Caves of Qud is great. Like, "you can be a four-armed, winged gorilla man with a monofilament sword and unfortunate nearsightedness"-level great. It's a roguelike that delivers procedurally generated delight on par with Dwarf Fortress (a quick glance at the review will tell you that's one of the highest compliments I can give). But like Dwarf Fortress, Caves of Qud has suffered from a near-impenetrable interface—until now.
The main highlight of the Spring Molting update, arriving today, is a complete UI replacement. Almost every menu and interface element has been redesigned. In a victory for my long-suffering wrists, the entire game can now be navigated entirely with a mouse or gamepad, instead of just with keys. At last, Qud features more wandering across mutant-wracked, salt-blasted wastes and less wondering how you even look at your character sheet.
If you haven't played Caves of Qud, 1) you're missing out, and 2) you should watch the Spring Molting update trailer for a quick sense of just how much work has gone into the game refresh. Seriously. The before and after comparisons might as well be from two different games. I mean, the new, graphical equipment screen dynamically maps to your character's body layout—no matter how many limbs your psychic crab person may gain and/or lose! I hope you're clapping with at least three of your hands.
There's a pile of other updates, too. Psionic assailants and interdimensional horrors of all kinds have gotten new visual and sound effects for their abilities. Joppa, the game's tutorial village, has been improved with new NPC dialog and quest signposting, making it both easier to navigate for new players and a little more flavorful.
I've been playing the beta versions of a lot of the Spring Molting update's features for a few weeks, and it's genuinely impressive how much simpler it is to get in, make a cyborg with robot fingers that let him shoot pistols faster, and get killed in the salt desert by fire-breathing sky snakes. To experience that for yourself, you can find Caves of Qud in early access on Steam. Qud's due to release in 1.0 later this year.
