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[Kyzrati]

Use this thread to say hello to your fellow Cogminds!

Let us know a little about yourself, in as many or few words as you like. (And/or pictures!)

You could also answer some of these questions:
-How did you learn about Cogmind?
-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
-What are your other favorite games?
-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?

[Kyzrati]

Me first:

I've been making games my whole life, starting with a lot of paper-based games as a kid, and eventually moving on to developing simple computer games in the late 90s. I played a lot of video games in the 90s as a teen, so the transition to making my own was a natural one for someone inclined to take on creative projects of all kinds. My biggest regret is that I never joined communities or sought outside help, continuing to develop in isolation for more than a decade. Progress was slow and there was much wasted time and avoidable roadblocks.

I found the roguelike community in 2011 and instantly fell in love with the genre. Despite having been a computer enthusiast since the age of BBSs and MUDs, I simply wasn't fortunate enough to encounter roguelikes . Once I did find them, I played quite a few and spent the most time with DCSS, then pretty quickly decided I needed to make my own. So I decided to make an adaptation of one of my favorite games of all time, X-COM: UFO Defense. After two years of strong development, that project was put on hiatus, and the rest of the story continues with our first question below

- How did you learn about Cogmind?
Obviously my answer here will differ from your own .

Cogmind was born on a trip to Thailand in February 2012. I was brainstorming ideas for that year's 7DRL game jam, browsing "games you wish existed" type threads on random forums in our hotel lobby in Phuket. A one-sentence post (I forget where) about playing a main character that "builds itself from pieces of enemies" caught my attention. That day cruising around the islands on a boat, I imagined applying that idea to a game about robots, and my brother and I proceeded to think of all the cool things we could do to expand on that. The idea seemed really promising. I spent any down time over the next few days figuring out the basic mechanics, decided it could work, then made the game for 7DRL a few weeks later.

Over the next couple months I released a dozen updates, mostly to fix a few bugs, make some interface enhancements, and run a tournament for the hundreds of frequent players (mostly over on Bay 12, very much "the birthplace of Cogmind's player community"). Despite its humble origins and short dev cycle the game was pretty enjoyable, but at the time I was right in the middle of BattleScape development for my main hobby project, X@COM. So Cogmind was put to rest and there were no plans to return to it.

Then I reached a turning point in life.

My son was born (ironically around the same time Cogmind 7DRL was coded), and within a year my free time began dwindling significantly. There was only one way to continue developing games at any reasonable pace: make it a full-time job. I needed a promising "small" project that I could finish in a reasonable amount of time, something with a theoretical chance of financial success... Cogmind's 7DRL incarnation could be considered a prototype for a potentially successful game, so I decided to run with it, and here we are

- What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
I've spent the most time playing DCSS (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup), mostly back around 0.7~0.9. So much content, replayability, and viable play styles in that game... and all so mechanically tight.

Another favorite gem, relatively new, is TGGW (The Ground Gives Way). It's a super condensed and streamlined roguelike experience, but despite the way that sounds, there is a ton of depth and content. Interestingly, aside from the fact that it's a fantasy game, among all the roguelikes out there TGGW shares the greatest amount of "gameplay spirit" with Cogmind in that there are a ton of items to find, and your abilities are completely determined by what items you choose to carry with you.

For me, a lot of roguelikes now fall into the category of games I spend more time reading about than actually playing, because I simply don't have much time to play games anymore.

- What are your other favorite games?
The original X-COM: UFO Defense, as mentioned earlier, ranks somewhere around the top (for the record, I didn't like the new one at all).

Somewhat related to Cogmind, I've been a life-long BattleTech/MechWarrior fan. It's a completely different genre, but there are a few obvious influences seen in Cogmind. I've played pretty much every BT/MW game ever, and for the past couple years the one game I've spent a reasonable amount of time playing is MechWarrior Online.

I know a game designer really should play a wide range of games, but my lack of free time has caused my list of "games to play" to grow out of control until I realized there's little reason to maintain it since there's no hope of whittling it down. Honestly, most modern games completely fail to interest me anyway. I do occasionally pick up a popular game and try it for a couple hours just to see what people are talking about. I play MWO mostly out of nostalgia, and as a way to relax. The rest of my "play time" is devoted to game development!

- What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I have many hobbies, but not much time to devote to them anymore. My favorite activity which I always have time for since it overlaps with my responsibilities as as dad is to take my son out on bike rides to various parks and playgrounds. I'm sure things will continue to evolve as he gets older!

As for a more "standardized list" of stuff I do, it's mostly traveling, photography, graphic design, writing/blogging, reading, and cooking.

