Fortnight Discussion: Games Similar to Streets of Rogue

[Madguy]

A big part of the reason I started working on Streets of Rogue is because I couldn't think of any other games that were quite like my original idea for it.

My questions to you are: What games does Streets of Rogue remind you of, and why? Are there any ideas from these games could potentially fit into Streets of Rogue? If there are other games out there that I can potentially learn from (or copy shamelessly) to make Streets of Rogue better, I'd like to know about them.

[Egg]

I've heard that realm of the mad god is similar not sure though

[Stinomite]

The binding of isaac and enter the gungeon.
i feel like the progression in these games is much more, linear rather than allowing the player to unlock things whenever they feel like it, but i feel as though maybe some items or traits could be gotten by a specific event happening

[Egotod]

Originally posted by The Amazon Prime Guy:

I've heard that realm of the mad god is similar not sure though

I've played Realm of the Mad God, and I'd say no. They both have rogue-like elements and have pixel art styles, but Realm is an MMO, which makes a lot of things work differently.

I don't think any game is really similar to Streets of Rouge. Maybe one game is Death Road to Canada, but I don't own the game and have only watched about 15 minutes of gameplay.

[Old Man]

In terms of inventory management it reminds me of Caveblazers.
In terms of characters it reminds me of Coin Crypt.
In terms of mayhem and insanity it reminds me of Death Skid Marks.
In terms of soundtrack it reminds me of Danny B's Binding Of Isaac.
And there's more to compare, but tis just to name a few.

[Elkondo]

It gives me the DeusEx/Thief vibe except without triggering my perfectionist sense. Frankly, never played anything similar.

[Paul Ryevere]

It's not a fair comparison on many levels, but, the only thing that really comes to mind in terms of similarity is 'Crime Fighter" an old shareware game from 1993. It's freewere, these days.
https://www.pssoft.de/english/index.html
On any superficial level, the games arern't all that simiiar. Crime Fighter is turn based, single-map, single-character, with separate scenes for combat.
But it has the same "vibe."
You'd just have to play it so see, I'm finding myself inadequate to describe the mutual appeal.
If you don't feel like setting up DOSBox or a VM or w/e, there are LPs listed on that homepage I linked that should give you a good feel.

In terms of things that worked in that game, whicxh you might be able to adapt for SOR:
-Kidnapping
--- IDK how well it fits into your vision, but from the lore perspective of "the resistance" kidnapping a high-value target and escorting them to a "holding area/safehouse" (or even the level exit) fits well, I think.

-Skill Training
--- This also has potential hang-ups, but, in CF, you could go to the weapons shop and pay the owner to give you training in your various statistics. I don't know how well "payment" would work in SOR, since it's super easy to amass a whole bunch of money, but perhaps you could have a mission that the reward for was an increase in one attrubute, like a one-time "potential to not suck" on the Slum Dweller. Or maybe you could set it up so you could only ever purchase one or two stat increases, but make it randomized, and cost $1000 or w/e.

-Team Development
--- In CF, when you signed someone on to your gang, they were with you until you fired them. No one ever "died," just got "defeated." Via training skills/abilities as mentioned above, and through purchasing weapons for them, you could develop your team to be more effective, stay alive longer, etc. As a subset of the above point, if you do implement that, I'd like to see the ability for this to extend to your hirelings/allies also. In my mind, ideally, you could keep the same minion effectively for more than two or thre levels, and with the added investment, have more incentive to do so, and not just use them as distractions or meat shields.

[mrPock3ts]

Oddly enough, the old Sega Genesis Shadowrun . . . Despite being totally different gameplay wise, SoR is capturing the street level feel I love about that game, and the fast paced controls and flexibility offered really make the "doing some crime" concept work for me.

[MaX]

Why do I say Ultima Online + River City Ransom?
What a wonderful world... less talking, more playing!
*evil laughs*

[Munisylc]

It's weird, but I can't seem to put a proper pin on it. This game is drawing on so many genres that it's hard to simply say "It's like x".

