Roguelikes: a realm of complexity, unpredictability, and unjustly underrated brilliance. To this day, roguelikes remain my favorite game genre of all time. This is why.
In this video, we venture into the heart of the genre, dissecting its essence from the nature of its randomly generated design to the intricate balance of endless item variations and gameplay potential. Explore the fine line that separates success from frustration in roguelike design; whether it’s the harmonious dance between risk and reward, the intricacies of item synergy and enemy patterns, and the exhilarating feeling of mastering the unpredictable.
Whether you're a roguelike aficionado, developer, or curious observer, this video brings you an unparalleled journey into the heart and soul of a genre that thrives on its complexity, unpredictability, and limitless potential. Hit that play button, join the discussion, and let's celebrate the magic that makes roguelikes a truly unforgettable experience!
=== CHAPTERS ===
0:00 - Intro
0:46 - Background
4:18 - Uniqueness From The Start
6:43 - Risk vs. Reward
9:28 - Diversity
11:31 - Synergies
20:37 - Repeated Level Design
26:16 - Enemy Design
30:46 - Secrets and Unique Encounters
32:46 - Mechanic vs. Stat Changes
39:09 - Charm and Visuals
44:00 - Audio
44:32 - Thank You
=== GAMES SHOWCASED ===
Crab Champions (2023)
Dead Cells (2017)
Have a Nice Death (2022)
Nuclear Throne (2015)
Dead Estate (2021)
Vampire Survivor (2021)
Repetendium (2022)
Enter The Gungeon (2016)
Hades (2018)
Fury Unleashed (2017)
Noita (2019)
Peglin (2022)
Scourge Bringer (2022)
Neon Abyss (2022)
Warm Snow (2022)
Revita (2022)
One Step From Eden (2022)
Wizard of Legend (2018)
Slay the Spire (2017)
The Binding of Isaac (2011)
Blazing Beaks (2017)
Dungreed (2018)
Gunfire Reborn (2020)
Going Under (2020)
Backpack Hero (2023)
Undermine (2019)
Celeste (2018)
Hyper Light Drifter (2016)
Deathʼs Door (2021)
Ori and the Will of the Wisp (2020)
Risk of Rain 2 (2020)
Brotato (2022)
Soulstone Survivors (2022)
Skul the Hero Slayer (2021)
Shovel Knight Dig (2022)
Roguebook (2021)
Voidigo (2021)
Tiny Rogues (2022)
Cult of the Lamb (2022)
Moonlighter (2018)
Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Titan Souls (2015)
Rogue Tower (2022)
The Legend of Bumbo (2019)
Curse of the Dead Gods (2021)
=== MUSIC USED ===
25.3°N 91.7°E | Risk of Rain
Distrometer | Risk of Rain
The Painful Way | Hades
The Grounds | Going Under
Mantis Battle | FTL
Forest of Harmony | Skul the Hero Slayer
After Midnight | Brotato
Toxic Food Processing Department | Have a Nice Death
Fungated Funnels | Revita
Here we go (again) | Dead Estate
Start a Cult | Cult of the Lamb
Arcane Refuge (Home) | Wizard of Legend
#Roguelike #Roguelite #GameDevelopment
Thank you for watching and supporting the channel!
JJJreact
other roguelikes: we're going to put an immense amount of time and effort into creating robust and varied procedurally generated environments brotato: square 😎
so far removed from classic roguelikes that it's basically a bullethell, but ya' know what, we fuckin ball.
@@thewolfstu bullethell and roguelike aren't mutually exclusive
@@alt1763 True, they aren't mutually exclusive, but notably I said Classic Roguelike, which alone is far removed from modern Roguelikes. Like, the most roguelike element of it is the random upgrades and permadeath which is a tiny dash of roguelike compared to a classic roguelike. I guess it'd be more considerable as a roguelite, but yeah. Of course, that is not to say it's a negative of the game, as I said, we fuckin ball.
@@alt1763roguelike games(games which the genre came from the smilarities to the game rogue. it kind of is mutually exclusive to other genres in a way
Paper planet: circle😎
I love how every video about roguelikes ever uses the risk of rain soundtrack cause its just that good
Theres also a bit of FTL music which i hear in videos every so often
risk of rain is a terrible game LOL the soundtrack is the only good thing about it
@@Jeff_Biden Sounds like Skill issue to me. I love RoR
@@maxschw.5239 completely untrue but ill let you live in your delusion
@@Jeff_Biden it's a subjective topic bro, you not liking it doesn't make it bad lol
I'm actually developing a roguelike right now and this video brought up some very good design tips! Thank you for making it! It has certainly influenced my project!
