It is a roguelike inspired by the puzzle game Deadly Rooms of Death and the art of M. C. Escher, taking place in the hyperbolic plane.

HyperRogue is a turn-based game in which the player controls one character exploring a world based on hyperbolic geometry, with cells arranged as a truncated order-7 triangular tiling by default (with a few exceptions).

The world is procedurally generated on the fly; some of the lands must be unlocked by fulfilling a prerequisite in the given play (e.g., collecting a certain number of treasures).

Similar to the check rule in chess, the game does not allow the player to make moves which would lead them to be immediately killed.

The game is displayed in the Poincaré disk model by default; it is also possible to select other projections from the special modes menu.

The traditional RPG formula of getting stronger by collecting equipment had to be changed, in order to prevent grinding strategies from being effective.

Many challenges in the game would be trivial in a Euclidean world, but are made harder by the exponential expansion of the hyperbolic plane.

Obstacles and other objects in the game world use shapes that are impossible in Euclidean geometry, like infinite trees, equidistants and horocycles, and straight lines which never cross.