Thoughts on Pixels: Getting into Roguelikes, part 1

The other day I realized that I have become quite the avid player of games that could be largely classified as roguelikes. Join me in this two-post essay on how my descent into the depths of low-graphic/high-complexity/high-lethality gaming happened and how you can do it too. It's not as hard as one might think...

It's hard to say at what point I became interested in roguelike games. Some consider Diablo to be a roguelike and I played the first one back in '97 or whenever it came out. Anyhow, the first more recent roguelike I played with intensity was, after a short and rather unsuccessful stint with Elite 2 the roguelike shooter Transcendence, about which I have already written some words here. Some might argue that a top-down shooter isn't really a roguelike but I beg to differ: The procedurally generated world, the random loot, the high difficulty and the customization of your character (or ship) via equipment and enchantments (barrels filled with X) are all there. It's also a good starter but that's going to be topic of the next post. As will be Spelunky and Desktop Dungeons.

Anyways, exploring the world of Transcendence soon wasn't enough. I had heard about the roguelikes, even tried Nethack on my cellphone, being rather put off by the steep difficulty (or random cruelness) and the horrid control scheme. Roguelikes seemed rather scary in their lack of visuals and their steep learning curve when it came to gameplay features. That lessened when I watched the let's plays of Rogue Survivor by Plumphelmetpunk on Youtube. I wanted to live through stories like these too.

Play Diary: Rogue Survivor - Vinnie Tarver

In this play-diary I'll do something different to the ongoing Oblivion-series and play a little roguelike called Rogue Survivor, which can be found for free here. Roguelikes are games usually based on procedural generation of worlds, the programmers choice of mechanical depth over graphics, and usually a high degree of difficulty. A famous example would be NetHack. Anyways, Rogue Survivor takes place after zombies have started to overrun your city and you play a random survivor (or zombie, if you want to), just trying to survive for as long as possible. My first Play-Diary of RS can be found here, the second one here.


This was the first time I played with the new rule-set of "classic" zombie-apocalypse, foregoing any mutated monstrosities and skeletons and allowing only zombified men and women in the game. The addition of corpses to this version makes things interesting too. I'd figured it would be easier without zombie-masters around but I was wrong. Also, did that serial-killer get updated too..?

Day 0:

I woke up smashed after this party in the central park villa club. Man, there were people running around all frantic and the radio was on, broadcasting some stuff about the end of the world. I didn't believe it but then I saw them: Actual freaking zombies. I got the hell out of there and ran across the street into the police station. The cops were actually handing out weapons and body armor to civilians. Everything is going crazy! I didn't want to be the one guy without a weapon so I got a shotgun, some shells, riot-gear and a flashlight. I wanted to hide in the basement-cell block so I went down there. There was a guy in one of the cells begging me to let him go and that the CHAR corporation was after him and whatnot. I reluctantly opened the cell and he came out and told me where the secret CHAR facility was that started all of this. Then his body split open and a monstrous creature broke out of him. I screamed like a baby, which got two cops on the plan to check things out. They opened up with their guns and the thing came at us. I emptied my shotgun into it as it ate one of the cops alive. It came at me too while I was frantically reloading, bit me but I finished it off. The bite later became infected, I need to do something about it. There were some army-rations in the basement of which I took some. Then I left, before anyone notices that it had been me who opened that cell. I went to the Western Central subway-station because just the other week I had noticed a sign for a cold-war era bomb-shelter there, which is where I'm camped out right now. Tomorrow I'll go up and find medical help. Hopefully the national guard will be there and it will all be over by then.

Play Diary: Rogue Survivor - Max Jones

In this play-diary I'll do something different to the ongoing Oblivion-series and play a little roguelike called Rogue Survivor, which can be found for free here. Roguelikes are games usually based on procedural generation of worlds, the programmers choice of mechanical depth over graphics, and usually a high degree of difficulty. A famous example would be NetHack. Anyways, Rogue Survivor takes place after zombies have started to overrun your city and you play a random survivor (or zombie, if you want to), just trying to survive for as long as possible. My first Play-Diary of RS can be found here, the second one here.


This one is a longer one, making the perma-death at the end a very harrowing experience. It's not my longest run ever but I think it's second or third and the longest one I have written down. I'm posting this in celebration of the nice spike of traffic that Roguedjack, the maker of Rogue Survivor has given my blog by posting links on his developer-blog. Thanks, man!

Day 0:

The news were true and I had to get the hell out. Z everywhere, fighting, screaming. I ran the store and then left to the east side and found shelter in a subway station; then went hauling more ammo and guns from that weapons-store twice. Now I'll sleep. More looting to be done tomorrow, I guess.