Good luck on your project! Make sure not to burn yourself out.
@@philiphunt-bull5817 haven't burned out yet! I'm super excited about it! Alpha is almost ready, so I can hopefully generate some hype soon! Let me know if you know any communities that would be interested:)
Same here. Also making a game, decided to implement some roguelike elements and boy this helped me not only with the roguelike part but the general objective of the game design I should be looking for
Are you actually developing a roguelike or a roguelite? Please don't be one of those developers that put a giant amount of effort to make a game and then not have any idea what genre it is. For some reason Roguelike is the most affected by this.
Me too, will be a rogue lite
We're in the process of making a "Roguelike(like?)" and getting input like this from huge fans of the genre is absolutely invaluable, got a sub here
Roguelike(like?), huh? You got me interested, what's the name of the game?
Do you mean roguelite?
I think the reason they put a question mark is because they’re not quite sure
I like that you do not only cite the most well-known games.
This came up on my feed for some reason and hey these analyses type videos are just my jam. Great voice, background music just fits, passionate yet analytic approach that infects the viewer, and incredibly informative (especially for aspiring game devs). Honestly, I listen to these while doing something else but I somehow kept getting distracted and looking at the video and just appreciating every bit. Definitely subscribing and hoping you get more subs and views (the views rn are criminally low)
Welcome aboard! Thank you for watching! Very excited for what’s to come!
I too was given this by the algorithm in a rare case of it being smart about what I like!
Same here man, I think your first points are just describing the type of.vid.... and his.voice which no one can help...... js I would've complimented his tone and articulation or amtg.just staying he has a nice.voice.... like that's nice, hearing that WITH the context that you only listen to these(mainly) is a big difference and makes total sense in the end:) sry not trying to bring any negativity to this awesome positive channel!!
What a nice comment
"This video popped up in my feed for some reason" *literally gives the reason why*
Honestly i think my favourite part of the video was the sheer variety of games you included! The editing and voice over was great, don't get me wrong, but I get so frustrated booting up a video essay like this just to find its filled with the same 3 games. There are a lot of lessons you can learn from the smaller ones too, and im glad that you know that. I also like the fact that even with the huge games that everyone talks about, you go way more in-depth than just the surface like everyone else seems to do. like with enter the gungeon being the game you used as the opener for enemy design! Its such a specific part about a very popular game that most people wouldn't be able to point out and use as an example of how to do things right, but you were able to do that! Things like this is a true mark of a professional and not just some random gamer talking about the same 5 games. It gives actual insight to this topic instead of re-iterating what I already know, ynkow?
Thank you so much for your kind message! I’m glad you enjoyed the video ;)
@@PepperHeadGaming what game is at the 6:35 mark?
@kikoiekiko7440 Warm Snow ;)
@@PepperHeadGaming thank you
Speaking of curses in items, Nethack does some really funny things with cursed items, such as a cursed potion of gain level actually making you go up a level in the dungeon, cursed scrolls of genocide actually create monsters, cursed scrolls of teleportation will levelport you instead of a regular teleport, which is really nice if you have teleport control, etc.
I think one of my favorite types of items has to be ones that make things that are otherwise worthless or just bad, and makes them good. As you said here, the levelport is nice if you have teleport control.
I'm surprised someone brought up Nethack seeing the focus of the video. What I also love of Nethack or other roguelikes more like Rogue, is the survival aspects, meaning you have incentive to use unidentified items or to dip them if really desperate
Nethack is the best roguelike
As a concept artist working in AAA, who is now (also) working on solo developing their own project, I found this video invaluable in regards to perspective. You helped me understand things about my approach that I didn't realize. Thank you!
As a fan of rougelikes, this is a fun watch. I can't believe how high quality it is but while having such low views. Keep on doing this Pepperhead. I subscribed.
this ain't just a great video, it's one of the most well thought out, researched and informative analyses on game design I've seen to date. I'm seriously impressed by this.
