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Hello I’ve been getting a lot into traditional roguelikes and I can’t decide wether I should buy cogmind or caves of qud first so I’d like to ask which one would you guys recommend to me?

Hi everyone!
About a year ago, I posted here asking for feedback on a text-based roguelike I was making — a game with no ASCII maps, no tiles, and an interface made almost entirely of text.

Thanks to all the encouragement I received in that thread, I kept working on it, finished the English and Simplified Chinese versions, added more events, improved the UI, and prepared everything for release.

Today, the game is finally out on Steam.

Text Dungeon: The Ring of Life is a traditional roguelike with procedural dungeons, turn-based combat, permadeath, hunger, hidden doors, artifacts, and special rooms that change depending on your actions — but everything is presented through text, choices, and imagination.

If you’re curious, here’s the Steam page:
Text Dungeon: The Ring of Life

I’d be very happy if you give it a try, and I’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback you have.
Thanks to all the encouragement I received in that thread, I kept working on it, finished the English and Simplified Chinese versions, added more events, improved the UI, and finally brought the project to release.

Links: Steam | Google Play | App Store | Discord  |  Reddit

Description: All Who Wander is a traditional roguelike featuring a fast-paced 30-level adventure, inspired by dungeon crawlers such as Pixel Dungeon. Choose from 15 character classes and explore synergies across 10 skill trees to create a unique build every run. Go solo or recruit, summon, and hypnotize companions to form a versatile party. As you travel through blinding deserts, noxious swamps, and frozen caverns, you'll discover a highly-interactable environment that burns, freezes, grows, and shatters. Learning how to adapt to the environment is a key to your survival.

Game Modes: Singleplayer. Offline play. 4 difficulties with or without permadeath.

Platforms: F2P on Android and iOS. Coming soon to Steam! Release date TBD as I work on redesigning the UI for desktop, but hopefully in 2027.

Updates: Recent updates include:

• Improved companion behavior to avoid traps and AoE damage
• Balancing and improvements to Endless mode
• Option to name your character & improved Rankings screen
• 7 new creatures
• 4 new items
• 3 new achievements
• Many QoL improvements requested by players

Hey I'm developing Tiles of the Nadirat along with my artist and musician. I already talked about the game here and, here on the roguelike subreddits so let me instead share what's new at Steam Next Fest version:

Based on feedback on reddit:
"The game doesn't feel like a traditional roguelike."
I've added rogue class.

"Colors out of place."
Artist reworked tiles to better match hand-drawn style.
The UI now follows a more consistent color palette, we slightly reduced saturation and added contrast/brightness/saturation sliders. This is work in progress, more improvments coming.

"The game looks like a board game (jigsaw, sp mahjong)" -
This actually gave me a great idea! Classes will have their own hexagrams, which will further shape map generation and the rules for collecting tiles.

Based on evolving the Idea of The Nadirat, which I can't explain yet because it will appear in future riddles:
A new map-generation system is planned around hexagrams, they will both strenghten the gameplay and the philosophy behind the game.

Based on my roguelike research:
I discovered similarity with Magic Tower mini genre. Static enemies and generated collectibles seem to be surprisingly close, thought these games feel more like puzzle. But I still plan to ship class with similar playstyle.
I'm aware many roguelike games use ASCII maps, this would however be bit complicated, since tiles posses critical informations for player that needs to decide few steps ahead.

Currently playable in the demo:
7 classes, each with distinctive strategies.
Reaching 20th level is currently victory, although I don't mind increasing the victory level next patch if you want longer runs.
The Nadirat Manual explains, mechanics that have not yet been covered in my posts.
Due to limited people testing the game (Me, myself and I.) permadeath is optionable, after you die you can reload the level from main. Next version will feature permadeath.
Experimental soundtrack composed by Jan Boleslav Kladivo, Slovakian award winning musician.
There are currently 3 modes, and most likely all of them will dissapear, so there actually is reason to try the demo now. "@ttack them @ll." said Rogue. But nobody asked?