[Arseface]

Just got the email and signed up for the forums. I'll be getting the game as soon as I finish reading all the material on it and writing this post.

- How did you learn about Cogmind?
I found out about Cogmind a few weeks ago and was skeptical after seeing the level layouts. Played the 7drl and found I had worried for nothing.

- What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
I play a lot of Brogue, and I played a lot of DoomRL and Sil before I decided I needed a new computer that came without a numpad. I'm looking forward to Caves of Qud's public steam beta as it will be the first update in years.
I've tried to get into DCSS, Tome 4, and Angband. For some reason they strike me as really bland. Autoexplore + tab/damage hotkey is very mentally numbing.
Brogue is my favorite roguelike by a mile.

- What are your other favorite games?
I play so many games in so many genres asking for favorites isn't fair
Recently I've been playing MH4U, Elements the Game, and running a D&D campaign. I've been thinking of diving back into pokemon as well.

- What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
For fun I'm working on a few tabletop games at the moment. One of which I'd like to become more than a hobby project. I'm also planning on doing a thru-hike of the Appalachian trail next year, so a bit of my time is spent preparing for that.

[Paladin]

Hey, just noticed the forums and game opened up. I plan on nabbing the game soon, but first, a post here won't hurt. To keep it short, I have a decent background playing these types of games, and I'm really looking forward to jumping into Cogmind.

[Draxis]

I'm Draxis from Bay 12, or Dessard pretty everywhere else.  Been around since one of the X@COM ARRP releases (2011 maybe?), and following Cogmind since it first came out.  Pretty excited to play it.

Don't really play many other roguelikes, though I've beaten DoomRL a few times; pretty much just play rhythm games, K-ShootMANIA and Osu, and the odd strategy game.

It's a bit sad that smf doesn't assign each user a number from zero like some forums  :V

[Kyzrati]

I'm Draxis from Bay 12, or Dessard pretty everywhere else.  Been around since one of the X@COM ARRP releases (2011 maybe?), and following Cogmind since it first came out.  Pretty excited to play it.

Don't really play many other roguelikes, though I've beaten DoomRL a few times; pretty much just play rhythm games, K-ShootMANIA and Osu, and the odd strategy game.

It's a bit sad that smf doesn't assign each user a number from zero like some forums  :V

Draxis!!! Nice to see you here buddy. The good old X@COM days... that did all begin with the 2011 ARRP. I remember you even made our alien base mod . If Cogmind does well, Grid Sage Games will be bringing that project back big time.

Since you're into (some) roguelikes and rhythm games, have you tried Crypt of the Necrodancer yet?

Too bad about the SMF lack of user #, but I do like SMF since all my favorite forums use it.

Hey, just noticed the forums and game opened up. I plan on nabbing the game soon, but first, a post here won't hurt. To keep it short, I have a decent background playing these types of games, and I'm really looking forward to jumping into Cogmind.

Welcome! Always great to have more roguelike players! The question becomes: ASCII or Tiles?

[Kyzrati]

Just got the email and signed up for the forums. I'll be getting the game as soon as I finish reading all the material on it and writing this post.

- How did you learn about Cogmind?
I found out about Cogmind a few weeks ago and was skeptical after seeing the level layouts. Played the 7drl and found I had worried for nothing.

- What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
I play a lot of Brogue, and I played a lot of DoomRL and Sil before I decided I needed a new computer that came without a numpad. I'm looking forward to Caves of Qud's public steam beta as it will be the first update in years.
I've tried to get into DCSS, Tome 4, and Angband. For some reason they strike me as really bland. Autoexplore + tab/damage hotkey is very mentally numbing.
Brogue is my favorite roguelike by a mile.

- What are your other favorite games?
I play so many games in so many genres asking for favorites isn't fair
Recently I've been playing MH4U, Elements the Game, and running a D&D campaign. I've been thinking of diving back into pokemon as well.

- What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
For fun I'm working on a few tabletop games at the moment. One of which I'd like to become more than a hobby project. I'm also planning on doing a thru-hike of the Appalachian trail next year, so a bit of my time is spent preparing for that.

Glad to have you, and I can understand your concerns when looking at level layouts from above--though all that matters is what they feel like once inside . And there have been massive improvements over the 7DRL. Probably spent at least a couple months on the generation improvements alone.

