Screenshots
Rogue Elements
Indietiative · Published by Indietiative
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
Unique traditional Roguelike, in which every move counts as the environment is constantly shifting around you. Grass burns, poison clouds seeping into water, water vapors spreading dangerous effects throughout the dungeon. Can you master the elements?
RPG, Simulation, Strategy · More free games
About this game
Master the Terrain. Rewrite History. Survive the Elements.
Rogue Elements is a tactical ASCII roguelike written entirely from scratch without a premade engine, where the environment is as lethal as the monsters lurking within it. Navigate a living dungeon where fire, ice, and poison and other elements continuously shape the dungeon around you.
Experience a deep, reactive environment system. Water grows lush grass, but fire will burn it away to scorched rock. Fire melts ice, turning it into traversable water, while shallow water can be evaporated into clouds of steam that carry the effects of whatever was mixed into it.
Fight through 10 levels of procedural chaos to defeat the final villain. Every terrain type has their own challenges, Ice will make you slide uncontrollably, water can ruin your equipment, grass will block your view, Stones can hurt you and mud will slow you down. Discover other dungeon features, such as Sacrificial Circles that grant rewards for kills, Ancient Altars demanding health for blessings, and Summoning Portals that must be destroyed before they overwhelm you with reinforcements.
Don't just settle for one effect. Discover the art of alchemy by mixing multiple potions to create devastating combinations. A mixed potion not only combines up to three magical effects but also increases its Area of Effect, allowing you to spread devastating effects to multiple enemies at once. How about throwing a Teleport-Poison-Fire potion bomb into a monster zoo and teleporting them into the mud while they slowly burn and poison to death without being able to move?
Every run is preceded by a 100-year history simulation. The engine simulates the lives, deaths, and cultural shifts of an entire village, generating a "History Chronicle" that defines the world's spirituality, fearfulness, and prosperity, that stays persistent over all your runs of that particular dungeon. Explore the dungeon to find ancient tablets that reveal the biographies and reactions of villagers who lived through great events a century before you arrived. By reading these accounts, you will also learn more about the abilities of the final villain at the end of your adventure. Be prepared.
Tactical Turn Based Grid Combat
Master unique enemy archetypes like the Packwolf, which grows stronger when near its allies, or the Flame Golem, which erupts into a firestorm upon death. Use wands to cast ranged spells, but be careful: standing in high-intensity water might soak your scrolls, making them unusable until they dry.
Atmospheric ASCII Visuals
Watch as ripples move through water, smoke rises from burning tiles, and glints of light dance across frozen pillars with a custom ASCII animation engine.
Full Midi Soundtrack and Midi Audio Manager
Midi, Midi everywhere. Immerse yourself in a fully MIDI-driven soundscape that reacts to the chaos around you with retro-inspired music, adaptive music reacting to the situation.
Controls
Move / Attack: Arrow keys or WASD.
Inventory: I or Q.
Pick Up Item: Spacebar.
Item Options: Enter or E.
Full Log, Bestiary & History: L
Help Menu: H
Full Screen/Windowed: P
Hover over enemies in the sidebar for more information on them.
