HackerTube.dev

IRDC US 2015 - Brian Bucklew, Data-Driven Engines of Qud and Sproggiwood

Logo “ND” Surströmming · 38.6K views · 2015-06-10 · 27:10

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Brian Bucklew of Freehold Games discusses design decisions behind Caves of Qud and Sproggiwood at IRDC 2015. The talk centers on data-driven, event-driven engine design.

On Hacker News

HN points to it for insight into how the Caves of Qud developer thinks about game engines.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2022–2024

Topics

Game programming & enginesIndie game developmentSoftware architecture & design
Search by tags
caves of qudroguelikeentity componentevent-driven designgame architecture

What people said

edem · 2023-09 · Recommendation

If you're interested in how Brian thinks take a look at this video: [VIDEO] I've learned a lot from this back in the day!

Read the original HN comment ↗
cdiamand · 2024-12 · Reference

I come back to it from time to time and play for a week. It looks like it's been getting more accessible over time, with a new UI update having been rolled out recently. There's definitely a certain mindset that helps make it more enjoyable. Imagination being key! From the technical side, the developers have peeled back the curtain on how they've created parts of the game: [VIDEO] [LINK]

Read the original HN comment ↗
and0 · 2022-04 · Reference

I'm pretty far into a project to create a Typescript framework for turn and tile-based (think roguelikes) client/server games: [LINK] . Mix of entity-component and event-driven design (inspired by Brian Bucklew [VIDEO] and Thomas Biksup [LINK] , though looking now I'm surprised I landed on a similar but imo more robust event system as I was only looking at EC pattern at the time). Typescript means entity factories and their components can be fully written in the language rather than XML per the videos above, and people can for example distribute a package that is basically DnD5e or Pathfinder rulesets, custom world generators, or anything else to be plugged into a published game. Typical Minecraft "infinite" world data structure, handles binding up event system to component listeners automatically, (will soon) handles serialization, listeners are async generators ala Redux Saga for neat inversion of control and advanced patterns as needed. It doesn't have any specific frontends or clients (APIs and react hooks+utils exist but not super advanced yet, and a small WebGL renderer + react component), it's more a collection of objects that recursively process state updates in response to a user input until it finishes (like a classic console roguelike), and produce a serialized stream of events clients of any kind can listen to, completely agnostic to how any client may choose to represent it, so you could easily make a DM interface vs an interface for players connected to the same

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Logo “ND” Surströmming, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources