What are they?
Roguelikes are a sub genre of RPGs, often characterized by permanent death, randomized worlds, turn based gameplay, experience & stats, predefinition and replayability. Most roguelikes sport ASCII graphics, but some allow you to install tilesets, or come with tilesets of their own. Roguelikes are often placed in dungeons, with many different types of items, monsters and environmental features. The name 'roguelike' comes from the 1980 game Rogue (Which is based on Dungeons & Dragons table games), which popularized dungeon crawling, permanent death, etc., as a roguelike trope. Lots of roguelikes have a steep learning curve, that's arguably worth getting over. Roguelikes are great if you have a low end computer but want to play some fun games.
The Games
Here are some roguelike games, some already have threads here on FP. Note that some roguelikes require a DOS emulator to run. They're not in any specific order.
Rogue
Arguably the game that started it all, features around 30 levels of dungeon, many items and monsters. Basically a template for many other roguelike dungeon crawlers.
Download
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress is a game that is very popular here, combining both civilization building and roguelike aspects into a game with a large learning curve. Very detailed and fun. While the main game is not actually a roguelike Adventure mode, where you play as a single person is certainly a one
Download
Facepunch Thread
Caves of Qud
A post apocalyptic roguelike, you can play as a mutant or a human. Very fun, especially with mutations. One of my favorite roguelikes.
Download
Facepunch Thread
Bay 12 Thread - More active than the FP thread.
ASCII Sector
ASCII Sector is a space exploration, combat and trading game. You start with a simple spaceship and can then accept missions or trade goods to earn enough money to upgrade your ship or buy a new one. Another one of my favorite roguelikes. You can land on planets to buy equipment, stay in a hotel, etc.
Download
Facepunch Thread
Goblin Camp
A lot like Dwarf Fortress, except less popular, easier, and the ASCII graphics are easier on the eyes. It's fun if you want something a little less complex than DF for a little bit. It's also open source!
Download
IVAN
Iter Vehemens ad Necem (a Violent Road to Death) is a very dynamic roguelike, featuring a graphical tileset. IVAN is pretty easy to learn and is a good time waster.
Download
Facepunch Thread
Expedition
In Expedition, you're a Spanish explorer from the XVth century, getting ready to travel to the New World. Once you sail there, you can establish colonies in the name of the Spanish crown. Rather easy to pick up, and it's fun setting up colonies.
Download
Mage Guild
Mage guild is a game about magic. It has both ASCII and tile graphics, a unique levelling system based on game progress rather than kills. It offers a good degree of flexibility, and a very interesting alchemy system in which nearly any two items can be combined in some useful way.
Download
Zomband
A zombie apocalypse roguelike. You must escape East to military safety. Not much to say about this game. Also, chainsaws are terribly underpowered.
Download
Facepunch Thread
Rogue Survivor
Rogue Survivor is a zombie survival roguelike sandbox game. It seems to be a game that everyone wants. Features playing as living survivor or undead, hunger, fatigue, fight rival gangs, lead other survivors, and a lot more. Really fun, definitely one of my favorite games. It's pretty popular on Facepunch and has modding support.
Download
Facepunch Thread
DoomRL
Played Doom? This is the roguelike. It's a pretty fun and unique game, nice combat and overall very enjoyable.One of the easiest to get into roguelikes around)
Download
ASCII Portal
A mind fucking experience, you'd think that Portal wouldn't work in 2D ASCII, but this game appears to have pulled it off.
Download
NetHack
NetHack is a roguelike released in 1987, descending from Hack (which is descended from Rogue). It's very popular, and has a similar objective to Rogue and Hack; you're in a dungeon searching for the Amulet of Yendor. NetHack is very in depth and detailed in terms of weapons, armor, spells, tools, and many other things. Has a lot of modifications and ports (Including an
android port)
Download
ADOM
ADOM, short for Ancient Domains Of Mystery. The gameplay is a lot similar to NetHack. The player can choose from ten different races and twenty different classes, which affect the gameplay in both subtle and obvious ways. Has more of a storyline than NetHack.