And DAAAMN the chapters, the editing and graphic choices, Dude, you put in a TOOOON OF work into this!!!!!!!! Well done and highly appreciatedd(as well as noticed 😂)lol
An incredibly helpful, insightful and overall great video! I will definitely subscribe. It was also nice seeing Revita here as well, it is truly a hidden gem of a game.
This video single handedly got me playing and addicted to Revita you talked so much about it and I never heard about it prior to this. But I absolutely love the game and it became one of my favorite roguelikes out there
My favorite genre! It’s been wild to be a huge fan of this kind of game since the days of early Isaac and now we’re seeing so many AAA games implement entire game modes based on them.
Isaac is a bullet hell 🙄
@@Ari-rm9xw games can be a bullet hell and a roguelike, what? Lol by your logic Enter the Gungeon wouldn’t be a roguelike either and that’s literally in the thumbnail of this video
i personally like rougelikes more as permadeath and progression based off your own skill feels more rewarding but they are both awesome
As an avid roguelike gamer, and one who has seen many videos on this topic by much bigger channels. This video I feel does the best at really capturing what makes a roguelike-lite great. I never see channels use games that arent that popular when talking about this particular dungeon. Plus the way you explain replayability with items/upgrades that are impactful in terms of how you play not how effective you are at playing really hit the nail on the head. Consider me a fan!
Please consider liking the video. It’s free and helps out the channel! And if you are a big fan of the genre, check out our ROGUELIKE TIER LIST where we rank over 80 different roguelikes: kzhead.info/sun/aM-YXc9sj2tmlKc/bejne.html Have a great day!
Ehhhhhhh I think this video is.gonna blow you up guy ;) I really loved it you did a great job, and it's a needed video You clearly have just the right.experience to comment on this and yeah I loved your commentary and your opinion and idea or take😅❤ So yeah consider me a new pepperhead(heeeh?😮 idea?😂) But yah I'm supporting you however possible going forward 🫡🫡best of luck!!!! I'm watching!! 😎 😅
So much of this was like, well I knew most of this but I didn't KNOWW most of this, ykno what I mean?? Explained what us, as players, KNOW but never put thought into or really,well, realize!😅
Liked and subscribed. Great stuff!
hey, love this video and you’re clearly quite knowledgeable about the genre, so where’s the tier list video? I can’t find it on your channel
Thank you! We livestreamed the tier list a couple weeks ago but have since unlisted and are in the final touches making it a full video. Keep an eye out! We will have it out very very soon.
Amazing video!! this perfectly sums up my love of all rougelikes/lites i’ve played in an individual level. also i’m so glad you mentioned dungreed, it’s such an unknown game but it’s honestly such a work of art. dungreed was the game which made me fall in love with rougelikes/lites
Cool to have the list of games showcased. So many games I discovered in this video!
Sometimes a video is so good that I instantly subscribe, uncaring to even look if im interested in other videos. This is one of those videos. This is a super helpful masterpiece and I'm taking notes 📝 🥰
What a great video! You discussed a lot of parts of roguelikes that I’ve never seen anyone discuss - like the nature of items! I really like how you broke down the elements of roguelikes, and am thrilled that you went into such detail. You have earned my subscribe for sure!
I am a big fan of roguelikes / roguelites and always had big interest in game dev - your video is really well made and doubles as a great resource for game design! Definitely subscribed 😁
Thank you for putting the songs you used in the video in the description! There where some bangers I really wanted to check out, and could :D
Awesome work! I love roguelikes and this inspired me to take a look at some of the titles you shared, and revisit the ones I already have!
The trick to backpack hero is holding on to multiple items of different major synergies early and then choose one to follow through with depending on what items you find and abandoning the others.
I love roguelikes! Thank you to the community help me find games I love to this day! You guys are awesome!
Wow that was a good video, great editing and background footage, amazing voice and pacing, really enjoyed the structure, made it easy to follow and very digestible, I felt like I learnt a lot
I just came across your rank list of best designed roguelikes and you explain things so well and articulate the fine points that I've always enjoyed about these games and some really good points that I've never even thought about. So now just watching your other videos as well! Good job mate :) Especially right now it's more than interesting, since I'm working on my own Roguelike Dungeon Crawler with a synergy twist with RPG like stats and weapon combos, so will be bingewatching your videos to see if I get any new good ideas to implement or to scratch if they seem like too much!