MIDI Soundtrack by continuum.mid (OpenGameArt: northivanastan, Bandcamp:
Berggren-Malde-Complex written by continuum.mid & DCG Retrowave
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5
- Graphics: Integrated
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Rogue Elements 1.018k - New Graphical Tileset & Weapon Type Effects
Rogue Elements Discord for chatting, bug reports, feature suggestions or just staying in the loop: https://discord.gg/Re9ywXDHxc -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I honestly didnt think I would ever get here, but I actually tried to give Rogue Elements a bit of a glow up with more intricate ascii tileart and I think it worked out pretty decently. Also added more depth to the dungeon delving, by adding different effects to the weapon types, making it more rewarding to plan attack patterns and shift the way the dungeon is played during a run naturally.New Features: - New Graphical Tileset I tried to give every environment its own "structure", so they are easily recognizable without needing to squint. They are still created randomly at runtime, so there still is no graphical "asset" for these. There is still an issue with the old trap recognition system, but thats a todo for another day. - Weapon Type Abilities The graphical upgrade is probably the most eye catching, but the weapon types is probably my favourite feature in a while, as they really change how you think about and approach tactical situations, adding another layer to the "simple to control, but challenging to master" systems I am aiming for. There are currently 15 weapon types, all of which have unique attack patterns: Spear: Hits the target for 75% damage and the enemy behind it for 50%. Walking straight toward a now adjacent target hits it for 50%. Flail: Hits the target for 100% damage and enemies in the other three cardinal directions for 25%. Scimitar: Sweeps the three tiles in front of you for 75% damage each. Axe: Hits for 125% damage, but enemies hitting you while you attack deal 50% more damage. Rapier: Deals 125% damage after moving straight toward the target; otherwise deals 75%. Whip: Deals 75% damage to the adjacent target and 150% damage to an enemy directly behind it. Katana: Moves through the target for 110% damage. If there is no free space, deals ...Read full article on Community Announcements (tomalexi)AnnouncementsOfficial
Rogue Elements 1.015f - Advanced Enemies & Dedicated Tutorial Missions
I finally went back to expand the Roguelike dungeons some more and added 24 new enemies for the dungeons, that have a lot more unique and advanced characteristics. With these, I moved on from standard damage types and the dungeon honestly for the first time feels like I was hoping it would when I started making this game. If you want to experience all of them, play the "Complete" Dungeon.New Features:- Doubled the enemy count to 50, adding a lot more unique and complex enemies. As the beginning of the game is relatively hard for new players already, I kept most of them to the new "Complete" Dungeon, but here are a few new ones, that all directly change how you move around the dungeon, making every level a lot more interesting:- Tremor Worm: only attacking sound sources - Swapper: Switching positions with the player every few turns - Void: As long as it sees you creates holes behind you - Reactor: Damaging you when you move away from it ... and 20 more.- New Complete Dungeon As many new players still find the beginning rather challenging, I didnt want to add all enemies right away. The new "Complete" Dungeon now contains all enemy types.- Village Tutorial Missions Added a mission tree to learn the basics of village management. Soon I wont be the only person undertanding this mode anymore! Has 36 tutorials and 4 challenge missions.- Dungeon TutorialsAdded a step by step tutorial for dungeon mechanics as well, as many smaller mechanics werent understood by newer players.Gameplay Adjustments:- Renamed Beginner, Standard and Extra Dungeons to Beginner, Expanded and Complete - Added a few of the newer enemies to the Beginner and Expanded dungeon, to add a bit more chaos to the lower dungeons as wellMinor Fixes:- More Performance Improvements, mostly for the dungeon selection screen - Reformatted the enemy tooltip, also rephrased the way it communicates player/enemy damageRead full article on Community Announcements (tomalexi)AnnouncementsOfficial
Rogue Elements - 1.013e - Fishing Minigame and Aquarium in the Village
I might have gone a bit on a weird tangent to include my favourite Minigame system: Fishing! Its a collection of minigames with increasingly difficult challenges, different fish rarities, unique fish colours per player and an Aquarium mode to watch your rare fish swim around and nibble on their food pallets.The way it ties into the current game: It doubles the speed in the village, so if you need to wait for night to pass, the shop to open or resources to gather, fishing will be an effective way to spend time. In the future, I want to add more interactions, like earning village content from fishing or finding fishing upgrades in the main Roguelike dungeons, to make the harder fishing levels easier. New Features:- 8 different Fishing Minigames Every minigame has 5 difficulty levels that changes the rules a bit, to keep you on your toes. Harder levels or rarer fish also increase the difficulty.