Caves of Cud is a roguelike game set in a richly detailed post-apocalyptic world blending

science fiction and fantasy.

The game is known for its deep lore, emergent gameplay, and wildly creative character customization.

It is a massive indie success and recently hit a major milestone with the release of version

1.0 after 15 years of development.

Brian Bucklew is the co-founder of Freehold Games, which develops Caves of Cud.

Brian joins the show to talk about his engineering background and the development of his game.

Joe Nash is a developer, educator, and award-winning community builder,

who has worked at companies including GitHub, Twilio, Unity, and award-winning community builder, who has worked at companies including GitHub,

Twilio, Unity, and PayPal. Joe got a start in software development by creating mods and running

servers for Gary's mod, and game development remains his favorite way to experience and explore

new technologies and concepts.

Music and concepts. Brian, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? Hey, I'm doing fine. Nice to be here.

Awesome.

So before we get into Card, which as we mentioned covers a lot of time, what was your journey into game development?

What led up to the entry into the caves?

Oh, boy, I guess I got started in the 80s.

My father was in a software engineering class.

Ended up in nursing, but at the time was in college.

And for that class, had an Apple 2C in the

house. And so I got started on Apple 2C Basic, just really wanting to play games. Right. We had like

an Atari 2,600 in the house, and we had an Apple 2C in the house. And I was, you know,

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