RedEl

Transcendence's developer, George Moromisato, says his game is inspired by Elite, Star Control II and NetHack -- at first glance, a rather odd combination. After all, the first two are open-ended space games, and the third a Rogue-like; yet on second thought, both game styles share certain characteristics. Both create algorithmically generated universes -- that is, instead of having preplanned levels, both generate the challenges faced by the player at runtime, in a semi-random fashion. Both give the player control of a single game token: in the case of Rogue-likes, a character, and in the case of Elite-style games, a starship. And both measure progress by the increasing capabilities of your game token--in terms of levels for Rogue-likes, and in terms of ship improvements (and newer and more powerful ships) in Elite-style games.