Over the last two weeks of December, we are announcing the winners of the First Annual SwitchRPG Awards. We’ll be announcing new winners every weekday, leading up to a final announcement on January 1st for RPG of the Year!

Roguelikes are perhaps one of the fastest growing genres in gaming today. Indie developers are constantly creating new and innovative takes on the genre – incorporate elements from action/adventure titles, strategy games, platformers, and even Metroidvanias. These games frequently offer the biggest bang for your buck, with $20 titles sometimes providing hundreds of hours of gameplay potential, as each run you take is different from the last. For our nominees, we kept the list to roguelikes with distinct RPG elements.

The Nominees

Crypt of the Necrodancer

Darkest Dungeon

Into the Breach

Moonlighter

And the Winner Is…

Moonlighter

Perhaps the least “Rogue like” of our roguelikes, Moonlighter nonetheless garnered immediate acclaim from almost everyone who played it. This Zelda-inspired roguelike features a series of procedurally generated dungeons, with enemies to kill, artifacts to collect, gear to craft, and a slowly unfolding mystery to solve. Moonlighter combines this core dungeon diving objective with a surprisingly enjoyable shop management simulator, giving the player the chance to sell their plunder and slowly build up their shop and the surrounding town to prominence. Despite being the least traditional roguelike nominated this year, Moonlighter serves as an excellent introduction to the genre for those who have never experienced it, providing an enjoyable (and forgiving) gameplay loop that will keep you coming back for more.

Community Pick: Darkest Dungeon

The poll for Best Roguelike served as another hot competition among the SwitchRPG community. For days the poll wavered back and forth between Moonlighter and Darkest Dungeon, with Into the Breach constantly nipping at their heels. In the end, Darkest Dungeon edged out ahead of the competition, capturing 38% of the total votes. This tough-as-nails, turned-based roguelike – in contrast to Moonlighter – is probably the most RPG-centric entry among our nominees – and a favorite among both the SwitchRPG community and staff.

How do you feel about our winners for Best Roguelike? Do you think another nominee deserved the win? Or was there a different roguelike this year that captured your heart? Let us know in the comments. And stop by on Christmas Day for one of the highest honors in the SwitchRPG Awards – the award for Best Studio!