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Every episode
GROGPOD Roguelike Podcast
30 episodes
Nordhold
Aug 11, 2026 · 1 hr 16 min
Roguelites belong to the Nords! This week we return to tower defense rogue land with Nordhold: the vaguely Viking-themed tower defense roguelite featuring tower synergy systems, work placement econometrics, and decisions about whether or not to sacrifice them to demonic gods. If careful optimization of numbers and slowly checking off metaprogression boxes is your thing, then Nordhold has got it in spades! We even have towers that shoot ravens at people, what more could you ask for here??? Custom…
Episode 100 Part 3 - Brogue CE
Aug 4, 2026 · 1 hr 53 min
A dark presence surrounds you, whispering promises of stolen power! Our episode 100 mega special concludes with a mega special game in the traditional roguelike sphere: Brogue! Developed by a lawyer, Brian Walker sought to rewrite the state of roguelikes in 2009 from bloated checkbox-ticking, weeks-long RPG length games and bring the genre back to its coffee break length roots. Careful streamlining of systems, UI polish, graphical effects, and a much smaller monster pool make Brogue one of the m…
Episode 100 Part 2 - Moria, Hack, Larn, Omega
Jul 28, 2026 · 2 hr 1 min
What is this new devilry? Part 2 of the GROGPOD100 extravaganza continues, this time with a focus on the first ever rogue-like games ever made! Following the part 1 format, Scott does a brief historical deep dive of the games with some community correspondence, followed by our in-person live first experiences playing these games. We’ll experience why Gandalf had no memory of dungeon floors in Moria, see the first draft of history with Hack, try to rescue our poisoned daughter in Larn, and try to…
Episode 100 Part 1 - Rogue and its Predecessors
Jul 21, 2026 · 1 hr 60 min
The road to Rogue was paved with ascii, teletype, thousand-pound mainframes, and a hacker spirit only highschoolers and college kids and eminate. For our big 100th episode, we have for you a 3-part deep dive into the games that inspired Rogue, the first TRUE roguelikes, and the crown jewel of ascii games: Brogue. This being part 1, we focus on the biggest computer games of the 1970s and how those shaped the design of Rogue. For each game, Scott briefly talks about how its played and a short bit…
BALL x PIT
Jul 14, 2026 · 1 hr 40 min
Ball don’t lie! This week we’re dropping into the chasm filled with Arkanoid-inspired enemies in BALL x PIT! The fabled city of Ballbylon has fallen and evil monsters have dragged the metropolis into, you guessed it, a pit! Your quest is to rebuild the city by taking a ramshackle elevator down into the depths, huck balls at the rampaging hordes, and escape with resources you can use to restore the town brick by brick. Sure none of the residents have eyes in their sockets, are largely magical war…
Caves of Qud Part 3: Interview with Composer Craig Hamilton
Jun 30, 2026 · 1 hr 28 min
Moon and Sun! Caves of Qud returns for our summer music episode, as I grabbed some time with the composer Craig Hamilton! Since Qud is a dramaturgical triad, we couldn’t NOT do a third episode talking with the creative mind behind the creative sounds of the game. We’re talking Digital Audio Workstations, sci-fi literature, flamethrowers, traditional roguelikes, and so much more! The torsion of an external crank drags a rosin-slathered wheel against a metal cable, whose protestations emerge from…
Hard Reset
Jun 15, 2026 · 2 hr 12 min
“You don’t have the cards!” This week we deep dive the cyberpunk productivity app roguelike deckbuilder hybrid that our very own co-host Will has been developing since 2018! A unique spin on gamification apps, Hard Reset asks the ever-important question of: “what if we made the game part actually fun?” The capitalist oligarchs have taken over and you must stop them by upgrading your cybernetics as provided by a mysterious benefactor. Fight through mutant-filled cyber slums with the help of rocke…
Rift Wizard 3: Interview with Developer Dylan White
Jun 9, 2026 · 1 hr 35 min
It’s a special bonus episode this week! With Rift Wizard 3 launching in June 2026, I sat down with developer Dylan White to talk about the third game’s evolution, how its distinguished itself from Rift Wizard 2, and what it takes to make a traditional roguelike game stand out in the ever evolving morass of games being released on Steam these days. Come for the discussion on PyGame, stay for the discussion on metal music band names as monsters! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Tran…
Mewgenics
Jun 4, 2026 · 2 hr 7 min
He’s a bad bad kitty! We’re snapping our fingers and fighting through the alleways this week with Mewgenics! The long-awaited game by Binding of Isaac creator and roguelite genre legend Edmund McMillen, fans have been wating something like 15 years to experience the cat breeding tactical combat RPG. You are a crazy cat lady, reanimated from the dead by a mad scientist and your goal is to breed cats to send on harrowing adventures through junkyards, spider caves, the moon, and beyond the reaches…
