[jgalecki]

It's interesting how shorter run-based gameplay impacts every aspect of play. It's like the difference between games with permadeath and games designed around permadeath. The former is a hardcore challenge, and the latter, I would argue, is the core of roguelikes.

While there's no "death" in my game (stayin' cozy), the idea that the player needs to go through multiple runs has been really fun to play around with :)

[mywittyname]

> the latter, I would argue, is the core of roguelikes.

I might be showing my age here, but isn't permadeath the core of roguelikes? Like, isn't the point that you have to start fresh each play, and that's why games like nethack offered a bajillion character classes? Even the og rogue had permadeath.

[jgalecki]

Exactly! A game designed around permadeath will try to keep things fresh for the player, through randomized proc-gen level design or through different character classes. Or, to put it another way, imagine Super Mario World with a single life and no saves. It would count as permadeath, but it certainly wouldn't be a roguelike. Roguelikes are designed around permadeath at their core.

[xmprt]

Hades is the perfect balance of this. Short runs while still allowing some amount of progression.

[samstave]

Heh.... my 1987 batch files to save, quit, copy, restart .sav files would like a word.

Moria FTW

save.bat and load.bat