> There are instructions within the game, and without in the form > of wikis and forums, but I wanted to begin at the most basic > level, if only to come at

> There are instructions within the game, and without in the form > of wikis and forums, but I wanted to begin at the most basic > level, if only to come at the game from a recently trendy (if > controversial) design paradigm on discoverability that's flowed > from mobile apps to many new indie games: "if you see a UI > walkthrough, they blew it". Some of the author's other points are valid, and DF definitely has some (just some!?) problems with the UI (my personal nitpick is that there are multiple ways to draw rectangles) but I get the impression that she set things up planning to fail. Not R-ingTFM isn't really a reasonable way to review this game. DF doesn't have a team of people behind it, and there's no UX designer to figure out how to make things beautiful and intuitive. On the other hand, the game is free, and the developers have supposedly turned down at least one relatively large buyout offer in order to keep working on their dream on their own terms. It's cliche, but you get out of DF what you put into it. If poring over fan-made wikis, taking notes of all your findings, winning tiny victories like successfully getting your first workshop running, and losing in spectacular fashion only to retell your loss to friends doesn't sound fun, maybe stick to Skyrim.