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
May 19, 2026 · 1 hr 43 min
Emperor guide thy aim! Roguelikes and -lites span a spectrum, especially when they come as added game modes to big budget titles that aren’t roguey themselves. This week we explore Warhammer 40K Darktide: the action RPG featuring two … sort of … rogue-ish (heavy squinting) game modes: Expeditions and the Mortis Trials. From the moment I understood the weakness of game genre definitions, they disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of roguelikes. I aspired to the purity of the blessed p…
UFO 50 (with Woody Ciskowski)
May 7, 2026 · 3 hr 6 min
Play forever! It’s time to climb one of the most ambitious game releases in recent memory by dusting off UFO 50: the collection of games from the fictional LX Systems console of the 1980s. With some titles being very small, and others being very huge, we focus on just 7 that are the most rogue-ish: Bug Hunter, Velgress, Planet Zoldath, Waldorf’s Journey, Party House, Overbold, and Campanella 2! Will we be able to squash the eggs before they hatch? How many times will our hot pink spacecraft be g…
868-HACK
Apr 21, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min
(Hacker voice) I’m in. We’re pentesting the mainfraime this week with 868-HACK! A small-scope puzzle-y rogue-y game by one Michael Brough: multi award-nominated IGF game designer of other similarly overlooked titles like Imbroglio, Cinco Paus, and Zaga-33. Michael’s games were originally designed for iOS mobile devices back in the hallowed days of the early 2010s, in that bubbling time when roguelites were just getting their foothold. Listen in as we isolate the nodes, jack the creds, warp some…
Megabonk
Apr 7, 2026 · 1 hr 37 min
It’s not a bug, its a feature! This week we crack open the most meme-filled game of 2025 with Megabonk: the first game by (very likely) youtuber game developer Danidev in over 4 years. Is your Megachad’s aura farming going to crash out or is your drip fire enough to hit different? Just how long can a skateboarding skeleton with sunglasses last against Anubruh or … sigh … Scorpionussy? We can always return to Monke, fellow kids! 😱↪️⭕ Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 1:2…
Slay the Spire 2
Mar 28, 2026 · 1 hr 54 min
Rise… champion… again! The Spire returns to be slain once more, in the biggest roguelike launch of all time! Our top rated game of the podcast now has a sequel, but how will its early access evaluation period hold up? How sly will our ratings of the new characters be? Will we DEMAND to visit a more exciting planet? Will our souls be eternally bound to a tooth-filled grimoire? What about Osty? Is he safe? Is he alright? Who is this mysterious Architect who sits atop the new Spire with a bunch of…
Hoplite
Mar 11, 2026 · 1 hr 21 min
This Is Part Of! … the roguelike pantheon of short games! A beloved mobile game classic, we hop in to Hoplite this week: the Greek underworld dungeon crawling chess tactics inspired puzzle game of spear-chucking, shield-bashing, and hoppin! Featuring at seemingly simple 16-floor dungeon that can go on infinitely should you so desire, the game also boasts a seemingly bottomless pit of bespoke puzzles. So get swipin and swipe on that play button either for the pod or the game, they’re both good! C…
Project Zomboid
Feb 25, 2026 · 1 hr 46 min
Brains! Brains! This week in “yes we know it’s not a roguelike”, we venture into the heart of Kentucky for some country-fried human flesh with Project Zomboid. The zeds have spread and you have one goal: survive as long as possible. Do you loot the local school for backpacks and safety scissors, or the police station for pistols and shotguns? Do you dare risk alerting the manic hordes with your car as you break windows in your desperate search for prescription painkillers? …in the game, I mean……
Roboquest
Feb 11, 2026 · 1 hr 26 min
Muscle up your game buddy! This week we dust off the 500 year old robot action FPS Roboquest: something like a “Doom Eternal for kids”, the electrobeats of synthwave send you hungering for more and more of those delicious green health orbs. Infiltrate a gigantic city of bad robots, rescuing good robots along the way, and unlock all sorts of wacky movement gadgets, character classes, and more hidden secrets than you can shake a pogo stick at. Always check behind those waterfalls! Custom RSS Apple…
Monster Train 2
Jan 28, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min
Angels and demons all over the world, join hands and start a Monster Train sequel! One of our highest rated deckbuilder rogues arrives at GROGPOD station once again, featuring some interesting twists on the established formula. As we’ll explore more in this season, we’ll be looking closely at what makes for a good sequel while trying to make as many obnoxious monster moaning sounds at turbo speed as hum- … as monster-ly possible. Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 2:00 -…
