¿You mean, like a FANTASTIC VOYAGE roguelike?
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tQfd6peCRtGoOxWcdoM_H2S3VX0L9qEC84a12AjXsnb364UGq8JxDhGVtpad8ikEpCH_C1XWumr2nk9MM6Hx9XwrxWm-sz64pYRr_wZDdPQ-TQgtdW53BYSIP6Tp6eqseX42ElIhZLB-9nwGGd0pZ0ig8zLu6wunkow7Qk9xN_qGDUXrgrVJmlI78ZKcBZ77BezY3Bo6YMijzPAgwO0zf1MHTakqjzmQ_mmniSc-_EH1tqVNIKRsDmJ3aD6Wt08YXIKE3dTYZzBBQ_K56HBo4B8DW-ZsDO9RktnFVmS3kHtN3EVKY6rdG2B2R9wFSOYuSEnZ9V2T-5nFq4FP-3UCZD2h1bnBgBPh6ThtgHQHaAdVcDxtd784F9SlJ_rfI1OtjJeuF8klIJvfsJqWRgjAdg5-wKiWdZJ2ma1n2zmjNYEU7OuzYNsJt7T6yEmRdXQjKr7pPfD32D5EMGSzNAmeyInWcuA5QryZiXaIY_x05-QxUUMvh9ljoWsDMhIivMSWv-bwsCB8CO8-9gR5Q2PmvYBkthdW1gDvgSPXT_7RaaEp5effVbmGBh7ncCgG_995KUOoYw=s720-no)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/PuiZMZSeEs1htDj2_YcXjJWbaSaimV74NvnNCZnrFG_yV-w-GQ7y1BmZZlMTYs1yZf9FQw7UZVrcYD9q3CneNBEMw_1l-txCYFC4StGhpZMsMCzelE6ANRqY6h8EDLCJg6yL8wtWaREYesxiHU-ca2R8jd46NU3OSYesjv6rsDZ-sqxzoxlKX9BhvwCtqdetFCztKxX80xPbdDLla4L2vmqa6jrfz8AjSzTHF5SqMTDfjWSUsa6k0S5H5YH5I-0sUJ_w5vchK_09A2JNJ5MzRbz3dZvE5R7uJYbPSMiGtXAGCXOlq3gBAf7vo2uEXIG_-AjhW6ki4EzS54Y21bYvI8dZULCpVaVLB2d2bd-iOZDErrCPqQBjKuvZYWAWonOEPDNMRyw_5V6ilvHo1M9bESYtREX9sRUrjrefpbEOUyvS00dsL0fZIsM8WgKSd_Hhh432uiiFQtXNlaPDUodxkxiOIRfOVj255eLloNHO_DHh1cxpTkb4WwO4y-GcOsbX_ADRm_oSVde35SjgbSigcwjGIJAT6uKCh839_1_iq3XjNazotQbi3ppcvwEzMhgxTNHNdA=s720-no)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/DPkHCG7wwS1Td8O6PpTrhgiIuCDlXX7rXUebhFb1UXK16A-tLA9rubAJqwOggaYObGGbqTqPN9w2TJlwUTndrp7hezaJRHpp6JYChFKEkwdxory9ORojowm5S4r_EJi61a-PlR5MKlz3AG9Pj11Dvq5_praOWysYSRPfSiAb7aJq-63tbnOFWp4DSw6zQtu2c_r0qor6wAXuKsC70t7XhxBMtKGsvvGevRbJAHses7wiRAAc-FUKHqIi46y-u_18JedmhQfZA629nF0rpqtEXpa_N1yt-Q49wCAo3d4Zk37Ey6BXIWKL41XxM6FNUmOC0LCbEppI05GAbpNznXlG7M1BgXJ3IlSk05onU2wJc5oQuirg5xFH9qLFJpVNwYO1sIjd53aEGVvOxw7yMUXi4wmoam98KIgtSos5v8alG29l6INaDamF1nMDdndwfjidhOEVfczFB4SesZ-H4OUTOTL-P81bT0NOYm81y1utNkQojmrvO02_we7rj9H9vFSHKQKWIs3NlLG7-R_Qh7Adro1-zo2iwOev4qF-VQNRvNOtrhHzZ2-7-JAFx4LxC1WjS0ef7Q=s720-no)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/W7LQNY-ZiyuBiZ9vJ97GG6GlA2W1kddaUNEZpc4GDDDY42Czih2np_5Q5vLSs2xmdYjqyfx-2fj8JeWJNE1-Y7siTrmtmlEwJ2iq6jIJk3YB1u1bI8Mt40gXZcZZcaa5Fal4c-Q78PI0HOPECEDhtbGGyj3gDLGGFcmpkTst1LIhBRiUZ_cuM3GGf28MTugyj7rcnV8BSgeFQP6lNibS8wM86awkmFrPWqr1zlyPALGL-w0X3LNOEVWS2m77ZoTMsIaaCX6YKpLmMexCy3Ufyq7oun98lbqR2Eqtbn6GFEmvmZVmCtnE6Y9lgXtH4jsNLuBJ8J-fIHp89tt2v9hBovYrJeBiMIJL5Pr9LjTJ9kzA39AGCVb46aE9NMMukKlBCFIpheJe4HyeW0mLxHEEccvPncDe3Q-ss_H8ajP-PIgemFojYikMIBVLrZTg68MzfIGOtC9qvZSPC8P57WPIa7-qkgd8bCvkFmVRQAbLoWVE1FxLV3k4C6t6U_JMYruOdCh9Cmnl-ZuiLIOEn0JFhxc6Z2kmx7rpeO6_cLuWZhJA8RofCF8BgJRZg5UkdC-1zyhGFw=s720-no)
Yes, I've thought on so many variations and ways to explore the roguelike core elements... ¡One day, when i'm a retired videographer I'll code one or two!
In fact, roguelikes are my favourite games, but I find them thematically and mechanically really similar. Specially those tied to a traditional D&D-esque conception. Move around. Bump into things. Use potions with familiar effects.
Cogmind shines in its uniqueness, has robots, has ranged weapons, and many other innovative features (no doubt that makes it more difficult to balance and adds challenge to its development). Others like Deadnout do a mix of genres that I love, but there's a mountain of ideas that can be explored, aesthetically, mechanically and thematically.
When I imagine the roguelikes I'd like to play games I try not to think on the main tropes of the genre, dungeons, dragons and so on. Classic and cheesy sci-fi is my favourite source of inspiration. Three silly examples:
Them - Giant ants and the possibility of invading the cave system of an ant colony to kill the queen.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6Qndy0QxbEmZfp3jSqW657vX3vEwKmlv8kskRUmQQHDPr_WY60iF7UnflpC15uaJG4bXf50Y7J09y4H-p4aN9KSr0sUzyBzb3uh5oFX-_K3eAX0te9DMLifG95RNmOT3cMXsk_9tblUPjcGxepCoVSrhWIZHg5JDTi8AHPMjTbbKHS0xzflUfBJg3LZEpcaSjIBKBzH_q5LUnujqAGzrAm7ySvnFEMvAeTPG9o2U8PaWRcv8-wUrrVGIfvSyhEoVWiKJ0UfAJH-9DHJWo-jIC24KwzORG0nPE-bXs6d4FNAIytEXEFe1RxTqrUen4rUWtK_McjMWv85y7VMQuAbG0z5e9HgL2kyvjktsvlqjS1kgxSroZHpN7Ge3ui9YkV1XWy-p9lm-X1dYzIY64XcxiNH0WWyWeH6tv16bYr2ZKDD26G_34H5cMPXzyAx9bklrZXZ8KtmaGR1ANpIRqeMXCdBN9vH_iH1vSvMJ_jb8j-9qhIS7G8mza2u86D1hO0y6zt__JGtntHcU7OqxXK-vXGnzTk6NDEUy-6UP-RAHA7CkYpMCjFz_WULIrun3uact2daluw=s720-no)
The Incredible Srhinking Man and its downscaling - but even more terrible - menaces.
Incredible Voyage and the exploration of the strange planet a human body is in a limited time.
