Happy GROGSversary! As we celebrate one whole year of doing this program, we combine our forces to attempt our own answer at the unsolvable question of “what is a roguelike?” In possibly our lon...
Happy GROGSversary! As we celebrate one whole year of doing this program, we combine our forces to attempt our own answer at the unsolvable question of “what is a roguelike?” In possibly our longest episode to date, we dive into the pre-history of rogue-games, the infamous Berlin Interpretation, and just how “rogue-lite” games fit into all this. We talk about jazz subgenres, whether or not Minecraft is a roguelike game, Solitaire (yes that one), hierarchies of game design needs, and who could forget Elf Metal! Of course, no one can be told what a roguelike is, you have to experience them for yourself.
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2:56 - Today’s fight club topic: What is a roguelike game?
4:07 - Our story begins / why do we care?
13:30 - One-sentence summaries of roguelike genre definitions
15:30 - What is the original 1980 Rogue, the first games like Rogue, the Berlin Interpretation
30:00 - What are rogue-lites? 2008’s Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, and Rogue Legacy
49:32 - Are “-lite” games less hardcore? Does metaprogression matter?
56:42 - How roguelike is this game? (Minecraft, Diablo, X-Com, Into the Breach, Deep Rock Galactic, Don’t Starve, Inscryption, Gloomhaven)
1:08:30 - Data-driven roguey-ness and Steam tags
1:16:28 - Can board games be roguelikes?
1:20:55 - Do music genres suffer the same problem that the rogue-community has?
1:27:00 - Summary and final thoughts
As promised, below you can find some of our notes referenced in this chonker of a recording:
Our collected list of roguelike definitions over the years
Scott’s 16 pages of show notes
Will’s hierarchy of game needs
Colin’s google sheet of undebateably roguey-ness scores
Check out Scott’s tangentially related talk on The Data Science of Roguelikes here!
See how the genre has evolved over time with our definitions timeline here.
Next episode: Rimworld
Contact us at grogpodzone@gmail.com!
https://grogpod.zone
Intro music: Bill Evans - Nardis
Outro music: Tarn Adams - Dwarf Fortress mode theme
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