You just lost 40 minutes of progress. You're back at square one - and yet, somehow, you're already planning your next run. Welcome to the world of Rogues: a genre built on punishing you, confusing you with its own terminology, and keeping you hooked until 4 AM anyway.
If you've ever played a video game, you've probably died. Or at least lost. And depending on the game, that death could have looked completely different. Today, let's break down a mechanic that, in the roguelike genre, isn't just a feature - it's the entire foundation of the experience: permadeath.
Roguelikes have a language of their own. Whether you are diving into Hades, building game-breaking decks in Balatro, or trying to survive Dead Cells, the genre is packed with jargon, mechanics, and design concepts that every player encounters.