My RPG Became a Roguelike: Pivoting Without Losing Your Soul

Posted by Gemma Ellison

July 24, 2025

I spent two years building a sprawling RPG. It had handcrafted maps, a twisting narrative, and a complex skill tree. Then, I threw almost all of it away and rebuilt it as a roguelike. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right one.

The Crushing Weight of Scope

My RPG started ambitious. Too ambitious. I envisioned a vast world with hundreds of NPCs, each with unique dialogue and questlines. I wanted players to get lost in the world, to forge their own stories.

The problem? I was one person.

Development slowed to a crawl. Creating each new area felt like climbing Everest. Playtesting became a chore instead of a source of excitement. I realized I was building a game nobody, least of all myself, would ever finish.

I was facing the “scope creep” monster. Many indie developers succumb to it. It’s the siren song of endless possibilities that drowns projects in unfinished content.

The turning point came during a particularly grueling week of debugging a single quest. I asked myself, “Am I having fun?” The answer was a resounding no.

Why Roguelike? The Appeal of Replayability

Roguelikes offered a solution to my scope problem. Procedural generation could create endless variety without requiring me to handcraft every inch of the world. Permadeath added stakes and encouraged strategic decision-making. The inherent replayability meant players would spend more time playing and less time waiting for new content.

I’d played countless roguelikes myself. I understood their appeal. I felt that my RPG’s core narrative themes – exploration, survival, and the struggle against overwhelming odds – could translate effectively to the roguelike genre.

It also seemed like the most realistic path to actually releasing a game.

Cutting the Fat: Adapting and Abandoning Features

The pivot wasn’t seamless. It required tough choices. I had to identify the core elements that made my RPG unique and discard everything else.

The handcrafted maps were the first to go. It hurt. I’d poured hours into them. But they were unsustainable. I replaced them with procedurally generated levels, focusing on creating interesting room layouts and enemy encounters.

My sprawling narrative also had to be streamlined. I kept the central themes and character archetypes, but I ditched the branching storylines and complex dialogue trees. Instead, I focused on environmental storytelling and emergent narratives that arose from player choices and random events.

For example, a specific NPC vendor with a multi-step questline was replaced with a randomized encounter where the player could find a rare item or receive a temporary buff. The core idea – rewarding exploration and interaction – remained, but the implementation became much more manageable.

The biggest challenge was the skill tree. It was intricate and beloved. I ultimately simplified it into a system of character classes with unique starting abilities and a handful of upgrade paths that could be chosen during a run. This preserved the sense of character progression without demanding an overwhelming amount of content.

Maintaining the Soul: Narrative and Core Loops

The key to a successful pivot is retaining the essence of the original game. For me, that meant preserving the narrative themes, character archetypes, and core gameplay loop that defined my RPG.

My RPG was always about the struggle for survival in a harsh world. This translated perfectly to the roguelike genre. The permadeath mechanic reinforced the sense of danger and the need for strategic planning.

The character archetypes – the stoic warrior, the cunning rogue, the wise mage – were retained as playable classes. Each class had unique abilities and playstyles, ensuring that players could experiment and find a character that suited their preferences.

The core gameplay loop – explore, fight, loot, upgrade – was preserved. The difference was that each run became a self-contained story, with its own challenges and triumphs.

Retaining Player Investment: Short-Term Goals, Long-Term Progression

One of the biggest concerns with roguelikes is the potential for player frustration. Permadeath can be punishing, and it’s easy for players to feel like they’re not making progress.

To address this, I implemented a system of meta-progression. Players earned points during each run that could be used to unlock new classes, items, and upgrades. This provided a sense of long-term accomplishment, even when individual runs ended in failure.

I also focused on creating clear short-term goals. Each level had objectives that rewarded players for exploration and strategic combat. This helped to keep players engaged and motivated, even when they were facing tough challenges.

The feedback loop of “try, fail, learn, improve” had to be tightly woven into the experience. Losing should feel like a learning opportunity, not a waste of time.

Lessons Learned: Actionable Advice for Pivoting

If you’re considering pivoting your game, here’s some advice:

Be honest with yourself about scope. Are you realistically going to be able to finish the game you’ve envisioned? If not, it’s better to pivot early than to waste years on a project that will never see the light of day.
Identify the core elements of your game. What makes it unique? What do players enjoy most? These are the elements you need to preserve during the pivot.
Don’t be afraid to cut features. Sometimes, less is more. Focus on creating a polished and engaging experience with a smaller set of features rather than a bloated and unfinished mess.
Embrace procedural generation. It can be a powerful tool for creating endless variety without requiring you to handcraft every detail. However, don’t rely on it entirely. Use it to supplement your existing content, not replace it.
Focus on player progression. Even in a roguelike, players need to feel like they’re making progress. Implement a system of meta-progression that rewards players for their efforts.
Playtest early and often. Get feedback from players as early as possible. This will help you identify potential problems and ensure that your game is fun and engaging.

My pivot to a roguelike wasn’t easy, but it saved my game. It allowed me to create something that was both manageable and engaging. More importantly, it allowed me to actually finish a project and share it with the world. And that’s what really matters.