Official development blog

Monthly Archives: March 2014

Cogmind ASCII Art, the Making of

Having recently finished adding 600 pieces of ASCII art to Cogmind, now’s the best time to write a bit about the process used to draw it all. (Read the previous post for a bit more background on ASCII art.) First a disclaimer: I’ve only been drawing ASCII art off and on for about a year, […]

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ASCII Art

Traditional roguelike aesthetics are all about abstraction. Object representations are distilled to a simple symbolic form, thus it’s no surprise that roguelikes sometimes come paired with ASCII art. Of course this is also often due to practical limitations–the engine/system itself may only be capable of displaying characters–but it’s also stylistically appropriate for art to use […]

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ASCII Particle Effects

With item stats out of the way, it’s time to start fleshing out item-related content. To that end progress is being made on three different fronts: Item art, weapon sounds, and weapon particle effects. Procedural particle scripts are a great time-saving substitute for hand-drawn animations. They also lend a unique visual appeal to the otherwise […]

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Balance

Balance is one of the most important determining factors behind the “fun” of a game. Games that are balanced just right tend to create situations that keep you on your toes and allow you to barely scrape by, while also ensuring that you don’t feel outnumbered and helpless (or completely unstoppable) every step of the […]

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Playing Your Own Game

You finally did it! You made the game you always wanted to make, and now you get to play it! It’s funny that the reality can be quite different, at least for a certain kind of developer and/or project. Many worthwhile game ideas start out with a simple “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”, so you […]

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