Locus Magazine (@locusmag.bsky.social)
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The #HugoAward for Best Game or Interactive Work goes to Caves of Qud.
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23
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23d

Wooo. Really glad it won and mad props to Bucklew (who is a great bsky follow)

And ignoring the long chain from someone who never even looked at the grpahics of this or old windows games:

Honestly? Qud might be one of the best Steam Deck experiences out there. No, I don’t know how that happened either. But the UI and graphics scale perfectly (after a lot of work by the devs) and the game is shockingly gamepad friendly. And with it being one of the weirdest AND most approachable roguelikes out there (come at me Berlin), it maps perfectly towards quick sessions.

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322d

I love QUD and I have never in my wildest dreams thought to try to play it on the steam deck. I’ll have to give it a go sometime

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1723d

:D

Live and Drink

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424d

The graphics are too primitive for me, which is a shame. I don’t consider myself a graphics snob, but this looks like something that came out 35 years ago.

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-2723d

this looks like something that came out 35 years ago.

Super Mario World came out 35 years ago. There’s no excuse for a game to look this primitive in 2025.

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222d

How about a game developed by two people on their own winning an award which was won last year by a game with a budget somewhere north 100 million dollars?

Is that a good excuse?

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21d

ConcernedApe created Stardew Valley entirely by himself.

So “no”.

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123d

In my opinion Story and experience has a greater impact than graphics.

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1923d

Not all games are about graphics, and this looks completely serviceable to me. I understand struggling with ASCII roguelike interfaces (never really got the hang of it myself), but everything here looks easily identifiable.

Jerkface (any/all)
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23d

What do you expect a roguelike (in the most classical sense) to look like???

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-1024d

Same, I could play it if it was like nes pixel art even. But this looks like it was developed on windows 95 when only ascii art was available.

And the constant text updating you on what is around you bcz the graphics are so primitive.

Based on the description I thought it would be really interesting. But after watching a YouTube video, I was like, eehhhhh, not for me.

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2123d

developed on windows 95 when only ascii art was available

There was never such a time…

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-1823d

Yes there absolutely was, probably actually before windows 95. But even in 95 there were a lot of crappy ascii art games bcz there wasn’t anything better technologically, so nobody would actually call it crappy.

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23d

windows 3.1 was first widespread used version of windows. But DOS games still had graphics. Nethack is a great game that is simple enough to learn, in mechanics, but you have to die 1000 times to actually learn.

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If only ASCII art was available, then Windows 95 itself wouldn’t have been possible, being a graphical OS. Games in the 70s and 80s had non-ascii graphics.

I’ve played hundreds of games before Windows 95 came out and I’ve never actually played an ASCII art game. Not even text adventures that I’ve played used ASCII art.

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deleted by creator

Jerkface (any/all)
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223d

You’re seriously losing the plot.

BeeegScaaawyCripple
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1423d

in 95 there were a lot of crappy ascii art games bcz there wasn’t anything better technologically

i mean i still have my old 3.5 and 5.25 floppy collection of sierra games published in DOS, pre-windows (since you obviously weren’t around then), that doesn’t use any ascii art. you’re the one throwing out wild anachronisms to make a point you don’t have.

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1223d

developed on windows 95 when only ascii art was available

Nowhere did I ever imply that ascii art was the only thing available

k

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1423d

Graphical video games predate ASCII.

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323d

You know the Hugo is usually given to authors of books?

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23d

What’s your point? The game isnt my cup of tea. That’s all I was saying. If you like it, thats fine.

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1423d

It’s a traditional roguelike with tiles…

Honestly yeah, graphics snob. I agree that if you played it for a few hours you’d get used to it.

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24d

The game was in development from 2007 to December 2024 so not that far off…

It’s surprising how quick you can get used to the graphics with the amazing world building. I wasn’t sure at first, but now I love the visual style.

Obviously not for everyone though.