Download
Incursion
Incursion is a freeware roguelike game based on (but not strictly adherant to) the mechanics of the most popular tabletop roleplaying game of all time, made available under the terms of the Open Game License by their owners. The strongest (and currently least visible, though that will change) influence in its design was the less popular roguelike, Omega.
Download
Transcendence
A space combat and exloration game, very graphical. Randomly generated star systems, hundreds of different enemy ships with distinct abilities, loot wrechkage for more powerful weapons, armor and shields; or purchase them at space ports. Escort ships, smuggle illegal items for the black market, or join the Commonwealth Fleet and fight against the Ares Orthodoxy.
Download
POWDER
POWDER is a light roguelike that was designed for the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS.
Download
Knights
Multiplayer dungeon questing fun. Lead your knight into randomly generated dungeons, fight zombies, vampire bats and other knights, use magical potions and scrolls, avoid traps, and be the first knight to complete the quest and achieve ultimate glory.
Download
Elona
Pretty good Roguelike. Graphical and moddable with features ranging from crafting to building management (and of course, good old RPG fighting action). It's also in english.
Download
Facepunch Thread
Shena's ass is the best.
Castle of the Winds
A graphical roguelike made by one guy when he was trying to learn to program. It's simple to learn and isn't all that hard either (by roguelike standards). Has a heavy magic focus. Might not work on newer systems.
Download
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
One of the oldest Roguelikes still in active development, and still one of the most popular. Packed with content and though as nails, comes in Tiles and ASCII flavors.
Download
Facepunch Thread
3059
In the year 3059, the earth has been overpopulated for ages. For the past 200 years, mankind has been seeking out new planets to colonize. You have every chance to be anything you want to be. Offers complete freedom, roam any direction any time endlessly, there will always be something to do, get or see. Has many diverse skills.
Download
Prospector
A space exploration game where you get paid for exploring planets, discovering new life forms, finding new materials and mining. Still in beta, but it's pretty fun.
Download
Bay 12 Thread
Shiren the Wanderer
A console roguelike released for the SNES in Japan and then re-released for the DS in all regions. A Nethack-inspired roguelike, with an emphasis on creative combat -- there are a lot of items with interesting abilities, such as the switching staff, a staff that switches your position with its target. Arguably a bit simpler than PC roguelikes, but incredibly well balanced and designed.
Liberal Crime Squad
Created by the makers of Dwarf Fortress, form a squad of Liberals and go fight conservative evil. Sabotage factory equipment, recruit people, kidnap conservatives and brainwash them to be liberal, set up business fronts and security systems for your safehouse.
Download or be Conservative
Unreal World
UnReal World is a unique graphical roguelike RPG taking place in ancient Finland during the late Iron Age. It's up to you to become a hunter, adventurer, fisher, trapper, etc.
Download
Tales of Maj'Eyal
Tales of Maj'Eyal, or ToME, is a very pretty roguelike released in 1998, is an open source roguelike inspired by Angband. Has music, sounds, graphical tiles, freeform quests (only very few obligatory quests), multiple dungeons and towns with wildernesses, skill points based character progression organised into talent trees. It's also open source!
Download
Zombie Swarm
Zombie Swarm is an action-based roguelike game, in which you must survive endless waves of zombies, with just three allies at your side. Choose from up to six different weapons, and collect powerups, build barricades, and blast away the undead on your quest to achieve the high score.
Download
UnNetHack
UnNetHack is a variant of NetHack. It has the same basic ultimate objective of retrieving the amulet of Yendor, except it features more 'randomness', more levels, and more challenges.
Download
Grand Rogue Auto
Yes, you read right. It's a GTA Roguelike. Story takes place in a procedurally generated world, with hospitals, shops, citizens and other buildings. At the moment there are only 'random' missions, as the game is in very early development.
Download
DiabloRL
DiabloRL is a roguelike 'demake' of Diablo. It was originally developed for the 7-day roguelike competition, and as such was made in seven days. Features four classes, quests, etc.
