Factsheet
Developer:
Grid Sage Games
Based in New Taipei, Taiwan
Release date:
May 19, 2015 (Alpha); October 16th, 2017 (Steam EA); 1.0 TBA
Website:
gridsagegames.com/cogmind
Regular Price:
| USD | $19.99 |
Description
Experience sci-fi tactical combat and exploration in a procedural world that combines traditional roguelikes with an immersive modern interface like no other. Build yourself from components found or salvaged from other robots. Attach power sources, propulsion units, utilities, and weapons to become a slow tank bristling with weapons, or a fast-moving flier zipping past enemies before they even have time to react, or a stealthy sword-wielding assassin/hacker, or whatever else you can come up with from the salvage you find. The situation can quickly change as you lose components and rebuild yourself from enemy remains. You are the Cogmind. Discover what that means as you explore a living, breathing world ruled by robots.
History
Cogmind was born during the 2012 7-Day Roguelike Challenge, a game jam. There were some weeks of updates and fixes due to the enthusiastic player base, and we even held a little tournament, but then development ceased because it was meant to be a short side project. Then in mid-2013 Grid Sage Games needed a very promising concept for its first commercial game. The popularity of Cogmind 7DRL lingered on, a sign that it could potentially serve as a prototype for a successful larger game. After two years of pre-alpha development, Cogmind's first alpha version was launched on May 19, 2015. The plan was to release the final version on Steam within a year, but backers provided enough support to fully fund further development, leading to another two years of adding features and content. Although as of May 2017 Cogmind was already a very complete experience--fully playable, balanced, and generally free of bugs, rather than a full release it was decided to join Steam in October 2017 as Early Access to indicate yet more extras to come. Cogmind has now been in full-time development for over ten years, and continues to push the genre forward in many ways never seen before in a traditional roguelike: see how at www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/innovation.html
Features
- Build and modify a unique robot from parts found, or enemies defeated
- Dynamic character development without XP/grinding
- Dozens of robot classes, each with unique behavior within the ecosystem
- Procedurally generated world, including dozens of map types and hundreds of embedded hand-made areas
- Hundreds of NPC encounters, thousands of lines of dialogue
- Nine different animated endings to discover
- ASCII evolved: Most advanced terminal interface ever
- Thousands of particle effects and SFX (more SFX than any roguelike, ever)
- Fully destructible environment
Videos
Early Access Launch Trailer YouTube, .mp4
Images
Logo & Icon
Awards & Recognition
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100)" - IndieDB, December 2023
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100)" - IndieDB, December 2022
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100)" - IndieDB, December 2021
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100)" - IndieDB, December 2020
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100)" - IndieDB, December 2019
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100)" - IndieDB, December 2018
- "Best Early Access Strategy Games" - Strategy Gamer, December 2018
- "The 100 Greatest Indie Games of All Time" - The Indie Game Website, May 2018
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100, top 2 among roguelikes)" - IndieDB, December 2017
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100, top 4 among roguelikes)" - IndieDB, December 2016
- "Top 33 Indie Games to Look for in 2016" - Destructoid, January 2016
- "Best Upcoming PC Games of 2016 (Roguelike Category)" - Rock, Paper, Shotgun, January 2016
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100, top 4 among roguelikes)" - IndieDB, December 2015
- "Best Upcoming PC Games of 2015 (Roguelike Category)" - Rock, Paper, Shotgun, January 2015
- "Indie of the Year (Top 100)" - IndieDB, December 2014
Selected Articles
- "Cogmind is an impressive merging of old and new school game design."
- RPS, Rock, Paper, Shotgun - "Cogmind is a wonderful thing, carefully and intelligently constructed, and with a gorgeous ASCII aesthetic."
- Adam Smith, Rock, Paper, Shotgun - "Cogmind swaps the traditional fantasy setting of most turn-based adventurers in favour of science-fiction, and finds plenty of interesting features in the mix."
- Graham Smith, Rock, Paper, Shotgun - "[Cogmind is] backed up by surprisingly great audio. Guns crack, energy weapons sizzle, and enemies spark and fizz as they collapse. Considering the nearly pure-ASCII graphics, there’s more atmosphere here than you'd expect."
- Dominic Tarason, PC Gamer - "Developer Grid Sage Games has not only produced a brilliant roguelike that easily sets itself above other offerings of the genre, but also a passionate community, with regular updates based upon player feedback."
- Staff, The Indie Game Website - "This proves graphics do not need to be state-of-the-art to inspire awe."
- Peter Schmitz, Unity3D Business Analyst
Request Press Copy
We are afraid this developer has not upgraded their presskit() to use distribute(). For security purposes, this form has been disabled.
Additional Links
Original Cogmind 7DRL (2012)
The original prototype developed for the 7-Day Roguelike Challenge is still available from cogmindrl.blogspot.com .
- REQUEST PRESS COPY -
Press can request a copy of Cogmind by emailing gridsagegames@gmail.com from their official email address .
About Grid Sage Games
Boilerplate
Grid Sage Games is a one-man independent game studio based in Taiwan and operated by Josh "Kyzrati" Ge, specializing in traditional roguelikes and tactical games. While Josh has no formal background in Computer Science, he's spent the past 30 years tinkering with computers, games, and programming as a hobby.
More information
More information on Grid Sage Games, our logo & relevant media are available here.
Cogmind Credits
Josh Ge
Programming, Design, ASCII Art, Sound Design
Kacper Woźniak
Tileset, Freelancer
Alex Yoder
Trailer Score, Freelancer
Contact
Inquiries
gridsagegames@gmail.com
Mastodon
mastodon.gamedev.place/@Kyzrati
Dev Blog
gridsagegames.com/blog
Reddit
reddit.com/r/Cogmind