GROGPOD Roguelike Podcast

If the weather outside is frightful, then curl up in front of the fireplace with your favorite roguelike gaming podcast! That’s how the song goes, right? Well in order to find those new favorite permadeath games, Scott travelled back in time to August for the Penny Arcade Expo in downtown Seattle. With only one day’s worth of ticket time this year, we had to cram as much into one recording as possible before familial duties took precedence. Check the timestamps below for interviews with friends of all sorts and their games and studios! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 3:09 - Live on the streets! 6:10 - Jacob from Better Publishing showcasing Don’t Wake the Beast, Void Dungeon, and Order Automatica 11:07 - Holly, Jack, and Quinn showcasing White Knuckle 16:58 - Hasban showcasing Rogue Eclipse 21:28 - Andrea and Bob showcasing Arcane Eats 30:12 - Shiv showcasing Pax Autocratica 35:12 - Special message from the Roguepod Litecast! and a note about Master of Piece 42:04 - Pax Panel Q&A with the folks from Being and Older Content Creator Doesn’t Have to Suck 47:24 - Risk of Rain 2 Tournament, Swap Meat 49:56 - Show wind down Next episode: Season 4 kicks off with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Recue Team! Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Barbara Dennerlein - Let It Snow Outro music: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team OST - Title Theme

Season 3 concludes with some of the heaveist hitter games we’ve ever covered for the podcast! From titans of tradtitional roguelikes like Path of Achra and Caves of Qud, to titans of real-time explosiveness like Noita and Hades, this is sure to be an Omegabowl for the ages. We have a great array of listener letters, co-host bickering, and wacky coin flips to make sure everyone is as equally mad as possible. So fire up those spacetime vortices and pray you don’t run out of footsteps before reaching Room 46 of the end of year recap tournament! Our finalists include: Blue Prince Caves of Qud Deadzone: Rogue Elden Ring Nightreign Hades Halls of Torment Hero’s Hour Noita Path of Achra Rift Wizard Spiritfall The King is Watching There can be only ONE to hoist the Trophy of Yendor! ! The full tournament bracket with spoiled results can be found here Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 0:50 - Intro 3:04 - Tournament plan, categories, and games 10:02 - Wildcard 1: Halls of Torment vs Rift Wizard 20:21 - Wildcard 2: Elden Ring Nightreign vs Hero’s Hour 33:44 - Wildcard 3: Spiritfall vs Deadzone: Rogue 46:14 - Wildcard 4: The King is Watching vs Path of Achra 53:10 - Division 1: Caves of Qud vs ??? 1:02:58 - Division 2: Blue Prince vs ??? 1:13:19 - Division 3: Hades vs ??? 1:15:50 - Division 4: Noita vs ??? 1:21:36 - Semi-finals 1 1:28:58 - Semi-finals 2 1:39:08 - Grand finals 1:59:56 - Show wind down Next episode: Roguelike developer interviews from PAX West 2025! Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: John Williams - Wide Reciever Outro music: Craig Hamilton - Onward (Kitfox recording)

The agony and terror of season 3 of the podcast comes to a close with the Survivor-like, Diablo-lite game Halls of Torment! Hear the demonic horns and twisted drums that lay down the epic background music, feast your eyes on the gorgeous low poly, highly pixelated 90’s inspired spritework! Collect those soul stones, find the artifacts and items from the demonic lord’s hallowed halls and see firsthand the horrors of greed! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 1:29 - Game stats 3:07 - One sentence description 06:48 - Comparison to Vampire Survivors 10:05 - Difficulty progression & enemy density 15:42 - Character classes & abilities overview 22:18 - Quest system & progression mechanics 29:03 - Item system & build variety 35:47 - Boss fights & challenge mechanics 42:31 - Movement mechanics & gameplay strategy 49:15 - Accessibility & difficulty options debate 55:58 - Art style praise & technical performance 1:02:44 - Endgame content & replayability 1:27:24 - Rankings & final thoughts 1:36:39 - Similar games & show wind-down Next episode: Omegabowl 3 Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Cyrus Chestnut - Precious Lord Outro music: Halls of Torment OST - Chambers of Dissonance

Stay a while and listen! The sanctity of this podcast has been fouled as we turn back the clock to cover the 1997 groundbreaking procedural action RPG: Diablo. From humble origins as an Angband clone, to global standardbearer for game design polish, this titan of the horror genre greets us with a few haunting guitar chords and a cathedral of the damned. Join our descent into terror as we encounter vegetable hating butchers, skeleton kings, multiplayer friends running ahead and leaving us behind, sultry winged demons, poorly-aged game mechanics, and many more devlish delights! Perhaps there you will find answers. Or perhaps, salvation! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 2:35 - Game stats 5:44 - One sentence description 07:17 - Original turn-based design & real-time conversion 10:04 - Berlin interpretation & roguelike elements debate 19:48 - Character classes overview (Warrior, Rogue, Sorcerer) 29:35 - Town mechanics & NPC interactions 39:21 - Dungeon structure & difficulty progression 49:08 - Loot system & item identification mechanics 58:54 - Combat feel & clicking gameplay 1:08:40 - Multiplayer experience 1:18:27 - Soundtrack praise & atmosphere creation 1:28:13 - Hellfire expansion & cut content discussion 1:38:32 - Rankings & final thoughts 1:52:02 - Similar games & show wind-down Next episode: Halls of Torment Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Nat Adderley Jr. - Old Devil Moon Outro music: Diablo OST - Tristram

O Glorious Shekhinah! To conclude our two-part special on Caves of Qud, we turn our focus from the epic storyline to the deep gameplay mechanics and systems from the Salt Dunes of the west to the Deep Jungle in the east. Join us for a water ritual on how to negotiate with camel merchants before we clone them, managing our reputation with fuedal fungal lords, and how to navigate the differences between mutated humans, psychic warriors, and just straight-up cyborgs. Get those schematics ready as we disassemble one of the densest and deepest “traditional” “roguelike” games out there. You can find the in depth tutorial series we did with BigSimple to learn this massive game here! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 3:44 - Game stats 7:47 - One sentence description 08:09 - Gamma World tabletop RPG comparison 10:08 - Initial bouncing off & polish improvements 14:23 - Tutorial mode & learning curve discussion 19:31 - Character creation & mutation systems 24:48 - Story structure & main quest overview 29:17 - Death mechanics & permadeath options 34:52 - Open world exploration & procedural generation 40:15 - Village generation & faction systems 45:38 - Combat mechanics & weapon variety 51:22 - Skill tree & ability customization 56:47 - Water economy & trade systems 1:02:08 - Equipment & artifact identification 1:07:45 - Mutation system depth & combinations 1:13:31 - Enemy variety & creature encounters 1:19:03 - Interface improvements & accessibility features 1:24:38 - Save system exploits discussion 1:30:15 - Community & modding ecosystem 1:35:52 - Writing quality & atmospheric storytelling 1:41:27 - Endgame content & difficulty scaling 2:07:27 - Rankings & final thoughts 2:25:15 - Similar games & show wind-down Next episode: Diablo Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Caves of Qud OST - Soundscape I Outro music: Caves of Qud OST - Onward Romantique / Live and Drink