Lots of people have mentioned various flavors of roguelikes. One of my goals is to have games in different genres. I agree that roguelikes are often a good source of the qualities I’m looking for here but part of the point is to try applying the same skills on radically different setups.
Another thing I’m interested in is “ease of setup”, where you can download the game, open it up, and immediately be in the experience instead of having to do a bunch of steps to get there.
It’s good to clarify that you’re looking for examples from multiple genres, though I’d caution you not to write off all “roguelikes” too quickly just because you’ve already found one you liked. There are some games with the “roguelike” tag that have little overlap other than procedural content and permadeath.
For instance, Slay the Spire, Rogue Legacy, and Dungeons of Dredmor have little overlap in gameplay, though they are all commonly described as “roguelike”. (In fact, I notice that Steam now seems to have separate tags for “roguelike deckbuilder”, “action roguelike”, and “traditional roguelike”—though it also retains the generic “roguelike” tag.)
And that’s without even getting into cases like Sunless Sea where permadeath and procedural generation were tacked onto a game where they’re arguably getting in the way more than adding to the experience.
Lots of people have mentioned various flavors of roguelikes. One of my goals is to have games in different genres. I agree that roguelikes are often a good source of the qualities I’m looking for here but part of the point is to try applying the same skills on radically different setups.
Another thing I’m interested in is “ease of setup”, where you can download the game, open it up, and immediately be in the experience instead of having to do a bunch of steps to get there.
It’s good to clarify that you’re looking for examples from multiple genres, though I’d caution you not to write off all “roguelikes” too quickly just because you’ve already found one you liked. There are some games with the “roguelike” tag that have little overlap other than procedural content and permadeath.
For instance, Slay the Spire, Rogue Legacy, and Dungeons of Dredmor have little overlap in gameplay, though they are all commonly described as “roguelike”. (In fact, I notice that Steam now seems to have separate tags for “roguelike deckbuilder”, “action roguelike”, and “traditional roguelike”—though it also retains the generic “roguelike” tag.)
And that’s without even getting into cases like Sunless Sea where permadeath and procedural generation were tacked onto a game where they’re arguably getting in the way more than adding to the experience.