FreeType fonts and C/C++, Visual C compiler, g++, FMOD, and SDL software

The very first computer games were all made using ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). Dwarf Fortress, a single-player fantasy game released in 2006, forwent subsequent developments in computer graphics and is also entirely developed in ASCII. Rather than relying on a naturalistic three-dimensional interface, the game generates its own complex world, which the player can modify, out of classic two-dimensional tiled building blocks and text-based graphics. The goal is to build a viable dwarf settlement in a vast user-generated world of continents and seas, shown here in a world map from 2010. Every terrain has multiple levels, on the surface and below it, with more than 200 rocks and minerals that players can mine and make tools from. In order to succeed, players must consider how a wide range of factors, including natural resources and weather conditions, influence their dwarf colonies, must forge alliances with competing civilizations, and must learn to navigate an abstract world.