Game Design Critic Joshua Bycer is back with another entry in the Game Design Deep Series to focus on the youngest genre yet: soulslikes. Over a decade, From Software defined a new genre that has led to studios chasing after them hit after hit. In this book, Josh will cover the history of the genre and popular soulslike games of the 2010s and discuss what aspects of design make a game a soulslike. Abstracted design or RPG gameplay is about the characters and their attributes determining the success of the game, and less on the player’s reflexes. If you would like a larger look at the history of the RPG genre and many of its various subgenres, you can find that in Game Design Deep Dive: Role Playing Games. For this book, the main area of abstracted design that soulslike designers make use of comes from progression and increasing the power of the player’s character.