As always I'm really looking into constructive feedback.

Started playing moria when it first came out on a 5 1/4" floppy. way back when. Never beat it. Found UMoria online a few months back, and finally after decades beat it :) I screen captured my win as I was afraid it wouldn't save to a file i could access. It didn't. Wish I could have had the .TXT for posterity and to upload to Beej. but alas, it isn't meant to be. I had 2 speed items and a staff of speed he breathed on me once before i knew he was there and knocked me down to 20ish HP. I portalled away, healed and hit him with 30ish Orbs of draining.

After way too many years, I finally finished my roguelike project: DieselRogue! You can find it on itch.io and GitHub.

The elevator pitch is that this is a single level, deterministic ASCII 2D roguelike with simultaneous turns. All actions are deterministic and randomness is confined to map generation and AI. The level is fairly large and contains about a thousand enemies, all of which are fully active on turn 1 (though unaware of your presence unless alerted).

Combat is mainly ranged or stealth based and there are drivable vehicles (if you are lucky enough to capture them). The game is quite short and suitable for a lunch break, though victory will require quite a few attempts.

Of all the many projects I've started during the years, this is the first one I finally finished. Feel free to try the game and I hope you enjoy it!

EDIT: Crash bug fixed.

Hi everyone,

The day has finally arrived! I'm thrilled to announce that Roguefort is now out in Early Access. I always dreamed of making my own traditional roguelike and bringing into play the depth of simulation and lore and player agency that I longed for in an open world roguelike RPG. Roguefort is that dream game for me and I'm just so happy to be able to finally share it with the community that I've been part of for so long, and who inspired me to take the plunge and commit to a full release on Steam.

It has been very much a community effort the entire way though and I'm grateful to the many people who have supported and encouraged me to keep developing this game, who you will see in the credits. It's also an honour to be participating in the Roguelike Celebration 2026, so thanks to the organisers for helping raise the visibility of the genre.

Further information and an FAQ are available on the website: https://playroguefort.com/

Thanks for your time and I'm excited to get back to work over the next year towards the 1.0 release.

Tim

Hey there,

It's been a while since I posted about my game Dungeons of Delveria, so I thought that this is a great opportunity to share what has changed.

In the game you can discover Sigils which grant you special powers. These powers can be used to even the odds against larger groups of enemies. For example, you can cause rubble to fall from the ceiling with the Rockfall power, and then augment that rubble with the Lava power to infuse it with fire. The fiery rubble can then be unleashed in an area attack at several enemies.

Since last time:

• The game has 2 new biomes now, lava and ice. Some of the powers behave differently depending on which environment they are used in.
• There are new powers to discover and experiment with.
• New bosses have been added.
• There's an ASCII mode. You can switch between it and the tile graphics in the middle of a run, so no new run is needed.
• The dungeon is now 15 floors deep, so you have more to delve through and to discover combos with the different powers.

A Steam Event for Finnish Games Week starts tomorrow 12th of October and my game is taking part. You can test the demo for free on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4619160/Dungeons_of_Delveria/

I would love to hear your thoughts. And a wishlist helps more people to find the game. :)

as the title says! and when i say fantasy, i mean the classical knights, wizards, etc. no sci-fi please! :D

If you've played dwarf fortress adventure mode you know how it is how interesting how detailed and silly the combat gets "you wrestle the dwarf's left eyelid with your right tooth and pluck it out, he screams in agony"

This is obviously very different to a generic dismemberment system so I don't think the berserker build for caves of qud works for this

And obviously there's not going to be anything as detailed regarding in its fantasy combat but I figured it doesn't hurt to ask if there's anything like this in the indie scene and the like that most don't know about (because otherwise my search brings me to these two games)

I know this is a wildly niche question and a lot of roguelikes have a lot of keybinds and stuff that makes it hard to put them on a 3ds, but do any of y'all know of one that has been ported to work on a hacked 3ds?

