Dwarf Fortress uses version control now
- ID
- 34142
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 11 Oct 2026, 8:52 AM
- Fetched
- 11 Oct 2026, 9:06 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/11/dwarf-fortress/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 3.0
- Created
- 11 Oct 2026, 9:06 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
Simon Willison notes that Dwarf Fortress, whose codebase famously lacked version control, now uses version control. The post quotes Tarn Adams saying in March 2013 "I don't use version control" and in March 2023 that there are "version control stuff to use now," after the Steam release that made them millionaires. Willison says he is "a tiny bit sad" the switch happened before that milestone.
Why it matters
This is an anecdote, not a migration guide: no VCS product, version, repo size, or workflow details are given. The only concrete builder takeaway is that even a famously complex long-lived codebase moved to version control, so there is no new tool or practice here that should change your stack decisions. No Malaysian or Southeast Asian policy, funding, infrastructure, cloud, telco, payments, or startup angle is present in the text.
Discussion angle
Is version control a non-negotiable baseline for any long-lived project, or can a small team deliberately skip it for decades without it being the main risk?