Very low quality writing, unfortunately. It doesn't even explain what parts of its design make it so pivotal. The article never mentions the genre in question: roguelike
Very low quality writing, unfortunately. It doesn't even explain what parts of its design make it so pivotal.
This refined Spelunky revived an underappreciated genre
The article never mentions the genre in question: roguelike
Nor why a roguelike resurgence is "more important" than other break out genres from this decade like mobas and battle royales, or the ascension of esports in the west.
Nor why a roguelike resurgence is "more important" than other break out genres from this decade like mobas and battle royales, or the ascension of esports in the west.
Yeah, it's unfortunate. I think there is a lot to be said on how Spelunky innovated roguelikes and procedural games. I hope that we can still get some good discussion about it and 'the most...
Yeah, it's unfortunate. I think there is a lot to be said on how Spelunky innovated roguelikes and procedural games. I hope that we can still get some good discussion about it and 'the most influential of the decade' in the comments at least.
In my opinion Dark Souls, Minecraft, and Spelunky were the three most influential games of the decade. Spelunky help reinvigorate the roguelike genre, Minecraft spawned tons of survival and building mechanics-- even in games that weren't in those genres, and Dark Souls arguably spawned a new genre.
Speaking specifically about Spelunky, the game's rooms(or tiles, whatever), are so well designed that you could almost forget they were arranged fresh on each run, instead of being a prefabbed layout. They're so well constructed that I still am not tired of the game years and years later, which is not something I can say about most games I've played.
I think the difference matters if you grew up with actual roguelikes and now there's this new thing that's really not the same but resembles it a bit. I grew up with several of the roguelikes...
I think the difference matters if you grew up with actual roguelikes and now there's this new thing that's really not the same but resembles it a bit. I grew up with several of the roguelikes hungariantoast listed (or their predecessors), and a few they didn't mention. The modern roguelite is not at all like them. Most of only share the characteristics of permadeath and procedural generation, which is nothing like the games I grew up with. They're not like rogue, the 1980 game which inspired onetwo genres. There are practical differences in the experience and the presentation which set them aside as very different in my mind. It's not just prescriptivist, for me (and probably for hungariantoast, as well). We have that basis for comparison, and so roguelites are different in ways that matter. Death in something like Nethack (or Angband, my personal favorite) has more gravity than death in Spelunky or (especially) Rogue Legacy, because there's no metaprogression; you don't unlock classes or the like in Nethack or Angband when you die. You die. That's it. Game over. Start from the beginning, keep nothing from before (Nethack, and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, even punish you for dying by making you face your previous characters, sometimes in a stronger form than when you died). This is a fundamental, and marked, difference from roguelites.
The same is true for me for tea. I'm not a purist, but I can tell you that there is a practical difference between a tea and a tisane. Tisanes don't have c. sinensis leaves, which means that you aren't at risk of tannin accumulation if you leave a tisane steeping for 30 minutes, whereas you are for a tea. If you've ever left tea (actual tea) steeping for too long, tasted it, and found it to be very bitter, that's tannin accumulation. You don't have that with tisanes. The difference actually matters, and I've had that experience of bitterness ruin a good cup of tea for me. It's not just prescriptivist for me; it describes my reality and is thus descriptivist.
How do you feel about Zangband's overworld exploration littered with dungeons in the style of other *band games like Angband? I don't think the openworld nature of CDDA or Zangbnad constitute a...
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is a bit controversial. It has a permadeath feature, random generation, is tile based with both ASCII and graphical tiles, and features just about all the other mechanics of a traditional roguelike. However, its gameplay primarily takes place on an open, freely roamable "overworld" map, not levels of dungeons. There are dungeon-like buildings, bases, and other areas that the player can enter that are also randomly generated though. Personally, I'd consider it a "rogueplaying game", if that term actually existed, and I didn't just invent it.
How do you feel about Zangband's overworld exploration littered with dungeons in the style of other *band games like Angband? I don't think the openworld nature of CDDA or Zangbnad constitute a violation of the Berlin interpretation; they both have dungeon-like areas to explore, and I don't see anything there that says "thou shalt only explore thy dungeon". If we took it that strictly, Angband would be eliminated because of the town level.
