A roguelike is a game that descends from Rogue, the 1980 dungeon crawler whose randomly generated levels and restart-on-death structure set the template. In its narrow, traditional sense, the word names games that resemble Rogue and the reference games used in the 2008 Berlin Interpretation. In everyday usage it is broader: it often covers games that borrow some of those ideas, such as procedural generation and permadeath, while changing others. There is no single binding definition, so the most useful answer starts with which sense of the word is in play.
Three senses of the word in circulation
The narrow sense: traditional roguelikes
Used strictly, a roguelike is a game in the lineage of Rogue and its close relatives. These games typically combine turn-based play, a grid-based world, randomly generated environments, and a run that ends permanently on death. Most of the games that community discussion treats as core examples come from this lineage, and the Berlin Interpretation (covered below) was written to describe them.
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The broad sense: games that share the template
In contemporary usage, “roguelike” frequently describes any game that keeps a recognisable part of the template, such as a procedurally assembled run, a single life per attempt, or item discovery that changes from one attempt to the next. Many of these games use real-time action, a different genre frame, or both. Calling them roguelikes is common, but it is a looser claim than the narrow sense supports.
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The roguelite sense
“Roguelite” is the most common label for looser borrowings. Its defining feature in most usage is that some progress survives death. Steam’s April 28, 2022 editorial guide, “Going Rogue: A crash course in a confusing (sub) genre,” describes roguelites as games that may let players keep points, upgrades, or objects after dying, and it notes that “roguelike” continues to be used as an umbrella term despite the distinction. That is a description of common practice, not a rule that every roguelite must follow.
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Traditional roguelikes, roguelites and remixes compared
The table below describes typical features for each category as they are commonly used. The entries are tendencies, not requirements, and individual games vary.
| Feature | Traditional roguelike (narrow sense) | Roguelite (common usage) | Broad roguelike-style remix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time model | Typically turn-based | Often real-time action | Varies; real-time is common |
| World layout | Typically grid-based | Not necessarily grid-based | Varies |
| Environment generation | Environments and contents generated anew across runs | Often procedurally generated | Often procedurally generated, sometimes with hand-built sections |
| Death and reset | Death ends the run; progress is reset | Run ends, but some progress may persist | Varies by game |
| Between-run progression | Generally absent in the narrow sense | Often present (points, upgrades, unlocks) | Present in many games; not stated as a rule |
Where the term came from
1980: Rogue sets the template
Rogue, released in 1980, used a fantasy dungeon setting, randomly generated environments and contents, ASCII characters to represent the world, and a run structure in which death meant starting over. Its randomness made repeated attempts feel different each time. Academic histories of the genre also point to unidentified consumables as a source of uncertainty: a player could not know what a potion or scroll did until trying it.
1993: Usenet gives the family a name
The label “roguelike” arose later, in Usenet conversations in 1993, where players tried to group games related to Rogue under one term. Those discussions already contained disagreement about whether games with a shared ancestry were alike enough to belong to one category. That disagreement has never fully ended.
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- COOPERATIVE FANTASY ADVENTURE – Work together with your party to defeat monsters, collect loot, and survive the dungeon.
- ROGUELIKE BOARD GAME EXPERIENCE – Every playthrough is different with evolving enemies, items, and strategic upgrades.
- STRATEGY GAME FOR GAME NIGHT – Perfect for tabletop gamers, friends, and families looking for tactical cooperative gameplay.
- HIGH REPLAYABILITY – Unique encounters, enemies, and loot create a new adventure every time you play.
- IMMERSIVE FANTASY WORLD – Beautiful artwork, thematic monsters, and exciting boss battles bring the dungeon to life.
2008: The Berlin Interpretation
The 2008 International Roguelike Development Conference in Berlin produced the best-known attempt to codify the category, the Berlin Interpretation. It names five reference games as its canon: ADOM, Angband, Crawl, NetHack, and Rogue. Jeff Lait posted the Interpretation to the rec.games.roguelike.development newsgroup on September 26, 2008, and it is still the reference point most discussions return to.
What the Berlin Interpretation says and does not say
The Interpretation lists nine high-value factors that characterise traditional roguelikes:
- Random environment generation
- Permadeath
- Turn-based play
- Grid-based play
- Non-modality
- Complexity that supports multiple solutions
- Resource management
- Hack-and-slash combat
- Exploration and discovery
The text is explicit about how these factors should be used. Its authors wrote: “Missing some points does not mean the game is not a roguelike. Likewise, possessing some points does not mean the game is a roguelike. The purpose of the definition is for the roguelike community to better understand what the community is studying. It is not to place constraints on developers or games.” The Interpretation is therefore a framework for discussing resemblance to traditional roguelikes, not a certification test or an official standard. The academic analysis of the Interpretation, James Cartlidge’s “Genre, Prototype Theory and the Berlin Interpretation of Roguelikes” in Game Studies (2024), reads it the same way and treats the factors as a prototype rather than a checklist.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to test a game against the definition
When you need to say whether a game is a roguelike, describe what it does rather than arguing over the label alone. A practical sequence:
- Name the sense you mean. Write “roguelike in the narrow sense,” “roguelike in the broad sense,” or “roguelite” before applying the word to a specific game.
- Check death and reset. In the game’s settings or first run, find out whether death ends the run and clears progress, or whether upgrades, currency, or unlocked items carry over.
- Check time and movement. Test whether the game pauses between player actions (turn-based) or runs continuously (real-time), and whether the world sits on a grid.
- Check generation. Start two or three runs and see whether layouts and contents change. If they do, note whether the change is substantial or limited to a few elements.
- Check decision-making. Ask whether scarce resources, exploration, and interacting systems shape choices, or whether combat and progression dominate.
- Use the result as a comparison. Describe the game as sharing some factors with the traditional template. Avoid counting matches as a score.
Where the boundary stays contested
Modern games remix these features, and disagreement continues over how much procedural generation, permadeath, or turn-based structure can be removed before a different label becomes clearer. Cartlidge’s analysis treats this as a live question rather than one a single game can settle. The same tension appears in designers’ own accounts. The Game Studies article quotes Michael Toy describing the goal of the original roguelike work as “to be able to be surprised by our own game.” That quotation is attributed there through David Craddock’s 2022 book, Dungeon Hacks, and the article did not inspect a direct Toy interview, so readers who cite it should keep that attribution chain visible.
Further reading
For the history of the genre’s communities and designers, David Craddock’s Dungeon Hacks: How NetHack, Angband, and Other Roguelikes Changed the Course of Video Games (CRC Press, 2022) is cited by the Game Studies analysis as a roguelike history resource. The Berlin Interpretation itself is best read in full, as posted by Jeff Lait in September 2008, rather than through summaries, because its qualifying language is part of its meaning.
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