Cogmind is a lot more like Brogue in that there is no mind-numbing downtime, as you dislike about some other games. I completely agree, which is why Cogmind plays like it does

Have fun hiking! I've always loved hiking, though my wife is totally not into it so for a while never really went much. But now that my son is growing up things are changing... he's still young so I mostly just carry him on my shoulders the whole way--more exercise for me =p. We have lots of trails right outside our place, so at least it's convenient!

[Paladin]

Welcome! Always great to have more roguelike players! The question becomes: ASCII or Tiles?

I've been using tiles so far, so I'll probably keep sticking with that before ASCII. I'm no stranger to it, especially after playing Dwarf Fortress and a few other RLs that use it, but I'm really digging the tile art so far.

[kvee]

Hi, I'm Tom.
I don't play roguelikes that much (well I basically only played AliensRL for any significant amount of time), but I've always loved the concept and Cogmind looks like it might be just the roguelike to get into seriously. Ever since I've seen it for the first time, I couldn't wait for the release!

I play various genres, but classic FPS games like Doom and Quake 1-3 are special to me. At the moment I'm playing some Blur and OpenTTD

In my free time, I like to make music and code, sometimes combining these two into making music software. I have started some game projects, but I am yet to complete any of them. I usually get the engine up and running, but then just leave to do something else. Oh, and I also like retro development, especially for DOS or the NES.

I've just finished my test run of the game and it feels really fun! Can't wait to be at least able to get decently far into the game.

[ozymandias79]

Hello this is Ozymandias79, from Ozstralia

Hi longtime fan of Roguelikes, and reddit lurker/poster. I originally discovered roguelikes when I was searching for free rpg style games about 13 years ago. I had played around a bit with rpgmaker and wanted to see what other games were out there.

The first roguelike I ran across was Zangband way back in 2002, I love the randomly generated world map insane monster types also being a Roger Zelazny fan I could appreciate the source material. Zangband lead me to Angband and the eternal Angband.oook.cz site I love seeing new and innovative takes on game I began variant diving kanband, gumband, steamband, I jumped on the roguelike bandwagon, te he. This lead me to ToME2, tales of middle earth created by the mighty Darkgod. I was here I had my first taste of modding/ hacking, made some custom maps and new grass, mountains water and and lava for the graphics map which ended up in the official version (along with scorpian and subzero from mortal combat they are still in the sprite map if you have a copy of tome you can check he he)

I played roguelikes on and off for the next couple of years discovering Nethack, DCSS, and other classics in the process. At some point I found out about the 7DRL and have been an avid follower as yet I have not created a complete game but not giving up! One game that brought me back to playing roguelikes after playing a bunch Elder Scrolls and minecraft(by playing I mean piling mod afetr mod into the game until its weeping and begging for mercy, My Minecraft had 120+ mods in it at one stage) was ToME4 seeing a new generation of roguelike that pushed the boundaries is awesome. Though ToME4 I discovered reddit and the awesome Roguelike community,  that was about 2 years go.


 questions:
-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I heard about Cogmind when it was released as a 7drl way back in the day, and rediscovered it through Roguelikedev #showcase saturday and the fantastic devlog, great reading!
 
-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
ToME4, DCSS, Brogue, I like Wazhack, DoomRL Veins Of The Earth (a T-engine game), Angband, a bit of FTL, Dwarf Fortress FUN!, ELONA+, Hengband, URR, Dungeonmans, Hyperogue.(Playing doesnt immply competency)  I collect rogueslike my roguelike folder currently has 17 Gb of games (although I have multiple copies for different version so that bumps it up a bit).


-What are your other favorite games?
I like a heavily modded Minecraft with mystcraft a mod based on The Myst, Riven games, I like old ZZT games, Final Fantasy, a bit a Terarria and Im a sucker for weird 7drls

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I have three awesome kids and a wonderful wife, I do a bit of table top roll playing, recreational maths (I go on the occasional Collatz conjecture binge). Reading Pratchett, R.A Salvatore (the Drizzt creator), Redditing, I have a half a dozen smallish to medium project that Im hacking away at, and I tend write long  overly posts. : nice to meetcha.

[Kamilion]

- How did you learn about Cogmind?

Two nights ago, my buddy Pyredrid (Who is also a maker of games working on his own RLs) mentioned it in IRC.
As a person who built robots in the past; it's tremendously enjoyable to think of different buildstyles.

- What other roguelikes do you enjoy?

The old Troubles of Middle Earth (TOME3) before the name change to Tales of Maj'Eal for TOME4.
For a while, about ten years ago, I (poorly) maintained a PSP port of TOME2.3.x after Gendal, but before Daddy32.

- What are your other favorite games?
I happen to enjoy EVE Online, Factorio, Starbound, and a number of other recent indie titles.

