As Enter the Gungeon celebrates its 10th anniversary, its creators have some choice words for the modern roguelike: 'We’re seeing it mutate to the version of itself that popularity obfuscates'

Enter the Gungeon celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this month. Having sold over 14 million copies in its lifetime, Enter the Gungeon was one of the early architects of the modern action roguelike, alongside games like Nuclear Throne, forging the path for the genre's modern phenomena like Hades, as well as variants of it such as Vampire Survivors.

It's a game with a heck of a legacy. But it's a legacy that its creators are ambivalent about. Speaking to Polygon, Dodge Roll designer Dave Crooks and composer Adam Kidd Drucker (better known by his stage name Doseone), have some concerns about where the genre is headed, and the tricks modern roguelikes use to keep people playing.

"So few people are trying to make something that is truly evocative of this experience of playing Rogue," Crooks explained. He cited the example of Minos, the g...