roguelike

• Rogue-like, rogue-like, Roguelike

From Rogue (the name of a 1980 computer game which introduced the genre, from rogue) +‎ -like.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹoʊɡlaɪk/

• Audio (US):

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roguelike (plural roguelikes)

1. (video games) Any of a genre of computer role playing games loosely characterized by various characteristics such as randomised environment generation, permadeath, turn-based movement, text-based or primitive tile-based graphics, and hack-and-slash gameplay.^[1]
   • I “Like-Like” Roguelikes (Because Love Should Never Be So Cruel), 2011

     If you haven’t played a ‘roguelike’ before, it’s basically what happens when you take a twitchy hack-and-slash game like Diablo and make it boring, confusing, and frustrating.

• hacklike

• roguelike-like
• rogue-lite

roguelike (comparative more roguelike, superlative most roguelike)

1. (video games) Of, relating to, or characteristic of the roguelike genre.
   • 1998 October 11, jwk, “Definition of roguelike”, in rec.games.roguelike.misc‎^[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     And I'm tempted to say that as long as it's got to do with fighting, single or in very small groups, with characters from different classes, different races, different stats, who learn along the way, it's roguelike enough for me. This may also include a lot of adventures, I know.

   • 2003 September 22, p_conrad, “Remakes of "classic" crpgs ? Any one them finished ?”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     I just played the remake of Sword of Fargoal to victory. I had to cheat like crazy (backing up saves) but it was fun. Granted, it's roguelike, at best, but it's a ton of fun: […]

   • 2004 March 17, The Sheep, “Roguelike characteristics?”, in rec.games.roguelike.development‎^[3] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     It's not that there's some sort of a competition, and your game needs to meet some rules to qualify. If it's good, everyone will play it despite the fact it's roguelike or not.