That's what makes these lists subjective. You prefer Isaac, whereas I can't stand it because its themes remind me of my traumatic childhood / early adulthood, the mechanics don't appeal to me, and...
That's what makes these lists subjective. You prefer Isaac, whereas I can't stand it because its themes remind me of my traumatic childhood / early adulthood, the mechanics don't appeal to me, and the gameplay is not interesting. You can't say "best game of the decade" without tons of other people saying that they have a different game and here's why and so on.
I don't think neither of those games should be even considered for "game of the decade", TBH. I think this is just a cool, "indy", offbeat thing to say on a game website.
I don't think neither of those games should be even considered for "game of the decade", TBH. I think this is just a cool, "indy", offbeat thing to say on a game website.
Very low quality writing, unfortunately. It doesn't even explain what parts of its design make it so pivotal.
The article never mentions the genre in question: roguelike
Nor why a roguelike resurgence is "more important" than other break out genres from this decade like mobas and battle royales, or the ascension of esports in the west.
Yeah, it's unfortunate. I think there is a lot to be said on how Spelunky innovated roguelikes and procedural games. I hope that we can still get some good discussion about it and 'the most influential of the decade' in the comments at least.
In my opinion Dark Souls, Minecraft, and Spelunky were the three most influential games of the decade. Spelunky help reinvigorate the roguelike genre, Minecraft spawned tons of survival and building mechanics-- even in games that weren't in those genres, and Dark Souls arguably spawned a new genre.
Speaking specifically about Spelunky, the game's rooms(or tiles, whatever), are so well designed that you could almost forget they were arranged fresh on each run, instead of being a prefabbed layout. They're so well constructed that I still am not tired of the game years and years later, which is not something I can say about most games I've played.
I think the difference matters if you grew up with actual roguelikes and now there's this new thing that's really not the same but resembles it a bit. I grew up with several of the roguelikes hungariantoast listed (or their predecessors), and a few they didn't mention. The modern roguelite is not at all like them. Most of only share the characteristics of permadeath and procedural generation, which is nothing like the games I grew up with. They're not like rogue, the 1980 game which inspired
onetwo genres. There are practical differences in the experience and the presentation which set them aside as very different in my mind. It's not just prescriptivist, for me (and probably for hungariantoast, as well). We have that basis for comparison, and so roguelites are different in ways that matter. Death in something like Nethack (or Angband, my personal favorite) has more gravity than death in Spelunky or (especially) Rogue Legacy, because there's no metaprogression; you don't unlock classes or the like in Nethack or Angband when you die. You die. That's it. Game over. Start from the beginning, keep nothing from before (Nethack, and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, even punish you for dying by making you face your previous characters, sometimes in a stronger form than when you died). This is a fundamental, and marked, difference from roguelites.The same is true for me for tea. I'm not a purist, but I can tell you that there is a practical difference between a tea and a tisane. Tisanes don't have c. sinensis leaves, which means that you aren't at risk of tannin accumulation if you leave a tisane steeping for 30 minutes, whereas you are for a tea. If you've ever left tea (actual tea) steeping for too long, tasted it, and found it to be very bitter, that's tannin accumulation. You don't have that with tisanes. The difference actually matters, and I've had that experience of bitterness ruin a good cup of tea for me. It's not just prescriptivist for me; it describes my reality and is thus descriptivist.
How do you feel about Zangband's overworld exploration littered with dungeons in the style of other *band games like Angband? I don't think the openworld nature of CDDA or Zangbnad constitute a violation of the Berlin interpretation; they both have dungeon-like areas to explore, and I don't see anything there that says "thou shalt only explore thy dungeon". If we took it that strictly, Angband would be eliminated because of the town level.
Really? I like the game, but I prefer the Binding of Isaac.
That's what makes these lists subjective. You prefer Isaac, whereas I can't stand it because its themes remind me of my traumatic childhood / early adulthood, the mechanics don't appeal to me, and the gameplay is not interesting. You can't say "best game of the decade" without tons of other people saying that they have a different game and here's why and so on.
I don't think neither of those games should be even considered for "game of the decade", TBH. I think this is just a cool, "indy", offbeat thing to say on a game website.