1st Edition
by John Harris (Author)
Since 1980, in-the-know computer gamers have been enthralled by the
unpredictable, random, and incredibly deep gameplay of Rogue and those
games inspired by it, known to fans as "roguelikes." For decades, this
venerable genre was off the radar of most players and developers for a
variety of reasons: deceptively simple graphics (often just text
characters), high difficulty, and their demand that a player brings more
of themselves to the game than your typical AAA title asks. This book
covers many of the most prominent titles and explains in great detail
what makes them interesting, the ways to get started playing them, the
history of the genre, and more. It includes interviews, playthroughs,
and hundreds of screenshots. It is a labor of love: if even a fraction
of the author’s enthusiasm for these games gets through these pages to
you, then you will enjoy it a great deal.
Key Features:
- Playing tips and strategy for newcomers to the genre
- Core roguelikes Rogue, Angband, NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, ADOM, and Brogue
- The "lost roguelikes" Super Rogue and XRogue, and the early RPG dnd for PLATO systems
- The Japanese console roguelikes Taloon’s Mystery Dungeon and Shiren the Wanderer
- Lesser-known but extremely interesting games like Larn, DoomRL, HyperRogue, Incursion, and Dungeon Hack
- "Rogue-ish"
games that blur the edges of the genre, including Spelunky, HyperRogue,
ToeJam & Earl, Defense of the Oasis, Out There, and Zelda
Randomizer
- Interviews with such developers as
Keith Burgun (100 Rogues and Auro), Rodain Joubert (Desktop Dungeons),
Josh Ge (Cogmind), Dr. Thomas Biskup (ADOM), and Robin Bandy (devnull
public NetHack tournament)
- An interview regarding Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
- Design issues of interest to developers and enthusiasts