Rogue Legacy

The goal of Rogue Legacy is to explore a randomly generated dungeon, defeat four bosses in each of the four unique environments of the dungeon, and then defeat the final boss. Characters have the default ability to jump and slash with their sword, along with secondary abilities, such as magic attacks, which use mana. Players can also use their sword to slash platforms to make them extend.

Whenever a character dies as a result of losing all of their Hit Points (HP), control will transfer over to one of three randomly generated heirs which the player may choose between, though this number may be increased to six with a later upgrade. Each descendant carries their unique characteristics and abilities, including genetic peculiarities such as color-blindness (in which the game is presented in black and white), ADHD (in which the player moves faster) and dwarfism (in which the character is short and can fit into small gaps).

The game was developed by Cellar Door Games, a Toronto-based developer consisting of brothers Kenny and Teddy Lee. This was the brothers' biggest project to date and took 18 months to develop. The game was inspired by such titles as Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Teddy compares the design to games like Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac, noting that their goal was to make the game relatively forgiving and accessible, while also allowing permanent progression.

Due to the need to streamline the game, several prominent features were cut during development, including an experience system. Kenny added that the revenue from the game will allow them to focus on larger future projects.

Metacritic gives the game a "generally favorable" score of 85/100 based on 43 reviews.

Mitchell Saltzman of GameFront describes the game as "insanely hard for the unprepared". Philip Kollar of Polygon and Mike Splechta of GameZone mentioned the short life spans of their characters, and Scott Nichols of Digital Spy expressed frustration when first starting out. Other reviewers remarked that the game actually encourages these short runs while rewarding the player via the broader progression system. Ryan Stevens of GameTrailers described the game as "[riding] the line of frustration and fun". Saltzman concludes that "difficulty may be a turnoff to those who get frustrated easily".