Caves of Qud: Diaspora breaks new ground by being the first early access DLC

Imran Khan,Contributing Editor

October 15, 2026

schedule3 Min ReadImage via Freehold Games/Kitfox Games

Caves of Qud has been in some form of development since 2007 when Freehold Games began development on it. It didn't hit Steam Early Access, the PC gaming store's program for letting in-development games be sold and shaped with community feedback, until 2015, and then spent roughly nine years doing that until a 1.0 release in 2024.

But Caves of Qud is, in a form, coming back to Early Access through its new DLC titled Diaspora, which is a first for Steam.

Generally when a game leaves the Early Access program, it's akin to a graduation. Caves of Qud bringing new content back to the model has not been done before. It is unclear if there were specific rules prohibiting this or if simply no one ever thought to do it, but DLC content usually just launches in a 1.0 state.

"I was a bit hesitant at first to be honest," Kitfox Games co-founder and head of publishing Tanya X. Short tells Game Developer. "But Jason [Grinblat] and Brian [Bucklew] were really keen to continue with the development strategy that had been so successful for the main game throughout their long Early Access."

Short points out that Valve, owner and maintainer of Steam, has been a supportive partner in these uncharted waters. Apparently the company had to make a "manual adjustment" in Steam's backend to "enable it as an option."

"Their store page review then flagged it as a bug," she added.

It's unusual to release DLC expansions officially in Early Access

Freehold's official statement on why it is choosing early access for Diaspora is rather candid. In a press statement, the studio states "One, Caves of Qud is an extremely complicated game with many interlocking systems & features and lots of unpredictable, emergent gameplay. Diaspora will add a whole new layer to that. Just like with the base game, our approach to building something this complex is to have the community stress test it the whole way.

"Two, Caves of Qud development is slow. It takes a long time and a lot of love to hit the quality bar we set for ourselves. We don't want to be beholden to a timeline that forces us to compromise the expansion's vision. And so, by working in Early Access, we're able to fund Diaspora's development as it happens, watering the flower as it blooms."

It is unclear how well this plan will play out, just as it's difficult to foresee how anything new will play out. But just as Caves of Qud hopped on to the Early Access program relatively nascently into its rollout, the title is perhaps leading the charge again for developers that may be keeping an eye out for new communication and development models for extra content.

"[Brian and Jason] love working with their players, and they already had all the processes and habits to do it again, so why not?" says Short when asked why she agreed to pursue this novel idea. "It would have been uncomfortable and against their natures to work in a totally closed-room environment, rather than develop alongside feedback from their players."

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About the Author

Imran Khan

Contributing Editor

Imran Khan has been in the games industry in various forms for over two decades. He has been a former senior editor at Game Informer, a professional loudmouth at Kinda Funny, and news director at Fanbyte. He has also been doing PR for Vicarious PR and Head of U.S. PR for Japanese VR studio MyDearest, in addition to Producer work on their latest title Brazen Blaze.

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