- 4 increasingly rare visual fish variants for 120 visually distinct Ascii fish species Sparkling (10% chance) adds some ascii sparkles. Coloured (3%) gives the finish a unique colour that is generated individually per player. Chromium (1%) adds a shine across the colour and Superchromium (0.33%) combines all visual traits into one. These are some random fish colour examples: - Aquarium Mode / Screensaver This wasnt even planned, but when I started to make the 120 fish species, people suggested adding a way to watch your caught fish do their thing, so I added a simplistic Aquarium mode where you can feed the fish. There will be weird stuff happening here, I am pretty sure Tin Cans can eat food pellets currently.- Tutorial Boxes for Village Mode and Fishing As I will keep the village as a way to engage with Rogue Elements differently, I added a few tutorials to explain how the village sim aspects work and how fishing ties into it.Minor Fixes:- More Performance Improvements - Finally added a loading screen instead of the random white initialization boxRead full article on Community Announcements (tomalexi)AnnouncementsOfficial
Rogue Elements 1.012r - Village Simulation & Dungeon Perks
Heya,this is a pretty significant update, as I implemented a optional progression system/mode where you can unlock bonusses to make the dungeon runs easier. Pure Roguelike runs are still the only way to submit scores to the leaderboard, as I never want to dilute the accomplishment from beating these runs without help. The added systems are sort of a grindable difficulty setting as an extra puzzle. It is planned to also include unlocks for "pure Roguelike" fans, such as unlocking new dungeons through this mode, but that is all still in the planning phase.I still am not entirely sure if these mechanics will stay in the game and would absolutely need feedback from people reading/playing it. Please do feel free to comment here or contact me via indietiative@gmail.com The entire system is a proof of concept and will receive more tutorializing/ more specific implementation in the future if I develop this mechanic further.New Features:- Village SimulationThe village is an additional mode where residents have their own daily schedule and needs that they follow. They will go to work, sleep, eat and visit community spaces. To make progress, players will need to optimize the setup of their village as distance and time travelled matters a lot to fulfill specific villager - Village Building You will find village orbs in the dungeon runs, which unlock buildings, residents and other items to place. You will need to decide which villagers go into which building and have which sleeping place to optimize their schedules as fulfilling certain requirements or giving some residents the right job will double their movement speed. The mode currently contains a "Debug" button that allows you unlock village content more quickly for testing/feedback purposes. - Dungeon Perks & Bonusses in Progression mode If you satisfy enough resident requests, you will unlock Dungeon Perk Choices for your entire runs. If you fulfill 10 resident requests, you will get a dungeon perk choice on level 1. If y...Read full article on Community Announcements (tomalexi)AnnouncementsOfficial
Rogue Elements v1.010k - Noise and Behaviour Systems
I wanted to make the dungeon a bit more reactive, so I added observable Idle behaviours, so the dungeon can be observed and reacted to, instead of only having monsters move randomly. Also, added a noise system, to make enemies react more directly to what the player does.New Features:- Noise System Certain actions now make noises that enemies can hear and then investigate. Enemies have different listening ranges and if they cannot find anything at the spot, will spot investigating. Pressing N shows noise sources and listening ranges to visualize how it works, but it is not recommended to keep that on constantly.Player opens a doorPlayer walks on rock / intense rock Player enters deep water Player enters deep mud Player finishes an ice slide Player performs a melee attack Thrown items Player strikes a wall / waitsPlayer drops an item Player opens a chest Player equips a weapon Player unequips a weapon Player equips armor Player unequips armor Player mixes potions Player causes a mud bubble to pop Player shatters a summoning portal- Idle Behaviour SystemEnemies now have a random idle behaviour and two different "need behaviours", which makes the dungeon a bit more reactive with enemies moving around.Wander randomlyPatrol within the current roomPatrol theh longest corridorTravel to the staircase and guard nearbyPatrol foud distributed points on the levelMove between the exits of the current roomTravel alongside wallsGuard an environmental feature or puzzle entranceApproach and converse with the nearest enemySleep, remain stationary and periodically display the sleep indicatorSelect and follow another enemySeek poison/fire/ice clouds, available at 100% resistanceAdditionally, there are 3 intermission behaviours that enemy can sometimes do:Archers travel to a triggered trap, reset it and conceal itEnemies with food and water needs travel to water and drinkEnemies with food and water needs travel to a cropse and consume three pieces - Inventory now also includes items belo...Read full article on Community Announcements (tomalexi)
