[Update #2]: Dwarf Fortress' new and improved version has now landed onto Steam, and I'm happy to say that it has done so alongside overwhelmingly positive reviews!.

[Update]: Dwarf Fortress devs have revealed their roadmap and plans for the upcoming Steam release.

While Dwarf Fortress is a brilliant game with a genuinely stunning amount of depth, its archaic UI and rather bland art style can make it nearly impenetrable to new players. If you're starting out you pretty much need to play it alongside a step-by-step guide, and even then, figuring out how to navigate all of the menus is a rather herculean task.

As such, I'm very happy to say that the upcoming Steam version will not only have actual visuals that clearly represent what's happening on screen, but also a much more clean and usable UI! Best of all, the freshly reworked UI will have mouse support, so the days of having to memorize a myriad of hotkeys in order to quickly advance through menus are now finally coming to an end!

If you're curious just how all of this looks like in practice, as well as what the developers are currently working on besides the UI, you should check out the various Steam updates. Each one is fairly small on its own, but when combined they paint a rather bright future for Dwarf Fortress.

As for when exactly you'll be able to get your hands on all of the reworked content, I'm afraid nothing has been announced just yet. In true Dwarf Fortress fashion, it'll done when it's done, and not a single moment sooner!

Once we get a proper announcement I'll make sure to let you know, but until then you can get a little sneak peek at the new Dwarf Fortress through one of the developer previews. Enjoy!