Download
Cataclysm
The best zombie survival roguelike yet. Fantastic limb damage and encumbrance systems, world which is 16x size of earth and a huge amount of possible things to do
Download
Facepunch Thread
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
After whales abandoned Cataclysm, a community member "The Darling Wolf" picked it up and released a modded version that is still getting updated
Link
Aliens Rogulike
Tactical rogulike based on a famous Aliens franchise. Pretty straightforward, shooter rogulike
Download
Vulture's Eye
Same good ol' nethack/slash'em/Unnethack (Three Different Versions) with sweet graphical isometric interface
Download
Infra Arcana
A roguelike based on the Cthulhu Mythos and inspired by Blood in which you investigate the church of Starry Wisdom in search of the Shining Trapezohedron, an ancient artifact.
It has interesting mechanics like insanity and also has a magic system.
[A tileset is currently being made, a preview here
Oryx Labs]
Download
Bay 12 Thread
Diggr
An attempt to revolutionize RogueLikes. Does not follow the D&D format and introduces an unusual health and inventory system
Download
Guide
Clarion
An Open-world roguelike made by a Facepuncher DavidCollins. Has a very intuitive UI and some awesome features
Download
Facepunch Thread
ZangbandTK
ZangbandTK is a variant of
Angband, a very popular roguelike often cited as the archetypal roguelike. Angband vanilla featured lore borrowed from Tolkein's novels and Zangband added monsters and items from many other lore sources, giving the game a very healthy sense of humour. ZangbandTK was developed by Tim Baker in an effort to add a graphical interface and sprites to the game world. There are a ridiculous number of races, classes, magic spheres and areas to explore, making this a very deep and addictive. It can be pretty difficult for beginners, though.
Download at Reloaded.org
X@COM
Yes, it's a XCOM RL. Or to be more specific: A cross between X-COM and RL (an XCOMRL). Though certainly not a "pure" Roguelike, X-COM possesses several important RL qualities such as turn-based strategy, semi-random battlefields, high replay value, permadeath (of a sort), and more.
Pre-Alpha Download
Liberty Crime Squad Genesis
A modification to a famous Bay12 game Liberal Crime Squad. Adds some really good features, like the Armsdealer, Cyborgs and new weapons
Download
Bay12Thread
Hack,Slash,Loot
Hack, Slash, Loot(HSL) is a single-player turn-based dungeon crawler for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Take control of a lone hero and explore sprawling dungeons, fight dangerous monsters, and most importantly, plunder valuable treasures.
Currently a 10$, nice looking indie roguelike
Download
Cult
A roguelike game which will eventually include
Customizable user-generated worlds replete with their own rich, unique procedurally generated histories
Procedurally generated races, creatures, spirits, and gods
Procedurally generated and identifiably unique languages
Procedurally generated religions
The ability to join or found nations and religions
The ability to recruit and maintain both a traditional ‘party’ for small-scale exploration/battle and a larger army for wide-scale conflict (with situational restrictions on the uses of both)
Unique dungeons, dungeon guardians, and artifacts to explore and pillage
Construction of both small-scale and large-scale settlements according to play-style
Strong focus on main character customization and development
Free-form, highly open-ended gameplay
Because the combination of these goals makes for an inarguably epic scope of gameplay, Cult is intended to be a long term project which will hope to one day combine all of the above aspects of play into a single gaming experience that will deliver an incredible amount of replayability and customization to the player.
Blog
Brogue
Brogue is an open source and multiplatform rogue like.
But it distinguishes itself from the bazillions of available rougelike by its coffee breaker "feeling", as games are played rather quickly while keeping the fun for the whole duration of each attempt at staying alive.
One of the big difference with other roguelike is that Brogue is very streamlined (the only real stat is Strength used for nearly everything) giving it a gameplay apparently simpler than your average nethack/crawl/tome/etc... perfect for those not very fond of knowing hundred of key shortcuts. but that does not mean the game is too simple, as usual with the genre you'll get more and more depth from it from playing it again and again.
