Dwarf Fortress' creator is so tired of hearing about AI: 'Press a button and it writes a really sh*tty, wrong essay about something—and they still take your job'

Tarn Adams, who cofounded Bay 12 Games with his brother Zach, talks about their single-player simulation game "Dwarf Fortress" during an interview at their home office in Poulsbo, Washington, west of Seattle, on December 9, 2022. - A cult favorite among indie game fans, "Dwarf Fortress" has been available for purchase on the Steam online store since December 6, a first for this title that has been distributed for free since its debut in 2006. The real-time management game, set in a medieval-fantasy world and involving overseeing a group of dwarves seeking to build a mighty fortress, has climbed to the fourth best-selling weekly title on Steam. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images).

While Tarn Adams, creator of Dwarf Fortress, is technically a millionaire—he's never quite minced his words like one, especially about the nonsense that goes on in the gaming industry. Last year at GDC, he came out swinging against a brutal year of industry layoffs. This year, while speaking to PC Gamer's own Lincoln Carpenter, he had some similar steam to vent.

"I'm just depressed for everyone that's out of work," he admits, taking a tired and long view of a situation that hasn't exactly improved since. "The whole funding situation for everyone I'm talking to—it's just very hard to get things going out there."