Heat video!!! I was playing this in my background and thought this youtuber would have at least 400k subscribers for the quality of the video. Definitely deserved my subscription
This is a really good analysis about Roguelikes. I can tell a lot of passion went into this video, and honestly It's probably the best I've seen tackling this topic. Great Job, wondering what else you have in store.
I love your synergy part of the video about you talking about how frustrating is that certain items cannot be use in the built because, Isaac plays with that in various characters like the lost or blue baby, because them don’t have normal life so when you encounter items of life up they are almost useless with them and that adds to the difficulty, and I love that in the case of the lost, because you don’t have life you gain other things like flying to compensate for the shrinking pull of items that are useful for you in the room
yeah this video was filled with everything I espected as the time I clicked on it. Thanks for the new discoveries, I'll probably buy some of the games you presented here
One of the best roguelike videos I have seen so far, great work. Regarding Isaac's level design: I have played way over 1500 hours and still find rooms I have never seen before. For me Isaac is the perfect roguelike when it comes to level design, items and general gameplay elements. I think I will never get bored of it.
Loved the video! And the word Roguelike being made from diffrent letters of roguelike games was a great touch!
7,6k followers?! Dude it was a great video with quite deep deconstruction of such a big amount of games. I will gladly keep that video in mind to show it to junior designers! Thank you and keep doing such an interesting content! Worth every minute fr
The quality and insight of this video is amazing!
I am honestly so suprised you didn't bring up risk of rain 2 when you were talking about music, the music while fighting mitrix is some of the best music out there
This video perfectly encompasses why I LOVE this genre so much right now!
Great video! I am a big enjoyer of Roguelike/lites myself, but not quite to this extent. I've often wondered what the difference is between the games of this style that I like or don't like, but I could not have summed it up as eloquently as you have. You've given me (and many others) a lot to think about going forward!
Wow, FANTASTIC video! I'm currently developing a roguelike myself and you've managed to pinpoint and express with words what I've spent all this time calling "feel". Keep at it! :D
Thank you for including a list of games mentioned, I was going to start my own list if it wasn't there haha
This video deserves way more attention. Really well made and incredibly comprehensive. Found a few new games to try.
I also love the enemy design part and I also enjoy your view in messiness in a rogue game, I think for small enemies this two elements come hand and hand because when the layout of the level gets so overcrowded you have to pay attention to everything and you can get kill by a simple bullet that is lost in the chaos or a fly, even one as a player have to be careful with this because if you are so overpower you can tell sometimes if the bullet is one that you made of one of the enemies, leaving less reaction time to respond, amazing
I am working on a roguelike that takes huge inspiration on Archero. I'm still a newb so it isn't working out well but design-wise. This did give me a level up. Thank you!
Thanks a lot for mentioning Wizard of Legend! It is one of my most favorite games of all time and I feel it doesn’t get the love that it deserves.
Damn, I was convinced you were a 2M subscribers channel or the like because of the quality of this video. Thanks for the video, very informative ! I hope you keep at it
THANK YOU! I was hoping I'd find that one game I used to watch here and yup, here it is!
That's some very interesting points! I'm currently making my own roguelite and this vid will definitely help me with tweaking of some gameplay mechanics and design elements. I've played plenty of roguelike/roguelite games myself, but it's always nice to hear what's good and what is not from another person.
Whats the game called
@@BlackJester57 Roll The Bones, it's up for wishlisting on Steam ^^
Backpack Hero's synergy type adds a great deal of decision making and risk vs reward. I've played the game a lot on the hard modes where you get even less, worse items, and I kinda enjoy fighting with the loot system.
well written and remarkably thorough analysis. Great work!
Great video! Just missed seeing mentions to Heroes of Hammerwatch. It's a great example of things done right in many aspects you mentioned.
Thank you so much for putting the games in the description!
honestly amazing video took alot of what I see and think about the genre and expressed it better than I ever could I would honestly love to see if you had any views on rougelite deckbuilders as they tend to struggle with similar but different issues.
Dude, this video helped me a lot as an indie game dev! Thank you very much :)
nice video im at the begining of making a rouge lite and your take on this genre is in line with what i tought and you added a loot of things i didnt know. and i hope that if i will eventualy finnish my game you can enjoy it.
