Why is permadeath essential to a roguelike design?

Posted by Gregory Weir on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Gregory Weir
Published on 2012-11-15T20:46:04Z Indexed on 2012/11/15 23:27 UTC
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game-design

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procedural-generation

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roguelikes

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permadeath

Roguelikes and roguelike-likes (Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac) tend to share a number of game design elements:

Procedurally generated worlds
Character growth by way of new abilities and powers
Permanent death

I can understand why starting with permadeath as a premise would lead you to the other ideas: if you're going to be starting over a lot, you'll want variety in your experiences. But why do the first two elements imply a permadeath approach?

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