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Tag Archives: Encounters

Garrisons 2.0

Garrisons were originally added to Cogmind in the months after the first Alpha release in 2015 (see an overview here) as an optional location for players to visit, adding a unique extra dimension to the world to answer the question “what if I infiltrate these things where many enemy squads come from?” (More recently here […]

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Spicing Up Primary Maps 2: Area Denial

Our first dose of spice last time leaned heavily on risk-reward potential in the form of dangerous cargo convoys, whereas our second dose here is more about introducing additional challenging situations and increasing overall difficulty–less reward, more risk (although as you’ll see this new feature might also involve rewards for some builds). Introducing the Heavy […]

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Spicing Up Primary Maps 1: Cargo Convoys

One of the core principles of Cogmind’s original level design was to split the world into two types of areas: the main complex vs. branches. I wrote about this concept here on the blog shortly before Cogmind’s first alpha release, but one function of this approach is to provide a tamer more predictable central route […]

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Map Prefabs, in Depth

An increasingly common approach to roguelike map development today is to have content partially determined by so-called “prefabs,” with layouts which are hand-made rather than fully procedurally generated. Doing so gives a designer more control over the experience, or portions of it at least, without completely supplanting the advantages of roguelike unpredictability. Prefabs are a […]

Posted in Design, Dev Series: Procedural Maps | Also tagged , , , , | 2 Responses

Weaving Narratives into Procedural Worlds, Part 3: Methods

With Part 1 (Value) and Part 2 (Characteristics) of this series as a background, it’s time to examine the variety of methods Cogmind uses to achieve those goals, which are important considerations every step of the way. This is also what is meant by “weaving,” because there are quite a few individual components working together […]

Posted in Dev Series: Story in Roguelikes | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Responses