Hi, I'd like to show you the developments of Stray Mage, a turn-based tactical roguelike about a wizard. The game doesn't have pre-made spells like Fireball or Flying Sword; instead, players must construct spells from syllables (like Noita). I'd love to hear your thoughts on this project

I have discounted the game for our launch window, which will last through the Roguelike Celebration event on steam next week.

For those who are unfamiliar, we are a traditional roguelike through and through.

First and foremost, the designer put strategy and tactics as the highest priority. Learning how monsters behave and building the right Rogue to counter them is the most satisfying part of play.

Each of the 4 playable classes have a unique skill tree with tons of room to experiment with build combinations. Hundreds of procedurally generated items and rare artifacts, with hidden monsters and secrets to find.

For our returning fans from the iOS release, we have plenty of new items, enemies, and a few other new secrets to discover.

Go kill Satan!

Recently started a blog about roguelikes and their mechanics. Just published my first real post about Map generation

https://www.catface.games/blog/basic-map-gen/

Play the Demo NOW!

I've been working on this one for a while and the demo went up on itch today. It's called KILLER CUT. The short version: each scenario is a classic horror setup packaged in a traditional roguelike setting. I am a huge fan of Rogue Survivor so that was a big inspo for this: Whole town simulated, cops who have to physically arrive, followers you can order around. This points that kind of sim at one night of slasher logic instead of a zombie sandbox

Halloween night babysitting two kids. A summer camp the night before it opens. A cannibal farmhouse. You play it on a small generated map where everyone is a simulated person. The family next door makes plans. A neighbour hears a scream and calls 911. A dispatcher sends a car. The car drives the roads. The killer is a body on the grid with his own logic: he tests doors, watches windows, cuts the phone line, goes round the back if the front is barricaded, and loads of other creepy stuff depending on the scenario.

Nothing is scripted. Every ending comes out of the sim and gets written up in a case file you can scrub through from any character's point of view.

The roguelike bits:
- Tile grid, ten seconds a turn. Move a tile, run louder.
- Two-tier sim. Full line of sight and utility AI within about 20 tiles of you and the killer. The rest of the town runs on a district graph so it keeps going when you can't see it.
- No HP. Bodies are modelled part by part: wounds, bleeding, shock, concussion, consciousness. You can lose the use of a hand. A knife can stay stuck in someone and they can pull it out into their own hand.
- Fog of knowledge rather than fog of war. The log only tells you what your character saw, heard, or was told. Every sound lands on the map with a distance and a direction.
- NPCs remember. Who you saved, who you locked out, who you lied to. It changes whether a door opens for you an hour later.
- Permadeath, with one rewind per night to two minutes before the fight that killed you. Or take over the nearest survivor and keep going.

What's in the demo:

Two scenarios. A tutorial in a condemned boarding house that kills you once on purpose, and the babysitter night. Each run is a new town with new people.

Would greatly appreciate any feedback, and would love to hear of your guys' experience with it.

Hi everyone, I've just released the first public version of Ammerow: Lands Beyond, a free traditional roguelike built from Angband for Windows and Android.

Angband is the foundation, not just an inspiration: the turn-based combat, procedural dungeon exploration, equipment decisions and permanent death will be familiar. Ammerow takes that foundation into a different setting, with a hostile overworld and connected, side-view caves alongside the main dungeon descent.

The idea behind the caves is fairly simple: getting down is only half the problem. You also need a plan for getting back out.

What does spelunking look like in a roguelike?

Originally inspired by Lone Spelunker, the caves are still turn-based. You can free-climb rock, hammer in pitons, lower ropes, jump gaps and swim through pools. Stamina matters when climbing and swimming; air matters when submerged. Standing at the edge of a shaft and deliberately peeking down can tell you much more than simply approaching it.

Ropes and pitons give you ways to manage the risk, but they also occupy inventory space that could otherwise hold potions, scrolls or spare equipment. A promising route down isn't necessarily a sensible route down.

There is fishing in the underground pools, and the overground lakes, too. It connects to an optional village-larder quest and useful supplies for later expeditions. I wanted it to belong to the exploration loop: reaching a pool, deciding whether you can afford to linger, and bringing something worthwhile home. It isn't intended to turn the whole game into a gentle fishing holiday.

