GROGPOD Roguelike Podcast

The end of season 1 of the podcast is here and to celebrate we are pitting our top games in a playoff tournament fight to the death! If you’re new to the podcast or the genre this is a great place to start. With a wide range of categories from platformer rogues, to solo dev efforts, to squad management simulators, there’s something for everyone today. Thanks to all the listeners that voted as well!

Our finalists include:

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Cogmind

Dead Cells

Enter the Gungeon

FTL: Faster Than Light

Hand of Fate 2

Invisible Inc

The Last Spell

Luck Be A Landlord

Monster Train

Rimworld

Streets of Rogue

Who will take the ultimate prize of the GROGPOD Omegabowl???

! The full tournament bracket with spoiled results can be found here

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

2:00 - Tournament plan, categories, and games

7:21 - Wildcard 1: Cogmind vs Luck Be A Landlord

21:10 - Wildcard 2: Streets of Rogue vs Invisible, Inc.

28:04 - Wildcard 3: Rimworld vs Hand of Fate 2

37:28 - Wildcard 4: The Last Spell vs Enter the Gungeon

45:36 - Division 1: FTL: Faster Than Light vs ???

51:34 - Division 2: Binding of Isaac: Rebirth vs ???

58:19 - Division 3: Dead Cells vs ???

1:06:45 - Division 4: Monster Train vs ???

1:14:50 - Semi-finals 1

1:21:54 - Semi-finals 2

1:27:58 - Grand finals

1:40:18 - Show wind down

Next episode: Holiday special!

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Heavy Action - Johnny Pearson

Outro music: Lost Sun (battle) - Squishyboi

That gooey flopping sound isn’t your GROGsgiving dinner quite yet, it’s the sound of you being reanimated for another run of the 2018 hit action platformer Dead Cells! Join the crew and returning guest Woody as we slice, dice, parry, and pray for mercy against monstrous bosses and darkening sephulcurs. Feel the guitar-strumming beat of a French co-op gamedev’s masterpiece and strap in for some fast kickin’, low biome times, and meta-progression? You bet!

We round out this season of the podcast with a great one, but we’ve covered a lot of great games this year. Our next episode will feature a playoff tournament of our top rated games to see who takes the ultimate crown this year. Place your votes here and use your democratic power to help us crown a champion.

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

4:27 - Game stats

13:48 - One sentence description

16:55 - Our story begins

19:00 - Core gameplay mechanics and weapon unlock system

25:20 - Cursed chests risk/reward mechanic discussion

29:10 - RPG stat system and color-based weapon scaling

36:02 - Legendary items and synergy build strategies

42:06 - Character design criticism and aesthetic evaluation

51:08 - Boss cell difficulty progression and accessibility options

59:12 - Game criticism: poor explanation of core mechanics

1:08:29 - Rankings and final thoughts

1:17:50 - Similar games

1:21:48 - Roguelike playoffs preview!

Next episode: GROGPOD Roguelike Playoffs - the Omegabowl!

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Coleman Hawkins & Ben Webster - Prisoner of Love

Outro music: Valmont - ClockTower

Who’s a good baby amphibian? Is it you? Is it you? It is AK-Xolotl: the AK-47 wielding, you guessed it, axolotl baby raising simulator! Are reptiles different than amphibians? Is it worth sacrificing your children for permenant meta-progression unlocks? These are the kinds of questions all new parents need to answer at some point in their quest to take down Cthulhu-like monstrosities and heavy metal kittens. What other podcast will go into depth on axolotl biology while also talking about the intracacies of the Sten 9×19mm? Who’s a good submachine gun? Is it you? Is it you?

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

1:14 - Game stats

3:04 - One sentence description

4:27 - Comparison to Enter the Gungeon and twin-stick shooters

7:23 - Core criticism: lack of meaningful variety and randomization

9:53 - Opening cutscene confusion and narrative issues

13:47 - Baby management simulator vs shooting mechanics discussion

18:16 - Weapon unlock system and meta progression problems

21:48 - Baby care mini-game criticism and design flaws

26:25 - Kickstarter campaign and missing promised features analysis

32:27 - Quality vs quantity problems and Early Access comparison

36:08 - Controller issues and key binding problems

42:04 - Easy mode discussion and accessibility features

55:28 - Rankings and final thoughts

1:01:30 - Similar games

Next episode: Dead Cells

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Charles Mingus - II B.S.*

Outro music: AK-xolotl - Hell’O Kitty

Have you ever thought to yourself ‘Is it possible to import my friends into this game and harvest their skin for the leather of my chairs?’ Then you’ve tuned to the right episode! In an accidentally relevant-to-spooky-season selection, we turn to Rimworld! But wait, that’s not a roguelike, you’ll inevitably shout at your podcast feed. We decided to pull some editorial leeway this time with the defense of ‘well if Dwarf Fortress did it…’ Join our starving colonists as they try to figure out how to grow potatoes and fight off insectoid invasions and mind pulse machines as they dig too deep and unleash the terrors of internet connectivity issues.

