Dwarf Fortress has achieved mythical status for its furiously detailed algorithmic worlds, its legendarily long development, and the fact that its creators, Tarn and Zach Adams, seem content to continue working on it for the rest of their lives. But Bay12 Games' monument to emergent storytelling isn't the only project of its kind. In fact, it isn't even the oldest life simulation that's still in active development.

Indeed, while calling UnReal World the Dwarf Fortress of survival gaming is convenient shorthand, it might be fairer to say that Dwarf Fortress is the UnReal World of fantasy fortification management. A procedurally generated survivalist roguelike set in Iron Age Finland, UnReal World has been in continual development since 1992.

In the decades since it launched, UnReal World

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