62 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
8.1 KiB
Markdown
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date = '2026-03-17T00:56:25-04:00'
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title = 'Rediscovering Rougelikes'
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banner_left = '/rediscovering-roguelikes/rediscovering-roguelikes-banner-left.jpg'
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banner_right = '/rediscovering-roguelikes/rediscovering-roguelikes-banner-right.jpg'
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banner_title = 'The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth Art'
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After a long period of not playing games and trying to maintain a more "analogue" life, I snapped in February 2026 and dragged myself back into video games, just as I used to years ago. Now, after being extremely burnt out by terrible sleep habits, I finally let myself reflect in silence to find some "whys". If I fast-forwarded almost two entire months without doing anything that would make me proud, I can at least extract something useful from this time-consuming gaming binge.
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The fundamental thing that made me curious was that I actually never liked roguelike games, yet this is the exact genre I flushed all my time into now. You know, these games that feature procedural generation (levels, items, enemies) and permanent death, ensuring every run is unique. I never understood these games before, but now I play them exclusively. Why?
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I remember playing the flash version of [The Binding of Isaac](https://store.steampowered.com/app/113200/The_Binding_of_Isaac/) for the first time in the middle school, and judging by my achievements from that time, I beat it once but never unlocked "post-game" content because I hated the frustrating lack of control. I preferred linear shooters where I could memorize enemy locations and feel smarter than the "computer" because all variables were set in stone.
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To add more colors into the picture, I would always look up guides and walkthroughs every time I would feel actually challenged and pushed out of comfort zone. It didn't matter if it was me who actually figured out how to beat the game, the only thing I cared about was the completion, by any means, even cheating. It was as if progress didn't matter as long as I could receive a green checkmark and move on.
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Obviously, it's a very narrowed and limited expectation of fun that robbed me of lots of expriences in games and in life.
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Let's use Isaac as an example again. We start a run with one global goal in mind: to beat the end boss. The boss is on stage 8, which is very difficult, and we are on stage 1, so we are very weak. We don't know anything about the game, so we start exploring and trying things out. Eventually, you learn about the resources you have, such as keys, bombs, and different kinds of health containers. You start to memorise some of the active items and achieve specific combinations that you prefer. And you die a lot before you accidentally manage to beat the final boss!
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You remember this one cool item that helped you beat the game, and in every subsequent session you try to get it again, thinking it's the only way to avoid dying. With so many items in the game, it's a very frustrating mindset to have because you're not going to get what you want very often. This is why I initially stopped playing.
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Compare starting tear-bullet projectiles (light blue spheres)
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and laser:
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The game became significantly easier. And now I now realize the benefit wasn't just the item itself, but its "hitscan" nature, which provides immediate impact compared to the character's slow-moving default projectiles. My early failures stemmed from low damage and my inability to control those standard bullets. Converting tears into hitscan is only one solution; I could also achieve such high fire rates that accuracy is no longer an issue, or rely on summons to fight while I focus on dodging. These are just a few ways to overcome the challenge without necessarily needing to master the basic shooting mechanics.
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For instance, I can turn tears into huge bombs and make it so they cover bigger area and lessen my chance to miss:
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Does that mean that I should now restart every single session for several items rather than just one? Not really. It's more that the game has many themes, and the better you become at it, the more themes you can recognise and choose to pursue.
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So I just established 3 ways you can go after you discover your first item.
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However, you may not find any items that let you progress in a way that you are comfortable with. Well, you could clear the entire floor and find as many items as possible to increase your chances of finding better items on the next floor (you can ensure that the items you discover on this floor do not appear again in the game (they can only appear once per playthrough)). Then you need to make sure you have bombs to destroy walls and find secret locations, money to access shops, and keys to open chests and doors. Perhaps you have too many health containers and would like to exchange them for money. Alternatively, you could enter arenas or rooms where you can sacrifice health for a chest. Alternatively, you might find a card that teleports you to a secret devil room where you can exchange health for rare items. You might also have an active item called Dice, which lets you randomly swap all items in the room for something else.
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Maybe you don't know what all these terms mean. And it doesn't really matter! What matters is that we have more goals now.
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- The global goal is to kill the final boss.
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- In order to do so we need to, within a given run, to come up with a theme and build our items around it.
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- In order to do so we need to find these items.
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- In order to do so we need to properly manage our resources and act on every level in accordance to abundance or lack of any resource the game has.
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This is where the randomisation of every playthrough comes in. It's not about restarting your game until you win; rather, it's about creating a sandbox for decision-making and responsibility. Now it's clear why I didn't understand these games as a child: I didn't have enough experience of responsibility or of making my own decisions — in fact, I hated it. I always wanted to live in a safe space, follow instructions and get things done for the sake of getting things done, rather than for the process or experience. It took abandoning video games altogether and making significant life changes before I realised how it feels to make decisions and be happy about your own success.
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So, why am I talking about it now, going the extra mile to write this piece? I remember seeing a YouTube video preview once called 'How you play video games defines your personality', or something like that. I never watched it, but the title's statement now makes it all come together.
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If we think about The Binding of Isaac system in a more abstract way, we will obviously notice how it applies to our approach to real-life problems. There is a major goal and various ways to achieve it; each way defines the resources required. These ways can be seen in learning a language, finding a job, fixing a sleep schedule (which failed), and so on. Perhaps we can view videogames as a sandbox where we can create an experience and then reflect on it. Not in the sense that... I can feel like the protagonist in The Binding of Isaac and then think about it as I would a book, but in a gamified way. The story is an excuse for an interactive experience where you can test yourself and see how you behave and why. You can then safely change your approach to in-game problems and see how it turns out. And maybe you can then apply this to life. This is kind of cool.
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On the other hand, it may sound like I'm just trying to justify wasting so many hours on games after avoiding them for so long, but at least I've found something that sounds reasonable to say. Eventually, I'll burn out, hate it, and return to the good things in life - but we'll see.
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P.S: Yes, the screenshots feature different versions of The Binding of Isaac, but I don't care. Doesn't have anything to do with my points.
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