How to make a roguelike

[PixelHero]

Hi. I have never attempted a roguelike before. I know what the genre is, but I don't know what to do to start. I searched the web about this, but got nothing. Any tips?

[GVovkiv]

If you don't know where to start, then you, probably, don't know what roguelike at all
Aren't main idea of roguelikes:
Every playthrough should be unique (because they usually almost entirely based on random, such as mobs placement, levels, items, etc)
Usually they have perma-death
Even if game based on random elements, player still should be able to win, based on how they can adapt to new environment, not on luck
Game should have many options to play, weapons, tactics, etc

I mean, open https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike and read what is "rogulike"
Then go to steam or (somewhere where people usually host their games) and try some games that is under "rogulike" tag to understand better what it is.

[PixelHero]

If you don't know where to start, then you, probably, don't know what roguelike at all

I do. I meant on coding. I would start with graphics, but roguelikes use text, not graphics.

[GVovkiv]

I do. I meant on coding. I would start with graphics, but roguelikes use text, not graphics.

Roguelikes doesn't strictly require to be text-based.
And text graphics is still graphics.

If you want classic turn based roguelike, you need:
Field of vision http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php/Field_of_Vision (i mean, you can use just this site, they specify on rogulikes...)
Some pathfinding (maybe some A* would be okay? or something more *simple*, it's depends only on what you want exactly)
For graphics, you probably want to store all data in tables and they render fonts as usual sprites.
What else you don't understand?
Learn something about procedural generation (like this https://youtu.be/TlLIOgWYVpI)

i mean, you said, "I searched the web about this, but got nothing."
You didn't tried to google "how to make traditional roguelikes" and get http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php/Roguelike_Alphabet?

Did you glance at least sometimes in this forums?
darkfrei very often do very good examples, that you might use in games (https://github.com/darkfrei/love2d-lua-tests)
Including field of vision/lighting (https://github.com/darkfrei/love2d-lua- ... -and-light) or pathfinding (https://github.com/darkfrei/love2d-lua- ... inding-one)
Or maybe games page on front of wiki? https://love2d.org/wiki/Category:Games
There awesome game available, https://love2d.org/wiki/On_The_Roadside
It's implement most of things, that you expect in traditional rogulikes:
ASCII graphics, field of vision, pathfinding, turn based movement. You can eve try to run in in modern love version (but you probably will need do little porting).

Like, yeah, "I searched the web about this, but got nothing."

[PixelHero]

Thanks. I never found any of that, so I'm grateful that you brought it to my attention.

[Nikki]

check out https://github.com/paulofmandown/rotLove
"RogueLike Toolkit in Love"