Caves of Qud
2024
- role-playing (rpg)
- simulator
- strategy
- turn-based strategy (tbs)
- adventure
- indie
- fantasy
- science fiction
- single player
The story
Caves of Qud is a science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retro-futurism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. The game weaves a handwritten narrative through rich physical, social, and historical simulations. The result is a hybrid handcrafted & procedurally-generated world where you can do just about anything. Assemble your character from over 70 mutations and defects, and 24 castes and kits - 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.
What it’s like
Ascii-rendered ruins and sprawling tile maps glow in muted earth tones: ochre sand, rust-red clay, the sickly green of mutated flora, with the occasional burst of colour from a spell or a fizzing gadget. The look is deliberately low-fi and text-first, so the imagination does the heavy lifting, and the sound is sparse, with ambient wind and distant machine hum rather than a constant score. The vibe is wry, dusty and strange, a slow-burn retro-future wasteland where a rainy-afternoon session can stretch into hours without anyone noticing. Its pacing is methodical and turn-based: each step is a decision, and the world reacts to almost anything you try, so runs feel like improvised stories with a melancholy undertow. Permadeath is part of the register, so setbacks land with a shrug more than a sting. Violence is frequent but abstract: combat is quick, cartoonish and rendered in text, with blood and limb loss described rather than shown, and no sexual content. It suits players who want deep systems, character-building experiments and emergent chaos, especially those who enjoy roguelikes, tinkering and dry humour.
More games like Caves of Qud
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved Caves of Qudand we’ll explain which ones fit you.
