The decades-in-development, deeply systemic roguelike RPG Caves of Qud belongs to the category of “quintessentially PC games,” a classification experts also apply to Deus Ex, Dwarf Fortress, and EVE Online. Notably, none of these games are available on Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 consoles. However, as of February 2026, Caves of Qud will break this trend.
The port seems improbable, given Caves of Qud’s extensive default keyboard usage. Furthermore, it’s hard to imagine a game with its resource-intensive systemic generation running smoothly on the decade-old Nintendo Switch. These very challenges were the motivation behind its creation.
“I’m not sure it was a rational decision,” Qud co-creator Brian Bucklew stated in a recent interview. “I think we are generally interested in solving impossible problems. The idea of getting Caves of Qud to work on Switch—and initially, to make it gamepad-compatible—seemed like something that shouldn’t happen. But the challenge entices me.”
As Bucklew hints, Qud’s transition from powerful PCs to Switch wasn’t an overnight affair. In 2024, months before the game exited early access after many years of development, Qud received a significant UI and control overhaul, making it surprisingly playable on the Steam Deck. Despite its complexity and the abundance of information that can feel cramped on the Steam Deck’s 1280×800 display, the game functions. The clever gamepad binding scheme, with its smart shortcuts and button combinations, makes actions that seemingly would require navigating multiple menus quite easy to perform. Who would have thought examining the lethal geometry of the Chrome Pyramid could be so intuitive?
Bucklew clearly enjoys technical challenges, but the primary driving force was the question of why there aren’t other “quintessentially PC games” on the Switch.
“People believe there’s no market for systemic games on Switch,” he noted. “Many might think a game like Caves of Qud wouldn’t succeed, but there aren’t any, right? So, on what basis is that claim made, especially for a device with such a massive user base? Even if a small number of people want to play a deep systemic game, that represents a significant sales volume for an indie studio. … And I think we’ve proven that a market for this kind of content exists on Switch.”
Bucklew reported that Caves of Qud’s sales on Switch peaked in the top five of the “Physical + Digital” category, encompassing all games. Qud was exclusively released digitally, making its success even more remarkable: at its peak, it surpassed 95 of the top 100 games, including both cartridges and the Nintendo eShop. While he couldn’t disclose specific sales figures, Bucklew mentioned that the game continues to sell well even after leaving the Switch’s elite ranks.
Some design decisions in Qud that enabled gamepad play were made years ago and weren’t always intentional. “We accidentally made a choice to collapse [the approach] older roguelikes used with 20 different keybinds on various letters, where part of their appeal was puzzling out what keybinds even existed,” he explained. While designing Qud, he and Freehold Games co-founder Jason Grinblat decided to make its interactions more menu-driven, unlike genre pioneers such as NetHack.
“The game is still quite complicated and sufficiently interesting to explore, despite having a list of available actions,” he said. “That makes it very amenable to gamepad play, whereas with 70 keybinds, it just wouldn’t [work]. We barely fit onto the gamepad, but we did, because of that decision.”
Now, the Qud team is working on the next challenge: adapting the controls and menus that barely fit on the Switch to a phone screen, supporting both portrait orientation and touch inputs. “We don’t know if we’ll be able to pull off a nice Qud portrait design, but the initial signs look quite promising,” he remarked.
Performance, at least, might not be a major challenge this time. Modern phones are immensely capable, and Freehold has already spent “many months” on performance optimizations to get the game running on the comparatively ancient Switch 1’s CPU.
“People claim, ‘oh, they don’t want to play big RPGs on their phone.’ But are there actual examples of major RPGs designed first for phones? Perhaps a handful. Not many, right? I think people make these claims because nobody takes the risk to do it, and it makes sense for big studios to avoid that risk. But for Qud, we’re building on a 20-year foundation. We’re paying our bills. We can afford these risks.”