I'm toying with Python and Game Maker, for a wartrain-themed roguelike with simultaneous combat (you decide your attacks, the AI decides attacks, shells fly, soldiers assault, the damage happens to both sides, if you win you reclaim the oppononent's intact wagons). Heavily borrowing from an oooooold game called "TransArtica".
Rexpaint is great to quickly give shape to those ideas. And as an art tool gets a lovely retro feel I adore.
Still, if it's mostly just the extended ASCII lines and a few other glyphs that you're using, maybe you could get away with a partial set. (Though I imagine you wouldn't use curved lines in your game content itself and would have to use an alternative set of fonts specifically for the title screen, eh?)
Either way, it might be worth dropping in another font just to experiment--see what it can look like. That and I strongly recommend eventually migrating to some font other than the REXPaint defaults anyway, if you can. It's a lot of work, but the results will make the game's appearance more uniquely yours! (Or you can ignore me because I'm crazy about fonts and have added over 100 bitmaps to Cogmind now, another 15 or so this week :P)
I never thought about this possibility: creating my own tileset to make diagonals and curves, etc.
This opens a new lot of possibilities, but I assume it's easy but also I can break something easily. ¿Can please you link a good how-to-do-it?
Also:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rgMUaqBGUZhwJQgdrOranv6jwrCR5BOn38vC80MMY-aV_ZCTAoeMqkjlKB5eZUmoGthr19R4dvw2U8zkaFjpcBFdWGPEhrICMGpHuBcGS0Z_XlKZC5yxzBRuAQR_1TMJ6gTnYCKvRYECgVlc6NAWDmp1se_qNTizpybyTjQfj3bMo8ZipQu1QhDwSPmSEKc592SabpbzuyJqA0w4xLJt0PQzDWJyycJcMDmA8qGbZMk_W4Db25Q3DdxQZUnx57pNjTFPzPkCOskA9SFiN95WuyXUpT4xZ0MPIb5KRCFKkDtfhlvOq5qCWkpigcl09HDxeJmrQKib3PODy6SCcxFU6mDPkFUl8Pvc5TORh5T_o_L6fIAcP4vdbcp133S-0l9DQuqP7royGg91n0aT50FoKuXnRQAT5pha2xwmxy03t-mLDcU3sNvRTZaUeTjz3pl-keZWlU8aDu5I_SrmYGzYhS7Fk2fGW6YLYwcaCTjIhxDrgo8-riKz5eFobu_S9THW6hLtJeyr9cJmp_Fl3idc1dRp04xeueydtsOqQQsU289YZ_n51P8r1djk6JRDe77LFcPyRQ=w1280-h720-no)
Totaly exited about cogmind in-game art, decided to try something like that in REXPaint!
(https://monosnap.com/file/LJGIvcK03YQ1tMiVNsOHonBmC0ARNC.png)
(https://monosnap.com/file/qpNbckYiry4IYZMAMvPEdTt0mlqfJd.png)
(https://monosnap.com/file/GYCgahc2PuJ82w13u0lBiHZlrW6JV8.png)
Wow, thanks for featuring my art, that's awesome! :D
And your artwork is way bigger than Cogmind's.
There is something special about 18x18 versions of guns and etc., artwork is simple, but at the same time it's complex with all the small details in it. This complexity done from simplicity amazes me.
A bit of a game developer by myself, actually. Was making a simple roguelike in a Windows console on C#, but lost all of the source code.
Had a lot of projects in C# and Java, but now I have to focus on education.
(https://monosnap.com/file/xmUIs6EsBS1TnWHHrkK9Z60frUN56c.png)(https://monosnap.com/file/zZSkws9kpXP9AFQBgRfkNnXHWcv4Vc.png)
(https://monosnap.com/file/xzpio9Ha1AlkgRw9KV44jKx5AhoqRt.png)
(My english is probably awful as hell, hope it's at least readable :( )
EDIT: Oh, and we still have snow (https://pp.vk.me/c633930/v633930232/31ac7/D7gazPG6-Kc.jpg) (It says "summer").
Wow! That is great animation! Kudos for that.
