Official development blog

Author Archives: Kyzrati

Procedural Map Generation

Procedurally generated maps are a core feature of roguelikes. For a genre that is almost synonymous with “randomness” (within reason), randomized maps are the easiest way to broadly manifest that key element since maps affect many aspects of gameplay from exploration strategy and tactical positioning to item and enemy locations. Notice how walkthroughs for strategy […]

Posted in Design, Dev Series: Procedural Maps | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Responses

Kickstarter?

This is a question I’ve wrestled with for some time now: Should I take the popular crowdfunding route to support Cogmind development? I’ll use this post to lay out the situation and my thoughts both for and against that route. Platforms First, a caveat. As a non-US citizen (no, not UK either) it’s not easy […]

Posted in Marketing | Tagged , , | 8 Responses

Options, Revisited

Cogmind’s game options were first covered in a post last year, but the selection has since expanded, and because their number has grown closer to what will be their final state, I went ahead and implemented the in-game interface which I’ll be introducing here. My original intent was to add a new top-level options menu accessed […]

Posted in GUI | Tagged , , | 8 Responses

Sound Design in Cogmind, a How-to

Previous coverage of the audio development process has taken a look at everything except working with individual sound samples. They are of course the building blocks of the entire system–if they aren’t appropriate and each working to enhance the overall experience, then the game is better off mute. That would save a lot of time, […]

Posted in Design, Dev Series: Sound Effects | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Audio Engine

Any game that wants to play more than just a few sounds, or tie sounds to the game in an interesting way, needs some kind of audio engine. This can range from something as simple as an in-house sound manager with per-sample volume controls to the powerful fully dynamic sound engine that is FMOD. FMOD […]

Posted in Dev Series: Sound Effects, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Responses