holy crap, i think i know how to play this game now.
play in windowed mode(for easy access to the wiki), start out your force with the "starting builds" section on the wiki, play in windowed mode, use the wiki whenever you can't figure something out.
now if only i payed more attention to my starting location and didn't start out on a mountain with a bunch of small pools of water rather than a river. can always restart, and use this fort as a training session of sorts.
*edit*
yea, i can see this game being very awesome, as it already is quite fun from the start.
like my god, i figured out basic stuff like making a carpenters workshop, and a masons workshop. then i built 7 rooms, put a wooden bed and a stone door on/in each one, and assigned them to each of my dwarves so they have a place to sleep.
to think of it, this game really isn't THAT hard to learn. i would go as far to say its easy to learn IF you had somebody to teach you what to do.
*edit*
manditory read
http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/much hilarity
