An interesting framing about requests for “more
strategic depth” or “more freedom” in roguelikes:
Strategy headroom in roguelikesThe main idea is that more freedom (such as the ability to play in a particular style) means more choices that don’t affect whether you win or lose. Whereas “more strategic depth” often means “make every decision count toward winning or losing,” which means there is always a right or wrong to play, and choosing your favorite character class may be a wrong choice.
It occurs to me that a helpful lens to view these decisions is: Is the game more about winning or is it about seeing what happens?
Rogue, I’d say is more about surviving until the end, even though it is fun to see what happens.
Noita, for me, is not about winning, but about
watching weird collisions of forces.
So if your game is about winning, then make sure choices influence that, otherwise don’t?