With its first update in two years coming later this month, Dwarf Fortress continues to burrow through the confusing, inhospitable, and endlessly fascinating mantle of middle earth. 

Among the new features are a long awaited update to the Adventure Mode, the game’s more accessible built-in roguelike, where you control a single dwarf rather than a whole monastery of them. The irony of calling an ASCII-based roguelike accessible is not lost on us. Still, it may be a way for the uninitiated to ease into this notoriously hard-to-learn game, which requires about the same amount of bookwork as a higher level physics course. 

Undoubtably the brunt of the focus will be on the tried-and-true Fortress Mode, where you lead an expedition of hard-working, hard-drinking little miners deep underground towards certain death. For ten years, this mega-important game has been the full-time art project of Tarn and Zach Adams, who are hailed among game programmers for their ability to spin epic yarns with incredibly unpredictable outcomes that are unscripted, or generated by code. So, this is pretty huge. 

Still curious? You can read more about designing the land of myth in our profile last month.