It's still wild to look at the screenshots of Dwarf Fortress and see the graphics and the nice, detailed art, Bay 12 and publisher Kitfox Games are still gearing up for the final Steam launch, but in the meantime, there are some How about a look at some creatures and treasures?

Excellent birds. In the original game, most of the world and its creatures are only described, so it's quite a leap to see it all recreated in beautiful pixel art. It's easy to reference the bird art, but the monsters in Dwarf Fortress are a bit more difficult. We got to see some of it earlier this year, and creator Tarn Adams explained that it was difficult to accurately reproduce the original text in pixel art. Nevertheless, they are handsome monsters.

Adams also showed off some seeds along with the birds. Planting and growing the seeds will produce realistic and fantastic plants, as well as treasures and coins. Coins and treasures require specific currency materials to make, but can also be made from less valuable resources. Unfortunately, just as he was taking the screenshot, the lizards started eating all the seeds.

This is just like Dwarf Fortress, where even just trying to take a screenshot for a development update is at the mercy of a chaotic simulation. Normally, one would be able to protect the species from lizards and birds by properly storing the species and filling the fortress with cats.

Steam's Dwarf Fortress doesn't have a release date yet, but you can eat up your time with the classic version; Bay 12 is still experimenting with new features, and Adams recently said they are working on clickable buttons, widgets, and more mouse support He said that they are working on this. Last year we chatted with him about how these interface changes would make Dwarf Fortress easier to play.