wrote:
| This is so amazing and inspiring. I was actually sitting down
| lately and thinking about what my next project is, as I've been
| working on a few other projects for a few years now, but nothing
| that will make any money. I think it could be fun to work on that
| kind of game for a long time, and not feel that pressure to
| deliver anything. Then hire some people at the end to make it
| more palatable, I guess. Question is, how much is luck when you
| work on something for that long? I think that in that time-frame
| you can do anything you set your mind to!
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| I love the voiceover screencapture of how to play the game on the
| Steam demo videos. Would like it if more apps had tutorials like
| that from the creators.
|
| source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/
| agentwiggles wrote:
| As of right now, and barring any future misfortune, this is a
| great feel-good story for any engineer. These guys brought their
| passion to life and created something unique and special that has
| been meaningful to thousands upon thousands of people over the
| last 20 years. It feels great to see them succeed in this way,
| and I hope they can continue to work on this for as long as they
| enjoy it. Congrats to Zach and Tarn, wishing them all the
| continued success.
| jdhn wrote:
| Congrats to them! Very rare to see people who follow their dreams
| no matter what their field become millionaires.
|
| On a side note, I feel like I should like Dwarf Fortress, but
| every time I look at it, it seems completely daunting.
| vermilingua wrote:
| It might sound condescending, but the daunting is part of the
| _!fun!_
|
| I strongly recommend just digging in, and it's never been
| easier than right now. The DF Wiki is one of the most
| comprehensive video-game wikis that exist due to a very
| passionate, very tight-knit community; and has excellent guides
| on how to play your first game.
|
| I'd recommend playing one fort while strictly following a guide
| so that you can learn the interface and concepts, then try
| another fort totally on your own to experience the chaos in
| full.
| TrevorJ wrote:
| They are definitely in 'set for life if we make wise choices'
| territory. In another month I'm betting they will be in 'set for
| life even if we make foolish choices' territory. I'm really happy
| for them. They really stayed true to their passion and I'm happy
| to see them rewarded for this.
| datalopers wrote:
| Are they? 300,000 units * $30 = $9M - 30% Steam tax = $6.3M in
| a single year take out federal taxes (just gonna call it 36%
| and ignore SFJ/MFJ), leaves them about $2M each. I'm sure
| they're some sort of a legal entity in WA state and will owe
| the b&o tax too.
|
| They deserve it absolutely but $2M each does not put them in a
| position of "fuck you" [1].
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfeXqHFmPI
| opportune wrote:
| If they're smart they hopefully have incorporated and will
| only need to take money out of the corporation to pay
| themselves to cover their expenses. So they won't pay tax on
| the full amount up front and will have most of the money
| pretax for future business expenses
| bulbosaur123 wrote:
| They should incorporate an LLC and do some legal loopholes to
| keep more of that $$$
| theptip wrote:
| $2m in the bank is enough to easily draw $100k/yr from
| interest, which fits the GP's "set for life if we make wise
| choices" IMO. That is way above median income in wealthy
| countries. Assuming you don't try to live in SF!
| thomaslangston wrote:
| That's using a 5 percent withdrawal rate.
|
| A 4 or even 3 percent withdrawal rate is more likely to be
| sustainable. Those are also rates I see suggested more
| commonly on retirement planning sites.
| guhidalg wrote:
| Even in the US, $100K/yr puts you comfortably above median
| income. If I had $100K/yr of GUARANTEED income, I would
| stop working for money and do whatever I felt like for the
| rest of my life.
| [deleted]
| Arrath wrote:
| I also read, though who knows whether the source was at all
| accurate, that after the Steam cut, Kitfox takes a goodly
| chunk (north of 50% IIRC) out until their own expenses for
| development are paid, and then their cut ratchets down to 20%
| or so.
| datalopers wrote:
| Oh, I didn't realize they had a publisher involved too.
| Yeah, this is a nice payday but it's just a start before
| it's life-changing for these two hackers. Let's see another
| 300k in sales!
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| That's 300 000 units in 7 days since launch if I understand
| it correctly. Even if we consider (I don't know if that's
| true or not), that theses 7 days are going to be the best
| ever for them that's still only 7 days.
| datalopers wrote:
| Week1 sales is a decent predictor [1] of Year1 revenue.
| They'll probably do about 1M unit sales by Christmas 2023.
|
| [1] https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/p/steam-the-state-
| of-long...
| ericd wrote:
| It's on a million wishlists, and this game is evergreen, it's
| going to get there.
| jujube3 wrote:
| _> They are definitely in 'set for life if we make wise
| choices' territory_
|
| Sure it seems that way now, but what happens when a volcano
| appears under their house and it floods with lava? Or they go
| to war with the elves?
| DoubleFree wrote:
| They'll just have to remember that losing is fun
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| I'm sure they'll be able to afford volcano insurance. I bet
| they could even find someone who's willing to insure their
| homes against Elf invasions.
| ilyt wrote:
| Not with american healthcare, could burn thru that pretty
| quickly.
|
| ...which was entire reason for Steam release in the first place
| eadmund wrote:
| > In another month I'm betting they will be in 'set for life
| even if we make foolish choices' territory.
|
| I hope so, but it is amazing how quickly one can burn through
| money by making foolish choices. Or just being unlucky. I can't
| be the only one who remembers esr being worth tens of millions
| on paper, then losing basically all of it.
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| I hope they can handle this unlike Notch (Minecraft) - reckoned
| becoming a billionaire overnight ruined his life.
| ilyt wrote:
| It looks more like it showed that he's an asshole to entirety
| of the world. Ruining he did of his own
| Minor49er wrote:
| I heard he gave millions of dollars to his dev team. What did
| he do wrong?
| cokeandpepsi wrote:
| got caught in the gamergate/qanon pipeline all downhill
| from there
|
| imo once you lose your anchors to reality and social media
| becomes your world your mind is gone
| Macha wrote:
| Burned some bridges in personal relationships and then went
| deep into qanon stuff.
| brianwawok wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Persson
|
| There is a Controversial Views section
| jedberg wrote:
| He said some pretty awful stuff about race and gender on
| Twitter.
| commandersaki wrote:
| Site unreadable due to ads.
| DennisP wrote:
| You care about that enough to complain, but you don't have an
| adblocker? I don't see any ads.
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| I am so happy for them. I remember reading about how they
| struggled living with their parents in their 30s. I could imagine
| how much self doubt they must have had executing the long term
| plan of doing a user friendly steam release... will it actually
| work? And it has! Bravo.
| le-mark wrote:
| I was just thinking this would be great for Jeff Vogel and his
| games, and they're on Steam as well (spiderweb software). Great
| to see, I hope they're doing well too!
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Wow, this is such a #goodnews story!
|
| > "I'll have to rework... my, uh, whole life, figure out what the
| heck's going on there. I don't really have any ideas or plans
| right now. I've just been thinking about dwarf stuff."
|
| > "My wife has plans," Zach said. "We live in a tiny little
| house, so buying a new house, that's a major goal."
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(page generated 2022-12-13 23:00 UTC)