Roguelikes & Roguelites

The roguelike vs roguelite distinction is one of those debates that gets tedious quickly but matters for understanding the genre's history. Strict roguelikes — descendants of Rogue (1980) and NetHack — are turn-based, grid-based, ASCII-or-tile-art, and brutally permadeath. Caves of Qud, Cogmind, Dwarf Fortress's adventure mode. Roguelites are the popularized cousins: real-time action, run-based structure, but with persistent meta-progression that softens the permadeath sting. Hades, Dead Cells, Risk of Rain, Returnal, Slay the Spire — these are the games most people mean when they say "roguelike," even when the purists wince.

Both lineages are alive and thriving. The strict roguelikes are having a renaissance on Steam after decades of niche obscurity, partly because tile-based UIs have improved and partly because players burned out on cinematic AAA are rediscovering the appeal of dense, systemic, replayable design. The roguelites have eaten half the indie market — every other release is run-based now, and the formula has fused with bullet heaven, deckbuilder, metroidvania, and survival genres into hybrids that didn't exist five years ago.

Both Granny's Gambit and Granny's Rampage live in the roguelite tradition — different mechanical genres, same run-based DNA. The posts below cover the whole family: pure roguelikes, modern roguelites, the hybrids, and the design philosophy that makes "do it again" feel like progress instead of repetition.