Caves of Qud

Factsheet

Developer:
Freehold Games, LLC
Based in South Bend, IN and Berkeley, CA

Release date:
Original Beta: December 2010. Steam Early Access: July 2015. Full release: 2023.

Platforms:
Steam
itch.io
GOG
iOS / Android (coming later)
Freeware ASCII-only version (out-of-date) - Windows (zip)

Website:
cavesofqud.com

Regular Price:

Description

Caves of Qud is a science fantasy RPG and roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. Come inhabit an exotic world and chisel through a layer cake of thousand-year-old civilizations. Play the role of a mutant from the salt-spangled jungles of Qud, or play as a true-kin descendant from one of the few remaining eco-domes: the toxic arboreta of Ekuemekiyye, the ice-sheathed arcology of Ibul, or the crustal mortars of Yawningmoon. Decide: is it a dying earth, or is it on the verge of rebirth?

History

Caves of Qud is a project of epic proportions that's been in development for over a decade (since 2007). It began as the science fantasy roguelike dream of co-creators Jason Grinblat and Brian Bucklew, who released the first beta in 2010. In 2015, the game was launched on Steam in Early Access. Since then, it's accrued a few more contributors who have enriched the project by helping to add visual effects, sound effects, an original soundtrack, a new UI, new game systems, new lore, and half a world of content. The game has grown into a wild garden of emergent narrative, where a handwritten story weaves a path through rich physical, social, and historical simulations. The result is a hybrid handcrafted and procedurally-generated world that's alive in a way few game worlds are.

Features

• Assemble your character from over 70 mutations and defects, and 24 castes and kits — outfit yourself with wings, two heads, quills, four arms, flaming hands, or the power to clone yourself; it’s all the character diversity you could want.
• Explore procedurally-generated regions with some familiar locations — each world is nearly 1 million maps large.
• Dig through everything — don’t like the wall blocking your way? Dig through it with a pickaxe, or eat through it with your corrosive gas mutation, or melt it to lava. Yes, every wall has a melting point.
• Hack the limbs off monsters — every monster and NPC is as fully simulated as the player. That means they have levels, skills, equipment, faction allegiances, and body parts. So if you have a mutation that lets you, say, psionically dominate a spider, you can traipse through the world as a spider, laying webs and eating things.
• Pursue allegiances with over 60 factions — apes, crabs, robots, and highly entropic beings, just to name a few.
• Follow the plot to Barathrum the Old, a sentient cave bear who leads a sect of tinkers intent on restoring technological splendor to Qud.
• Learn the lore — there’s a story in every nook, from legendary items with fabled pasts to in-game history books written by plant historians. A novel’s worth of handwritten lore is knit into a procedurally-generated history that’s unique each game.
• Die — Caves of Qud is brutally difficult and deaths are permanent. Don’t worry, though — you can always roll a new character.

Caves of Qud Credits

Jason Grinblat
Co-Creator

Brian Bucklew
Co-Creator

Sam Wilson
Tile Art

Craig Hamilton
Music and Sound

Nick DeCapua
QA and Additional Design

Matthew Sheahan
QA, Additional Design, and Additional Programming

Caelyn Sandel
Additional Writing and Design

Corey Frang
Additional Programming

Armithaig
Additional Programming

Brandon Tanner
Additional Music

Cyril van der Haegan
Background Art

Laura and Jeff Bucholtz
Logo Art

Ivy Melinda
Community Management

Contact

Inquiries
questions@freeholdgames.com

Twitter
twitter.com/freeholdgames

Brian's Twitter
twitter.com/unormal

Jason's Twitter
twitter.com/ptychomancer

Facebook
facebook.com/freeholdgames

Web
freeholdgames.com