I don’t post about games very often (though I do play them a lot), but since Blaugust originated in the gaming community I will talk about a relatively obscure game I like.

Brogue is a traditional roguelike originally developed by Brian Walker. A “traditional” roguelike is a turn-based RPG played on a procedurally-generated grid, where the player has only one life. Walker no longer maintains Brogue, but the “community edition” has continued to improve the game with bug, balance, and quality-of-life fixes.

While most traditional roguelikes are part of a long lineage, building on predecessors such as Angband and Nethack, Brogue takes its primary inspiration directly from Rogue. It’s aiming to be Rogue with modern design principles.

As the genre evolved to be played on a text-based terminal, ASCII “graphics” were the norm, a tradition carried on by many modern roguelikes including Brogue. In this article, I’m going to try and convince you to try a game that looks like this:

A screenshot of the game Brogue, showing a grid of ASCII characters representing part of the dungeon map.
The @ sign is the player. A kobold guards the stairs to the next level. Brogue provides a helpful key to all the important symbols on screen at all times.

Forgive me if I have to a ramble about its virtues a little too hard; I can’t exactly show you pretty screenshots.

As in Rogue, the hero must enter the dungeon, descend through 26 levels, acquire the Amulet Of Yendor, and then return to the surface in one piece. A simple enough premise — let’s talk about the gameplay and design.

Discoverability

Traditional Roguelikes have a reputation for being very obscure. Ancient Domains Of Mystery, for example, has a button to clean one’s ears. To what end is never explained, and by the time the player needs it they have probably forgotten it exists. Nethack offers dozens of obscure ways to instantly die, including choking on your food. Many of these games have bizarre items that can be used to solve one specific puzzle or escape one specific threat. Enemies can insta-kill you without warning unless you already know what to expect.

In contrast, take a look at what Brogue shows you if you highlight an enemy or item:

A screenshot of Brogue showing a goblin conjuror enemy and an accompanying textbox giving a detailed but easily-understandable description of what the enemy does and the odds of beating it in a fight.

How often do you see something like this in a game? Very little is hidden from the player — Brogue wants you to be making interesting, informed decisions rather than constantly having to guess (or more likely, look up in the wiki) what everything does.

Systems

This game is very systemsy, in a similar way to say, Breath Of The Wild. Gases, fire, and water all spread and interact in different ways. Monsters cooperate with one another - but can also become allies to the player. The dungeon contains many interesting features, including vaults that require keys hidden behind little puzzles, traps that the player can use to her advantage once discovered, and different environmental elements like water, lava, swamp, foliage and so on with their own properties.

Harmful potions can be used as grenades. An unwanted piece of armour can be thrown to trigger a trap at a distance. A staff of entrancement can be used to possess a tough enemy and navigate them into a pool of lava. Experimentation is key.

Thinking I was out of sight range of the enemies to the north, I took a chance on a couple of unknown potions, one of which contained confusion gas and the other which set me on fire, causing the gas to ignite. The fire acted as a light source, making me suddenly visible to the nearby enemies, who summoned floating spectral blades to attack me. I didn't make it out of this one, and it was entirely my own doing.

Progression

Brogue’s character progression system is minimalist in a good way. There are only two base stats — life and strength. The only way to increase these stats is by consuming potions acquired through exploring. And that’s what Brogue’s progression systems are all about. You can play however you want — a tanky fighter, a long-range mage, a master of minions, or use stealth to avoid combat altogether. But you must explore. Racing through levels is sometimes necessary when there’s a troll hot on your tail, but if you’re making a beeline to the stairs every time, you’ll fall behind.

There are no classes in Brogue. Your build is determined partially by the gear you find, but more important is how you use your enchantment scrolls. These scrolls level up your gear, reduce the strength requirements on weapons and armour, and also recharge wands. Enchanting a staff of lightning is the path to becoming a deadly battle-mage, while using your scrolls on light armour and a ring of stealth is the key to a sneaky build. Naturally, these scrolls are only acquired through exploring.

Variety

In the screenshots above, you can see the descriptions include a sentence at the bottom listing various special properties of the enemy. In Brogue, there is only one enemy that simply walks toward you and attacks you with a standard attack — the kobold (even the rats can be hidden in the walls — a Lovecraft reference?). Every other enemy has at least one special attack, movement pattern, spell, cooperative behaviour, etc, that makes each encounter a unique tactical challenge.

Later in the game, you’ll encounter “mutant” enemies that splice in extra powers of from other enemies. Vampiric trolls and exploding zombies, anyone? Moreover, monsters allied to the player can learn abilities from slain enemies. Sure the Wicked Witch of the West commanded flying monkeys, but did she have flying monkeys that shoot balls of fire?

Similarly, Brogue’s weapons all feel distinct. Despite the main combat mechanic being walking into enemies to attack them until they die, different weapons mix this up. The flail hits enemies as you walk past them; a spear can skewer two lined-up enemies at once. The axe hits in all 8 squares surrounding the player each turn, encouraging a more “beserker” style of play. Every weapon has its place — the weaker-stat weapons are more likely to have special enchantments, while the lighter armours allow you to pass by enemies undetected more easily.

Wrap up

This game is an absolute classic of the genre and a great introduction for beginners. Some hangovers from Rogue seem a bit dated, for example the “searching” mechanic — some doors and traps are invisible to the player until they press s a few times to search the area. However, it most respects it succeeds in updating the original. I’ve beat it a few times, but it’s generally a very tough game where there’s always something new to learn, and when your survival hangs on a knife edge it can get real tense as you think through every turn.

The easiest way to get started is to play BrogueCE on the web (or use the US site). To control the game, you can use the mouse or keyboard. Diagonal movement is essential, so don’t use the arrow keys to move — use numpad or extended vi-keys with yubn for diagonals. Press ? for a full list of controls. If you give it a try, I’d love to hear how you get on, or if you’d like more tips.