And the dungeon crawling?

The Meridian i the main dungeon, with the current victory goal at level 100 and play possible beyond it. There are shops, ranged combat, magic, numerous character choices, and procedurally generated artefacts with names and lore. The setting, peoples and creature roster have also been substantially reworked.

For presentation, you can use coloured ASCII or optional Hybrid 32x32 and 64x64 sprites over ASCII terrain. Examining creatures and equipment brings up detailed ASCII illustrations, and shopkeepers have their own illustrated cards. The map is zoomable, and there are combat animations and sound effects.

Free downloads

• Steam — Windows
• itch.io — Windows
• GitHub — Windows portable download
• GitHub — Android APK, Android 8.0 or later

For the Windows GitHub download, choose the Windows ZIP rather than the automatic source-code downloads, extract it, and run ammerow.exe. For Android, choose the .apk. The program source is GPLv2; artwork and audio have separate licence terms.

This is Early Access, with a playable route from a fresh character to victory, not a promise that the interface or balance is finished. Save compatibility between updates isn't guaranteed.

A transparency note: I used AI tools extensively during development, including code and writing assistance and image-generated source artwork. The ASCII illustrations and Hybrid sprites are derived from those images. Audio was developed with AI-assisted composition and procedural-synthesis tools. No AI runs during play.

Thanks to the Angband developers and contributors whose work made this possible. If you give Ammerow a try, I'd love to hear what happened to your adventurer — especially whether they made it back out of the cave.

I am developing a roguelike called Tallow, to fit particular cravings I’ve had that I haven’t seen in other roguelikes:

- Simple to learn and control: you only have one character, no classes or attributes. Go in and make your build based on what skills and weapons you use.
- A dark fantasy / dark academia horror style - key influences being Diablo, Amnesia, and Bloodborne.
- Brief runs - possible to win in less than an hour.
- Easy to learn - all controls are written in the game UI itself, playable on any keyboard, and there are no complicated keybindings to learn.
- Unique mechanics of light and darkness: you carry a candle which lets you see further, but also attracts certain monsters and burns tallow (fuel). Darkness saves you tallow and keeps you hidden, but increases your dread level, which can manifest horrors and nightmares on high levels. Dread can be channeled into spells or offered to lit braziers for healing. Balancing light and dark becomes an important task to survive.

Get down to floor 12, kill Beelzebub, and return the vigil candle back to the Church to win.

Check out the precompiled releases on Github or build it yourself with Rust. Any feedback is appreciated!

https://github.com/markomoth/tallow

Building a real Roguelike, one with some depth to it, has been on my bucket list for a long time. It’s finally out. I'm a solo developer from Austin, TX and this has been a labor of love and I think it turned out really well. I hope you like it.

Gravehoard is a turn-based fantasy roguelike for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It's a game in the spirit of my favorite classic dungeon crawlers. I played the original Rogue in my high school’s computer lab at lunch every day, and Angband on my college’s Unix servers. This is my attempt at a worthy addition to that line: old-school RPG roots, modern conveniences, and the loot chase of games like Diablo.

Twenty floors, generated fresh every run, with a crown at the bottom nobody has carried out. Ten classes that play like different games. The classics are here (fighter, rogue, wizard, cleric), plus a few of my own: a beastmaster who tames creatures to fight by his side, a grave robber who can take cursed gear back off, and more.

Runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac and syncs your saved game between them so you can play across desktop and phone. First half of the game is free to play, no ads, no subscription, no energy timers.

Download on the App Store

Hi everyone, I'm announcing the release of the steam demo for Arcostate!

Arcostate is a turn-based sci-fi roguelike set on a ruined Earth. It draws from Caves of Qud, Brogue, Elin, and other games I like. You start with no memory in a hostile land, with the last surviving arcology on the horizon.