Awesome content Marcy Marc nice to see you’re still a passionate gamer! This is Freddie (Robs little brother) from back in the day.
Amazing video. Watched the whole thing. Thanks!
This is a wonderful video! Roguelike/Lites are one of my top 3 favorite game genres, so it's always nice to see like-minded people talking about something we love. I'm surprised at the lack of a Spelunky(1 or 2) mention, though. It's not my favorite, by any means, but I figured the sheer quantity of hidden content would at the very least earn it a shoutout in the Secrets section of the video :p
Thank you! To be completely honest, I am sad I never got to play much Spelunky especially early in my Roguelike years. I am sure it has many amazing examples of great design but it didn’t feel fair for me to incorporate it without me having many hours in like I did in most of my examples. The game never really clicked with me, but I really wish it did.
Great video! I love discussions on video game design as you know, particularly the efficiency and simplicity of VFX. Also talking about balance with regards to a genre that has so much randomness is fascinating. Hope this video wasn't so much effort that you can't make more videos like this, I'd love to see deep dives on particular design decisions in games.
More on the way 👀
You deserve way more subs and views then what you have right now
Always growing! Thank you for watching!
I’m planning and making a roguelike with my friend, this helped a lot thank you🙏 God bless you!!!
It is great to see Revita featured somewhere! Great vid!
Wow this is my new fav channel!!! My favorite genre
The only thing i would've changed in the video is the part where you mentioned rooms being sampled and include Spelunky. Other than that, VERY solid video! Loved every second of it.
Actually a super helpful video for someone learning how to make a roguelike. Thank you!
This was a fun video. I am impressed by the quality of this content great job:D
What an amazing video! Really looking forward to the tierlist you teased
Thanks for watching! Us too! The tier list livestream will be THIS Thursday 9/7. Hope to see you there!
Great video ! I am surprised that you didn't say much about sound design in roguelikes, especially while showing gameplay from Hades. This game made me understand how important sound design can be in these games, and not only through music and voice acting. Because gameplay is often very fast paced, loots and events are randomized, it's important to be able to quickly feel what's going on and what is available. I think Hades made a terrific job in that regard, because sometimes rooms are big and you don't realize that treasures troves / fishing spots / chaos gates are available. But because all of these have specific sound cues, they get really hard to miss ! And that's just one example of effective use of sound design in roguelikes.
What a great video. Honestly I have never seen a video on par with the information quality I see in this video. At first I saw 45 minutes and thought, "man this is going to be a while," but after those 45 minutes I realized that it's constantly good information preventing the video from feeling stale. Really well done.
Thanks for watching and thanks for stopping by stream! Would love to hear more about your roguelike!
@@PepperHeadGaming I'll try and join in next stream to talk a bit about it. The premise is a rougelike meant for multiplayer, but it's still relatively early in development, there is gameplay, it's just not as fun as I want it to be yet.
Nice seeing fury unleashed on screen, i absolutely love that game
Really entertaining video. Im in a roguelike phase now so this was fun
Great script, great insights, great video!
That was a fun and informative video. Would've loved to see examples where for example the level design was lacking but nonetheless: it reminded me why I started to like this genre in the first place 👏
Great video my guy , would love to hear more.
Good video. There is a thing I want to add. While you said there are many "punching bag" enemies later in the runs you cannot forget that they often still pose a threat. Say that you have a threatning enemy on one side and that "punching bag" on other. You stand a dilemma should you kill the more threatning one first leaving you vurneable for long to the other one or do you kill the punching bag first fast allowing for the other one to fit one more attack onto you
I 'm only 7 minutes in but i'm SO GLAD you are metioning Wizard Of Legend. That is such a fantastic game, it's so underrated. Especially if you can get someone for couch co op.
This is a great video! I really hope you will do that boss design video you talked about. :)
That’s the plan!
Really good video! I like the points you bring up. They seem well thought through and I was ready to disagree on many points but ultimately most were really reasonable.
