What is the meaning of the expression Rogue Like?

I have been reading and seeing this for a couple of months and I have no idea.

I'm unfamiliar with the genre but if I had to guess its an procuderally generated dungeon crawler with a perma death system.

It is a dungeon crawler here each dungeon is different. It can have permanent death or have it where some of the progress is keep but the dungeon is restarted.

@wiouds: Oh! So Diablo 1 was probably the first rogue like game. Got it!

Diablo was not the first Rogue-like, and it isn't even classified as one.

The first Rogue-like was a game called Rogue. It refers to games that have a more realistic difficulty (you have a single life etc.), are usually turn-based (but this is being eroded away by modern developers), features random maps, items, encounters, buffs, debuffs and so on...

This. As mentioned, perm-death and randomly generated maps are common features of "Rogue-likes" and the term literally comes from one of the earliest games to have these features. Most commonly it means randomly generated levels in games intended for relatively short playthroughs with the intention of a lot of replay value over and over. Usually these are games where once you "fail" you have to start over. One of the best examples would be the game FTL, which features a completely randomly generated galaxy that you trek through towards a final "boss" ending. Literally everything in the game is completely different with each playthrough (placement of sectors, contents of sectors, content of encounters, number of different types of encounters, even the location and inventory of the stores).

More complex "Rogue-like" type games have evolved over the years although more recently it can mean games in which characters may die (as in Darkest Dungeon) and cannot be revived. Darkest Dungeon doesn't end but instead you can keep recruiting new heroes to replace onces that die. Again, this is a game with randomly generated dungeons where all the playthrough content is different every time.

Other games like Rogue Legacy incorporate both characteristics. The duneons are randomly generated with each playthrough, but you can make progress if you reach certain milestones that persists between playthrouhgs. Every character that dies is permanently dead, but instead of forcing you to start over from scratch you get to play a new "hero" who is descended from your original hero. The game also selects a random assortment of positive and negative traits and assigns them to each character you can choose. You also have the option of "locking" the dungeon so you aren't starting from scratch every time, but at the cost of a hefty tax on any rewards you get from the dungeon each time you prevent it from randomizing. Money that you acquire in your playthroughs can be used to buy permanent upgrades to your various characters that you play.

Randomly generated content is probably the single biggest characteristic of games classified as a Rogue-like, with permdeath being the second most associated characteristic. High replayability factor follows close behind.

-Byshop

All right guys great work..... I feel like we all really contributed something this time. :)

Like everyone said, rogue-likes are basically characterized by the following:

• randomly generated levels
• some sort of perma-death system
• some form of progression system, either from each dungeon or permanent upgrades
• simple gameplay mechanics, usually (though not always) based on traditional platforming
• high replay value
• Often very high difficulty

Has always meant perma-death to me or a relative form of it....
Such as the Soul's series for example.

First Rogue like game I played was Planescape: The Tormented, I guess. (if you don't include the traditional Arcade games that were all designed to make you poorer a quarter at a time.)