Official development blog

Monthly Archives: November 2014

Information Warfare

Knowledge is king in roguelikes. I’m not talking meta knowledge–that’s important, too, but this is about situational knowledge at a given point in any single run. Roguelikes are all about exploring and confronting the unknown (see intro to old fog of war post), and success is all that much closer if you can uncover as […]

Posted in Design | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Responses

UI Feedback: Map Dynamics 2.0

A while back I mentioned a design initiative based on the concept of “map dynamics,” aimed at increasing player focus on the map area as opposed to the message log or other windows. After the initial spate of related features and animations, this part of development was put on hold as the rest of the […]

Posted in GUI | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Responses

Anatomy of an ASCII Title Screen

The design philosophy behind Cogmind emphasizes maximum immersion wherever possible. For this reason I’d like to avoid game-y interface elements–those which are not part of the game world itself but instead remove your mind from that world and remind you that it’s a game. (A fact you’re obviously unlikely to forget, but anything that breaks […]

Posted in Art | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Responses