Turning over a new leaf
Caves of Qud is a game well liked over here at RPS; Brendan gave it the coveted Bestest Bests badge back when it launched into 1.0 a couple of years ago, and all! It's a game I still want to reckon with more deeply, and perhaps with the reveal of its first expansion I'll be more enticed to. It's called Diaspora, and its biggest feature is probably the fact that you'll be able to play as plants and animals. Interestingly, much like the base game before it, developer Freehold Games will also be releasing Diaspora into early access, a unique step to take for a bit of DLC.
"Caves of Qud is an extremely complicated game with many interlocking systems & features and lots of unpredictable, emergent gameplay," a blog post explains as to why the expansion will be released in early access. "Diaspora will add a whole new layer to that. Just like with the base game, our approach to building something this complex is to have the community stress test it the whole way." And complex it sounds! As mentioned, there'll be a range of animals to play as, from cats, dogs, frogs and chameleons to vines and trees.
With these new playable flora and fauna, there are new mutations to be found like claws, muzzles, tails, and there are new creatures to be found too, with a bunch of "artifacts of disparate cultures" to boot. The DLC also boasts improved road and river networks that "use a much more sophisticated set of worldbuilding algorithms to snake their way through Qud. Follow a road and there's a good chance you'll arrive at an interesting location."
The early access release of the DLC is arriving quite soon, too: December 9th. There are some big plans for more additions to the expansion throughout 2027 as well, including a new questline that focuses on "the migrants’ journey into Qud and an idiosyncratic dromad known as Je'ome the Bounty," two new humanoid factions called the foxen and snailfolk, more creatures, items, biomes, ingredients and diseases, and the addition of "roaming mega-caravans, underground villages, multi-zone dungeons/arcological spaces, new music and more."
An update to the base game is also planned, which'll arrive either slightly before Diaspora comes out of early access, or when it does. You can expect some of those free additions in the DLC first, "since those updates will be driving a lot of Diaspora's content." Updates should also be weekly, or monthly if there's a lot going on, with a roadmap coming at launch in December. Neat stuff!