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Author Topic: Graphics appreciation thread  (Read 1577 times)

Horse

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Graphics appreciation thread
« on: July 15, 2017, 07:59:01 AM »

I made the scorecard for beta 1.2! Runner-up for "mines placed". That's some really good community management. I do hope that this type of score-keeping persists into v1.0 and beyond. ;D

But I digress.

I'm an ascii die-hard when it comes to roguelikes, except when it comes to DCSS and Cogmind. Almost invariably, I choose a ascii over a graphical tileset. DCSS has had such broad community support over decades of development, that it stands to reason that its tileset would be good. It is good for different reasons than cogmind's tileset. Even in dwarf fortress, ascii is vastly preferable on account of readability. That's what Cogmind's tileset has going for it. Small tiles mean that I can fit a large area of the play-field on my screen. Strong contrasts (something sorely lacking from ToME's tilesets) make it easy to discern NPCs from terrain, and a sufficient degree of variance between robot models allow for rapid identification of potential threats. Seriously, these are some of the best graphics I have yet seen in a roguelike, and that's even before consideration of graphical effects like explosions and emp (a page out of The Book of Brogue, I reckon). Colour me impressed.
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Kyzrati

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2017, 03:43:48 AM »

Hehe, welcome! I'm currently mostly picking out stats that reflect newer features, extremes, or things that that more players have expressed an interest in of late, so it changes over time, though I do plan to continue doing so--no reason to stop now!

And thanks for the praise, glad to have more people who can appreciate the work that's gone into everything :)

Not sure if you've read about it before, but I wrote a good bit about the tileset design and how it was meant to be ASCII-ish.

For the record I like DCSS tiles, too, and also rather dislike ToME's tiles :P (though this isn't an uncommon opinion...)

(a page out of The Book of Brogue, I reckon)
People do tend to draw a connection there, but to be honest I really dislike Brogue's use of color. It makes the map very difficult to parse (for me, at least), whereas I prefer a higher black-to-color ratio, and static environments. I developed the particle engine and effects with X@COM in 2011, back before I'd heard of Brogue, so never had any influences from there (almost all my influences come from outside the genre, although my early project did start out in libtcod, which Brogue also uses, and that library tends to emphasize free use of color since it supports all 24 bits). I later tried to play it to see what everyone raves about, but never got further than a few floors across a couple runs because the color really messes with my eyes xD
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Josh Ge, Developer - Dev Blog | @GridSageGames | Patreon

Horse

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2017, 01:58:41 PM »

Whaaaaaaaaaat? XCOMRL was YOU?

Okay. I take back everything I said before. I'm still heartbroken that that game wasn't taken further.

((ToME is better played in tile mode, still, if only because of the poor quality available typefaces. The game itself is pretty fun, once getting over the every-item-is-magical hump.))

I think I may have read that article, years ago, and well before I had purchased Cogmind. You demonstrate a strong knowledge of what makes these games work. I wouldn't normally pay for a roguelike, but... but I'm fawning. You realize you can never stop now, right?
« Last Edit: July 16, 2017, 02:00:53 PM by Horse »
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zxc

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2017, 06:08:31 AM »

I like the tiles in DCSS and Cogmind. Most other RLs I'm not so crazy about, tiles or ascii.
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Naganted

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2017, 10:24:01 AM »

Had to laugh, thought right off that the 'speed' lines on units moving was amusing as hell because it reminded me exactly of some 90's era (ish) slightly fly by night cartridge cover, or maybe ad for bootleg toys, and then .002 seconds later I saw how it would pretty quickly become useful.  I also think it looks real good. 

Found a hilarious image on google while trying to find one with that effect, though I'm sure we all already know what I mean,  and now I'm cracking up at the thought of doing 'interpretive' pieces of 'art' of what my poor Cogmind would look like at any random stage of a run in Rexpaint. Yet another real damned good incentive to learn it more.  :) 

I'm always thinking about debris and signs of pandemonium and enjoying the signs sticking around of a good fight, so I love stuff like the image showing debris levels in your article. 
  Which is very unfortunate for the poor bots coming in to clean the place up and repair those signs of pandemonium.  No Mr Recycler bot, that item is very important and not floor candy.  >:(  Too fun.

Heh, convinced myself to include the image I found, I want to photoshop it and make the vehicle make much less sense to properly show how I imagined myself looking about 40% through my second run. 

Or a hilarious fake bootleg cover for Cogmind   :D
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Kyzrati

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2017, 08:20:57 PM »

Ha! Thanks for sharing, that is such an awesome image--very Cogmind :P

I searched it up and found some other variants as well :)

About the movement trails, yeah those were added to make it easier to see specifically what's moving where, especially since Cogmind takes the more traditional route and doesn't have smooth movement between cells.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2017, 08:32:01 PM by Kyzrati »
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Naganted

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2017, 06:59:52 AM »

"Doesn't have smooth movement between cells." - Thanks for that, I'd noticed it but it didn't really click without the words for it. 


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Stilgar

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2017, 10:58:43 PM »

Late to the discussion but I really dig the tile set.
Call it atmospheric.
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Kyzrati

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2017, 04:44:51 AM »

There was a lot of thought put into it; that and Kacper and I make a great team. We need to do more in the future :D
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DarkFire

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2017, 06:35:36 AM »

I actually haven't had a chance to play much but so far it's great! I'm super grateful you put in ASCII support as well as supporting low resolutions because this game looks absolutely stellar on a CRT monitor. Obviously people who still use CRT monitors in this day and age are a niche audience but then again so are people who play roguelikes. I can't remember the fonts but these images were 10 and 24 font size and the resolutions are 800x600 and 1920x1440. Game looks beautiful in either mode and I'm not sure I can bare to play it on my LCD after seeing how great it looks.
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Kyzrati

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Re: Graphics appreciation thread
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2017, 06:03:22 PM »

put in ASCII support
Well technically I "put in tileset support," because the game was developed for two years purely in ASCII without any tiles at all :P. ASCII is the primary mode it was designed for, but of course the average player will want to use tiles so that's the default.

as well as supporting low resolutions
Glad to hear someone's actually using this! Also 4:3 support, because the game was designed for 4:3 by default, even though most everyone these days is on widescreen.

Mmm, CRT Cogmind. Thanks for the pics!
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