A new sale, and an update on subscriber perks
We're simplifying our benefits as we celebrate a year of life!
It’s been almost a year since we unveiled Rogue to the world, and well over a year since the founders started working on this project.
To say Rogue has changed in that time would be a massive understatement. We’ve published over 500 pages, gained thousands of subscribers for our newsletter, and found an awesome audience on Bluesky. We, the founders, have changed as well – some of us have brought new children home and others are moving on to other projects.
We’re extremely grateful to those of you who’ve stuck with us as we’ve worked to experiment and discover what Rogue means to us not in theory, but in practice. We're proud of where we've landed: a site that values your time by recommending excellent indie games, sharing cultural stories, and writing news through a progressive lens.
We’ve found Rogue, and now we need to sustain it.
So, we’re doing two things today: launching a 50% off sale for all annual subscriptions for the next two weeks, and simplifying our subscriber bonuses.
Subscriber changes
We have pitched and tested many different bonuses for Rogue, all of which were fun ideas that we were excited about at the time.
However, we found them really tough to stay on top of, especially after Ryan’s son was born. We never really recovered after that, and we’re sorry for any folks we let down.
What we discovered, however, was that most of our readers weren’t that pumped about these projects, which took a lot of time, effort, and planning to play (for any gaming retrospectives), write, and edit. And because they were paid content only, they weren’t great for telling folks what Rogue was about.
It became pretty clear that our time was better spent doing what we normally do: creating free content for our members AND everyone out there interested in our recommendations.
Going forward, we’re going to tone down our subscriber promises and think simpler. To be extremely clear: this should result in more content on Rogue every year, not less. That content will just be more focused on our core promise and less on things like game history.
From what we can see, most of our supporters aren’t here for what we’ve promised them; they just want to see independent media thrive, and we’re endlessly grateful for that. I wish we could've learned that lesson without promising a bunch of cool posts and then falling behind, but it’s where we’ve landed.
For our Roguelite subscribers, our primary benefit will now be our Discord server, where you can hop in, talk to us, and vote on occasional content directions and ideas. Your subscription gets you a lifetime entry, as we’re really not too interested in finding and kicking out people who no longer want to or can’t afford to sub. It’s a doorway to us for feedback, suggestions, recommendations, and more. We’d love to have you.
For our Mini-Boss subscribers, you are our voting body. For every major vote we do, you’ll get a special ballot in your inbox that will be weighted, meaning you’ll be able to shape our direction more heavily. While we won’t be voting on content nearly as often, we will be doing a game club, where the crew nominates some games that our audience will vote on, and then we’ll play it before dropping a video podcast and some written blurbs in an article.
We’re going to start conservative with these and not commit to an exact timeline just yet, but if they’re popular, we’d love to do them every quarter! If you decide that you really want us all to play and discuss Chrono Trigger, then Mini-boss is the tier for you.
Big Boss is our best named tier and also our most expensive. It’s also our benefactor tier. While all tier members in this grouping will have their names on the About Us page while they‘re subscribed, it’s really just a great way to support us if you somehow find yourself with extra income. But that’s it. No pressure on this one. No missed things you’ll never see because you can’t afford us. It's just a way to show extreme support, an option we leave on the table for folks who have a real passion for keeping independent shops like ours going.
Those are the tier changes. We’re all moving into some wild phases in our lives, and we don’t want to see Rogue suffer because it’s not quite paying our bills yet so we’re each having to do additional freelance work. We want to be realistic and honest, while also delivering what you come here for.
Thank you for all of your support so far. It means the world to us. We’d love it if you'd consider joining the Rogue family.
Speaking of which, we’ve got a great deal for you …
Subscription sale!
From Aug. 17-31, we’ll be running a sale on annual subscriptions!
For the next couple of weeks, you can pick up:
- A Roguelite annual subscription for $40 (usually $70)
- A Mini-Boss annual subscription for $60 (usually $100)
- A Big-Boss annual subscription for $500 (usually $1000)
Any of these will keep you set for the next year, and help support the website, ensuring we can celebrate our second year of Rogue in 2027, like we are our first in 2026.
These sale prices are automatically applied when you go to the subscribe tab and hit annual, so no need to put in a code or anything like that.
Thank you again for supporting us and everything we do. Rogue wouldn’t exist without you, and we’re more grateful for you than you could possibly know.
