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I must say that in the back of my mind, my design self is already trying to veer away from music music, while the long-time VGM fan in me is trying to veer towards having the awesomest OST ever

Well, the reason that proc-gen music came to my mind is probably because everything in Cogmind so far is very elegant design-wise. Given how small the size of the game is right now, putting a real, recorded soundtrack in it feels a bit like slapping a huge chunk of pizza dough on a tasty piece of sushi. However much I love pizza, it feels wrong somehow.

That said, the soundtrack in FTL is more than half of my gaming experience every time I play that game.

Certainly a lot of work I wouldn't really want (or even be able) to invest in myself, though I'm already planning to hire someone to do the music part,

Yes, I was just wondering if it's easier to hire a person to compose music or to hire a person to program a procedural music generator.

assuming that's what we want (this topic will be a big thing for later--how musicy we want the music, or whether it should be very ambient, but it's too early for me to get into that discussion now).

I'm looking forward to that discussion. Your decision in this topic can dramatically change the reception of Cogmind by current fans and future buyers alike. The good thing about music is, you can always give players an option to turn it off

In either case, it would be someone else doing this, but I don't think procedural music is all that great.

My opinion is that nobody ever seriously dedicated resources to make it work, but it has the potential to be great, especially in procedurally generated context.

you might be referring partially to adaptive/dynamic music, which is sometimes used in games and isn't quite as extreme. The latter I'd be interested in, but it's generally very costly, and also more difficult to program (generally it requires using additional external libraries, as well as finding a composer well-versed in this particular field--not cheap!).

It is an option I've been also thinking about. I do understand It would be expensive. You have a strong track record in making good design decisions so I'll probably like whatever you choose

Josh, have you ever considered generating music procedurally? Or at least using some kind of Markov chain algorithms to mix different tracks of pre-recorded music/vary the tempo etc?  I was just wondering how well it would work in Cogmind.

I've been following /r/proceduralgeneration for a while and I think that procedurally generated music is an interesting idea that doesn't see much use in games. Not that I know what I'm talking about (I'm really bad at procedural generation programming) and how much effort(time, money)  it would require compared to making a traditional soundtrack.

It could potentially limit the overall game filesize as well

The attitude more recently seems to have shifted--no negative responses at all and everyone's happy to know Wine is a viable solution.

Well, the Linux user demographic is gradually changing: Windows XP loosing support, mainstream Linux distros becoming more user-friendly, Steam and Unity availability etc. More and more people don't care how their system works, as long as they can run everything they need on it.

WINE is getting better and better too, especially with self-contained software like Cogmind.

I still have a Windows partition on my laptop just in case something doesn't run on Linux, but I'm really glad I don't have to reboot for Cogmind. I would very much appreciate Linux port nonetheless, but in the end I guess I prefer a Windows game that runs well in a compatibility layer to a native game with all the inherent problems that stem from Linux diversity.

But yeah, I guess an idiot-proof launcher will help when Steam D-Day (S-Day?) comes. Not because most Linux users will actually need it, but because it will look much better marketing-wise.

There certainly is a high ratio of Linux players/users around here . Not too surprising considering the tech-oriented audience,

It is actually surprising to me given your game is not open-source nor has it a native port available. My personal experience with the Linux crowd is mostly "Native port or bust!". I remember how disappointed some people were when it turned out that LIMBO uses WINE wrapper to work on Linux. On the other hand, your game has a very distinct cyberpunk, terminal-oriented aesthetic which many a Linux user probably finds more appealing (than, say, modern Windows users) given how important the command line interface still is in Unix-like systems. I may be talking out of my ass now, but that's how I see it.

though I'm sure at this point the ratio is higher than it will be in the future once the audience expands. Most indie games are like <5% Linux users, but my impression is that we have more than that in early alpha.

Probably, but from what I've seen in the Humble Indie Bundles, Linux users tend to pay more for games when given pay-what-you-want options which may mean there's deceptively big money in Linux gaming if one comes up with a good sales model and pricing. I guess Valve wouldn't have invested so much in Linux otherwise..

@okr: The next Roguelike Radio interview (unreleased) is with the devs of Invisible Inc., so that might interest you as well!

That's very good news indeed! I'm yet to add Roguelike Radio to my podcast player, but seeing how they're now covering two great games in a row, I think I may listen to them regularly.

(...) outside the community it hasn't really been advertised to any real degree, only having been picked up by a couple general-interest sites since I didn't contact any for now.

Word of mouth does wonders, I suppose When you make something really good, the news will spread. Also, you did a great job on the trailer!

[-How did you learn about Cogmind?]

Hello,

Cogmind has been on my mind for some time now. Today I finally listened to roguelikeradio 109 and my first thought was: "He doesn't really sound like a standard dev at all! What a nice and well-spoken person is making this game." Also, he mentioned some game mechanics (current and upcoming) which I thought were really awesome. And then I messaged Kyzrati on Reddit asking if Cogmind will stay DRM (and Steam) free after Steam release, which he answered really fast and to the point. And so I had no choice left but to support the game

As for the answers:

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I read about it on RPS. What I really liked were the visuals in the game trailer (the art style is fantastic..) and the overall atmosphere/setting. I thought "I love it, where can I buy it?". But then I saw the asking price, which was quite shocking at first. Also, lack of native Linux version was disappointing. But I kept thinking about Cogmind. It grew on me, I suppose. So today I took the plunge.
-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
I like Nethack and Brouge. I also like games that utilize roguelike mechanics but offer something more/different.. so I'm more a roguelite fan I suppose. I love FTL and Invisible, Inc.
-What are your other favorite games?
Planescape:Torment. Bastion and Transistor from SuperGiant Games. Mark of the Ninja by Klei. I also play a lot of coop Magicka and Skullgirls with my girlfriend
-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
Digital painting. Also, I'm learning web game development. We (me and my better half) watch a lot of TV series and movies together as well.

Just to confirm Linux + Wine compatibility:

Cogmind runs smooth on current Manjaro (so it will likely run on Arch too) KDE with Wine 1.7.52.

HOWTO =] :

I just clicked on the executable and chose "Open with Wine". Wine downloaded Gecko (which was missing) and the game started in fullscreen. Oh, and its very pretty.

One thing specific to my config: if you're using the tiling KWin extension in KDE, switching between windows may cause weird problems in Cogmind (and any other fullscreen software..).