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Screenshot of a tumblr post by greatlordfluffernutter:
AAA Games: We’ve created a massive open world 500x larger than our previous game with a grand total of two (2) sidequests that have been copy-pasted all over the map. That way, you have many different ways to climb a tower to find where to shoot stealth mechanics base building zombies buy the tarnished pass today!
Steam Indie Games: We had the great idea of taking Sekiro’s combat system and making into a rhythm game! We then decided to make it a roguelike deckbuilder so we wouldn’t have to design a progression system or level layouts and the player can just reset runs until the game becomes good via monkeys and typewriters.
Itch.io Games: I made a 2 hour long game about the trauma of growing up as a closeted trans girl presented via metaphor of being a stowaway on a 25th century cargo ship delivering goods between Hong Kong and The Greater Empire of Americana. It’s also a roguelike deckbuilder.
All the deckbuilders I know aren’t even roguelikes, they’re roguelites. The meta progression of unlocking new cards/charms/characters is too essential to the longevity of a run-based deckbuilder.
i would argue that having any meta-progression isn’t really a useful distinction. i think it’s much more useful to draw the distinction between meta-progression as a means of tutorialization (unlocking new items or characters, ala slay the spire and balatro) vs meta-progression as a difficulty affordance (like the permanent upgrades of hades)