I actually can't stand procedurally-generated games, I'd rather have a curated/hand-crafted experience with lots of thought put into every little detail. I'll play it once, enjoy it and remember it fondly then move on to the next thing.
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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gamingcirclejerk
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omg they made lemmy political
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If you haven’t yet.
Outer wilds features a finely hand-crafted solar system and can only be truly experienced in full once.
Perfect example, one if my favourite games full stop.
I'll never understand why people say this. I couldn't even stand to play the game for more than 2-3 hours before the frustration/boredom became overwhelming.
Please explain what gets people like you so excited over this game. I just don't get it. All you do is wander around aimlessly for hours and die to the same things over and over again again. It's extremely frustrating, especially given that you have to start over from the beginning every time you die (and it is way too easy to die). I didn't get very far because I don't have the patience for this trial and error bullshit.
I'm in the sale boat, I haven't picked it up for months even though I really want to like it. I don't know what I'l supposed to do and it feels like I have been on every celestial body there is
Its the payoff and different worlds are so interesting once you get there. There is a moment where everything just clicks all of a sudden.
It basically delivers the world full of depth and wonder that procgen promises, but never quite nails.
Another if-you-haven't-yet: Deathloop. Turned out much better than I initially expected, and I found myself going through it multiple times even though it's linear and the same each time. It's a very well done solo game (though there are multiplayer options) with high replayability.
I also love Satisfactory. The whole map is amazing with tons of interesting things to explore.
I tried going from that to a similar game, Foundry, that uses procedurally generated maps and it just feels soulless in comparison.
I am getting quite curious about Minecraft.
That one simply wouldn’t work for me without an infinite terrain. It also doesn’t feel so procedural because its low detail.
Custom maps can be quite amazing though but it never feels like the same game.
Doesn't work well if you easily suffer from motion sickness though. Especially the time pressure heavily incentivizes flying recklessly which only worsens motion sickness. It made the game really only "okay" for me - great gameplay sadly cannot outcompete physical discomfort.
Tunic was vastly more enjoyable for me. It has a similar concept (in that the main obstacle is knowledge) but uses an isometric view and there are no time limits whatsoever.
procedural generation and great curation, hand craftedness and lots of though put into details are not exclusive.
Take Hades for example.
Not mutually exclusive, procedural generation simply means you let an algorithm make stuff for you. Take GTFO for example, the devs procedurally generate rooms and everything that connects them, then hand-pick the best ones, and tweak whatever else they want.
You now have a curated, hand-crafted (they made the assets) experience, that was also procedurally generated. Not to mention there's more to procedural generation than just levels.
I would still call that handcrafted, the devs just use procgen tooling that the player never sees.
I'd say most players think of procgen as the stuff that's actually generating content on the fly for the player
I will remark that you can have both. It's not very common, and I can't remember an example right now, but you can have a main/official seed for the world/levels, providing a curated experience, while also including a randomizer mode that lets you replay the game with a randomized layout.
Sad FTL Noises
I think all approaches have merit. A well envisioned and designed game can be any type.
On the other hand I have serious prejudice regarding open worlds.
Am I the only one tired of indie games being defaulted to a rougelike? Don’t get me wrong. Not trying to yuk anyone’s yum, but sometimes a 2-hour game doesn’t need to be stretched into a 20+-hour experience by making it difficult and something I have to play through multiple times.
Maybe I’m the oddball, but in the late 90s through the mid 2010s, I remember when there was a lot less focus on the game trying to ‘beat’ the player. Sure, there were still tough games, but I feel like those were not the popular genre. They were the exception.
Sometimes, after work, I already feel plenty accomplished and just want to blow some stuff up or experience a hero’s journey. There are so many games I’ve avoided with beautiful stories and great gameplay loops simply because I don’t want to be frustrated with the gameplay.
I don’t like roguelikes either. Mainly because i like to play the same thing over and over for many hours and i don’t like when it changes and i don’t know where to go.
Boy, have you heard of Nier Automata? You can play the same story 3 times, just switching your character in between. /s
It's great!
I had never heard of this game before your comment and i went to look it up on wikipedia. 26 endings? And not a roguelike? I’m in.
People making 6+ hours lore recap videos on Nier and the previous series that the creator somehow decided happens in the same universe.
Have fun!
happens in the same universe
Somehow, amazingly, I feel like this needs to be clarified. The creator decided to put in a secret ending to his previous series where the protagonist, who rides a dragon, somehow slips into an alternate reality where you inexplicably suddenly play a rhythm game against an eldritch monstrosity and then get shot out of the sky by a literal fighter jet. And that universe is where Nier takes place.
Yoko Taro is an insane man and I love it. I still won't play Drakengard, but that's just because it's not a great game.
I'm planning on playing Drakengard 3, wish me luck.
I salute you, brave gamer.
o7
Try to go in as blind as possible, the game is even better that way. 100/10, and incredible experience.
I don't want to ruin your excitement, but a lot of those endings are a one-off thing (i.e. make this one particular choice, get an ending and load back from latest save) or even an unique path.
And, in my opinion, the first Nier game has more of "just play the game again lol"
Love them both though
Yeah in reality it's like 2 playthroughs of part 1 then like 2 of part 2 then idk how many of part 3. But you basically switch between the core characters for each playthrough then once you've done both you go to the next main story bit.
Blue Prince probably would have been one of my favorite games if they hadn’t stretched a 5 hour game to artificially take 10x as long. It’s like playing Myst if, once you realize a clue is there, you have to spend an hour getting far enough to see if it’s possible to test the clue this run or start over.
My wife was playing that for a while. Seems interesting, but I don't think I could tolerate a game that requires that much note taking, and that much pure chance.
What is a rougelike? Does it differ from a roguelike?
I'm only being somewhat facetious fwiw, because I've seen this (presumably?) typo so often that I'm beginning to think there's actually another genre I'm not aware of.
There's roguelikes and roguelites but they get conflated. The definition is kinda subjective but it's basically any game that shares characteristics with the game Rogue. Permadeath, random generation, simultaneous turn-based, tile-based movement and maybe a couple more. Roguelites are anything that uses these concepts but doesn't stick so much to the formula. At least that's my definition and nobody agrees.
Oh, right, I'm well aware of the differences between those two, I'm simply wondering about rougelikes, not roguelikes or roguelites.
It's either a pervasive typo, or it might be a third disctinction I'm no aware of - I'm leaning towards the former, but have seen it too frequently to fully dismiss it.
It's just a typo. Head into a TTRPG community and be prepared to see rogue mispelled as rouge a lot.
You're not alone
Nah, that's normal, rogues of any type aren't for everybody, but I enjoy them when going inbetween different linear games
It's a joke but cats do get easily bored with toys. That's why you're supposed to hide them when not playing.
never heard of that, cool idea
Bruh, can't have cat permadeath because 9 lives. Also there's plenty of procedural goodness with that bouncy string.
you are the roguelike element foolish human, how you move it around is what randomizes the play
I like Outer Wilds
umm.. it’s holding the stick
I've been playing video games since my brother showed me how to load up some kind of mining game on our Commodore 64 back in about 1987.
I still have no idea what a 'roguelike' is.
The name is based on the game rogue from way back in the day, a roguelike is really just any game that has a gameplay loop where you completely reset without any carryover of items or skills, and a roguelite is the same but there will be a small amount of carryover of skills or items or something like that. For instance the binding of Issac is a popular roguelite, you lose all your items when you restart but you can unlock characters that persist even if you die.
I approve. It has cat(s), gaming and roguelike.