It's bit oldish muckup made by hand in RP, frame by frame :),
Now, flipping pages are changed to look more like bending rather than rotating.
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fascii-patrol.com%2Fascii-patrol-tutorial.gif&hash=06b0173ef0b59d74b5c2c596f3b3fee4e9eb2eda)
I'm glad you liked the old one, and I hope the new one as well, thanks!
The main reason for dropping initial attempt was that cover rotation over empty background was usually perceived by my eyes in opposite direction as it should be - result of no shadow and no-perspective projection. (my eyes issue only? :P). Other than that, proceduraly stretched ascii didn't look pretty especially on white pages (noisy columns).
Here's the slowmo for comparision with first mockup.
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fascii-patrol.com%2Fascii-patrol-tutorial-slow.gif&hash=00b2e29075c6c3a22b35c5b3852d165c62291b55)
EDIT: thanks to slowmo, found a bug, bending edge is incorrectly painted over cutouts (at the very beginning of right to left page flip animation).
@Mreuwu I can use only characters 0x20 - 0x7f (radical 7-bit ASCII), but yea - adding perspective should work here.
off-topic: I just realized where I would be with my game w/o RP, check it out:
http://www.ascii-patrol.com/area52/ascii-patrol-html5.html
CHANGE 'color mode' option to black & white :)
Mockups are awesome! Plus there's no pressure to actually create anything beyond that, but they can inspire both yourself and others :D. One day I will do that mockup competition I've wanted to do for so long... (gotta wait until I'm not this busy :/)
Hehe, yeah it's easy to miss. To be notified of new posts, open "automoderator config" in your sub's sidebar, paste this in, and save:
type: submission
modmail: |
There is a new post in /r/{{subreddit}}
Title: {{title}}
User: {{author}}
Then you'll get a notification in your moderator mail :D
This competition is a great idea, looking forward to it (you know, instead working on a game ;))
Thanks so much for help with automoderator!
Ok, so I'm making some style reasearch for such isometric look project. Probably it's not going to be fully flaged game, but just to have some fun for me with ascii.
So my new attempt is to give it a look of oldschool ascii (as with previous mockup) but with some pixelart-like sprites. Those sprites would have only look of pixelart, technicaly they are just regular pure ascii using block characters.
My first sprite sketch:
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fascii-patrol.com%2Ffun%2Fisocar2.png&hash=627e118ac1a8970d25cb8b16a50cbe61a958e8ca)
Yeah, using RP as pixelart editor is also nice choice at least for me :)
But the main issue with it is the size, it is enormous as compared with initial street size :(
So one solution to it was writing small tool which tryies to compress full-block characters to 2x smaller graphics with half-block characters. Of course, as I'm self-constrained to standard CP-437, there are many strituations where such mapping is simply not possible (more than 2 colors in scaled-down character or 1 quarter fg + 3 quarter bg and a 'checker board'). But with some manual post-retouching (in RP) results are pretty acceptable to me :)
As it is in isometric view, animation of such sprite along diagonals would need to skip every odd horizontal cel or it could use half-block haracters to allow sprite to advance by half-cel vertically while full cel horizontaly. Of course I'm gonna go with half-cells :)
Sprite-sheet 2 x Comression to half-blocks after bit of manual retouch & thresholding to ansi vga palette:
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fascii-patrol.com%2Ffun%2Fisocar-d1.png&hash=69dc9c22a49aa5aef8525ff35c96ea2079cf9c74)
Yes, sprite is still way bigger than planned on initial mockup, so I'm going to upscale streets a bit ;)
So finaly let's see how does it look when animated:
Brown full-blocks background is left just to better show half-blocks in action.
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fascii-patrol.com%2Ffun%2Fisocar.gif&hash=3d57ef962d3d6938ec7526dac011b86ebdac7349)
And new upscaled street mockup:
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fascii-patrol.com%2Ffun%2Ftiles.png&hash=df5da40349154a524b9dfd6ea4acf4255c47de0f)
Hello REXpainters!
I couldn't find anywhere on the web suitable cp437 6x6 font so I've created one ( in RP :) ).