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (with Helen @gagther)
Jan 14, 2026 · 2 hr 20 min
Yoom-taah! To kick off season 4 of the podcast, we choose you: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team! Joined again by our expert guest on the sub-genre with Helen, we revisit nostalgia and fresh experiences for a 20+ year old spinoff roguelike…lite…game? Hopefully the listeners don’t also brand us as fugitives, focing us to traverse the Great Canyon of JRPG menu systems to the high peaks of Friendship Mountain, while eating jelly bean-based IQ boosters we find on the dirty ground. Can we over…
Roguelike Dev Interviews at PAX West 25
Dec 31, 2025 · 55 min
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…
Omegabowl 3: The 2025 Roguelike Playoffs
Dec 17, 2025 · 2 hr 7 min
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 reachi…
Halls of Torment
Dec 3, 2025 · 1 hr 49 min
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 sta…
Diablo (with Robert Lippens)
Nov 19, 2025 · 2 hr 6 min
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,…
Caves of Qud Part 2: Gameplay and Mechanics (with @BigSimple)
Nov 5, 2025 · 2 hr 39 min
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 w…
Caves of Qud Part 1: Story and Soundtrack (with @BigSimple)
Oct 29, 2025 · 2 hr 57 min
Live and Drink! In this extra-special two-part episode, we first examine the deep story, lore, and soundrack to Caves of Qud. Winner of the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Game or Interactive Work, as well as the 2025 Independent Games Festival for Excellence in Narrative, it only made sense for us to break this absolutely massive game out into two parts. We are also joined by special guest and Qud streamer BigSimple! Listen in as we set the stage via the incredible soundtrack brought to us by Craig Ha…
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap
Oct 21, 2025 · 1 hr 37 min
The Age of Men is over. The Time of the Orc has come! The long-lived and highly rated franchise of Orcs Must Die! comes to the rogue world for the first time with its 2025 release of Deathtrap. A game OMD players have waited 4 years to see a sequel finally arrives featuring 4-player co-op maze-building character-quipping action. Join the team of sassy teen #1, wrench arm boy, sassy teen #2, murderous cat, and big lovable bear man to stop the Orcs from getting into those precious portal for… reas…
Deadzone: Rogue
Oct 7, 2025 · 1 hr 46 min
Get in the zone! This week is a game with one wild journey from starting out as Starsiege: Tribes-themed extraction shooter to an original roguelite experience - it’s Deadzone: Rogue, of course! Awaken on a ship to shoot through piles of robots and uncover the mysteries that an unhinged space program influencer billionaire promises folks who sign up for a Mars cruise. What dangers might we face? Or NOT face? Maybe we are all just brains in a vat, if you think about it. Actually… you don’t want t…
Hero's Hour
Sep 23, 2025 · 1 hr 22 min
Zyzz up! This week we eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate all sorts of fantasy monsters in huge army blobs with Hero’s Hour! A hobby project by a Danish psychologist, we look deep into the psyche of tutorialization, 4X games as roguelikes, battles rivaling the Pelennor Fields, and cute horsies. Spears shall be shaken! Shields shall be splintered! And your capital will be taken over in 5 turns by a wizard on a pony! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music Transcript 1:28 - Game stats…
The King is Watching
Sep 9, 2025 · 1 hr 30 min
Eye see you! This week we gaze upon the wonder of The King is Watching: the kingdom management and goblin horde bashing simulator with a twist - your workers are only productive when you’re watching them. Kind of like being in the office and having your boss fly by your desk twice a day… An artistic feast with a deep level of meta-progression, try to survive wave after wave of horrid beasts and giant horrors from attacking your peaceful castle through the use of magic spells, special king-based…
Elden Ring Nightreign (with Kris @garglestone)
Aug 26, 2025 · 2 hr 39 min
Praise the Sun! The Nightlords have invaded the world of Elden Ring and it’s up to you and your trusty co-op Nightfarers to stop them. The biggest roguelike game of 2025 so far, lauded developer FromSoftware’s latest entry takes a stark departure from previous games in the Dark Souls series at a blistering pace. Featuring gigantic bird-man, big-hat sorceress, acrobatic bow boy, yelling drunken pirate, angry Sekiro dog-man, sassy child, French fencer, and John Nightreign himself toting a grapplin…
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