Alternate meta models for short session games

Usually when we talk about or look at short session games, especially in the premium pc and indie space, we look at roguelikes. This is for good reason! They’re an ideal shorthand for players and developers, the rules are well established and can be twisted in a hundred ways, from Spelunky to my own Ten Pin Ghouling.

However, recently I’ve been feeling like while this trend isn’t going anywhere, we would do well to learn from other genres and game styles that include similar principles, but with different meta models.

My prediction is that some time soon we will see developers adapt the models I’m outlining below models and be very successful, maybe defining some new genres in the process.

Some Principles

To find new directions, let’s clarify the key parts of short session roguelikes, so we know what we could change or remove to find new models

1. Short sessions - sub one hour sessions with a clear start and end.

2. Clear meta progression

3. A highly repeatable core gameplay loop

4. Stat or number driven tweaks to the core loop

5. Permadeath / restarting each run

6. Procedural Generation

New models to study

Consider these just a starting point for your own study. What I would recommend is that once a core, satisfying gameplay loop has been created that ticks some of the above checklist, I would spend some time considering some of these meta models before heading straight for the tried and tested roguelike formula.

Removing Permadeath

Permadeath is such a core element of roguelikes, let’s try removing this first.

We’re looking here at games like Disgaea, or maybe XCOM. In Disgaea, battles are short session, highly variable due to the huge amount of stats and numbers involved, with clear progression. It is very easy to imagine a Disgaea roguelike, and I’m sure there are many tactics roguelikes out there already.

But in this model, we make one key change. We don’t reset modifiers on each run. By leaving them permanent, but changing the game targets and goals to match new expectations, we could allow the player to feel an even greater power fantasy, and change the gameplay a ton over time using a high variation of inputs as you would see in a traditional roguelike.

Procedural Generation

Removing the proc gen (and therefore likely a lot of the randomisation) from a roguelike seems like our next stop. Proc Gen is very expensive as you need a ton of content to keep variation high enough that it doesn’t fall apart, alongside complex systems to create and balance all of the content. Let’s cut it!

I think here we step into the Incremental Games genre. Right now these games have a lot of overlap with idle games, and often require very minimal input. However, I believe this model could be put to good use with a more active core mechanic too, and games such as Nodebuster are good examples of developers moving in this direction.

Here, instead of relying on a big library of parts and escalating numbers during a single run, we only do this through meta progression. New abilities, powerups etc are gained in between runs, and then you head back in for another go with some new toys and stat upgrades.

I think this model has a lot of potential, especially for lower budget games, or for simple gameplay loops that might not be able to support 100 hours of proc gen roguelike action, or that seem too expensive when working out your minimal viable content.

We will almost definitely see more games in this space soon.

Where to look next

I will leave it here for now as it’s been a very busy week, but there are still plenty of parts of roguelikes to pull apart! If you have a go yourself, please reply to this email and share what you learned.

Aside from the suggestions here, the real point is that once we have a core gameplay loop that we think is good enough to move forward, we should be very conscious of what meta model we choose, and rather than take a model as stock. Consider each piece carefully and whether it works for our mechanic, audience, and budget.

Just because everyone else is making a roguelike right now (and for a good while still), doesn’t mean that we need to, and just a small change can become the creation of a whole new genre.