In an effort to make Dwarf Fortress as approachable to new players as possible, the Bay 12 Games team has now unleashed the new and improved Steam version. As you might expect, the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress brings with it greatly enhanced visuals, an overhauled UI and improved controls, a variety of quality-of-life features, and most importantly of all, detailed tutorials that will gently ease you into the madhouse that is Dwarf Fortress' universe.

What some of these improvements look like in action, as well as what Dwarf Fortress is even all about, that you can find out through the launch trailer below. Have a gander:

I haven't had a chance to play the Steam version just yet so take the following with a few grains of salt, but judging by the reception so far it looks like Dwarf Fortress has managed to achieve pretty much everything it set out to do. So if you ever wanted to give Dwarf Fortress a try but the seemingly impenetrable difficulty curve kept you at bay, the new Steam version does seems like a pretty good way to get started.

On the other hand, if you're not exactly sure where you stand with Dwarf Fortress and its gameplay style, taking the original freeware version for a spin could be quite enlightening. Naturally, it's not as slick as the new Steam release, but it's the exact same game otherwise. Personally, I'd definitely give it a closer look since Dwarf Fortress really is a one-of-a-kind type of game.

Whatever your plans may be, you can learn more about Dwarf Fortress and its current state over at Steam. Enjoy!