Difference between revisions of "What a roguelike is"

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"'''What is a roguelike?'''" is a tricky question; it is hard to conceive a roguelike '''definition''' with which everybody will agree as this is a gaming genre that has evolved and has a dynamic definition as well.
"'''What is a roguelike?'''" is a tricky question; it is tough to conceive a roguelike definition with which everybody will agree as this is a gaming genre that has evolved over time. As such, this article is not meant to ''define'' roguelikes, but merely to describe what they often have in common.


However, roguelikes do share some elements. Some of the most common elements in roguelikes are:
Some of the most common elements in roguelikes are:
* The [[User Interface]] : ASCII display of a tiled world has become a distinctiveness of roguelikes.
*The [[User Interface]]: ASCII display of a tiled world has become a distinctive feature of roguelikes.
* The [[Game World]] : random world generation may be the most common feature of roguelike games. And they usually provide little plot.
*The [[Game World]]: random world generation may be the most common feature of roguelike games. They usually provide little plot, and instead focus on creating unique layouts.
* The [[Gameplay]] : turn-based gameplay and dungeon hack are most often proposed.
*The [[Gameplay]]: turn-based gameplay and dungeon hack are most often proposed.


Even among the "[[Major Roguelikes|major roguelikes]]", it is not uncommon for one or several of the above guidelines to be broken, such as ASCII character display (many offer a graphical-tile alternative) or plotlessness ([[ADOM]] is heavy on plot).
Even among the "[[Major Roguelikes|major roguelikes]]", it is not uncommon for one or several of the above guidelines to be broken, such as ASCII character display (Many offer a sprite mode and options.) or plotlessness. ([[ADOM]] is heavy on plot.)


== User interface ==
==User interface==
*[[ASCII]] [[character display]]: games use no sprites or wireframe models but rather a two-dimensional character grid viewed from above, in which each [[character]] represents an entity. For example, a human may be plotted as a '@', a dragon as a 'D', etc.
*Narrated action: short text descriptions are given for almost all game events except ordinary movement.
*Front-loaded commands: the player has knowledge of and access to all (or almost all) commands at the start of the game, often long before acquiring the objects or powers that make the command useful.
*Keyboard-based interaction: The keyboard is the traditional way to interact with the game world, as it provides the quickest way to access the several commands that a roguelike may have. There are certain [[Preferred Key Controls|popular schemas]] of keyboard usage.


* [[ASCII]] [[character display]]: games use no graphic tiles or 3D models but rather a two-dimensional character grid viewed from above, in which each [[character]] represents an entity. For example, a human may be plotted as a '@', a dragon as a 'D', etc.
==Game world==
* Narrated action: short text descriptions are given for almost all game events except ordinary movement.
*[[Random]] [[world generation]]: some parts of the world in which the action is performed are generated using a random algorithm; this is made for the sake of replayability so that every gaming session is unique.
* Front-loaded commands: the player has knowledge of and access to all (or almost all) commands at the start of the game, often long before acquiring the objects or powers that make the command useful.
*[[Spatial Consistency|Spatial consistency]]: all the actions happen in a definite space. No warping to fight scenes or minigames on a different reality.
* Keyboard based interaction: The keyboard is the traditional way to interact with the game world, as it provides the quickest way to access the several commands that a roguelike may have. There are certain [[PreferredKeyControls|popular schemas]] of keyboard usage.
*Little [[Plot|storyline]]: a gripping plot is not typically the selling point of any roguelike. The story is usually kept to a minimum to enhance replayability.
*[[World interaction]]: few or no objects adorn the world; most of them have a use in the game.
*Setting: some of the common settings for the world include the personification of a [[character]] fighting whose way into a [[dungeon]] and acquiring [[item|items]] via monster treasures or [[town]] supply. The world commonly has [[magic]] forces of different kinds to increase the possible interactions.


== Game world ==
==Gameplay==
*Grid-based motion: all objects, monsters, players, terrain, dungeon features, etc. are restricted to a grid. The early roguelikes, being text-based, didn't have much choice regarding the grid, and grid-restricted play is considered a mandatory attribute of roguelikes out of tradition.
*[[Permadeath]]: once your character dies your savefile disappears; this encourages careful chosen [[tactics]], cold sweat when fighting big baddies, and curses when your character dies, as well as a great sense of accomplishment in every victory.
*Freedom: the player may choose to do anything who wants in the game.  There are no fixed plots; you can roam freely or look for the endgame goal.
*[[Turn-based]]: the time freezes in order to make the best of decisions when time comes.
*Dungeon hack: your goal is to kill [[monster]]s and find powerful treasures in order to kill stronger ones and repeat the process.
*Tactical single-character play: the unit of action is based on the individual adventurer. The game is not twitch oriented (like Quake, rewarding reflexes and well trained actions) nor is it strategy oriented (like Civilization or Warcraft, requiring working on the large picture).


