
At the start of the decade, you’d go to a store and pay $60 for a box with a completed game inside was still a default understanding of how games worked, with digital distribution starting to open other models up. Perhaps more than anything, the fact that Dwarf Fortress, a legendarily weird game, could end the decade being one of the most wishlisted games on Steam shows that the idea of what a game is - and especially what a hit game is - has changed dramatically. The rise of the roguelike generally, and survival strategy specifically, are directly tied to the idea of games as a shared experience. The 2010s were also about games becoming a group experience, blurring the lines between player and viewer.

It’s a game that’s as or more fun to experience other people playing, whether on forums, or via social media, or streaming. “Losing is fun” went the tagline, which is a way of saying it’s a game about stories. That’s not the only way that Dwarf Fortress helped define the 2010s. The idea of the living game, one that resides on the internet, where content is continually added, and fans of the game can play it for years, has been possibly the biggest story of the 2010s, from mobile to blockbuster games.

Yet it’s been one of the defining games of the decade despite this, alongside other 2000s games like Minecraft and League of Legends. Above: There’s an entire dwarf civilization in those ASCII characters.ĭwarf Fortress’ initial release on the internet was years before the 2010s, and its full publication on Steam won’t happen until the 2020s.
