// The taxonomy

The vocabulary the whole index is built on.

Every filterable field is constrained to a controlled vocabulary — that is what keeps “hardcore” and “roguelike” meaning the same thing on every page. These are the canonical terms — hover any badge site-wide to see its entry here, or click through to it directly.

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// Modes

🛡️Softcore

Standard progression with recoverable deaths, checkpoints and unlimited reloads.

💀Hardcore

Strict progression with higher stakes and semi-permanent consequences.

☠️Permadeath

A single death deletes the character or resets progress entirely.

🔒Ironman

No manual saving or retries. Continuous playthrough integrity.

🎲Roguelike

Procedurally generated, single-life design; no metaprogression.

🎲Roguelite

Procedurally generated, allows persistent metaprogression.

🏆Competitive

Ranked leaderboards, PvP focus, or scoring-based competition.

// Types

Base

Default developer-built difficulty.

Variant

A selectable variant within base content (e.g. an Ironman toggle).

Seasonal

Developer-maintained temporary season, event or challenge.

Modded

Community or third-party content integrated externally.

Ruleset

Player-defined or community-curated rules applied on top of an existing mode.

// Mechanics

4 tracked variables · FK from mode.mechanics[]

Each mode references these by id. A mechanic qualifies only if it changes how the game is played rather than how hard it is, holds the same meaning across unrelated games, takes a small fixed set of values, and can be contrasted against its absence within a single game. Difficulty knobs are modifiers, and a term as broad as “hardcore” is a mode.

Mechanic
Category
Definition
Values
Example games

Permadeath

permadeath

permanence

On death, the character or save is permanently destroyed, requiring a complete restart. Run resets that preserve metaprogression do not count as permadeath; those are classified as run-scoped with death as a consequence and do not constitute true character loss.

enableddisabled

world-of-warcraft

Ironman

ironman

permanence

A single rolling save is maintained and overwritten whenever progress is saved, preventing the player from returning to an earlier state. Mistakes, losses, and decisions remain permanent once recorded, even when their consequences are discovered much later.

enableddisabled

Meta Progression

meta_progression

permanence

Progression or unlocks persist after death and carry into subsequent runs. Their absence distinguishes a roguelike from a roguelite; progression retained only after completing a playthrough, such as New Game Plus, does not count as metaprogression.

nonelimitedfull

Hardcore

hardcore

permanence

Includes a mode or difficulty setting that substantially increases consequence and systemic burden by introducing or strengthening survival requirements, simulation mechanics, resource constraints, recovery limitations, progression restrictions, or irreversible failure conditions. Such changes make systems that are absent, negligible, or easily managed under ordinary rules materially affect play. Examples include permadeath; persistent injuries; restricted healing; hunger, thirst, or fatigue; limited saving or fast travel; ammunition or other supplies gaining weight; scarcer resources; reduced progression; and harsher consequences for death or failure. The tag should normally require several meaningful rule changes, or a single defining restriction of comparable significance, such as permadeath. Minor numerical adjustments or isolated inconveniences are insufficient.

enableddisabled

hitman-blood-money

// Constraints

1 defined · referenced by name

A constraint takes an option away from you; a mechanic is a system the mode switches on. Both are controlled vocabulary and both carry a badge on a game’s difficulty panel, but they are separate lists because they answer different questions — and because a constraint must never become a legal value for mode.mechanics[]. A constraint is referenced simply by naming it in a rule or an option, so defining one here upgrades every row already using that name.

Difficulty Locking

Restricts the player from changing the selected difficulty after starting, requiring the chosen setting to be retained for the duration defined by the game or mode.

// Tags

3 defined

A defined vocabulary for genre/flavor tags — the fix for tags being whatever Steam happened to scrape. A scraped tag not yet defined here just renders without a tooltip, never a hard error.

Souls-like

Deliberate, punishing combat with checkpoint-based respawns and lost-currency-on-death mechanics, in the lineage of Dark Souls.

Survival

Core loop built around managing hunger/thirst/temperature/resources against a hostile environment.

rts

Real-time Strategy

overlordoverlord-ii

// Death consequence

Type

ReloadRespawnResetExperience lossInventory lossCharacter deletion

Scope

SessionRunCharacterCampaignWorldAccount

Persistence

TemporaryRecoverableSemi-permanentPermanent

// Derived-genre rules

Applied at build from a mode’s mechanics and death consequence. Roguelike and roguelite are identified by a run-scoped permanent loss rather than by permadeath, which is reserved for the deletion of a character or save.

Permadeath

permadeath=enabled

Roguelike

death_consequence.scope=run AND death_consequence.persistence=permanent AND meta_progression=none

Roguelite

death_consequence.scope=run AND death_consequence.persistence=permanent AND meta_progression!=none

Ironman

ironman=enabled