Dwarf Fortress is easily recommended as a cheap game! It's not cheap on Steam, but free from Bay12Games. Spend the money on Steam if you'd like an easy way to support KitFox and Bay12, or use their Patreon. Back in my day, we sent PayPal and got ASCII art in reply!
It was a good game in 2D, and absolutely crazy in 3D. Predecessor to Minecraft. You begin by clicking "Create new world" generating the world and its history. Be sure to use the mouse in dialog windows, you may have trouble using the keyboard shortcuts for these. The default settings for "Create world" are decent, if you get hooked on the game you can experiment later and using "Detailed Mode" ๐
Once the world is created, the seasons and history will pass by for a few minutes and then you may review the world and click "Play Now". World and history are saved, and you may enter "Fortress" mode. Either click "Start tutorial", or you know what you doing.
DF is "real-time with lots of pausing", designating the mining, construction, and stockpiling jobs to be done by your dwarves and letting them do it. Periodically you will haul goods to your trade depot and exchange for useful materials. There's a lot of options fresh off the wagon, and it only gets crazier from there.
- Bay 12 Games
- Windows Download
- DF Wiki
- Dwarf Fortress Map Archive .. use the HTML5 Viewer , DF is as old as Adobe Flash!
As someone who's been playing since before z-levels, if you want to understand what kind of game Dorf Fort is, I recommend watching the start of this interview with Tarn: https://youtu.be/VAhHkJQ3KgY
p.s. my favorite bug I ever had was when he implemented vampires trying to pin blame on other fort residents when their victims were discovered. Because wagons move around the game considered them as creatures, I think they accidentally had the intelligent (or maybe canlearn) tag, so I had a vampire try to pin its crime on a maple wood wagon.
Needless to say he didn't get away with it.