The Dwarf Fortress community is an incredible anomaly. It is donation-ware, yet, Tarn brings in enough money to live on (albeit, not comfortably) and to pay his brother for some help. Aside from perhaps Richard Stallman, are there any other software developers that can lay the claim that they've lived off a tip jar?
Revenue growth is slow, but not bad considering he attempted to live off of donations at the start of the financial crisis. There is still organic growth however, and as larger milestones are reached I am genuinely curious to see how the community responds, especially once the global economy is out of the current creep its in now:
It's like watching the rise of Banksy. The game is now featured in MoMA. He's had a 6-page article in the New York Times magazine. Every AAA game studio I've walked into at least deeply respects Dwarf Fortress and Bay 12, even if they don't play the game. If he ever gets to finish it (2030 perhaps), it makes you wonder where it will end up in the zeitgeist.
