Freehold Games
Freehold Games business and news from across the web.
'Consume Me' Wins Grand Prize, Nuovo Award at the 2025 IGF AwardsThe indie game 'Consume Me' by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken "coda" Snyder won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and the Nuovo Award at the 2025 Independent Games Festival. The festival, held at the Game Developers Conference, also awarded prizes for Excellence in Visual Art, Audio, Design, Narrative, Best Student Game, Audience Award, and the alt.ctrl.gdc Award to various other independent titles.
Are these the 100 most influential games of all time?Kitfox Games CEO Tanya Short discusses a list of the 100 most influential video games of all time, compiled by professional game designers. The list, assembled through the Polaris game design retreat, aims to serve as a tool for designers to improve their craft and create influential games.
'I'm not sure it was a rational decision': Caves of Qud devs ported the roguelike to Nintendo Switch because they're 'interested in solving impossible problems'Freehold Games co-creator Brian Bucklew discusses the decision to port the roguelike RPG Caves of Qud to the Nintendo Switch, driven by a desire to solve complex technical challenges and prove the market for deep, systemic games on the platform. The team is now exploring a mobile port, building on optimizations made for the Switch version.
'We're playing game designs from 2005 still': Caves of Qud's co-creator wants to build new kinds of sicko gameplay systems that'll use all the processing potential being left untappedCaves of Qud co-creator Brian Bucklew believes current game development, particularly in the AAA space, is not fully utilizing the processing and networking capabilities of modern hardware. He suggests future games could explore more complex systems and simulations by leveraging untapped CPU potential, potentially leading to experiences that are initially demanding but will become more accessible over time, similar to Caves of Qud's own development trajectory.- Marathon's secret sauce has a special ingredient: the team behind masterful indie roguelike Caves of QudBrian Bucklew and Jason Grinblat, the creators of the indie roguelike Caves of Qud, have revealed their involvement in assisting the narrative team for the upcoming game Marathon. The Freehold Games developers contributed to Marathon's narrative for several years.
Feature: Nintendo Life eShop Selects (February 2026)Nintendo Life's eShop Selects for February 2026 highlights the best digital-only Nintendo Switch releases. Caves of Qud took first place, praised for its depth and rewarding roguelike experience. The Disney Afternoon Collection and Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition secured second and third place, respectively, celebrating classic titles.