Day 1:

Two more hauls, one for ammo, one for food. I have a decent stash of canned food now. Tomorrow that other gun emporium is going to be it. Not much else happening. The police warned about bikers and gangs trying to take over now that the city order is collapsing. I'll take care.

Day 3:

Two hellish days seem to be finally over. Yesterday morning I saw one of the notorious gangs of bikers marauding down West-street so I decided to delay my excursion to the weapons emporium and check out the police station. It was quite a hike there but I looted a pharmacy for some energy- and caffeine pills. At the station I got myself a riot armor and another shotgun plus shells for it. In the cell block I decided to set those trapped there free. There was this guy who said he was working for CHAR and that they were the cause of all of this. Right after he told me where the entrance to their secret facility was (and I started thinking he might just be nuts) his body burst apart and some monstrosity replaced him. The thing attacked and the prisoners and I were in complete pandemonium. I emptied round after round of buckshot in it, it clawed at me, it was horrible. In the end it was dead, a lot of the prisoners were too and I was hurt as well. I patched myself up and it was night but I had to press on so I took the caffeine pills and went through the night. Took a route via the weapons emporium to get more supplies. On the way back I ran into a group of bikers roughing up some guy. In the ensuing street-battle the guy and I killed three of them. Then I brought the loot home to my hideout. Went once more to get some more stuff. Tomorrow I'll have to set out and try to find more food and medical supplies. For now I'll take a long sleep and go to bed early.

Play Diary: Rogue Survivor - Unknown Man

In this play-diary I'll do something different to the ongoing Oblivion-series and play a little roguelike called Rogue Survivor, which can be found for free here. Roguelikes are games usually based on procedural generation of worlds, the programmers choice of mechanical depth over graphics, and usually a high degree of difficulty. A famous example would be NetHack. Anyways, Rogue Survivor takes place after zombies have started to overrun your city and you play a random survivor (or zombie, if you want to), just trying to survive for as long as possible.

As the game is under development and there is no 'win' state yet, it usually boils down to how long can you survive. Killing zombies is not the goal, you level up with each passing day regardless of how you spent it. You need to eat and you need to sleep and that is what usually gets you killed. These play-diaries are going to be stand-alone stories of survivors I played until they expired, written down from their perspective as I was playing. Almost none of the events are scripted, as this is a random world and I of course write a bit more into them than actually happened in-game but the general story is what happened, as it happened. Enjoy!

Day 0:

How did I get there? Don't know but I left that house quickly. Screams and panic everywhere, had to get out. A cop shot an undead monster that was attacking me. He said I'd better find a save place to be so I left for the shopping district. Found myself some guns and ammo as well as some food I ate and now I just spent the night in a general store. Gonna try and get underground to the subway station as I heard rumours that they're gonna nuke the whole city! Gotta grab what I can and get moving now.

Play Diary: Rogue Survivor - Carlton Lee

In this play-diary I'll do something different to the ongoing Oblivion-series and play a little roguelike called Rogue Survivor, which can be found for free here. Roguelikes are games usually based on procedural generation of worlds, the programmers choice of mechanical depth over graphics, and usually a high degree of difficulty. A famous example would be NetHack. Anyways, Rogue Survivor takes place after zombies have started to overrun your city and you play a random survivor (or zombie, if you want to), just trying to survive for as long as possible.

As the game is under development and there is no 'win' state yet, it usually boils down to how long can you survive. Killing zombies is not the goal, you level up with each passing day regardless of how you spent it. You need to eat and you need to sleep and that is what usually gets you killed. These play-diaries are going to be stand-alone stories of survivors I played until they expired, written down from their perspective as I was playing. Almost none of the events are scripted, as this is a random world and I of course write a bit more into them than actually happened in-game but the general story is what happened, as it happened. Enjoy!

Day 0:

Woke up to find the house assaulted by zombies, strangers also here, ransacking the place! I grabbed some food from the fridge and my flashlight. One of the strangers beat a Z to death in my kitchen. I went into the basement and killed two rabid rats with my bare hands, blocking the stairs with some crap I found in the corner. I stashed the food in a corner of the basement and went back outside. Went to the general store down the street to get supplies and found a horde of zombies there. Evading them I got back some ammo (but no weapon!) and a medkit, which I used to patch myself up after returning to my basement. Then I ate some food. The next trip went to the grocery store. I met a group of cops on the way there and a guy with a hunting rifle was sleeping at the store. I grabbed as much canned food as I could carry and brought it back here. A third trip outside brought in more cans, some fresh groceries I will have to eat sooner rather than later and also the information that the gun store next door is still barricaded. Good. I'll sleep for now as I am really tired. Hope the Z don't find me down here... It's 19h and I've been up since midnight, by the way. Rough day. Tomorrow I'll see what I can get weapons-wise.