roguelike

plural roguelikes · alternative Rogue-like · alternative rogue-like · alternative Roguelike

1. video gamesAny of a genre of computer role playing games loosely characterized by various characteristics such as randomised environment generation, permadeath, turn-based movement, text-based or primitive tile-based graphics, and hack-and-slash gameplay.

   If you haven’t played a ‘roguelike’ before, it’s basically what happens when you take a twitchy hack-and-slash game like Diablo and make it boring, confusing, and frustrating.

   I “Like-Like” Roguelikes (Because Love Should Never Be So Cruel), 2011

comparative more roguelike · superlative most roguelike · alternative Rogue-like · alternative rogue-like · alternative Roguelike

1. video gamesOf, relating to, or characteristic of the roguelike genre.

   It's not that there's some sort of a competition, and your game needs to meet some rules to qualify. If it's good, everyone will play it despite the fact it's roguelike or not.

   2004 March 17, The Sheep, “Roguelike characteristics?”, in rec.games.roguelike.development (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

   2 more examples

   And I'm tempted to say that as long as it's got to do with fighting, single or in very small groups, with characters from different classes, different races, different stats, who learn along the way, it's roguelike enough for me. This may also include a lot of adventures, I know.

   1998 October 11, jwk, “Definition of roguelike”, in rec.games.roguelike.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

   I just played the remake of Sword of Fargoal to victory. I had to cheat like crazy (backing up saves) but it was fun. Granted, it's roguelike, at best, but it's a ton of fun: […]

   2003 September 22, p_conrad, “Remakes of "classic" crpgs ? Any one them finished ?”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

plural Roguelikes

1. Alternative letter-case form of roguelike.

   I have been playing Roguelikes for a little while and have found them pretty fun.

   2005 November 21, Zen Clark, “What makes Roguelikes fun?”, in rec.games.roguelike.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

   2 more examples

   I've been thinking about building a Roguelike recently, and a point came to mind; namely, I've played Daggerfall; I liked the concept, but the system was buggy and holeish. So, how would one go about designing a "clean" classless CRPG? Especially a Roguelike, where YASDs are common, and backing up your saves is techinally cheating.

   1998 April 20, LucFrench, “Clean Character System for a Roguelike”, in rec.games.design (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

   2. Are there any features in an MMORPG that should (or could) be implemented in Roguelikes? and of course: 3. Are there any features from Roguelikes that would work well in an MMORPG?

   2009 January 19, Perdurabo, “MMORPGs and Roguelikes...”, in rec.games.roguelike.development (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

comparative more Roguelike · superlative most Roguelike

1. Alternative letter-case form of roguelike.

   ADOM is Roguelike, but with an added ASCII map (good feature of the game, sad it's fixed).

   2000 April 12, tussock, “Roguelike Game: Definition”, in rec.games.roguelike.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

   3 more examples

   For those people that play Roguelike games, it means a lot more to say that a game is Roguelike than it means to say that it is like Rogue. Its an unfortunate name for people who are not familiar with the genre because it is deceiving.

   2000 January 11, Brian Robinson, “Diablo *is* an RPG”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

   However, Diablo and Diablo II, while having many aspects common to the genre, I don't consider to be "Roguelike enough."

   2003 December 10, John Harris, “Roguelike-inspired game for Neverwinter Nights”, in rec.games.roguelike.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026

   This looks ace! Why haven't I heard of this? Is it Roguelike to the extent of having random dungeons?

   2008 March 24, Sir Chewbury Gubbins, “Easter Monday Play, Want, Bin”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jan 2026