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[standardcombo]

I've finally managed to work through your blog and dev log. The UI quality is masterful and at one point I was wondering about the game logo. The update on that was huge. I'll have to revisit mine at some point.

It's really interesting that we share similar philosophy regarding ascii, minamilism, application of modern design concepts, and yet arrived at radically different styles. I think this is evidence of how much visual space there is yet to be discovered.

My only critique is that i don't see cogmind broadening the audience funnel into the roguelike genre. I always go back to FTL as a strong example through mechanic simplification. Even with all the great UX work you have done, one look at the game is still enough information overload to drive away a majority of gamers. I would focus the effort on the genre's core audience. Make sure the game is a must-play for any self proclaimed rogue addict.

I look forward to playing this when it is done!

[Kyzrati]

Hey there, standardcombo! We do apparently have similar ideas yet completely different styles (both awesome ). Been enjoying your gifs as well.

My only critique is that i don't see cogmind broadening the audience funnel into the roguelike genre. I always go back to FTL as a strong example through mechanic simplification. Even with all the great UX work you have done, one look at the game is still enough information overload to drive away a majority of gamers.

Cogmind does definitely cater to the core audience more than anything (and I don't think we have a problem there ), though the presentation options will change somewhat once there are sprites as well. I'm not too worried about about scaring people away, since the true mainstream gamer is mostly attracted to modern AAA styles, which I'm simply not capable of anyway. Might as well go for my favorite niche!

That said, it would be nice if Cogmind could at least attract some non-regular RL players. I generally tend to show the game in "information overload" mode because I enjoy that, but when you begin a new game the interface is mostly empty and all you really need to know to start playing is how to pick up items, attach them, and run & shoot, all of which can be done via mouse and drag & drop if preferred. Not sure if it's worth really advertising that myself, though, since as you suggest, targeting the core audience is probably more important. We'll see how things look with sprite support.

[standardcombo]

Some thoughts on video.

While Youtube turns the quality to shits, something else like Vimeo may offer a better option. Additionally, when you create the Kickstarter page you upload the video to them (not embedded) so the result is different and worth exploring. You can create a test campaign to play around. I haven't been able to find much documentation on this, other than "increase the bitrate" is what they suggest.

That said, while it may be difficult to still achieve pixel perfect video (unless one of those preserves a nearest-neighbor compression), it's better than jaypegging the hell out of it. If I find an actual solution (also looking for this) I'll let you know.

Edit: It seems Vimeo also kills the quality without any apparent solution for premium accounts.

[JobLeonard]

BTW, I think this hasn't been brought up before: are you going to do any playtesting? Or do you plan to do balancing updates after the first release? Because outside play experience can be very valuable for identifying pain points that you have developed a blind spot for as a developer.

[Kyzrati]

Some thoughts on video.

While Youtube turns the quality to shits, something else like Vimeo may offer a better option. Additionally, when you create the Kickstarter page you upload the video to them (not embedded) so the result is different and worth exploring. You can create a test campaign to play around. I haven't been able to find much documentation on this, other than "increase the bitrate" is what they suggest.

That said, while it may be difficult to still achieve pixel perfect video (unless one of those preserves a nearest-neighbor compression), it's better than jaypegging the hell out of it. If I find an actual solution (also looking for this) I'll let you know.

Edit: It seems Vimeo also kills the quality without any apparent solution for premium accounts.

For video purposes I do need to start testing the options. I will consider increasing the bitrate by both recording high and resampling (doubling the resolution, if possible) so that it compresses better. The screenshots I use are also almost always the smaller default/windowed fonts, while videos will be recorded with the larger font sets for more pixels per character. That should help, in theory.

I've heard Vimeo works better (or has in the past) for pixel-based games, though even if that was the case YT is always the better option in terms of visibility and shareability.

One thing our games can do better than most is make use of perfectly accurate animated gifs, so I will still continue to make heavy use of those in marketing media. The only drawback there being lack of sound (which is a pretty big drawback, but at least the visuals are retained...).

In any case, we'll see what happens once I start recording footage for a trailer. All the ASCII videos I've done in the past have been compressed into crap, but I've seen others who have good results, mostly by recording at high resolution and with big fonts.

BTW, I think this hasn't been brought up before: are you going to do any playtesting? Or do you plan to do balancing updates after the first release? Because outside play experience can be very valuable for identifying pain points that you have developed a blind spot for as a developer.

I very much agree that testing is essential, even more so for a lone dev like myself--I'm the only one who's played the new version . Part of the reason I'm not worried about it now is that many people already played the 7DRL, and I got a *lot* of feedback on that back in the day, most of which was or has been taken into account. So that counts as a sort of open test for the core game. Very helpful.

The plan is to address balance and whatnot in updates after the first release. However, if I can get away with it I do want to try releasing even before the game is feature complete, which will give even more leeway as to what can be done. Right now would definitely be too early because we're still at the point where I know XYZ are still wrong/missing and need work, so it can't be put out there yet and expect any kind of proper appraisal.

I do look forward to getting more feedback when I'm in a position to act on it :D.

[JobLeonard]

I looked a bit more for encoding tricks - this forum suggests that a format that is fast to decode might be key. May be worth trying out as well? So a super-sized source video encoded in a simple format might do the trick.

[Kyzrati]

Thanks for the additional reference! I'm collecting links to read up on later for the better approaches. I'll be writing about what works (something better work ) when I get to videos, since ASCII behaves somewhat differently from normal videos/games.

[Kyzrati]

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

[Cross-posted from the devblog here--follow link for better formatting and light-on-dark style.]

Inventories are almost a staple component of any roguelike, and as such there is usually some amount of inventory management required to play them. Deciding what to carry for contingencies is an important part of roguelike strategy (plus it's fun! ...or cause to kick yourself later). For these decisions to be meaningful, games almost always place some kind of limit on inventory space. It might be a design-imposed static value (52, 26, or less), or derived from strength etc.

Cogmind has an inventory system, too, but at any point in the game it's the player who decides how important a role they want the inventory to play.

How is that possible?

Dynamic Inventory Size
Cogmind has a very small base inventory size--only four slots, meaning you can only carry a maximum four extra items/parts. Relatively tiny by roguelike standards, but you can very well play through the game with this number.

Should you want the ability to carry more parts, you can control the size of your inventory by attaching storage modules of various weights/capacities. Thus these non-permanent expansions to your inventory come at the cost of utility slots that could be used to attach usable parts. Doing this essentially trades an amount of "immediately usable part" space for even more parts that are not immediately usable.

Base inventory size (left) vs. an inventory taking advantage of a single medium storage unit.

Inventory size varies greatly, from four items to dozens of items, based on how much extra storage capacity you want (and can fit). And in addition to play style considerations, as with any loadout in Cogmind the amount of inventory space can also be quickly changed to adapt to new situations, like significantly expanding capacity to carry along an entire stockpile of armor plating before an expected dangerous confrontation.

Aside from the temporary nature of storage expansions (like any other part you can also unwillingly lose a storage module when it's destroyed), the most unique aspect of Cogmind's inventory system is that it's not controlled indirectly via some other stat (e.g. strength) that has a long-term impact on a character and also affects other aspects of their abilities. The trade-offs are both non-permanent and immediately transparent. "Right now do I want to increase my inventory size by four, or attach another type of active sensor?"

To a (very) limited extent, Cogmind's inventory also takes volume into account. In the 7DRL prototype all parts were equal in size (one slot), while now we may have very large parts that occupy two or more slots. I wouldn't want to go to far with this system and risk overcomplicating inventory management and item comparability, so it applies only to a small number of special parts. It's still nice to have that option for flexibility in item design. Without it some of the amazing parts in the game wouldn't be feasible since the player could potentially attach too many of them. (See more about large parts and how they look in your inventory in this old post.)

As for storage modules themselves, I opted to keep them all the same "size" (one slot) regardless of their capacity, instead differentiating them only by weight. This is to keep the system simple. Large storage modules are themselves much heavier--the weight of contained items is not taken into account, another abstraction of unnecessary detail.

As mentioned earlier, depending on your strategy it's technically not even necessary to increase your inventory size. You start with a fair number of usable attachment slots (7), and that number can eventually rise pretty high (26!). In fact, before long you may not even need all your slots for active parts, leaving them free for occasional use as makeshift "inventory space." The caveat: parts can only be attached in their proper slot type whereas inventory space accepts any item.

The Purpose of Inventory
Cogmind's lack of consumables (read more about that design feature here) means you aren't expected to be hoarding a lot of single-use items for contingencies, which is one reason the game can get away with this highly flexible inventory design.

So what is the inventory for, then?

If you've played the prototype, you'll know that in certain encounters it's likely you'll lose more than a few parts that will need replacing. Your inventory is a good source of those parts--you'll often find duplicates in stockpiles that can be carried around as spares. It's also for storing alternate types of weapons/utilities/propulsion that you don't have enough slots to attach.

However, this doesn't imply you absolutely must have a large inventory. Sticking with a smaller inventory is perfectly possible, and results in an even more dynamic game since you're forced to use what you find locally rather than what you're lugging around (there is plenty of scrap to be found after a battle). It also means you'll be slightly more prepared to immediately deal with different situations since you'll have more useful parts attached at once (no slots occupied by storage). You'll also weigh less, especially important for hover/flight propulsion.

So keeping your inventory small is a strategic choice.

There is one other factor to consider along with inventory size that you won't find in most other roguelikes: attaching parts from the inventory has several associated costs (more than simply time). Attaching a part also consumes energy, which is generated free by power sources and usually not an issue, though it can be annoying when you're in the middle of a fight and need to attach a new power source which may require shutting down active utilities and waiting for backup power to slowly recharge (because the battle already drew down too much energy). More importantly it consumes matter, a (semi-)finite resource. This puts a hard limit on the frequency with which you can swap out parts until you acquire more matter, usually by salvaging other robots.

Thus having a huge inventory doesn't always mean you can effectively use it all, as it's tied in to resource management. Related strategy tip: Even though it does take time to attach/detach parts, sometimes doing so while under fire is a good idea, and not too dangerous since Cogmind is nowhere close to a one/few-hits-and-you-die kind of game--taking some extra damage is not a huge deal. Attaching a part during combat will restore or provide extra functionality while also adding extra protection.

Forcing Decisions
In most roguelikes the design includes some gray area that offers ways to circumvent inventory limits. Games with persistent maps may allow the player to create a so-called "stash" where they can store items for later retrieval, or simply return to a previous area to scavenge for items left behind.

Neither of these is possible in Cogmind--you pretty much have to carry everything you may want to use later.

You can't revisit previous maps (a feature to be explored in a future post), and anything left lying around will be cleaned up by recycler bots.

Recycler arriving to clean up a little pile of parts I left on the ground.

The only exceptions to recycler cleanup are intentional stockpiles placed on a map, but these are less reliably useful than gear known to drop from specific robots. You can get specific items by salvaging robots known to use them, but if you want them you're going to have to take them with you.

In the 7DRL you could technically create a stash and come back to it as long as you remained on the same map and destroyed all the recyclers first. That strategy no longer works on most maps because new maintenance bots are dispatched to replace any that have gone missing.

Another different aspect of the new recyclers is that they no longer simply wander around carrying whatever junk they happened to pick up (you could originally chase them down and take them out to get parts back)--once their inventory is full they'll actually take the parts to recycling stations and convert them to matter! (You can retrieve this matter from the station, unless it's already reached a quota, at which point it will be transferred away.)

Altogether the system is designed to force inventory decisions. As a side effect, stash-free design contributes to the "eliminate grinding" philosophy.

That's not to say there are absolutely no external alternatives to expanding inventory size, though other methods aren't necessarily as reliable. The first which comes to mind are potential helpers--hacked haulers can carry stuff for you, but I'm not yet sure how effective this will be yet, as I haven't tested it in true play. You can also remember existing stockpile locations (or hack to find them), since those won't move. Stockpiles are like "randomized game-specified stashes," but too much backtracking can be dangerous and wasteful (more so later in the game).

[JobLeonard]

I like this use-it-or-lose-it approach. Most games that have potions end with me hoarding them all and never using them anyway.

[Kyzrati]

I like this use-it-or-lose-it approach. Most games that have potions end with me hoarding them all and never using them anyway.

Good point, and funny you mention that--I end up playing games that way, too, filling my inventory with tons of stuff "for later," then die with it all still sitting there unused . (Or in a non-roguelike game, finish the game without having used much of anything because you never know what lies ahead...)

[Kyzrati]

Indie of the Year 2014 voting is currently underway at IndieDB, so if you like what we're doing with Cogmind, please vote for it! More exposure is better for the game!

[JobLeonard]

voted!

[Kyzrati]

Thanks! Every vote will help, though I don't believe Cogmind has enough of a fan base yet to get it into the top 100. Could be close, anyway. We shall see...

[Kyzrati]

though I don't believe Cogmind has enough of a fan base yet to get it into the top 100

Okay, so I was wrong ... apparently Cogmind earned enough votes to make it into the top 100, and is the only unreleased roguelike to do so! Thanks for the votes!

Voting continues in round two, so, um, vote again

[TurboGun]

Congrats on getting top 100!

[standardcombo]

I'm not sure how to vote on round 2. I see the categories with the games in each one. A counter on top says 9 days etc..

[Kyzrati]

Congrats on getting top 100!

Thanks!

I'm not sure how to vote on round 2. I see the categories with the games in each one. A counter on top says 9 days etc..

The Indie DB site design and navigation always leaves something to be desired... In this case the voting is handled by opening the category and clicking the word "VOTE" to the left of the game image. Direct link.


Now to post some ASCII art in celebration.

[Kyzrati]

COGMIND ASCII ART GALLERY

[Cross-posted from the devblog here--follow link for better formatting and light-on-dark style.]

Cogmind's ASCII art has drawn a lot of attention where it's been shown on Reddit and Twitter, but I haven't  been showing much of it here on the blog. I suppose it makes sense to accumulate enough of it for a grand one-place-to-go-to-see-Cogmind-ASCII-art type post.

This is that post

ASCII art style is traditionally divided into only a handful of categories: shaded art that uses groups of characters based on their pixel density, block art (similar to pixel art, but with really big pixels), and line art. Cogmind falls into the last category, relying mostly on line segments and the occasional block or other glyph to form a semi-abstract outline of an object and its details.

In terms of game objects, Cogmind contains art for both items and machines. You won't see robot art--their appearance is left entirely to the imagination (except in tiles mode, of course).

For more general reading on the background of ASCII art in roguelikes and Cogmind, see this earlier post.

Items
The majority of the art belongs to items, of which there are currently 638. It took about two weeks (103 hours to be precise) to draw and paint each individual item, including the time spent working on concept sketches and color schemes.

Keep in mind that in choosing the following art, to avoid spoilers (and giving away all the best stuff) almost no high-end parts are shown. Many of those you'll find in the game look cooler than what you see here.

Weapons
Weapons make up a third of the items, and therefore about a third of the art. They're the only category that makes heavy use of color themes for easier recognition. Among them you'll notice green, yellow, or blue for energy weapons, changing to orange, red, or purple for many of the more powerful ones. Most ballistic weapons use a brown/white scheme, though they break that mold at higher ratings.

Guns, Ballistic (Kinetic): Cause variable damage, have high recoil, and are effective at very long range. Also more likely to inflict critical damage, instantly destroying the target component.

Minigun, High-powered Shotgun, Heavy Machine Gun

Guns, Thermal: Damage has low variability, and firing causes no recoil but is usually only effective from short to medium range. Also increase target heat on successful impact.

Particle Gun, Quantum Rifle, Heavy Gatling Gun

Guns, Electromagnetic: Cause less physical damage in exchange for the ability to corrupt the target's systems, an alternative way to destroy a robot. Some EM weapons are also capable of temporarily disabling individual components or an entire robot.

Arc Projector, Gamma Rifle, EM Shotgun

Cannons, Ballistic (Kinetic): More powerful version of ballistic guns--heavier, and drain more resources.

Mass Driver, Assault Cannon, Gauss Cannon

Cannons, Thermal: More powerful version of thermal guns--heavier, and drain more resources.

Plasma Cannon, Phase Cannon, Neutron Cannon

Cannons, Electromagnetic: More powerful version of EM guns--heavier, and drain more resources.

EM Pulse Cannon (there are few EM cannons--don't want to reveal them all here)

Launchers, Explosive: Affect all targets in the area of effect, dividing damage into chunks that are applied randomly across each target. Targets further from ground zero usually take less damage, and there's rarely useful salvage remaining from targets hit by explosives.

Heavy Rocket Launcher, Neutron Missile Launcher, Hellfire Missile Launcher

Launchers, Electromagnetic: EM weapons that affect all targets in the area of effect. Collateral damage is low, though these are the most effective way to bring down multiple armored targets at once.

Advanced EMP Blaster (there are few EM launchers--don't want to reveal them all here)

Special: Unique weapons that don't fall into any other category, either tools or those with special effects.

Mining Laser, Plasma Cutter

Melee, Impact: Cause knockback, and the impact is much more likely to damage fragile internal systems.

Great Maul, Heavy Flail

Melee, Slashing: High damage, and capable of severing parts clean off the target.

Chainsword, Plasma Sword

Melee, Piercing: Critical strikes are more likely, in addition to a bonus to directly damage a target's core.

Lance, Kinetic Spear

Utilities
Another huge and varied category. However, colors for non-weapon item types generally don't follow any particular scheme, instead using whatever looks good for that particular design or makes the most sense conceptually. The primary exceptions: matter-related parts are usually purple, and processors/hackware are colored based on the stat they augment:

Processor/hackware color schemes.

Processors: Lightweight components that benefit a single stat or ability. For these I went with a microchip-style appearance (border style indicates the relative effectiveness of each part).

Launcher Guidance Computer, Improved Signal Interpreter, Advanced Target Analyzer

Hackware: Like processors, except their benefits apply specifically to hacking.

Footprint Analyzer, Improved Hacking Suite, Advanced Deep Network Scanner

Armor: Physical protection, often with special properties like defense against certain damage types or focusing coverage on certain areas.

Reflective Medium Armor, Insulated Light Armor, Core Shielding

Cooling: Devices that dissipate heat, for those loadouts which produce excessive amounts of heat under certain conditions.

Heat Sink, Cooling System

Defense: Large subcategory of shields, fields, and subsystems that block or absorb potential damage or negative effects.

Heat Shielding, Advanced Thermal Shield, Force Field (top row); Improved Remote Shield Generator, Anti-missile System, Improved Energy Mantle (bottom row)

Offense: Enhance offensive capabilities of some weapons, or mitigate negative side-effects of their use.

Improved Particle Charger, Recoil Stabilizer, Overload Amplifier

Resource: Enable Cogmind to manipulate or alter the behavior of mass, matter, energy, heat, salvage etc.

Advanced Power Amplifier, Weight Redistribution System, High-powered Tractor Beam

Sensors: Devices for detection and analysis of the surrounding environment.

Improved Sensor Array, Long-range Terrain Scanner, Structural Scanner

Stealth: Prevent enemies from tracking and swarming Cogmind, or evade attack more easily.

Advanced ECM Suite, Improved Transmission Jammer, Cloaking Device

Storage: Hold parts and resources.

Small Storage Unit, Energy Well, Improved Matter Compressor

System: Help deal with system corruption, memory issues, and a range of malfunctions.

Error Protection Suite, Recalibrator, System Purifier

(The above groups were subdivided for art categorization purpose--as classified in game utilities fall under only six designations: Devices, Storage, Processors, Hackware, Armor, and [REDACTED]. The last category you can discover later in the game.)

Propulsion
Flight: Don't support much weight, but definitely the quickest way to get around, and even fly over enemies.

Electron Diverter, Diametric Drive, Nuclear Pulse Thruster

Hover: A fairly fast form of movement that can still support a good amount of weight (the viability of both hover and flight have been improved significantly over the 7DRL version).

Aerolev Unit, Gravmag System, Anti-grav System

Wheels: Easy to find, but hard to keep--most wheels are not made for combat.

Compact Wheel, Wheel, Armored Wheel

Legs: A good mix of weight support and speed. And yes, you can hop on one leg

Flexi-carbon Leg, Myomer Leg, Centrium Leg

Treads: Slow and heavy duty, for the tank that needs to carry everything and the sun. (No really, you can carry a miniature sun if you need the power.)

Light Treads, Medium Treads, Heavy Treads

Power
An essential but not so varied category in terms of game mechanics. By functionality, the main subdivision for power sources would be "standard" vs "light/micro" versions, where the latter weigh less but in turn come with little capacity for energy storage. But this division is not reflected in the classification system, which is instead based on power level:

Engines (1-3)

Ion Engine, Deuterium Engine

Cores (4-6)

Nuclear Core, Fission Core

Reactors (7-9)

Graviton Reactor, Vortex Chain Reactor

[continued below]

[Kyzrati]

[continued from above]


Machines
In this case the art is the on-map image itself, made possible because machines are multi-space props, something you don't see too often in ASCII roguelikes.

Interactive Machines
The five types of interactive machines have each been covered before--this post contains links to pages describing their functions (along with art, though some has changed since then). Below you can see some variations of Terminals (T), Fabricators (F), Scanalyzers (S), Repair Stations (R), and Recycling Units (Y).

A selection of interactive machines (map excerpts).

Non-Interactive Machines
This category of machines is mostly for atmosphere, though some may explode if not treated nicely. There are over 100 non-interactive machines which appear in areas that make sense for their intended function.

A selection of non-interactive machines from the early game.

See more non-interactive machines in their native habitat here (guaranteed lots of destruction and explosions :D).

Animation
It's really fun to combine static art with the scripting engine to animate it. The engine can import ASCII art files and move glyphs, manipulate colors, handle image layers separately, reference specific art coordinates...

Items
All the item art appears in the data screen for their respective item. Opening info about an item displays its image at the top of the window, animating its appearance:

Animated appearance of item art

Title Screen
The game already features some full-sized screens of procedural ASCII, though the title screen is the first of them to combine static art with animation:

Cogmind title animation (click for full size).

Read here for more about how the title screen was put together.

More such animations will be added later for components like the evolution, game end, and game over screens.

UI
I also consider the UI to be art, though more so when in motion.

Compilation of nine different interface elements as they appear in use (3.5 MB gif).

Even more animated interface elements can be seen in earlier posts about UI feedback and information warfare.

Particle Effects
ASCII particle effects are similarly a form of art, and come in various styles unique to Cogmind. The primary difference being that none of their components are manually drawn--they're created purely by procedural scripts. Many of these have been shown before in dedicated posts here and here, and their making was discussed here.

Doesn't hurt to show some more :D

Compilation of ASCII particle effects.

ASCII particle effects--stills from the above gif.

Creating ASCII Art
All of the art in Cogmind was created using an in-house tool: REXPaint. I've made it freely available for anyone to use, so check it out! In a future post I'll be covering REXPaint's many potential uses in roguelike development.

If you're interested in the process used to create some of the game's art, specifically the item art, I've written about it in detail here.

Neutron Missile Launcher ASCII art time lapse.

Notice: Cogmind has been nominated for Indie of the Year 2014! Thanks to everyone who voted in the first round! Please vote again in the final round to see how high we can get.

[JobLeonard]

> Also increase target heat on successful impact.

The Dev Team Thinks of Everythig