Roguelike

A playbook for roguelikes, the turn engine, procedural dungeons, field-of-view, permadeath, and run economy. This is a compositional skill: it orchestrates procedural generation, tilemaps, save handling, and AI into a run-based game. It does not re-teach noise/RNG or tilemap APIs; it defines the loop and the systems that make a run compelling.

When to use

• Use when building a turn-based, grid-based dungeon crawler where each death ends the run and the world is regenerated, a roguelike or "roguelite" (with meta-progression).
• Use when designing procedural dungeons, FOV/fog-of-war, permadeath stakes, or loot tables.

When not to use: real-time action with roguelike dressing → build the action genre (platformer/fps-shooter) and layer procedural-gen. Deep stats/quests/dialogue without permadeath → rpg. Open-world needs/crafting → survival-crafting.

What makes it a roguelike (design anchor)

The community reference is the Berlin Interpretation (RogueBasin, IRDC 2008): a set of "roguelikeness" factors, not a checklist. The high-value ones are the design targets: random environment generation, permadeath, turn-based, grid-based, non-modal (all actions in one mode), complexity (many item/monster interactions), resource management, hack-and-slash, and exploration & discovery. Lean into these to feel roguelike; pick which to keep deliberately. "Roguelite" usually relaxes permadeath with meta-progression.

Core loop

Take a turn (move / fight / use) → the world resolves its turn → see new state → descend / loot / survive → die and restart with a fresh dungeon. Replayability comes from the world changing each run, not the player memorizing a fixed layout.

Must-have systems