The roguelike is a superniche genre characterized by low-color ASCII graphics, high difficulty, and frequent death that erases all in-game progress. Classic examples have names like Rogue, Nethack and Angband. You live by your experience rather than your experience points, because your character's XP and everything else are wiped out every time a random enemy puts you to sleep and euthanizes you. You build skills over weeks, months, or years of engagement. It’s the opposite of the modern-day single-player thrill ride, where you ramp up your power steadily over eight hours till you finally save the world.

In this climate, fans of the roguelike may resign themselves to mainstream invisibility. Now, there’s nothing wrong with having niche interests, but if you believe your pastime is delightful—immersive, deep and rewarding—don’t you want to share it with everyone? If you believe it can deliver some of what’s missing from videogames generally, don’t you want to spread it around? In a way, the roguelike fan’s conundrum is like that of the videogame fan facing the non-gaming mainstream—sure, you could just quietly enjoy your games, but don’t you want those outside to appreciate what they’re missing?

Meet Keith Burgun, a lifelong computer-game tinkerer who (together with three collaborators at Dinofarm Games) recently started working on his first commercial title, which is coming out for iPhone. So far, so typical of the thousands of prospectors in the ongoing App-Store gold rush. But this project, 100 Rogues, is an original roguelike, and Keith is a man with a mission: "trying to bring the roguelike into the mainstream—while still a roguelike."