* [[Random]] [[world generation]]: some parts of the world in which the action is performed are generated using a random algorithm; this is made for the sake of replayability, thus every gaming session is unique.
==The Berlin Interpretation==
* [[Spatial Consistency]]: All the actions happen in a definite space. No warping to fight scenes or minigames on a different reality.
The first International Roguelike Development Conference held in Berlin, Germany in 2008 addressed this question.  The result of those discussions was the [[Berlin Interpretation]].
* Little [[Plot|storyline]]: a gripping plot is not typically the selling point of any roguelike. The story is usually kept to a minimum to enhance replayability.
* [[World interaction]]: little or no objects lie as an adornment in the world; most of them have a use in the game.
* Setting: Some of the common settings for the world include the personification of a [[character]] fighting his way into a [[dungeon]] and adquiring [[item|items]] via monster treasures or [[town]] supply. The world commonly has [[magic]] forces of different kinds to increase the possible interactions.
 
== Gameplay ==
 
* [[Permadeath]]: once your character dies your savefile disappears; this encourages careful choosen [[tactics]], cold sweat when fighting big baddies and curses when your character dies; as well as a great sense of accomplishment in every [[win|Ascension]].
* Freedom: the player may choose to do anything he wants in the game; there are no fixed plots, you can roam freely or look for the final game goal.
* [[Turn-based]]: the time freezes in order to take the best of decisions when time comes.
* Dungeon hack: your goal is to kill [[monster]]s and find powerful treasures in order to kill stronger ones and repeat the process.
* Tactical single character play: the unit of action is based on the individual adventurer. The game is not twitch oriented (like Quake, rewarding reflexes and well trained actions) nor is it strategy oriented (like Civilization or Warcraft, requiring working on the large picture).
 
== Roguelike Definition, the Berlin Interpretation V0.2 ==
 
*THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS*
 
Preamble:
 
This definition of "Roguelike" was created at the International
Roguelike Development Conference 2008 and is the product of a
discussion between all who attended. The definition at
http://www.roguetemple.com/roguelike-definition/  was used as the
starting point for the discussions.  Most factors are newly phrased,
new factors have been added, some factors have been removed.
 
General Principles:
 
"Roguelike" refers to a genre, not merely "like-Rogue".  The genre is
represented by its canon.  The canon for Roguelikes is ADOM, Angband,
Crawl, Nethack, and Rogue.
 
This list can be used to determine how roguelike a game is.  Missing
some points does not mean the game is not a roguelike.  Likewise,
possessing some points does not mean the game is a roguelike.
 
The purpose of the definition is for the roguelike community to better
understand what the community is studying.  It is not to place
constraints on developers or games.
 
High value factors
----
 
Random environment generation
      The game world is randomly generated in a way that increases replayability. Appearance and placement of items is random.
Appearance of monsters is fixed, their placement is random.
Fixed content (plots or puzzles or vaults) removes randomness.
 
Permadeath, permafailure
      Works good with replayability, even forces it. Presupposes random world.
 
Turn-based interaction
      The game is not sensitive to time, you can take your time to think about the moves.
 
Grid-based
      The world is represented by discrete units. Monsters (and the player) take up one cell, regardless of size.
 
Non-modal gameplay
      Movement, battle and other actions take place in the same mode.  Every action should be available at any point of the game. Violations to this are ADOM's overworld or Angand's and Crawl's shops.
 
Complexity
      The game has enough complexity to allow several solutions to common goals. This is obtained by providing enough item/monster and item/item interactions and is strongly connected to having just one mode.
 
Resource management
      You have to manage your limited resources (e.g. food, healing potions) and find uses for the resources you receive.
 
Hack'n'slash
      Even though there can be much more to the game, killing lots of monsters is a very important part of a roguelike.  The game is player-vs-world: there are no monster/monster relations (like enmities, or diplomacy).
 
Exploration and discovery
      The game requires you to carefully explore the dungeon levels and discover the usage of unidentified items. This has to be done anew every time the player starts a new game.
 
Low value factors
----
 
Single player character.
      The player controls a single character. The game is player-centric, the world is viewed through that one character and that character's death is the end of the game.
 
Monsters are similar to players
      Rules that apply to the player apply to monsters as well. They have inventories, equipment, use items, cast spells etc.
 
Learning curve
      You have to learn about the tactics and/or strategy before you can make any significant progress. (Due to random environments and permanent death, roguelikes are challenging to new players.)
 
