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Comment by AustinG08 | Hacker News Reader

No offense but trying to read a list with that background burns the eyes

Sorry; many are not acquainted with dwarf fortress. This is Tarn's style -- no style and all substance. It's worked for him for a long time because the substance is so substantial.

He's developed a procedural story generator; it doesn't look pretty on the outside, but it's become his life's work and inspired generations of developers.

The visual style of the list may be closer to an academic's webpage (he is a math PhD after all), but for fans of the game, it's a blueprint for a masterpiece.

I personally like the way he designs; write a story then build the game until it could potentially be generated by the game.

If he was all substance and no style, wouldn't he have a plain background colour that was about legibility, and inline any necessary images?

This strikes me as a particular, intentional style.

Certainly. It was just the best/easiest way I could think to describe it in a single sentence.

Dwarf fortress is fairly unique in style. I could say it's style is good, but I'd have to describe the game, it's culture, it's development history and how the minimal, perhaps unclean and cludgy style can help weave your imagination into it's narrative.

He could clean up the site, but I think it helps players understand the contract they are getting into by playing this game. A clean website would misrepresent dwarf fortress and it's style.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you've never brewed fine wine out of plump helmets, never carved the history of your race into the stone wall of the great hall, never scrambled after the goblin attack to remove decaying bodies of slain brethren as the last survivor goes mad with grief and purple miasma fills the mine.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. I agree. Merely opening that page made my eyes and head hurt immediately so I had to close it. I get that the game isn't for me, or for you, but it's a valid thing to say. I have a minor headache because of this page, and while that's not something I would normally complain about, I think it's a perfectly valid thing to say.

I think he's being downvoted because the observation does not say anything about the contents of the article linked. If there is nothing substantive to contribute to the discussion, better to say nothing.

I find the responses to my comment pretty great. I find the comment that "the game is not for me" particularly amusing. This game is right up my alley. I knew I would get downvoted for posting what I posted, but I feel it should be said. Contrary to what the other guy says, I feel it's a valid contribution in itself. I get that the background is the game. I get that it is a brilliant game. I get that it is a cult classic. I don't care if nobody cares. It is a fucking terrible background to read text on.

Actually, you could even mention it to the brothers, its quite possibly something they may eventually get around to fixing (if its a small enough fix).

Or you could wait till someone makes a web page which tracks and sorts all the goals into a readable tree, thus side stepping the issue all together.

This game may not be for you.

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