As Bay 12 Games, developer of Dwarf Fortress, focuses on its upcoming Steam release, designer Tarn Adams showed off the visual improvements of the new version.

According to Adams, the new style adds a clarity that the older version lacked. He compares the two and shows how Dwarf Fortress Premium better shows players that they can walk on slopes and climb hills. In the classic view, the slope is a small triangle that looks like a tree, so new players cannot immediately see what they are looking at.

You can also see how the veins are now represented. The tile borders indicate what will be found when the dwarves start scraping, whether it be gems, ores, or just stone. At a glance, it seems easy to know where to start mining.

Bay 12 is also working on the fortress portion, so you can take a closer look at where the stocky little miners live and work. It's nice! The stone is too bare to be cozy, but it's a big improvement over what it used to be.

No release date has been set yet, but in the meantime you can still play Dwarf Fortress Classic or play with the Villain update, which adds interrogation and polygamy.