‘Caves Of Qud’: Roguelike RPG Finally Launches After 17 Years in Development (And It’s Really Good)
D&D and Gamma World are two influences intertwined in the DNA of the “newly” released roguelike RPG Caves of Qud.
It is the end of one era, and the start of another. Caves of Qud, an RPG 17 years in the making, has finally hit 1.0. If you are unfamiliar with it, Caves of Qud is a roguelike RPG that takes inspiration from D&D and more specifically from Gamma World, the post-apocalytpic game of mutants, humans, robots, and more.
And it is a game in the best tradition of old school D&D, designed to simulate a world down to the wildest details. If you’ve ever been a D&D player and asked the DM “well can’t we just dig through the walls?” Caves of Qud may just be your game.
And it released late last week, after more than a decade in development/early access. Which means you can go play it right now if you want.
Caves of Qud – A Post-Apocalyptic Gamma Explorer’s Dream
Caves of Qud is an expansive world that embraces procedural generation and player agency. Which in this case means, there’s a whole lot of simulation going on. Including, famously, the ability to melt walls, or get creative with your mutations or cybernetic implants. But the developers also embrace quests and story arcs and emergent narrative, which makes for a deeply engrossing experience.
“Caves of Qud is a science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. Come inhabit an exotic world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations.”
– Caves of Qud on Steam
Looking at screen shots of the final version, you can see the game’s other influences, like Nethack and Rogue but also Wizardry and Ultima. Just look at those forests. Worth pointing out that those other games are also influenced by D&D – though of course they all take the concept and run with it.
But I think at the heart of Caves of Qud is exploration. Not just of the world, but of the systems of the world. When you play Caves of Qud, it doesn’t just create a world. It creates its history. Ancient rulers. Things that happened before “the fall”—it puts me in mind of Dwarf Fortress. Which, funnily enough, publishers Kitfox Games also helped bring to their own 1.0.
A Whole Gamma World Of Adventure
And what makes me especially excited for this, is that it draws on Gamma World for inspiration. Gamma World was TSR’s first big foray into science fantasy and post-apocalyptic fervor. It took place long after a nuclear war had destroyed humanity and left behind an irradiated wasteland, dotted with the occasional robotic sentry as one of the only bastions of a long distant and forgotten past.
Players would explore the wastes, find ancient artifacts (sci-fi gadgets) and could be mutants, plants, robots, or even pure strain humans (who had survived somehow). And in Caves of Qud – you can be a True Kin, with cybernetics and are often recognized by the robotic remnants of the world. Or you can be a mutant and have access to all sorts of powerful mutations. Much as it was in Gamma World.
It’s thrilling to see it all coming full circle, somehow.
In the meantime, the Caves are calling!
