Zach and Tarm Adams, creators of the cult classic PC game Dwarf Fortress, have a new version coming to Steam, and there’s a chance that it makes them some money, which they could very much do with. But what happens if it makes them a lot of money?
In an interview with PC Gamer, Tarn was asked what he’d do if the game ended up making the brothers millions.
“There’s no reason we’d get up to a million copies, but if we did, that’s at the point where Zack and I would both have like 5 million dollars, and I don’t know what that means,” he said.
“Is that going to corrupt my morality somehow and turn me into a strange person? Because that seems to be a thing that happens. That’s why I’m thinking, just try to pitch it away as fast as possible. People expect me to take care of myself, that’s what I’m going to do, make sure that my health is in order, make sure that the game is in order, and the rest of it? You know, there are a lot of people and animals and other stuff that are in trouble. Kids that don’t have school supplies. All kinds of stuff. It’s like Brewster’s Millions, right? You’ve just got to get rid of it, man, that’s how I feel about it.”
In an industry where money sucks and ruins everything it touches, that is a wonderfully wholesome thing to consider.
You should definitely go read the whole interview, because these guys are very interesting and have quietly made one of the longest-running video games of all time, and it’s great seeing it blow up like this for a whole new audience.