Hi, I've actually been here for a while, but I don't think I've ever actually posted on this thread, so here goes. 
I actually played my first rogue-like game (NetHack) several years ago.  I didn't actually realize what I was playing, so I looked at it for 10 seconds, hit some buttons, and said, "Meh." About 7 months ago, I found out that NetHack is actually part of a genre , started playing Brogue, and got hooked.  About 5~6 months ago I looked into rogue-like development and started learning C.  I currently have my project (titled "oRLY") in the Pre-Pre-Alpha; basically it has a main menu that you can walk the "@" around on and buttons that go nowhere.  It's a little depressing, because it's basically all planned out and everything, but my imagination is moving faster than my programming skills are progressing.