The interface is very well done and easy to use. It is mouse driven with an auto explore/fight that makes it possible to even ignore the keyboard completely if you wish (but you can use keyboard shortcut for everything if you prefer)..
Download
LambdaRogue
Decide your own and mankind's fate – will you find the way to redemption, or will you betray mankind?
Dive into the dark and surreal atmosphere of mankind's last resort – explore everchanging random-generated dungeons and caves, filled with a unique set of strange enemies and hidden treasure.
Enjoy an epic story, covering centuries – collect traces of history and travel through time.
Ascend to the highest ranks of your profession and use your special powers – from Enchanter to Battle Mage, from Archer to Ranger, and lots more.
Don't bother with memorizing dozens of keys – simply enjoy your game, with the ease of LambdaRogue's intuitive interface.
Download
Berserk!
You're thrown into an arena and must kill demons to survive as long as possible with what you've got.Created for the 2006 October Seven Day Roguelike challange.
Download
Vapors of Insanity
Vapors of Insanity features:
A big three-dimensional world, consisting of a big variety of outdoor, building, and underground locations.
You can play both in hex and orthogonal mode.
An original spell system, where you can build complicated spells using simpler spells as components. (think Magicka)
Also original skill/experience and fighting systems.
Many hopefully interesting magical gadgets that can be found.
A variety of creatures and items to find: about 150 types of items, 150 species of monsters and plants, 150 materials (including potions), 150 types of magical runes, 80 skills and spells; some of them are parametrized. These include both the standard high fantasy stuff and more original ideas.
Graphics that are supposed to not only have the advantages of a graphical display (better aesthetics, accessibility for new players), but also the roguelikes' classical ASCII display (clarity, allowing one to use imagination, simplicity of creation of new monsters and items). An ASCII mode is also provided for SSH access, and other hardcore ASCII fans.
Download
Delver
A first person, real time roguelike. Currently in active development with an alpha available
Download
TOMENet
TomeNET is an extremely advanced online multiplayer rogue-like role-playing game, derived from MAngband (Multiplayer-Angband). TomeNET bases on the stories of J.R.R. Tolkien mainly "The Lord Of The Rings", hence the name "the Troubles of Middle Earth" or alternatively "the Tales of Middle Earth". The final goal in TomeNET is to destroy the fallen god Melkor who is known by the name of Morgoth, Lord of Darkness.
Download
ZapM
The "sci-fi" nethack
http://zapm.org
Triangle Wizard
A real time roguelike-like, taking heavy inspiration from Nethack and Diablo series
http://trianglewizard.webs.com/downloads.htm
Cogmind
You are a prototype for a form of highly intelligent artificial life capable of quickly interfacing with and learning from the surrounding environment to evolve over time. You are the Cogmind. Build and rebuild yourself as you destroy or evade the Overmind's thralls to escape the subterranean robot city in this sci-fi dungeon romp (2012 7DRL).
http://cogmindrl.blogspot.ca/p/files.html
SewerJacks
SewerJacks is a Win32 Roguelike written in seven days as part of the 7DRL challenge in March 2007 .
A game inspired by Jervas Johnson's tabletop fantasy football game, Blood Bowl(TM) and William King's Troll Slayer novels.
You play the role of a Sewer Jack, whose job it is to clean the sewers of all nasty inhabitants and ultimately kill the end boss to win the game. You can team up with fellow sewerjacks found lurking in the depths.
The game is an attempt to convert the rules of Blood Bowl to a roguelike setting. SewerJacks uses races, skills and the combat system based on Blood Bowl.
Download
Frozen Depths
Frozen Depths is a roguelike game with a cold theme and ASCII graphics. It has only one dungeon and no outer world like the story says. You can freeze to death if you can't keep yourself warm and it gets colder when you travel deeper into the dungeon. You can find clothes and wear them so that the cold air doesn't get into your bones as fast. Like in other roguelike games, you have only one life and then it's over. There are different level themes, four different dungeon generators and a large pool of handcrafted special floors to explore, five of these will be randomly picked every time you play. You'll get to face five cunning bosses before your ultimate victory. There are also different kinds of randomly generated superior monsters, slightly adjusted and better than normal ones but often easier than bosses.