Some of what's in the game:

- An overworld map with hand-authored and procedural locations

- NPCs with daily schedules, a variety of friendly and hostile factions, quests

- Cybernetics, psychic powers, and drug crafting

- Companions, momentum physics, destructible walls, and base building

- Classic mode with permadeath, or roleplaying mode

Full list of features can be found on the steam page!

The demo covers the starting region and runs up to level 15. It will also be part of Steam Next Fest this October.

I want to thank everyone who has helped bring the project to this stage, all of the bug reports and feedback have been invaluable in how the game has been shaped! I hope everyone enjoys the demo :)

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5034430/Arcostate/

Discord: https://discord.gg/eHM2pDJcMu

Bug reports and feedback are very welcome!

I wanted a DCSS-style roguelike that fits in one hand: real turns, permadeath, a new dungeon every run, portrait mode. I ended up building one, and instead of the usual fantasy set I built it out of Korean folktales. "Seolhwa" means folktale.

Up front, since it matters to some of you: I made this with heavy use of an AI coding assistant (Claude). The code, the pixel art (it's drawn by scripts), and a lot of the text went through it. I direct it, playtest, and decide what goes in. If that's a dealbreaker, fair enough, and I'm happy to answer questions about it.

The nice surprise was that the old tales already come with rules, so a lot of the mechanics wrote themselves:

- **Jeoseung Saja, the reaper**, calls your name once for every turn you stay in his sight. The third call is 20 damage that armor and evasion don't touch. Break line of sight and the count resets, so the whole fight is about corners. Below 35% HP he only needs two turns.

- **The Gumiho** splits into four identical foxes at 35%. One is real. Every fake you hit charms you for 2 turns.

- **The Imugi** grows every 20 turns it's awake and becomes a dragon on the third growth. At 35% it floods the whole floor, and standing in water drains your energy.

- **The Dokkaebi King** turns you into a squirrel for 10 turns. No attacking, no spells. You can still read an Uncursing Charm, if you kept one.

- Encounters work the same way. Meet a funeral procession: step aside and bow and you heal a little. Block the road and four bier bearers set the coffin down and come for you.

What it borrows from DCSS:

- 8 gods with faith, wrath, and a taboo each. The mountain god lends you a tiger and forbids killing tigers and deer. The Dragon King forbids fire.

- 4 main dungeons plus the underworld, and 7 side branches.

- 14 species × 12 classes (Bear Folk Strongman, Dol Hareubang Monk, Octopus Sorcerer...).

- 146 monsters, each with its folktale in the codex. 32 spells.

- Auto-explore and auto-fight that stop when something shows up. A card pick at every level-up.

About difficulty: I've played it a lot myself. I know every gimmick, the strong combinations, and how each boss is supposed to be handled, and I still think I'd clear it about once in 200 runs, if that. So the balance is probably off in ways I can't see anymore. If you try it, feedback on balance would help a lot: what felt unfair, what killed you, and on which floor.

Money: it's free, works offline, no account. 6 of the 14 species and 5 of the 12 classes are free (you start with a couple, the other free ones open as you play). One purchase unlocks the other 8 species and 7 classes. There is exactly one ad in the game: an optional rewarded revive, once per run, and there's an achievement for winning without it. Nothing carries over that makes you stronger.

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sungkisoft.seolhwadungeon&pcampaignid=web_share

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6814757012

I fell in love with the recent release of Mewgenics and I’ve been looking for similar games with that quick replay and crazy different combat styles to the same situations.

I saw a game called space renegades that looked neat but people say the console version never got the final story updates that steam got.

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!

The lack of responses alluding to Nethack/Roguelikes on this thread on r/discworld got me to post this. I posted my story there in any case.

I remember first seeing the Tourist class in Nethack. All its extended quotes, too. The way Death talks, the Shopkeepers being described as their own race etc.

References to Discworld got so ubiquitous to me that I may be subconsciously even forgetting them when I see them in other games. I know in vanilla Angband, sometimes the general storekeeper's name is Rincewind the Chicken.

There might be so many others that I don't recall at the moment. So if you know any at the top of your head, do list them here too!