After Action Reporter

An O’Reilly customer got a copy of my book that had “mutated” to include about 1/3rd of another book at the start. I volunteered to sign it and, of course, O’Reilly sent him a correct copy. Stuntateous sent me his mutant book, AND his underpants to sign and a demo disk as a gift (er, thanks?!).

Shine on you crazy diamond!

Today I completed a webcast with O’Reilly on Dwarf Fortress. In the webcast I talked about a number of forts and features. If you’re interested in following up on any of these forts or checking out the tools I’ve mentioned, have a look at the links below:

• Fortress Kelnimar – fantastic minecart “racetrack” and trader-smashing minecarts. Started by GirlInHat.
• Dwarfputing AI – A keyboard and entry registry in Dwarf Fortress! Work in progress by Bloodbeard.
• Fortress Soitenly – Automated magma defense system by Vjek. Available by request from creator.
• Fortress Skyscrapes 2 – Constructed “rings”, very pretty! Community game kicked off by Sizik.
• Fortress Steelbeard – Simple bedroom design and some surprises deep down below. Started by Aussieevil.
• DF Hack – a tool that contains Stonesense and other command line features.
• Dwarf Fortress File Depot – hosts a lot of handy Dwarf Fortress.

Really pleased to see the book, and the fantastic Tim Denee plugged on PCGamer.com today. Like me, they seem to get a big kick out of the idea of a Getting Started With book being 238 pages, and that the book has been published by hard core technical publisher O’Reilly, no less. I’m pleased the book (obviously!) is getting the attention, but also pleased Dwarf Fortress is. It is a game every PC gamer should try at least once to get a sense of just what is possible on a computer, and just how enticing computer generated narratives can be.

edit: Kotaku picked up the story as well!

Great news! My book, “Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress” is available at O’Reilly.com! You can pick it up as an eBook or, at not much extra, an eBook and print book combo. The book will also be available on Amazon next week or so, but the Amazon eBook does not feature the “Real Time” updates that buying through O’Reilly does. Real Time is a feature whereby a book can be rapidly updated by the author and then owners alerted to download the latest version when it is released. I intend to update the book at all major Dwarf Fortress releases, keeping the book relevant to the reader at all time.

Of course, the print book does not get real time upgrades!

For those interested, here’s the chapter list:

• Foreword by Tarn Adams
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Playing God
• Chapter 3: First Steps
• Chapter 4: Filling Dwarf Bellies
• Chapter 5: Merchants and Trading
• Chapter 6: Dwarf Resource Management
• Chapter 7: Digging Deeper
• Chapter 8: Industry
• Chapter 9: Justice, Healthcare and Vampires
• Chapter 10: The Military
• Chapter 11: Engineering
• Afterword: Farther
• Appendix

The book clocks in at 240 pages or so and 80,000 words. It features nine full-page illustrations and a half-dozen diagrams by Tim Denee. The illustrations are based on stories from Dwarf Fortress submitted by players on the forum. You can see one here. If you buy the book, I hope you enjoy it! And please, feel free to let me know if there are any problems with the book. I’ll be updating it, after all!

Sneaky Toady got the latest release out on the DAY I am due to finish my draft for Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress. I can’t exactly leave this challenge unmet and so I’m going to include the 34.08 minecart and stockpile changes in the book after all. The book will also feature an illustration on minecarts if Tim manages to finish it in time. Yay!