Download
Alphaman
Alphaman features a futuristic, or rather, post-apocalyptic, setting. It was created in 1995 by Jeffrey R. Olson, who in the same year also wrote Ricochet. It was released as shareware, but based entirely on good will. There is no registered version with enhanced features, there are no nag screens.
Download
Decker
Welcome to the 22nd century. In the game of Decker, you are a hacker who specializes in breaking into corporate computer systems, for which you are handsomely paid. Of course, these corporations don't idly sit by and allow you free run of their systems. The systems are guarded by Intrusion Countermeasure programs (ICE), which attempt to kick you out of the system, or possibly even kill you.
Download
Ultima Ratio Regum
Ultima Ratio Regum is a middle-ground between roguelikes, RPGs and strategy games.
Features:
Over 200,000 spawnable weapons
Complex AI with their own motivations, loyalties and objectives.
Dozens of factions and species to gather support from.
No limit to the size of armies the player can equip and command.
300+ types of creatures, including name generators.
14 varied creature languages.
No in-built quests; pick your own allegiances and objectives.
Download
Mercury
A winner generated roguelike. In the beginning there was one class for players to play, one monster to fight, and one item to use. But every round, the top two scoring players use a tool built into the game to make a monster, item or class and then that object is automatically inserted into everyone’s game, and players fight for new high scores in an entirely different game every round.
Download
Ragnarok also known as Valhalla in the UK (Valhalla had sounds and music, so it's more than just a name difference.)
6 classes to choose from, (Blacksmith, Alchemist, Viking, Woodsman, Sage, and Conjuror), as well as over a thousand different enemies... and with a scroll of body switching or a staff of transformation or a number of other ways you can become one of them, gaining their powers and disadvantages. The overall goal is to help prevent Ragnarok by gaining all the god's weapons from where they are hidden and free Baldur's soul from Hel.
Download
Elona+
A version of Elona that is still updated by the community
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kmv7mo349...zJ0p/elonaplus[/QUOTE]
Red Rogue
A very fun roguelike-like with a nice artstyle and local coop
Kaludnt
A roguelike made by a facepunch user Mesothere
http://kaldlundt.weebly.com/
Pixel Dungeon
Pixel Dungeon is a traditional roguelike game with pixel-art graphics and simple interface available for android.
It combines a nice artstyle with the classic roguelike gameplay and touchscreen oriented interface
Download
Sword of the Stars - The Pit
The Pit is a light-hearted RPG in the tradition of Rogue and similiar old-school dungeoncrawlers. It is very reminiscent to Dungeons of Dredmor, the game is based upon Sots universe and is set in the future. The game offers a lot of skills and features like crafting, cooking and much more. It has a large variety of maps and is fairly challenging. A great game for people who want to get into roguelikes.
Download
Facepunch thread
Contributing
To add to the thread, it would help if you'd use the template in the OP. Post any roguelike you haven't seen in the thread;
[b]<Game Title>[/b]
[img_thumb]<Game screenshot>[/img_thumb]
Game description.
[b][url=<Game Download URL>]Download[/url][/b]
[b][url=<Facepunch Thread URL>]Facepunch Thread[/url] (if applicable)[/b]
Determining if a game is a roguelike
If the game
includes half of the listed features, it is probably a roguelike. If it does not, it is probably
NOT a roguelike, so deal with it
High value factors
Random environment generation
Permadeath
Turn-based
Grid-based
Non-modal
Complexity
Resource management
Hack'n'slash
Exploration and discovery
Low value factors
Single player character
Monsters are similar to players
Tactical challenge
ASCII display
Dungeons
Numbers
Huge thanks to TamTamJam for providing the OP
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