I've heard this term thrown around quite a bit. But what is a roguelike, and what makes it different from a dungeon-crawler/standard RPG?
Please read this article on Wikipedia. Best example is probably Rogue Touch. That being said, the most user-friendly roguelike on the device is IMHO Sword of Fargoal, and comes highly recommended as a first roguelike game.
Darn, I leave for 15 minutes and miss my chance to explain the genre! Thanks guys... FYI- Rogue Touch was created as a tribute to the father of the genre, Rogue (the 1980 ASCII version and the mid 80s Atari ST version). Rogue is a game that pulled no punches. Random equipment and randomly created dungeons made it something you'd play over and over again. Games like Sword of Fargoal, Rogue Touch, and Cavern all have their own distinct personality and variation of the concept, and each one is worth owning. Spirit Hunter Mineko is my attempt to give something brand new to the genre that I've loved for so long. If interested, in addition to the front page article you can follow along in the upcoming games thread
To try to simplify the article on Wikipedia, I'll try to explain it easier. Roguelikes are games that are inspired by Rogue. Rogue was pretty much an RPG with a bit of things that made it its own sub-genre. The most important thing it did was it made every level randomly generated. That means that every time you played, it was totally different. Another thing it had that wasn't apparent in most RPGs is its extreme challenge. Death was permanent, meaning when you died, you had to start from the beginning. (which isn't a big deal, since every time you play the game it's different) And also, rogue was made with ASCII graphics, and although it isn't necessary to be in a Roguelike, it is one thing that sort of defined Rogue. So for the most part, Roguelikes are games that are inspired by Rogue, which normally include randomly-generated dungeons, hard difficulty, and permanent death. It's one of my favorite genres, I just wish there were more roguelikes that were really brought up to this time. (like Shiren the Wanderer) I'm looking forward to that game CommanderData!
Yeah, that's pretty much the way I'd describe them. Used to hate the permanent death aspect- put me off them for years- but suddenly it all clicked, especially how it really raises up the tension in each game. A stupid move can see hours of adventure all flushed away... What I like about Cavern, Rogue Touch and Sword of Fargoal on the app store is that they each provide a different rogue style experience. And then there's Nethack etc...The only thing I'd love to see is rogue game set in a different genre- like one involving zombies and ruined city streets, or heading down the floors of a decaying skyscraper etc- rather than always going deeper into dungeons. Although it's not like there aren't enough zombies games on the store already...
You'll be pleased to know that despite being in a fantasy setting, Spirit Hunter Mineko will spend time in a variety of environments, not just "dungeons". Unfortunately there will be no zombies this time around I've also thought of "breaking the mold" and doing a sci-fi roguelike someday. If there's enough interest that just might happen after I wrap up this game
