The deeply simulated roguelike strangeness of Caves of Qud won this year’s Hugo Award for Best Game or Interactive Work
The Hugo Awards: they’re not just for science-fiction novels that make you think “I should read that one day” and never do. Now they’ve got an interactive category, so once a year you can be told how excellent one more videogame is, think “I should play that one day,” and then never get around to that either.
This year the winner of the Best Game or Interactive Work category is Caves of Qud, a game we gave a score of 94% to back in December so you can keep that “if it’s so good how come I’ve never heard of it” comment to yourself.
Caves of Qud, pronounced “cud”, is a roguelike so old-fashioned it’s barely got graphics, which fully simulates every NPC in its baffling world full of weirdos. To quote from our review, “The main quest takes you on a journey well-suited to pit stops, dotted with odd characters like a deaf-mute albino bear-porcupine gunsmith and a very rude talking fungus you have to bring with you by letting it grow on your skin.”
This year’s Hugo Award for Best Novel went to The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett and Best Series went to Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse. Dune Part Two picked up Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form while Star Trek: Lower Decks won Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, which is a nice send-off for it. (The tie-in comic Warp Your Own Way picked up best Best Graphic Story or Comic as well.)
The Best Game or Interactive Work category was added to the Hugos back in 2021 as an experiment, when it was won by Hades. The experiment must have worked because it’s since become a permanent addition, with Baldur’s Gate 3 winning it in 2024.
The other nominees this year were 1000xResist, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Tactical Breach Wizards, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which I will go to the grave defending no matter what anyone else thinks about it.
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