Of course it was not possible to have all accents in international characters, while keeping font readable, so most of them are just left pure-latin.
Use it on your own risk, license: Creative-Commons (CC BY 3.0).
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasciicker.com%2Fxx%2Ffonts%2Fcp437_6x6.png&hash=e9b1873ddb4eb86ff54f41ddd89d40f149b34e7d)
Font in action with my current project:
(https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasciicker.com%2Fxx%2Fshot6x6.png&hash=793d9ea148dc9ec18c9ef8fb997fdda77fcf89e9)
A mockup for the new game screen of a Cogmind prequel mixing in Dwarf Fortress (where you play through the backstory of the Complex as MAIN.C), which by necessity contains Cogmind spoilers:
(https://imgur.com/2Pz12kb.png)
"Unusual architecture" is right, and there is a little room in there; the rest is less so, but that's probably my fault for still being new to this and choosing an obscure "somewhere" to draw from a very different viewpoint than the normal way to see it. (Hint: it's not a real-world "somewhere".)
I'm giving up ;D
More Cogmind spoilers:
It's meant to be a part of Zhirov's cave, where he's kept some of his old human comforts out of the way both for sentimental value and to keep them from the prying eyes of MAIN.C. As the Cogmind, these human comforts don't show up on your control overlay because they're entirely irrelevant to you, but the rest is copied tile-for-tile from his cave.
Some characters from Cogmind game:
Very different styles on those! I wonder how treaded and wheeled robots use those beautiful stairs...
Another Cogmind prequel mockup, this time showcasing robot design as it would appear to a new player using the example of the humble Engineer. There are things the Complex sees that the Cogmind does not... (It also shows why text-heavy UI designs benefit from a non-square text font - this was designed with a half-width font such as Cogmind's default in mind, but I couldn't find one that had all the necessary CP437 glyphs. Here width is the limiting font size factor, since 8:3 is a nasty resulting aspect ratio; I'm sure it would look much nicer in 8x16 than the current 8x8.) As with the previous mockup, contains Cogmind spoilers.
(https://imgur.com/OllaubX.png)
It's meant to be a part of [REDACTED]'s cave
Heh, that was my first guess but I wanted to give others the chance, too ;)
(And I already said it in the other thread but I love the prequel screen. Definitely going in the gallery for the next update!)
I'm glad you got it; if it had been unclear to someone who knows that cave inside and out I would have been very concerned about my ability to convey anything in ASCII art...
(Go for it, although I'm not sure how you spoiler tag in the gallery. :) )
Now in the proper font, and looking much better for it!
https://imgur.com/a05LYHA.png
And a spoilers-redacted version, for those who want to get a taste of how the Complex sees things without seeing any spoilers:
(https://i.imgur.com/fI89beT.png)
A composite piece depicting what can happen if you choose to test the defenses of your Complex (parts and matter display turned off because they would clog things up immensely):
(https://imgur.com/ytJ8qWA.png)
And some more Cogmind spoilers:
It delights me that laying Complex 0b1 out with the same floor names as Complex 0b10 is sufficient to keep the above image spoiler-free; anyone who doesn't already know about MAIN.C deliberately attracting attention from the Sigix has no reason to think the @s are anything other than a band of marauding Cogminds attacking from the surface. On the other hand, anyone who does know need only check the in-game time to confirm that the "defense test" is indeed from the Sigix ship MAIN.C lured in.
Fun facts:
- When working on the original New Game mockup, it took me more time to work out what to show (astronomical properties of the star system, interlocking continent outlines, appropriate UI element positioning, etc.) than to actually draw it in.
- These mockups continue to be excellent practice for using REXPaint quickly on tests, which I managed to get it approved for! :D
- I've been thinking that this hypothetical prequel would be even better than Cogmind for getting players used to reading ASCII maps - because on top of all of Cogmind's accessibility features, designing and naming a robot or part includes picking its glyph and color, allowing the process of learning to read an ASCII map to be separated from the process of learning to decode most of the glyphs for a new game. Plus it's much easier to accommodate player-designed content with picking glyphs and colors than it is with picking tiles, which would make the design choice to use ASCII maps make sense to more potential players.