Official development blog

Tag Archives: Gamedev

Sound in Roguelikes

Sound effects are not something you see (hear) in many traditional roguelikes. This makes sense from a developer perspective because there is often such a huge variety of content that it becomes a massive and difficult undertaking to provide sounds for everything. Adding sound effects is akin to adding high-resolution art assets–it detracts from gameplay/mechanics/content […]

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Accommodating Color Blindness

Traditional roguelikes are both at an advantage and disadvantage when it comes to accommodating color blind players. On the one hand recoloring monochrome glyphs is a fairly straightforward process; on the other a game lacking any method of adjusting colors can be difficult for some to play, more so than say a game with unique […]

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Balance

Balance is one of the most important determining factors behind the “fun” of a game. Games that are balanced just right tend to create situations that keep you on your toes and allow you to barely scrape by, while also ensuring that you don’t feel outnumbered and helpless (or completely unstoppable) every step of the […]

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Playing Your Own Game

You finally did it! You made the game you always wanted to make, and now you get to play it! It’s funny that the reality can be quite different, at least for a certain kind of developer and/or project. Many worthwhile game ideas start out with a simple “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”, so you […]

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Data-driven Development

As we transition from internal developments to content creation, let us first present an overview of how most of that content is organized. Cogmind is an example of the “open data” model, wherein as many content-specific parts of the game are exposed in public files anyone can open up and read/edit with a text editor. […]

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