Roguelike of the Year - getting the list sorted

[Krice]

Heh, even the newcomer Rogue's Tale Krice?     It even measures itself on the Berlin definition directly~

It's released next year I guess. But I have to say that it looks quite neat. However it's commercial which I hate in roguelike games.

[andrewdoull]

Some further commentary:

The list I've put together comes from a search of freeindiegam.es, Rock Paper Shotgun and indiegames.com for the word roguelike in articles in the last 12 months and picking anything that was roguelike, roguelike + x, or roguelike mechanics but not loosely based on roguelikes; plus the Steam Greenlight roguelike and roguelike-likes list (with a couple of exceptions e.g. Project Zomboid), plus items I had starred on my RSS feeds or written about the blog throughout the year on new roguelikes. I've excluded stuff which I know will be in e.g. Binding of Isaac, or which is a 7DRL, e.g. Zaga 33, which will also be included.

The criteria for inclusion has historically been the Actively Developing Roguelikes list plus the games featured in the News section of Rogue Basin. If someone can put together a list from December 14 last year of games releases from the IRDB in alphabetical order, that would be of immense help.

I'm not terribly interested in the discussion of whether a game is a roguelike or roguelike-like: as far as I'm concerned a game is a roguelike if it gets at least 1 vote in the Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year poll. However, I'm much more interested in the question of when a game is released: as far as I'm concerned, it is when something playable is available (so alphas and demos are in), but I'm not sure whether an invite only or Kickstarter contributor release counts.

There's also the fact I've just found out about the eroRL subgenre, and I'm really hesitant about including anything from that. I'm going to avoid doing much research about 'release' dates and pretend that means they're disqualified on that basis.

[Ashaman73]

Andrew, I'm following your blog for some years now leading me to this list eventually. My game is on this list as unknown (roguelike or not).

I consider my game as roguelike-like,though I could be alone on this ;-)

Pro:
Well, for one permadeath is a fix part of it, once you lost, you need to restart again and you have randomized dungeons.

Con:
It is realtime, making it even harder, because you don't have as much time to plan your next move as in a turn based game.
It is 3d (first person).

I've been mostly inspired by early graphical adaption of roguelike(-like) games like dungeon master or even to some degree ultima underworld (and dungeon keeper). But
the most notable feature of roguelikes are more a gameplay feeling, not exactly the visuals or controls. Therefor the harsh difficulty (permadeath) is one of the most
notable features in my opinion. Additional the high degree of freedom and the often deep gameplay.

I've a relative open development process, the development follow not a timeline or strict goal, every feature is open for discussion and it will evolve over time (btw. everyone can join the closed alpha).

So, what defines a roguelike ?

Btw. the game I'm talking about is gnoblins.

[Krice]

There's also the fact I've just found out about the eroRL subgenre, and I'm really hesitant about including anything from that.

Don't be boring. I think it's an interesting theme for a roguelike.

[andrewdoull]

There's also the fact I've just found out about the eroRL subgenre, and I'm really hesitant about including anything from that.

Don't be boring. I think it's an interesting theme for a roguelike.

I'm not being boring. I just can't see how a game simple enough to play one handed could be a roguelike.

[Darren Grey]

Almost all of my own roguelikes are designed so you can play them with one hand if you want, and there's plenty you can play with mouse alone.  A low command set is a good design feature in my opinion!

I have yet to check out what EroRL properly is because I'm at work  :/

Non-public releases definitely shouldn't be included in my opinion.  For a start because there's no way you can know about them all, but also because clearly the developer doesn't want public attention on that build yet.

[kraflab]

There's also the fact I've just found out about the eroRL subgenre, and I'm really hesitant about including anything from that.

Don't be boring. I think it's an interesting theme for a roguelike.

I'm not being boring. I just can't see how a game simple enough to play one handed could be a roguelike.

Sounds like you have no imagination.  Epilogue was designed to play with only the left hand, with limited importance of the mouse/right hand.  Only a terrible interface would require typing with two hands...

[guest509]

  You aren't including any of the erotic roguelikes? Why is that? It's your list, but I ask you to reconsider. Is it fear or discomfort driving you, or a real logical reason? Is there a difference? Really?

  I find questions about this sort of thing very interesting to ponder. This genre is often about a hack and slash genocide of different races of creatures, yet we pause at sex. Of course any 'game' that includes rape or pedophilia is right out.

  On another topic, if you are worried about missing something then post the list early. Before the poll goes live. Then announce the poll in the usual places in the usual way asking for additions. When the poll goes live the poll is final. Any stragglers are shit out of luck and should be told so, because at that point I'd say you've done exactly what you needed to do to create a good poll.

