As Enter the Gungeon celebrates its 10th anniversary, its creators have some choice words for the modern roguelike: ‘We’re seeing it mutate to the version of itself that popularity obfuscates’

Enter the Gungeon celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this month. Having sold over 14 million copies in its lifetime, Enter the Gungeon was one of the early architects of the modern action roguelike, alongside games like Nuclear Throne, forging the path for the genre’s modern phenomena like Hades, as well as variants of it such as Vampire Survivors.

It’s a game with a heck of a legacy. But it’s a legacy that its creators are ambivalent about. Speaking to Polygon, Dodge Roll designer Dave Crooks and composer Adam Kidd Drucker (better known by his stage name Doseone), have some concerns about where the genre is headed, and the tricks modern roguelikes use to keep people playing.

“So few people are trying to make something that is truly evocative of this experience of playing Rogue,” Crooks explained. He cited the example of Minos, the game where you design a labyrinth and then defend it against attackers. “I watched a dev explanation of the game and he said (paraphrasing) ‘But don’t worry, this is a roguelike, so death is not the end!’ And I’m like, that is the exact opposite of what 10 years ago somebody would’ve said a roguelike was!”

In particular, Crooks pointed to how the roguelike has become infiltrated by gambling mechanics. “The most obvious thing I see is a screen that pops up three choices every 45 seconds”, he says. “The whole game, the way the power curve is designed is like you have to be interrupted by this serotonin blast of fanfare and three choices… It’s more relatable to a slot machine being popular.”

Crooks sees this as beginning with Vampire Survivors, and becoming more prominent in subsequent games like Balatro. “Especially on the back of Vampire Survivors and Balatro, I think it has gone a little bit … God, I don’t want to be the person that says this, but a little cash-grabby,” he observed. “What fundamentally makes those things fun is much more like a slot machine than the experience of playing Rogue. And literally developing a game that ticks the boxes of a slot machine in those ways is just easier to do.”

I think part of the problem here is that nobody seems to bother distinguishing between roguelikes and roguelites anymore, because virtually all of them are roguelites, while more authentic roguelikes such as Caves of Qud are much thinner on the ground. It’s a point that Drucker touches upon, noting that “I think we’re seeing it mutate to the version of itself that popularity obfuscates.”

Nonetheless, I also think Crooks is accurate when he says that the games that followed in the wake of Vampire Survivors are becoming overly reliant on progression-based gimmickry rather than interesting game mechanics, possibly why the reception to games like CloverPit and Raccoin has been slightly cooler, though both are still popular.

Dodge Roll isn’t finished stamping its own mark on the roguelike, though. The developer is currently working on Enter the Gungeon 2, which aims to stay true to the original game’s blend of roguelike and bullet-hell, but with a 3D art-style. Based on Crooks and Drucker’s comments, it’ll be interesting to see if the sequel zags harder away from the current zeitgeist, and how that’ll affect the final experience.