Of all the indie game trends this one is probably my favorite. Feels like a resurgence of awesome card game RPGs that were really rare back in the day
I was for it for the first 100 clones. Now it’s in the same vein as 2d pixel shooter rougelikes, way too saturated. I never give these a second look because there’s just so many uninspired clones.
I don’t think we need an article to figure out the answer: Slay the Spire was a megahit and it’s a copycat industry.
I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way either; there’re always plenty of devs finding interesting new angles on the current hot genre and creating genuinely interesting new games in the process, but also a huge number of devs that end up just chasing the trend and releasing something uninspired/derivative.
The genre can be called “rogue like deck builder” all you want, we all know what it really is: “Spirelike”
I really think it deserves its own genre. Games like Cobalt Core, Balatro, Tower Tactics Liberation, Alina of the Arena and Loop Hero are all unique in their own right and differ greatly in gameplay from Slay the Spire and each other but still hold to the deck building rogue-like core.
Slay the spire is the granddaddy of the genre, but isn’t the single defining example by far.
Right but Rogue isn’t much like modern Roguelikes either. It’s still the genre.
I think the “rogue” in rogue-like refers to the fact that you start over if you die. Not the similarity to the actual game. Am I misunderstanding you?
I think I get what you’re saying, that rogue-like was named after the game and therefore this genre should be named after slay the spire. But I think Rogue named the genre because there wasn’t anything else like it. Slay the Spire is still at the end of the day a mashup of two existing genres.
Rogue was the start of the genre - games that came after we’re always measured against it.
Rogue was a dungeon crawler - a type of game that had been done plenty of times before. Starting over on death had also been done.
But it became genre defining by being the best at both.
Spire I’d say is similar. It is genre defining because the combination of gameplay elements was so perfectly executed that it will become the measuring stick against which all roguelike deck builders will be measured. So Spirelike fits, I think.
It’s not even an original concept. It’s just the popular kid.
Can anyone recommend one? I honestly haven’t played one since slay the spire, and loved it. My wife didn’t enjoy the music after a few hundred hours so I stopped playing a few years ago.
Everyone and their mother is playing Balatro, and for good reason. Super fun deck builder based on a normal playing card deck and poker hands. Great music and visuals, too.
Also, check out Inscryption. Truth be told, it’s not really a true roguelike deckbuilder, rather it uses the genre as a storytelling medium. Still, really fun game with solid core gameplay and an engaging story. There’s also DLC that lets you play more of the deckbuilder part indefinitely.
To anyone reading this - if you try Inscription, go in blind.
You know you can turn off the music, right? Just play your own or none at all.
The music in slay the spire is perfectly fine but it gets repetitive after a while. But it’s also a great game to play while listening to podcasts so it’s a non issue
