# Brogue

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Brogue and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A free, simple and well-executed roguelike that people recommend for its balanced, ingeniously designed play and its influence on other roguelikes.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, well-executed, balanced design (2 comments): "perfectly simple but perfectly well-executed, a five-ingredient recipe that lets every ingredient shine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45791490)) "insanely balanced and ingeniously designed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48125236))
- Inspires players' own roguelike designs (2 comments): "I took things I like from Brogue and added my own spin on it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48125106)) "I love Brogue and have been inspired by it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48125084))
- Recommended alongside NetHack and DCSS (2 comments): "Brogue, Nethack, DCSS are good if you like roguelikes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47665733)) "I'm a hardcore fan of CDDA, Nethack, even Brogue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45906793))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [NetHack](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nethack.md): 60 recommend
- [Chess-Inspired Roguelike](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chess-inspired-roguelike.md): 33 recommend
- [Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dungeon-crawl-stone-soup.md): 16 recommend
- [Xs of Y](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xs-of-y.md): 14 recommend
- [Noita](https://hackerapproved.com/p/noita.md): 13 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Brogue", https://hackerapproved.com/p/brogue/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).