Blogging is in a weird spot right now.
On one side, we have the Google-Reddit-dumpster-fire, where Reddit essentially paid Google $60 million for top rankings (love that for us), combined with the imbalance of ‘mega authority’ websites that rank top 10 for results.
Take this one, for example: Do we really think Masterclass is an expert on roguelikes?
On the other hand, you have folks like us: Passionate hobbyists with hundreds (if not thousands) of hours invested in games, yet we are often overlooked.
Can we change that and fight fire with fire?
A little about us
Before we get too far, let’s delete those “who are these guys” thoughts.
I’m Steven, the person writing this.
I’ve always been a gamer, starting with the original Xbox and PlayStation 2 (PS2 will always hold a special place in my heart).
I’m someone who gets hyper-fixated on one or two games per year. I don’t play many games, but the ones I do play get way too much of my time.
When it wasn’t PS2 or Xbox, it was Runescape, but then I discovered Roguelikes, hence why we are here 🙂
My partner here is also my cousin. His name is Aiden. And more so, behind the scenes is my wife, Haley.
We are all gamers and love Roguelikes.
What are we doing here?
A few years back, we had an idea to start a roguelike together.
The idea was simple: create a game we want to play, regardless of its success.
That’s been our True North since day 1, and we’re a little over three years in at the time of writing this (8/31/25).
So what stemmed RogueRanker?
My background is in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and building websites. I got my start in college and used to co-own a portfolio of 40 blogs. Nowadays, I own an agency and help clients with SEO.
While working on our game, I noticed a problem:
- Information was scattered within the Roguelike community
- Marketing a game was 100x harder than expected
Full stop: I’m not here to sell you anything.
Our game hasn’t even launched. If you find value in our content and want to try our game, much love, but we aren’t here to tackle problem A, not B.
Anyone who knows this space knows you don’t make it big from a few blog posts. You make it big by forming relationships, adding value, and making a game people actually want to play.
Crazy concepts, I know.
How this works: Ratings, reviews, and real opinions (oh, my)
Here’s us planting our flag in the sand:
- We vow to never publish AI content
- We are writing for you, the reader, not Google
- Every post will offer a unique, authoritative angle
- Every post will be backed by trust and social credibility
- If we haven’t played a game, we’ll talk to those who have
- We’ll use Reddit and deep research to collect legit feedback
In exchange, we ask that you:
- Share content with your friends if you find it incredibly valuable
- Share your opinions on favorite games (more on that below)
Nothing crazy here.
Our goal is to become the go-to place for roguelike players (sorry, Masterclass).
How we create content
Any content we create is subjective. We get it. Don’t come for us.
For certain games like Brotato, Vampire Survivors, Rogue Tower, Deep Rock Galactic Survivors, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Halls Of Torment, Lumencraft, Dome Keeper, Soulstone Survivors, and Bad North (to name a few), we’ve stacked some hours. Too many to admit.
{mashup image of all games}
For others, we plan to:
- Play and form opinions
- Ask the community what they think
- Explore other websites, threads, videos, etc.
Only after deep research will we write an article or guide.
Our goal is not to create content for the sake of it.
We want to create insanely valuable content.
Content that takes days or weeks to create.
How you can help
As I briefly mentioned above, none of this would be possible without you.
Yes, you, thanks for reading 🙂
Every article we write will start with research to:
- Form the list of games, per topic
- See what others are saying
- Play the games ourselves
From there, we’ll create a Reddit post, or several in adjacent communities.
It will look something like this:
“I’m writing an article about the best roguelike games and would love to hear which ones come to mind for the following categories.
On top of playing them myself, I’d love to reference comments and conversations within the article so it’s not just another random opinion-based blog.
Here are some questions
- What game comes to mind?
- How many hours did you play it?
- What makes it harder than others?
- Do you still occasionally play?
- Would you recommend it?
If you want to contribute to a community-weighted score, we’re building a polling tool.”
More on that to come 🙂
About our tool
It didn’t seem right to have opinion-based content without a way to justify the how, why, or where.
- How are these ranked?
- Why are they saying this?
- Where did this data come from?
In our opinion, there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing a random score somewhere, like “4.8 out of 5,” and there’s no criteria for how that score was generated.
“So it was made up?”
Thanks. Now I’ve lost all trust in this article.
That’s not our plan here.
We want every guide we release to be a blend between editorial (our thoughts) and community-based (your thoughts) – with more weight placed on the community side, given we have sufficient data.
When the tool launches, we’ll have a unique polling system per review category. Once you cast your vote, it’ll automatically be assigned to an S-F tier system.
As things develop, we look forward to your feedback.
Our goal is to serve as the voice of reason within the community.
Wrapping up
Well, if you made it this far, thank you!
We are very excited to build Rogue Ranker into something special.
Take care and talk soon!