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Tag Archives: Animation

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 | Also tagged , , , , | 6 Responses

Making Particles

I’ve already written about weapon particle effects, but previous posts have only focused on the results rather than the process behind their creation. Some readers would likely enjoy some elaboration on what went into that whole “week I buried myself in Cogmind scripts.” For everyone else, it’s also a thinly veiled excuse to show some […]

Posted in Design | Also tagged , , , , | 2 Responses

Animation vs. Pacing: A Dilemma of Modern Roguelikes

One of the nice things about traditional roguelikes is you can play a game at any pace you like. Turn-based action means you can stop and contemplate your next move as long as you like, but at the same time instant feedback from actions means you can string them together as fast as you can […]

Posted in Internal | Also tagged , , | 6 Responses

Hacking, the Interface

As previously mentioned, there is no hacking “mini-game.” We don’t want to interrupt the flow of a game that can otherwise be quick to play (if that’s your style). Thus the process of hacking emphasizes a very quick “in and out fast” approach. Hacking Process Hacking a machine is a pretty straightforward process. Bump into […]

Posted in GUI, Mechanics | Also tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Info, Animated

The info windows have been overhauled and are now even more informative than before, made possible by smaller fonts. Before they were just walls of text and numbers, while now we have color-coded labels and bars to help quickly weigh the advantages and drawbacks of whatever you’re examining without being forced to interpret a bunch […]

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