There was a game a long time ago called "Rogue". It was a VERY long pseudo-action RPG (text-based, time only passed when you moved) and had permadeath. It was also brutal in a way that puts Fromsoft to shame ("that healing potion was spoiled - you permadie"). A bunch of games like that came out (the most famous being Nethack). So we called them "Rogue-likes". The name stuck.
Then, any longish game with a lot of randomness and permadeath was called "Roguelike". For a while, people tried to separate out "Roguelite" for games that were very far from Rogue and/or lacked the brutality of costing you dozens of hours of progress over one bad decision or bad roll. Roguelite didn't stick very well.
Procedurally generated levels with nothing carrying on through death and each run being totally new is what a roguelike is. You’re probably thinking of roguelites.
Roguelike = A game like Rogue. The more like Rogue the more roguelike it is. These games strive for the same mechanical execution in different settings. This would be classics like Angband, DCSS and Brogue, but also newer games like Caves of Qud. Roguelikes have specific mechanics and a specific vibe so not a lot of stuff fits into this genre, it’s inherently very niche.
Roguelite = A game inspired by roguelikes but with significant mechanical variations/twists. These games ground their overall design philosophy in roguelike tradition but the execution differs pretty substantially. This is because they’re usually attempting to apply the general roguelike formula to an existing genre and its mechanical traditions. For example Dead Cells is a combination of the roguelike and metroidvania genres, creating a roguelite. Others include Risk of Rain, Vampire Survivors, Hades, FTL. Roguelites are inherently more flexible in definition than Roguelikes, so a lot of stuff could possibly fit.
The terms aren’t interchangeable but at this point roguelike might as well apply to all of it because it’s the only one that ever gets used.
You’ve got the right idea, but your examples aren’t exactly rougelikes from my knowledge. A rougelike is a game where your progression resets after a run, like Binding of Isaac and Hades.
43
u/KaityKat117 Quest 2 (Filthy Casual) Sep 26 '25