BeeegScaaawyCripple
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4223d

okay i hadn’t played it yet. you had me worried it was

kinda lookin bullshit. i’m not a graphics snob but i can’t go back to that. here’s caves of qud


it’s fucking gorgeous if you ask me, but i’ve just seen screenshots and art is subjective

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523d

Well Rogue did come out 45 years ago. 35 years ago was around the end of the NES/start of SNES generation.

BeeegScaaawyCripple
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1223d

shut up shut up shut up i am still 27

Half-Life is as old as you are.

BeeegScaaawyCripple
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523d

yesss the game i played in college yesss i was born that year i feel better now jesus fuck.

brunoqc
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623d

It also have great effects for explosions and, iirc, mind attacks thingy.

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423d

First screen is much more readable at a glance.

BeeegScaaawyCripple
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223d

i haven’t played it. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for. all i see is pretty.

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422d

Yeah, there’s a definite Commodore 64 aesthetic to it, but it feels like every pixel is meaningful. It’s all just detailed enough to be able to tell what’s going on.

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1723d

I also think it’s a nice-looking game. The graphics help convey the setting really well, IMO. I really enjoyed it.

BeeegScaaawyCripple
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923d

Right? The graphic choice tells me what I’m getting, and they somehow made it pretty. There could be more signs telling me to play it, but I don’t really need them.

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223d

Yeah I feel the same way. I grew up with 8 bit graphics and every time I pick up my steam deck I’m amazed at how things look today, how far we’ve come. I have no desire to go back to the way things were. I know this means I may miss out on some cool experiences, but there’s so much other stuff to play and so little time. It’s great that people enjoy the retro look but it’s not for me.

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2
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23d

People are sensitive about this. I didn’t think our opinions were controversial but you got a downvote within a few minutes of leaving your comment. That was fast.

We’re not even criticizing it, just saying it’s not for us. I was born in 85 and used computers in the computer lab at school in the 90s that were too old to even have mice, they were keyboard only. We played educational games on them like Oregon Trail and lots of math games. These graphics remind me of those. I’m just not interested in going back that far.

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2023d

Hey hey people, COQ here

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1023d

Seth’s Comment section on this vid specifically is an absolute cesspool

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1
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23d

What video are you referring to? All I could find searching on YouTube was a single stream with comments disabled followed by pages of videos complaining about how “woke” the awards are.

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222d

The Caves of Qud video.

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Ah, right. I thought you meant a comment under the awards themselves.

Is there any video of his whose comment section isn’t a complete cesspool? His edgy 4chan-lite schtick draws in the worst sorts of people to become fans.

Sseth also destroys the culture around the indie games he covers. Whenever he does a video on a niche game, the flood of viewers overwhelms the existing community with toxicity and many of them never fully recover.

I’m still mad he turned the wider community of the game Starsector from mostly left-leaning fans of classic sci-fi into a bunch of stereotypical Redditors who constantly joke about committing rape and genocide - his fans even spearheading development of a mod to add those into the game. Fucking disgusting.

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219d

Yeah, He attracts a horde of 4-chinners to every fucking Game he covers.

Noxy
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423d

As was his video itself

ZeroOne
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-123d

Nah his videos are fine enough, it’s Max0r’s that you should avoid

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222d

Seth is funny. He is also racist, homophobic and makes a “da joos Control ebriting” joke 3 times per vid.

Which is a shame, because he is funny when he doesn’t do these jokes.

Noxy
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122d

Nah, they aren’t. His videos are racist and queerphobic and toxic as fuck

2deck
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122d

The writing is excellent. I enjoyed examining all the mundane things in the world to read descriptions that always seemed to start from a novel perspective.

Here’s the description of a Wide Brimmed Hat; “The crown is crushed by wear into a hundred papery creases, and the brim is stained in the fractal signatures of sweat and salt.”

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723d

Hello brother of the merchant’s guild

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3524d

Well deserved. Live and drink, friend.

Agent Karyo
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Well deserved!

It’s one of the few games where I truly felt I was in an alien/different (sci-fi) world.

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