Official development blog
[ Latest Cogmind Release Notes: Feb 2026, "Unchained More" ]

Author Archives: Kyzrati

Cogmind Roadmap: Year 1 and Beyond

About one year ago I launched this new blog to provide updates on Cogmind’s development. 1,533 hours later development is still chugging along. Yes, I keep detailed stats about where time is allocated and plan to share those figures and more in a (much) later post, but today I want to write about the first […]

Posted in Annual Review | Tagged , , , | 11 Responses

Projectile Penetration

At this stage of development I wasn’t planning on adding new mechanics, but projectile penetration has been hovering around on my to-do list ever since early playtesting showed the game would really benefit from a way to shoot through objects. The ability to simultaneously hit an entire line of enemies, or even fire through obstructions […]

Posted in Mechanics | Tagged , , , | 12 Responses

Non-Interactive Machines

Non-interactive machines were first discussed in the context of the object placement algorithm of the previous post. But there is plenty more to cover. Distribution We can’t simply pick random machines for any and all maps. The types of machines on a given map should reflect the theme of that map, be it storage, factory, […]

Posted in Design | Tagged , , , , | 2 Responses

Furnishing a/the Dungeon

Most traditional roguelikes are pretty barren, especially those of the subterranean variety where a map is composed of rooms empty except for monsters, items, and a small selection of interactive props or obstacles (e.g. altars, plants, pools of some liquid). This reflects, and highlights, the genre’s focus on tactics and strategy. If an object doesn’t […]

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Dungeon Prefabs

Procedurally generated maps are great, but even with variety factored into an algorithm it naturally won’t produce anything outside its parameters. This is good in that it keeps the style consistent, but individual areas sacrifice character as a result. Hand-crafted map pieces can restore some of that character where you really need it, be that […]

Posted in Design, Dev Series: Procedural Maps | Tagged , , , | 5 Responses