ASCII display
      The traditional display for roguelikes is a character based display (e.g. as a console application).
 
Dungeons
      Roguelikes contain dungeons, such as levels composed of rooms and corridors.
 
Numbers
      The numbers used to describe the character (hit points, attributes etc.) are deliberately shown.
 
== External links ==


==External links==
Many people have tried to define roguelike games.  Here is a collection of links to pages that purport to do just that:
Many people have tried to define roguelike games.  Here is a collection of links to pages that purport to do just that:


* See [[Roguelike Alphabet]] for some other minor aspects of roguelikes, and how they relate to each other.
*See [[Roguelike Alphabet]] for some other minor aspects of roguelikes, and how they relate to each other.
* [http://www.adom.de/adom/roguelike.php3 ADOM's] definition.
*[http://www.adom.de/adom/roguelike.php3 ADOM's] definition.
* [http://users.tkk.fi/~eye/roguelike/index.html The Guide to Roguelike Games] definition.
*[http://www.zincland.com/powder/index.php?pagename=about POWDER's] definition.
* [http://www.zincland.com/powder/index.php?pagename=about POWDER's] definition.
*[https://blog.roguetemple.com/what-is-a-traditional-roguelike/ Roguetemple's] definition
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike Wikipedia's] definition.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike Wikipedia's] definition.


[[Category:articles]]
[[Category:articles]]

Revision as of 12:50, 8 January 2020

"What is a roguelike?" is a tricky question; it is tough to conceive a roguelike definition with which everybody will agree as this is a gaming genre that has evolved over time. As such, this article is not meant to define roguelikes, but merely to describe what they often have in common.

Some of the most common elements in roguelikes are:

  • The User Interface: ASCII display of a tiled world has become a distinctive feature of roguelikes.
  • The Game World: random world generation may be the most common feature of roguelike games. They usually provide little plot, and instead focus on creating unique layouts.
  • The Gameplay: turn-based gameplay and dungeon hack are most often proposed.

Even among the "major roguelikes", it is not uncommon for one or several of the above guidelines to be broken, such as ASCII character display (Many offer a sprite mode and options.) or plotlessness. (ADOM is heavy on plot.)

User interface

  • ASCII character display: games use no sprites or wireframe models but rather a two-dimensional character grid viewed from above, in which each character represents an entity. For example, a human may be plotted as a '@', a dragon as a 'D', etc.
  • Narrated action: short text descriptions are given for almost all game events except ordinary movement.
  • Front-loaded commands: the player has knowledge of and access to all (or almost all) commands at the start of the game, often long before acquiring the objects or powers that make the command useful.
  • Keyboard-based interaction: The keyboard is the traditional way to interact with the game world, as it provides the quickest way to access the several commands that a roguelike may have. There are certain popular schemas of keyboard usage.

Game world

  • Random world generation: some parts of the world in which the action is performed are generated using a random algorithm; this is made for the sake of replayability so that every gaming session is unique.
  • Spatial consistency: all the actions happen in a definite space. No warping to fight scenes or minigames on a different reality.
  • Little storyline: a gripping plot is not typically the selling point of any roguelike. The story is usually kept to a minimum to enhance replayability.
  • World interaction: few or no objects adorn the world; most of them have a use in the game.
  • Setting: some of the common settings for the world include the personification of a character fighting whose way into a dungeon and acquiring items via monster treasures or town supply. The world commonly has magic forces of different kinds to increase the possible interactions.

Gameplay

  • Grid-based motion: all objects, monsters, players, terrain, dungeon features, etc. are restricted to a grid. The early roguelikes, being text-based, didn't have much choice regarding the grid, and grid-restricted play is considered a mandatory attribute of roguelikes out of tradition.
  • Permadeath: once your character dies your savefile disappears; this encourages careful chosen tactics, cold sweat when fighting big baddies, and curses when your character dies, as well as a great sense of accomplishment in every victory.
  • Freedom: the player may choose to do anything who wants in the game. There are no fixed plots; you can roam freely or look for the endgame goal.
  • Turn-based: the time freezes in order to make the best of decisions when time comes.
  • Dungeon hack: your goal is to kill monsters and find powerful treasures in order to kill stronger ones and repeat the process.
  • Tactical single-character play: the unit of action is based on the individual adventurer. The game is not twitch oriented (like Quake, rewarding reflexes and well trained actions) nor is it strategy oriented (like Civilization or Warcraft, requiring working on the large picture).

The Berlin Interpretation

The first International Roguelike Development Conference held in Berlin, Germany in 2008 addressed this question. The result of those discussions was the Berlin Interpretation.

External links

Many people have tried to define roguelike games. Here is a collection of links to pages that purport to do just that: