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[Kyzrati]

Working on new save mechanics today, which should ensure that no significant amount of progress will be lost. Current plan: Auto-save on every new map, and whenever the window is closed. The save file is only deleted on death.

[Kyzrati]

This week's blog post will be late since I'll be away for the weekend without a computer. In the meantime, have this gif of Cogmind using a Gravity Flail to swat a flying robot back into a Nuclear Reactor, which then explodes and kills all his friends:

[QOG]

Very impressive effects, particularly given the tiny resolution. Seems like that ought to have been bad for Cogmind too...

[Kyzrati]

Thanks, and yes, most certainly bad for Cogmind (hence the screenshake and glitching), except when I've given myself 100x the normal core integrity

I can imagine someone might do this if they were low on weaponry, high on HP, and surrounded by enemies, but otherwise a situation to avoid!

[0x0961h]

Better late than never, subscribed.

[Kyzrati]

Heh, mostly the same stuff as on Twitter (though that's such a fleeting way to communicate...) But, WELCOME!

[0x0961h]

Just want to be sure that I don't miss anything.

Also, posts here can be longer than 140 symbols, obviously :D...

[Kyzrati]

An overview of non-interactive machines, including their distribution and impact on gameplay (explosions!): http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2014/07/non-interactive-machines/

Lots of gifs, e.g.

[eigenbom]

Ha awesome! Also I just followed you on twitter so look forward to daily twitter-gifs.

[Kyzrati]

Heh, I wish. I do tend to put different, earlier, and more frequent visual updates on Twitter, but then there can be spells where there's so much non-visual stuff to deal with! Roguelikes...

[eigenbom]

As a side note: what are your thoughts on graphics? Personally, I usually dislike RL tilesets (DC:SS is especially ugly), but Infra Arcana showed me how simple graphics *can* be better than ascii while retaining the RL feel.

I did some quick tiles for cogmind to show what I mean. Although I think the robot is too specific, the machine retains its abstraction but has a little more character. Anyway, I'm the master of scope-creep so you probably should just ignore me.

[Kyzrati]

Wow, I like it! I wouldn't call this feature creep, because the only way a traditional roguelike can access the gaming audience at large is with a tileset. I don't like most tilesets myself--DCSS is okay (for a free game), ToME is one that I really dislike. IA uses a nice style that retains the simplicity of ASCII but provides a more unique appearance, and is precisely the style I plan to use for an eventual tileset. The Cogmind prototype came with a sprite set in that vein a couple years ago (and yes, the sprite for "Cogmind" was still pretty symbolic because it represents something not so concrete). I will probably be hiring someone else to do it, because I'm not a great pixel artist.

I really like your machine there, though for now my plan is to stick with sprites for only the robots and items. The problem with the machines is that drawing them like that is too specific/detailed to be scalable without requiring a huge amount of work. Any sprites/images must be drawn in each font size the game supports, which as planned will be 10x10, 12x12, 16x16, 18x18, 20x20. That's a lot of drawing and re-drawing. As is it's a tiny amount of work to do a large number of machines in the extended ASCII character set, for which multiple sizes for each font sheet already exist. Things may change later on, but for now we'll have to keep everything within the realm of "doable in a reasonable time frame, and on a low budget."

[eigenbom]

Ah cool, yeah Oryx does a great job with minimal graphics. As for the machines and world tiles, I imagined each tile as actually a few different parts that are context-dependent. With a little bit of 'animation' (two-frames) and some colour cycling, it could really make your game stand out (visually). But ultimately as you said it's more work and doesn't really contribute to the game play -- still, I love this post-ascii RL era we're in and I want to see it pushed far.. :D

[Kyzrati]

still, I love this post-ascii RL era we're in and I want to see it pushed far.. :D

I'm pushing as many boundaries as I can get away with and hopefully still be called a "traditional roguelike"

and some colour cycling

As a side note, some players have already spoken out against any kind of persistent animation in the map area, at least anything purely aesthetic / non-informational, since it could be distracting. Sure it could be optional, but just throwing that out there. This is one of the general design principles that I've been sticking to for now.

[eigenbom]

But machines go bleep-bloop and having little flashing lights! Subtle and rare animation could be good, but I also see the aesthetic of having a static scene, like a chess board, that you analyse before moving. Anyway, good luck with all this!

[Kyzrati]

machines go bleep-bloop

That'll be coming from the speakers when you approach them

For now the map will be completely static except for when/where something is happening, be it an action or map UI animation (which I'm still getting to). It will at times get pretty lively, but I wouldn't want players to confuse unimportant and important information, even more so if having to differentiate between the two slows down play. A favorite gripe about non-roguelike games by some RL players is that there's too much noise onscreen.

Thanks and as always, "we'll see how it turns out..."

[Kyzrati]

Today was writing up the next blog post and noticed how lively the media page is in my wordpress installation. Check out all those gifs.

[Kyzrati]

A little writeup on the new projectile penetration mechanic.

And a demonstration (more on blog):

[JobLeonard]

That looks like a fantastic game mechanic. Like you wrote yourself, a worthy addition to game variety.

[Kyzrati]

Thanks. As I was playtesting a couple months back it was the only thing I kept wishing again and again that I could do, so I figured the game must really need that mechanic