Caves of Qud, a fractally dense sci-fi roguelike RPG that generates dense and memorable fiction as easily as you and I exhale, was a smashing success even before it launched on Steam in version 1.0 last year. But that launch brought a massive wave of players to the game, with co-creator Brian Bucklew saying it went “100x better than anything we ever expected” at the time.
This month, Bucklew said on Bluesky that “we made enough from launch to work on Qud for a couple more years at minimum so we’re using the time to get up to some extreme bullshit” – a mix of good news, and better, but also threatening news.
Caves of Qud is a near-peerless bullshit generator as-is. It thrives on absurd twists, humiliating deaths, unexpected victories, and shattering revelations found in the unlikeliest places. It boggles the mind to imagine an even more out-there version of the game.
“We hope to repay the amazing outpouring of love with a lot of shit that will make people go ‘hahaha what the absolute fuck, man,'” Bucklew added.
This all started with another Bluesky user discussing a mobile port of Caves of Qud, reckoning that “all you proles will finally be able to experience it and see the light” once the game jumps to phones.
On the topic of a mobile port, which has seemingly been in the works in some capacity for several years (the official site says more platforms are coming), Bucklew said “its so hard but we are fuckin doin it. localization too. team is at unbelievable power levels atm.”
“Unbelievable power levels” is as good a description of the Caves of Qud team as any. You’d be hard-pressed to find a game that has squeezed more juice out of a universe, wrought and wrung by the hands of a pretty darn small development team.
