Categories

Official Development State classification:

• Major Roguelikes: Tested by time and found worthy, these are the representatives of the roguelike genre.
• Stable games: Playable games in their current state, these roguelikes merely lack a few thousand rabid fans to become the next generation of representatives.
• Beta Projects: Released for public consumption, but not yet considered a complete game. The public is warned that they might want to await a more final release.
• Alpha Projects: Released by their developers as a proof of work, although not yet playable.
• Talkie Talkie Projects: Projects that have been discussed, but for which no actual code or executable has been seen.

Evolutionary Branch Classification

These are the two main evolutionary branches taken from Rogue. Of course, many roguelikes belong to neither branch, especially the newer ones which take ideas from other gaming genres such as simulation and strategy. (Rogue itself, for example, can't be meaningfully ascribed to one branch or the other)

1. Hacklike. These are games that owe inspiration primarily from the Hack line of games. NetHack is the most advanced in this genre. Adom and Crawl may also be considered Hacklikes.
2. Band. These are games which owe inspiration from the Moria line of games. Properly, this would only refer to Angband and its variants (see Angband Variants), but one can extend it to other games with similar playstyle. Diablo is considered a Band by those who consider it a roguelike.