Thanks again for the gracious hosts of this year’s Roguelike Celebration, in which Scott was able to present his talk ‘The Data Science of Roguelikes’. You can find it on youtube here!

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

1:47 - Welcome new listeners from the 2023 Roguelike Celebration!

3:20 - Game stats

5:09 - One sentence description

7:19 - Comparison with other colony sims and Dwarf Fortress

13:39 - Tutorial quality discussion and new player experience

18:34 - AI storytellers and difficulty selection advice

21:40 - Randy Random vs Cassandra Classic storyteller comparison

27:12 - Victory conditions and different player goal approaches

32:25 - Optimal drug production strategy and economic gameplay

36:17 - Cannibalism and organ harvesting meme discussion

41:03 - Food production confusion and learning curve challenges

54:00 - World map exploration and caravan system

56:48 - DLC content overview (Royalty, Ideology, Biotech)

1:05:30 - Rankings and final thoughts

1:18:27 - Similar games

Next episode: AK-xolotl

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Kenny Burrell - Out of This World

Outro music: Alistair Lindsay - Alpaca

Happy GROGSversary! As we celebrate one whole year of doing this program, we combine our forces to attempt our own answer at the unsolvable question of “what is a roguelike?” In possibly our longest episode to date, we dive into the pre-history of rogue-games, the infamous Berlin Interpretation, and just how “rogue-lite” games fit into all this. We talk about jazz subgenres, whether or not Minecraft is a roguelike game, Solitaire (yes that one), hierarchies of game design needs, and who could forget Elf Metal! Of course, no one can be told what a roguelike is, you have to experience them for yourself.

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

2:56 - Today’s fight club topic: What is a roguelike game?

4:07 - Our story begins / why do we care?

13:30 - One-sentence summaries of roguelike genre definitions

15:30 - What is the original 1980 Rogue, the first games like Rogue, the Berlin Interpretation

30:00 - What are rogue-lites? 2008’s Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, and Rogue Legacy

49:32 - Are “-lite” games less hardcore? Does metaprogression matter?

56:42 - How roguelike is this game? (Minecraft, Diablo, X-Com, Into the Breach, Deep Rock Galactic, Don’t Starve, Inscryption, Gloomhaven)

1:08:30 - Data-driven roguey-ness and Steam tags

1:16:28 - Can board games be roguelikes?

1:20:55 - Do music genres suffer the same problem that the rogue-community has?

1:27:00 - Summary and final thoughts

As promised, below you can find some of our notes referenced in this chonker of a recording:

Our collected list of roguelike definitions over the years

Scott’s 16 pages of show notes

Will’s hierarchy of game needs

Colin’s google sheet of undebateably roguey-ness scores

Check out Scott’s tangentially related talk on The Data Science of Roguelikes here!

See how the genre has evolved over time with our definitions timeline here.

Next episode: Rimworld

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Bill Evans - Nardis

Outro music: Tarn Adams - Dwarf Fortress mode theme

It’s finally here, our episode on one of the major traditional roguelike cornerstones: Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. Humanity’s greatest desire is to drive crudely built, ascii-tiled cars in open source videogame projects. That and escape from zombies, of course. Tune in as we spend half an hour trying to open up menu systems and try to see just how big this fantastical world of “New England” really is. There’s only so much time to listen to this episode before XE037 finds you and adds you to the blobular collective!

As noted, we’ve done a few developer interviews for CDDA which you can find here. Thanks to the devs for taking the time to answer some of our questions!

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

1:30 - game stats

5:12 - one sentence description

6:37 - »»CDDA fans trigger warning alert««

11:20 - Game story setup and multiple apocalypse scenarios

15:30 - Tutorial video requirements and learning curve comparisons

22:15 - Dwarf Fortress comparison and menu system complexity

28:45 - Character creation praise and detailed trait systems

34:20 - UI/UX criticism and accessibility problems discussion

42:15 - Simulation depth vs playability debate and system complexity

48:30 - Story expectations vs reality and emergent gameplay

55:45 - Target audience analysis and programmer appeal discussion

1:03:02 - rankings and final thoughts

1:17:52 - similar games

Next episode: A GROGPOD fight club special episode to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of the podcast! We’ll be tackling the topic of “What Is A Roguelike?” There will be blood!

