When I last spoke with Tarn and Zach Adams, the brothers, co-creators of Dwarf Fortress, were just getting their heads around the new reality of becoming millionaires. It's only been three months since then, but when I met the brothers this week at the 2023 Game Developers Conference, I couldn't resist asking: are they still living a little extravagantly?

"I was thinking about getting a guitar," I said. 'I went to Guitar Center and tried it out. Too bad."

That guitar trip was a rare respite for the Adamses in recent months. Their 2023 was a dizzying one: along with publisher Kitfox, they hired a programmer from the modding community to work on the game full-time, someone with access to the source code in Dwarf Fortress' 20-year history.Steam A series of patches were released to fix minor issues with the release, and an Arena mode was added. After surviving on donations for so long, they have now started doing some things for themselves as well. Tarn moved into a new apartment, and Zach and his wife bought a new house.

But I wanted to know more about that guitar. After selling hundreds of thousands of copies of "Dwarf Fortress," Tarn's one luxury was to buy a guitar.

Turns out there is a story there. [I once pulled a flamenco guitar off the wall in 2005 that was way out of my price range at the time. Since then he has been looking for it again, but with no luck.

But with the power of the Internet crowdsourcing, could he help the creators of Dwarf Fortress find the guitar of their dreams?

I asked for more information.

"It's a spruce flamenco guitar. How would you describe the action? I have my own guitar, but when I got this one, it's so much easier to play. I can play it without thinking. It's how the strings are placed on the frets that makes it easier to hold the strings.

"Anybody who knows more [about guitars] than I do, hit me," he said with a laugh.

Turn's guitar playing is actually a small but important part of Dwarf Fortress' history. This is the guitar he played on the original Dwarf Fortress menu screen, which is used as the main theme for the excellent new soundtrack by Dabu and Simon Swerwer.

For the benefit of Dwarf Fortress players around the world, if you are a flamenco guitar expert or know someone who is, please leave a comment or send a tweet to us and @Bay12Games. Also, keep an eye out for the upcoming Dwarf Fortress documentary on Noclip (opens in new tab).