Story generators are a kind of game which aren't often brought up when discussing video games as art. They don't fit neatly into one genre - instead they are characterized by emergent game play stemming from procedural generation and detailed interactions. The iconic example of this is Dwarf Fortress, a game which is tough but with extreme detail in its mechanics. Despite being the grandfather of many indie games, Dwarf Fortress and games like it don't get talked about often enough.

In this video I discuss Dwarf Fortress and other story generators, such as Rimworld, Paradox grand strategy games, Barotrauma, and Space Station 13. As a specific example, I played the Paradox strategy game Stellaris and talk about the various decisions I needed to make when I unintentionally made the game more difficult than I intended.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:54 Dwarf Fortress
04:11 Story Generators
05:48 Stellaris Playthrough
13:24 The Point

#dwarffortress
#stellaris