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Hal Leonard Jazz Ensemble - Ain’t No Sunshine

Outro music: CDDA Chesthole Soundpack - Ambient Track 1

One way or another, we were going to play this hit indie JRPG roguelike! Its One Way Heroics week for this dimension, as we take a keen eye at some anime pixel mobs and try not to wall ourselves in with a creeping black wall of doom. We must move forwards, not backwards! Upwards not forwards! And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards the 2000 KM goal to save the kingdom from the dark dragon of doom.

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

3:13 - game stats

6:23 - one sentence description

8:17 - let’s talk JRPGs

12:15 - Game description: streamlined JRPG with wall of darkness

18:20 - Difficulty mode confusion and tutorial problems

25:40 - Wall of darkness mechanic and time pressure gameplay

32:15 - Combat system simplification compared to traditional JRPGs

38:45 - Save system mechanics and level trading discussion

42:30 - Hidden content and 2000 kilometer endgame discovery

48:15 - Meta progression and dimensional vault storage system

52:30 - NPC recruitment and character storyline advancement

58:00 - rankings and final thoughts

1:04:04 - similar games

Next episode: Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser

Outro music: Beginning Theme 1 - Saia Hyouseki, Boss Dead Theme 2 - Jinfa Dragon Symphony

Ymg’ ah ain’ghft eldritch n’ghftdrn ai! This week the podcast dials back the clock to one of the earliest roguelike games released on Steam: Eldritch! You remember Minecraft, right? Ever thought to yourself: “What if it had a bunch of tentacle monsters and guns?” Well have we got the game for you! Tune in as we confusingly bumble our way around a library looking for a good book to escape into, literally. All the while trying to frantically run away from gloopy, wet fish-men looking to mess you up in traditional H.P. Lovecraft fashion.

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

2:25 - game stats

4:18 - one sentence description

8:45 - Game description: 3D voxel-based Lovecraftian dungeon crawler

14:30 - Procedural generation quality and 3D maze navigation

20:15 - Enemy design and Cthulhu Mythos creature discussion

25:45 - Combat mechanics and weapon systems criticism

31:20 - Stealth mechanics and difficulty balance issues

36:15 - Procedural vs handcrafted level design debate

42:30 - Horror effectiveness and atmosphere evaluation

47:23 - rankings and final thoughts

54:57 - similar games

Next episode: One Way Heroics

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Eric Verlinde - Are You Free

Outro music: Eldritch OST - Mountains of Madness

Hold onto your Brotatoes! You demanded, we listened: listener request week is over and from the ashes of our submissions arose the bullet heaven Brotato and the tower defense zombie horde killhouse The Last Spell. We are also joined by a new full-time member of the podcast: previous guest Andrew Harshman! With so much content to cover, will we be able to channel our summoner energies together before the hour is up?

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript)

1:42 - The GROGPOD Grows!

4:09 - Brotato game stats

6:44 - Vampire Survivor-like subgenre terminology debate (bullet heaven vs one-stick shooters)

10:49 - Brotato aesthetic criticism and Flash game comparisons

16:23 - Arena limitation complaints vs exploration desires

20:56 - Nintendo eShop story description and potato world lore

25:09 - The Last Spell introduction and tactical combat overview

32:57 - Game phases: town building, defense setup, and night combat

38:14 - Decision fatigue criticism and feedback loop discussion

46:17 - Character generation and goddess dialogue segments

54:21 - Night phase tactical combat depth analysis

1:07:24 - Roguelike classification debate and genre elements

1:11:30 - Rankings and final thoughts

Next episode: Eldritch

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Jean Luc Ponty - Mirage

Outro music: The Algorithm - Oath

Snake eyes! Because we forgot to do our homework this week, we are gambling away our fortunes to pay our rent with Luck Be A Landlord! Come spin some slots in a cutesy veneer of a capitalist hellscape. We needed some more time to review CDDA so stay tuned in an upcoming episode, but we did conduct an interesting set of dev interviews that you can check out here. In the meantime, get your crabs in a row, your gem golems lined up, and anchors in the corners for our spiciest take on apartment rent yet!

Custom RSS

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube Music

Transcript

0:51 - CDDA episode update

2:45 - game stats

8:32 - Progression system and difficulty scaling discussion

13:10 - Anti-capitalist story and rent payment mechanics

18:31 - Symbol synergies and engine building strategies

25:16 - Advanced strategy: avoiding noob traps and deck management

31:24 - Criticism: overwhelming symbol variety and decision paralysis

39:16 - Comparison to Slay the Spire and deck building preferences

45:10 - Anti-capitalism narrative and billionaire mechanics discussion

48:18 - rankings and final thoughts

Next episode: Surprise listener request episode! It’s a secret!

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: Elvin Jones - Lady Luck

Outro music: Vincent Colavita - Big Man Zaroff