If someone truly wanted their game included, if they truly wanted the attention, they'd make sure their game was in there. Or the fans would. I for one plan to make goddamn sure Cardlike - Quest for the Goat Horn and Sun Crusher!!! are included despite their dubious claims to roguelikeness.

Sorry if that sounded a bit ranty...kiss and hugs.  

[guest509]

  How about Cardlike 2.0, released in spring but only on Roguetemple.

http://roguetemple.com/forums/index.php?topic=2342.msg18785#msg18785

  Talk about a limited release. Plus the added issue of it being a tabletop game.

  If need be I could make a roguebasin page, update the upload and advertise it on the various forums and such. I could make a homepage/blog for it. That would fix the limited release nature.

  As for the tabletop nature of the game, are we letting non-digital games in this year? I may have snuck under the wire a bit when I released the first cardlike as a 7DRL. It's inclusion in 2011 does not necessarily mean we are accepting tabletop submissions in general.

  I say this: When in doubt, include it. Keep the genre open and experimental. You don't have to scan boardgamegeek looking for dungeon crawlers, but if someone releases a table game meant for the roguelike community. I say let it in.

  Also Legend did a tabletop game as part of this year's 7DRL. It should be included even if mine is not.

[AgingMinotaur]

Fog and Thunder: Played it (pretty nice). I'd say it's a roguelike, at least if you include eg. MicRogue and certain 7DRLs,.

EroRLs: +1 to what Jo and Krice said. If you're talking about stuff like Noxico and Seduction Quest, there really should be no question about whether to allow them in the poll. Isn't it just like: "You're the @ next to the B, but really a batwinged pony having sex with a half-naga bellydancer"?

As always,
Minotauros

[Ancient]

 You aren't including any of the erotic roguelikes? Why is that? It's your list, but I ask you to reconsider. Is it fear or discomfort driving you, or a real logical reason? Is there a difference? Really?

This was not aimed at me, but I did the very same thing for Actively Developing Roguelikes list so I might as well give my answer. Noxico was left out intentionally.

The thing is simple, really. I regard erotic games as genre of its own. Erotic roguelike would be aimed much more at providing player with some kind of sexual adventures than providing tactical challenges. So far, Noxico development goals confirm this. Thus, it is much more an adult game than a roguelike. Sex in games does not cause me discomfort. But to remain truly roguelike, it must be a tactical element like foocubi in SLASH'EM (where you even have celibate conduct tracked) or greys in ZapM.

Heck, I am one of the developers of PRIME. There we have aliens using anal probes on you of all the things. Internally, the probes deal violating "damage" type. You get sore butt timed intrinsic and penalty to speed because you need to walk bow-legged for awhile. If that is not including blatant sex references I don't know what is.

Our to-do list includes conduct too. Not getting probed by reticulans (or probing yourself for whatever reason) is planned to net you virginity conduct worth some additional points upon ascension.

[Kawa]

Erotic roguelike would be aimed much more at providing player with some kind of sexual adventures than providing tactical challenges. So far, Noxico development goals confirm this.

One of the development goals is to have hostile characters switch between long and short range weapons. I monologued about it on #rgrd a good while back, at length. My point being that the balance is not shifted that far towards the sexy side.

One other goal, being playable with one hand, isn't that high a priority, and I want to do that to make the controls nice and easy, compared to Nethack for example. The other reason is... a bonus.

...and even then, the keys are user-defined.

[jim]

Since a game is a roguelike provided that someone votes for it, I submit that we include www.pornhub.com as a candidate for best roguelike of the year.

Features:

1. Permadeath (once you're gone, you're gone - at least this is true for 96% of pornhub viewers)
2. Procedurally generated content (suggested videos)
3. Boobs

[Krice]

The thing is simple, really. I regard erotic games as genre of its own.

Well, so what? There are other genres included in roguelike family, even real time platformer games. It's funny how a game with some erotic content suddenly becomes something else than a game. Even Nethack has erotic content if you ask from a person who thinks anything related to sex is satanic.

[andrewdoull]

Almost all of my own roguelikes are designed so you can play them with one hand if you want, and there's plenty you can play with mouse alone.

Sounds like you have no imagination.  Epilogue was designed to play with only the left hand, with limited importance of the mouse/right hand.  Only a terrible interface would require typing with two hands...

You might want to recalibrate your sense-of-humour-tron.

I'm hesitant because erotica is usually handled badly in computer games. The major of games are about conflict, and conflict and erotica together have a nasty tendency to conflate into representations of sexual violence which is something I don't wish to condone - which could be the misinterpretation if I put a game featuring this in a GotY poll.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to do the research to determine if its the case for any of the games discussed here. So I have to go on second hand advice, which based on the original discussion on the Something Awful forums doesn't look like I'll be including any of the games mentioned here.