I can say "It's like MGS; you got cardboard boxes, ?'s, and !'s."
I can say "It's like a dungeon crawler/roguelike RPG; pick/create a class and go through a procedurally generated map. Hail RNGzus."
I can say "It's like D&D; form a party with your friends. Play off of each others' strengths and weaknesses. Bards are OP."
I can say "It's like Hotline Miami/Mr. Shifty; be fast, be brutal, don't get hit."
I can say "It's like Dark Soul-" Ignore this.

[Cadmus]

I'd say that the game reminds me of a top down version of Spelunky, minus the platforming. Hotline Miami minus the one shot deaths. I really like the money mechanic, but i'd like to see more items in shops. I'd like to see more weapons and larger/longer levels if possible performance-wise.

[A.M.]

It's own thing, good on you. I can always take another unique varitey of [hail the RNGESUS] simplisitic 2d rougelike dugeoncrawlers (there's ALOT of these, and every last one of the best are all distinctive types while being in this odd genre)

[Freedom's Flame]

Originally posted by jonnyforgotten:

Oddly enough, the old Sega Genesis Shadowrun . . . Despite being totally different gameplay wise, SoR is capturing the street level feel I love about that game, and the fast paced controls and flexibility offered really make the "doing some crime" concept work for me.

This. SoR for me is the spiritual successor to that game. Being handed what feels like a living world and just being told to run amock is something I wish that more games were capable of doing. Here's hoping Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't disappoint.

Other than that, I feel like SoR is an embodiment of the Immersive Sim genre (Deus Ex, Thief, System Shock, etc.) boiled down to its basest elements. The only thing that I really feel like it's missing are more extended missions. Right now everything is so compartmentalized that it doesn't really feel like your decisions matter. It would be nice if there was a reputation system where based on your actions on previous floors toward certain groups those groups would be more helpful/hostile toward you. As the game gets longer, it's important to give players a reason to want to play a full campaign-style run from the beginning other than just wanting to not be overpowered when you reach later levels.

[Greenlazer]

Wanna start by say I love your work on this game and your commitment to making this a better and better game. this is starting to be my favorite zone out game of the year. Id love to give you some advice on what all to add to the game but nothing comes redily to mind other than easier access to planted explosives

As for games that are similar to SoR, Im going to recomend Neon Chrome, a game that I was playing a lot before I started on yours (No disrespect to Neon Chrome, I had just put a ton of hours into it and got my fill.) The chaotic style of the game dosent fit the methotical style of SoR but I think you could see some inspiration in the level design, powerups, and bosses.

[Sentient_Toaster]

SoR is a weird-enough mash-up that certain aspects remind me of various different games.

For instance, the ability to trigger fights between factions reminds me of "Fallout: New Vegas", where NPCs are grouped in factions that aren't necessarily hostile to each other, but -- say, due to stray gunfire -- can be temporarily, locally mutually hostile. For instance, when I was attempting to murder all the members of one crime family in a casino, one of them wounded a prostitute bystander... and the prostitutes in the casino promptly started grabbing weapons and going after the mobsters.

The ability to go stealthy and nonlethal, with tranquilizer / chloroform / handcuffs, is reminiscent of the Metal Gear series. There's no Fulton Recovery System in SoR, heh. The Deus Ex series also supports nonlethal takedowns, stun guns, and tranquilizers; plus, cloaking augmentations for the invisibility functions. SoR's 2D top-down nature doesn't really support having the ventilation ducts. Probably one missing feature here is that in both MGS and DX, you can generally move an unconscious enemy (or corpse) and hide it somewhere in order to reduce the chance that a patrolling enemy will notice it and raise the alarm.

In terms of character build variety, there are certain roguelike games with a wider variety than most -- e.g. "Tales of Maj'Eyal" has a fairly large number of classes, and "Caves of Qud" has a large number of potential builds between the number of mutations, the cybernetic implants, and rather more skills than any one character will ever learn.

[Erenussocrates]

My favorite roguelike game is FTL: Faster than Light. I highly recommend it. It's not too similar to Streets of Rogue, but I think it's still possible that you could have influence from things that it does and implement them in this game. I could even gift it.