After 16 Years of Freeware, Dwarf Fortress Creators Get Their $7M Payday

upstart writes:

"When we pass from this world, you will be the reason we are remembered":

The month before Dwarf Fortress was released on Steam (and Itch.io), the brothers Zach and Tarn Adams made $15,635 in revenue, mostly from donations for their 16-year freeware project. The month after the game's commercial debut, they made $7,230,123, or 462 times that amount.

[...] Tarn Adams noted that "a little less than half will go to taxes," and that other people and expenses must be paid. But enough of it will reach the brothers themselves that "we've solved the main issues of health/retirement that are troubling for independent people." It also means that Putnam, a longtime modder and scripter and community member, can continue their work on the Dwarf Fortress code base, having been hired in December.

[...] While the commercial release of Dwarf Fortress has earned the brothers some breathing room and introduced new players with some quality-of-life offerings, the "classic" version-the one Ars editor Casey Johnston detailed over her 10-hour ordeal-is still free to download.

If you haven't tried this game yet, it's interesting.

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