Definitions
Roguelike is a genre with permadeath and random level generation. Some people argue that any meta progression is against the very idea of roguelikes and prefer these games to be called roguelites. I don’t particularly care myself and since the roguelike genre these days is slapped to so many games with varying game mechanics, I’m just referring to all of those as roguelikes here.
Meta progression refers to the concept of gaining new things (abilities, weapons, cards, tools, skins, etc) after runs (either per run or by collecting some currency) to make the game more interesting to play further or as a way to make the game easier and player feel more powerful as they progress in the game.
Usually in roguelikes, anything gained in-run is reset at the end of the run but meta progression allows a higher level of this progression happen between runs.
Notes
There’s a lot to argue about how to make meta progression well or if it’s even a good thing to start with but I’m interested in looking at it from the perspective of simplifying the game by locking some advanced stuff behind meta progression.
Slay the Spire has a very tutorial-like meta progression with card/relic unlocks. At the beginning of the game, each character has a good selection of cards and relics but some are behind unlocks that you unlock rather quickly.
Each character has five levels of unlock and these add cards and relics to other characters runs as well so to gain the full experience requires playing a bit with each character.
In Can we Improve Tutorials for Complex Games, Mark Brown talks about the Inverted pyramid of decision making and meta progression can definitely work as a tool for that.
Start with simple mechanics (cards, weapons, relics) to help player learn and then gradually introduce new mechanics. Not as a reward but as a “you are now ready for this”. Ideally, there would be a setting to turn all features on from the start for those who don’t want this or who are migrating from a different machine and already have played the game a ton.
Many non-roguelike games use progression exactly like this: introducing new things as the game moves forward. It’s a bit frowned upon in the roguelike genre because purists want the game to have everything available and finish-able from the first run onwards with no changes other than player skill improvement.
Another, bit more long-term way Slay the Spire uses meta progression as a “tutorial” is through the Ascension system. Every time you beat the game, you unlock a harder level, up to 20 levels. This means that you get to start with a bit easier mode until you can handle it to the finish line and then are rewarded with more challenge. It keeps the game loop the same but lengthens the enjoyment of the game drastically over time.
Key points
I think you can combine quick early game meta progression with roguelike games as a mechanic for tutorial given that:
- It’s relatively quickly unlocked (maybe based on runs and not achievements like finishing a run)
- The unlocks are more advanced mechanics or introduce more complex synergies so it makes sense to hide them from first time players
- The unlocks should be automatic and not dependent on meta currency or user decisions → learning path should be at the hands of the designer