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[eigenbom]

Looks like fun

[Glyph]

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..."

I don't know if something like this has crossed your mind, but DCSS animates glowing portals / etc. on every screen refresh, which is not as static as every move and not as busy as all the time. The game won't move at all until you hit some key, and if (for example) it's an unknown key and the screen refreshes to tell you that it has no idea what you're trying to do, the 'animating' things will change even though no time has passed.

That aside, I'm mainly posting to follow. Keep it up!

[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..."

I don't know if something like this has crossed your mind, but DCSS animates glowing portals / etc. on every screen refresh, which is not as static as every move and not as busy as all the time. The game won't move at all until you hit some key, and if (for example) it's an unknown key and the screen refreshes to tell you that it has no idea what you're trying to do, the 'animating' things will change even though no time has passed.

That aside, I'm mainly posting to follow. Keep it up!

Thanks, that's a good point. I'm aware of roguelikes that do that, but I'm not much of a fan of the style since it gives objects multiple possible colors (two or more states) and reduces their recognizability under certain conditions. (This is assuming ASCII and that it cycles the animation only one state per move--I haven't specifically played DCSS in ASCII mode before so I'm not sure which it uses.) For example just the other day I was playing TGGW, which animates using this method, and opened a door to a room containing a dark blue rogue 'h' and a dark blue frostfly 'b'. Dark blue isn't too easy to see to begin with, and I mistook the room's contents for two rogues because the frostfly had cycled away from its normal cyan color which would've made it easier to distinguish.

I suppose it's possible to design around these issues, but I'm not sure this particular style would meld well with the otherwise more fluid animations used for everything else in the game. In any case, sprucing up the visuals will be something to look at later. I do like my maps static in between turns, though, except for interface feedback, of which there is still a lot to add in the map area.

[Savick]

I can't say I'm an ASCII graphics fan of any measure.
I wish you luck with this all the same, because there totally are people out there who like this sort of graphical style. 

[Kyzrati]

I can't say I'm an ASCII graphics fan of any measure.
I wish you luck with this all the same, because there totally are people out there who like this sort of graphical style. 

Thanks! Well, there will be a version with some non-ASCII graphics as well, that's just not a priority right now. I do think the first trailer will change some minds about what ASCII and emulated terminals are capable of

[Kyzrati]

Just posted a rather long update looking back on the first year of Cogmind's development and discussing long-term planning practices. There's also mention of a release date, as amorphous as that concept may still be...

Check out the new progress graph:


There's also a collage with a year's worth of development images:

[JobLeonard]

Speaking of sounds, my friend recently made this:

jfxr.frozenfractal.com/

Works best in Chrome at the moment, but Firefox is also decent (althought the UI freeze more often)

[Kyzrati]

Your friend, eh? Nice. I checked out jfxr when it was first announced on /r/gamedev, definitely an awesome evolution of bfxr. I'd love to use it, if I needed gamey sounds. For Cogmind I've taken the "realistic" sound route--helps with the immersion and all.

At least 80% of the game's sound work is already done, though that won't be obvious from looking at the graph. The unfinished sections will be using far fewer sounds than the parts that have been completed.

[JobLeonard]

Yeah, from back when I tried to studied physics and failed, and he studied math/computer science and succeeded. We've collaborated in the past (before we had work and such taking up all of our time).

Aight. I thought you might wanted to go with generated robot sounds. Like old-school computer bleeps to create fake "robo-speak"

[Kyzrati]

Yeah, from back when I tried to studied physics and failed, and he studied math/computer science and succeeded. We've collaborated in the past (before we had work and such taking up all of our time).

Heh, sounds like me back in college. Really wanted to do CS, but caught myself very early on and realized "I suck at math, there is no way I can keep up with these guys..."

Aight. I thought you might wanted to go with generated robot sounds. Like old-school computer bleeps to create fake "robo-speak"

Good point, I do plan to add that for NPC dialogue, using different sounds for each type of robot, though I think generated bleeps and bloops from something like jfxr will clash with the style of the other sounds. Either that or there won't be enough variety, since I'm looking to create a very different feel for each robot--some may use normal bleeps while others can use distorted voice-like sounds, or anything in between.

[eigenbom]

I always liked the sounds and voices from 868-hack and corrypt. Computery, yet not 8-bit iirc.

[Kyzrati]

Concerning consumables in game design, and how Cogmind does and doesn't use them: http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2014/08/consumables/

And also the Terrabomb:

I always liked the sounds and voices from 868-hack and corrypt. Computery, yet not 8-bit iirc.

I didn't play 868, but I tried out the 7DRL version and remember thinking the sounds were pretty annoying. I did read that they were made recording actual human sounds, which is pretty cool, but the results didn't click for me.

[saibot216]

With each screenshot I went "woah" "WOAH" WOOOOOAH!"
I love the font and everything going on! Looks so cool! 

[JobLeonard]

Either that or there won't be enough variety, since I'm looking to create a very different feel for each robot--some may use normal bleeps while others can use distorted voice-like sounds, or anything in between.

Believe me, that jfxr tool has PLENTY of options. All it misses at the moment is layering multiple generated sounds, and even without it you can generate a huge amount of variety. Mix them together later and you have even more freedom (or you could chain the bleeps together with a Markov chain and create a unpredictable pattern to the sounds, as if it really were a language).

[Kyzrati]

With each screenshot I went "woah" "WOAH" WOOOOOAH!"
I love the font and everything going on! Looks so cool! 

Thanks, glad to hear it--maybe you can voice the background for a future trailer intended to show how amazing everything is

Haha, now I guess I don't need to go searching around for appropriate sfx, just play that bite in the background.

Either that or there won't be enough variety, since I'm looking to create a very different feel for each robot--some may use normal bleeps while others can use distorted voice-like sounds, or anything in between.

Believe me, that jfxr tool has PLENTY of options. All it misses at the moment is layering multiple generated sounds, and even without it you can generate a huge amount of variety. Mix them together later and you have even more freedom (or you could chain the bleeps together with a Markov chain and create a unpredictable pattern to the sounds, as if it really were a language).

Yeah, I checked it out (and have played with bfxr, and sfxr before that, though obviously this is superior), though I think it would require a lot of work to learn how to produce something acceptable for what is going to be a relatively small percentage of the sound effects. I plan to use dialogue sounds only for NPC speech, not every robot in general, so there aren't going to be a huge number of them. Either way, I may look into it again later, but first I have to get to the point that all the robots and dialogue actually exist

Out of curiosity, are you yourself using jfxr for anything?

[JobLeonard]

The only (somewhat) finished game I ever made

, which required two bleeps: success and fail. But yes, I used BFXR for that

Enhanced Edition

[Kyzrati]

Hey, that looks like a pretty cool game, even looks suitable for something that could be polished up and published to mobile.

[saibot216]

Thanks, glad to hear it--maybe you can voice the background for a future trailer intended to show how amazing everything is

I was a radio personality for three years, it's possible!

[Maliii]

I've never been a fan of art styles like this, but it looks really fun! I really like the idea, keep up the good work!

[JobLeonard]

Hey, that looks like a pretty cool game, even looks suitable for something that could be polished up and published to mobile.

You know, I hadn't even thought of mobile. Maybe I should try that.