Loved the video, as I do play mainly rougelikes I very much agree with you points and can even see clear examples of them, great video would love to see more.😊(also as an idea I would love to see you make a series maybe going through popular/your favorite rougelikes or any game and analyzing what makes them popular or what you liked about them)
If you do make it a series I would love to see your thoughts on risk of rain 2
Very nice deconstruction of the genre with plenty of game design lessons. Subscribed
Top notch content, thanks for this! :) I was a wee bit sad that Noita only received a few seconds of gameplay clip and no mention in the video, because I think there are some very interesting lessons to learn from its design. So in case anyone would not be familiar with that game, I'd share a few remarks and takeaways "in a nutshell": - The game gives minimum instructions to the player since the very beginning of the first run, but relies on hints and suggestions to guide the player. Gameplay ultimately progresses vertically, from top down, and starts at the entrance of a cave leading to a mine, to the right. Design exploits our age-old habit of the left-to-right directional 2d platformer flow (like e.g. in Super Mario) to traverse the level, but nothing prevents the player to start going the opposite direction at the start instead. Later, the player might figure out ways to bypass natural obstacles on the levels and even leave the intended gameplay path entirely, discovering hidden surprises. Discovery and surprises are strong mechanics in Noita. - The entire game boils down to risk and reward management. Players can progress slower and safer, discovering more resources that make further gameplay easier, or quicker but riskier, leaving the player with less resources as they go further in the game with its increasing difficulty. This pairs well with the fact that everything can kill the player, partly because every pixel is physically simulated. And players will discover many many ways to end a run with accidental deaths caused by hubris. - Noita has a unique psychedelic jazz vibe, and the soundtrack contributes massively to building this quirky and enjoyable ambience. - The entire game feels like a large sandbox after completing it once with the intended way, with a "natural ending", because (mainly through its online community) the player can learn that there are other ways to complete a run. Noita is full of undocumented secrets and mechanics to be discovered, and the many esoteric source material (alcmehy, hermeticism) in the game just adds to the mystical vibe. It feels very rewarding to discover these. (And, after years of its release, there are still 2 secrets/puzzles in the game that were found, but were not solved yet by the community!) I had my first win after 60 hours of gameplay, but after more than 600 hours, I still feel that Noita has a lot of replayability. I would really like to see a study video by someone on that game's design.
Had this popup in my recomendations and of course seeing Revita in there had me even more excited. That aside, genuinly excellent analysis and definitely something I'll keep referencing going forward! =D
Thanks a lot Ben! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ve been a big fan of Revita for a while now, grinding that 100% achievement on stream and am even planning on making a video reviewing the game with a focus on design and balance in the near future. Would love to talk about a lot of balance and gameplay aspects with you if ever given the chance. Looking forward to the next big update! ;)
And also huge thanks for sharing the video, it means a lot!!
@@PepperHeadGaming Yeah I'd love to chat! =D
this was a really charming video, heres some motivation for ya, cause i wanna see you get farther with this style of content and grow bigger as a creator 🦆⭐
great video.. i believe synergies are a huge part in roguelikes and my absolute favorite aspect!!
Excited for the roguelike tier list!
Thanks for this, I'm working on a small lil one and just making sure I tick all the boxes
One game you've talked about here has captured my attention and I may try despite my bad track record with this genre: Wizard of Legend
Great video, thanks for your effort
great video, hope this gets more recognition!
Thank you for watching!
Watching this vide reminded me of a time in gungeon where I would only do rainbow runs (at least 1 S tier per chest with only 19 S items) but when I played a normal run I had so much more fun with the randomness because I had about 31 guns at the end (I popped a clone stage 4)
Amazing video-essay!
probably my favorite genre or at least subgenre sinking your teeth into a hard game that mostly has you progress due to your own skill in short hour long runs is so fun and can have you put hours and hours in
Cool. Great made Roguelike logo 😎
Thank you so much for this!
I love you thank you so much for making this video. Honetsly its so well done i feel you could've sell it to designers and it would be still as popular and good.
Very good video. You deserve more subs! Have one more!
The reason roguelites are more and more popular is that it gives an easily trackable sense of progression, which is important to any game, gives a sense of motivation and reason/purpose to get back in and try again. Its the same reason idle games like cookie clicker exists. The palpable sense progression speaks to something primal and literally gives a much bigger dopamine hit to many people. Roguelikes however rely soly on the players ability to track their own progression, which many struggle with or doesnt feel as rewarding (i think largely due the way we are tought in school but thats a whole different subject).
Great video, spot on!
Audio is so important. I think if the risk of rain titles didn’t have that banger soundtrack I would t have played them as much as I did.