- What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I used to make robots; now I just code in python.

[Kyzrati]

I've been using tiles so far, so I'll probably keep sticking with that before ASCII. I'm no stranger to it, especially after playing Dwarf Fortress and a few other RLs that use it, but I'm really digging the tile art so far.

Kacper has done an excellent job on the tiles. I can't praise him enough . Now he needs to get his butt over here on the forums...

Too bad some of the really cool ones are for robots in currently inaccessible areas (so trust me they just get more and more awesome!).

Hi, I'm Tom.
I don't play roguelikes that much (well I basically only played AliensRL for any significant amount of time), but I've always loved the concept and Cogmind looks like it might be just the roguelike to get into seriously. Ever since I've seen it for the first time, I couldn't wait for the release!

Hello and welcome, Tom!

Cogmind is totally trying to be the game that non-roguelike players can get into, but regular roguelikers will love as well. There is an emphasis on the latter because I think it's generally an underserved community when it comes

I've just finished my test run of the game and it feels really fun! Can't wait to be at least able to get decently far into the game.

It shouldn't take too long as long as you learn from your mistakes and form specific strategies . Once you're good reaching the late game is almost assured (though by no means easy!).

Hello this is Ozymandias79, from Ozstralia
commence wall of text in 3..2..1..go

Hey Ozymandias79, I remember you from /r/roguelikes

Really wish I'd run into roguelikes as early as you did (or earlier!).

Glad you rediscovered Cogmind and were able to follow along with the dev blog. Kinda sucks that once there are so many posts a lot of the older ones just go unnoticed by readers who might find them interesting. But, onwards!

Final Fantasy was always one of my favorite series, but after X it just started getting too far from its roots for me (plus I have no way to play them, anyway).

- How did you learn about Cogmind?

Two nights ago, my buddy Pyredrid (Who is also a maker of games working on his own RLs) mentioned it in IRC.
As a person who built robots in the past; it's tremendously enjoyable to think of different buildstyles.

- What other roguelikes do you enjoy?

The old Troubles of Middle Earth (TOME3) before the name change to Tales of Maj'Eal for TOME4.
For a while, about ten years ago, I (poorly) maintained a PSP port of TOME2.3.x after Gendal, but before Daddy32.

- What are your other favorite games?
I happen to enjoy EVE Online, Factorio, Starbound, and a number of other recent indie titles.

- What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I used to make robots; now I just code in python.

Nice, a new fan

And you made REAL robots. Well, you will certainly enjoy this since a big part of Cogmind is just building and rebuilding yourself, often from scratch after you're totally decimated, to adapt to new situations

EVE Online is great, but such a time sink. It'd be nice if I could just split myself in two and have the other me live that life =p. I didn't play for very long because I realized it would just absorb my being, but did enjoy what I played.

[Eloden]

Hey Eloden here.

Mostly have been religiously following the updates on /r/rogueikedev as an aspiring roguelikish dev. Loved the aesthetic and theme and was amazed by the UI and animation quality.

Now that it is finally out I can play a bit and more importantly for me support a great pillar of the /r/rogueikedev community. Your posts motivated me to get up and start making my own game 

I usually play rogue-lites and turn based games such as BoI, the freshly released Invisible Inc, Xcom and FTL. Most other RL were either to daunting or inaccessible for me. So I hope that changes with Cogmind!

[ThKaspar]

Hello everyone, I'm the artist behind Cogmind graphical tileset.

Before Cogmind I already knew a bit about rougelike genre but first time I really dived into one of the titles were when I found an Android Brogue port called Pixel Dungeon. It was merely a coincidence since I were looking for any pixel art game then but man, how lucky I were to bump into this one.
I played It for countless hours before moving on, after that I tried a bit of classic Brogue, Dwarf Fortress and more rougelike-like Red Rogue but at the moment none of them were able to make me stay for long.

I think It was Ben "Eigenbom" Porter that shared the tweet with a link to the job announcement on the Grid Sage Games blog. I still remember when I found that early in the morning and spend over 4h writing an e-mail, packing my best art and creating some tile samples that were required. After a few weeks of waiting, making more samples and dramatic turns we started the work.

Right now from rougelike genre I don't play any other game than Cogmind, It sounds like an advertisement but It's true.

From my other favorite games I'd list Dragon Age: Origins, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, inFamous I & II, Castlevania series for Nintendo DS (all three games) and pen'n'paper D&D 3.5 edition.

In the more serious parts of my life I make pixel art and learn programming. I'm quiet passionate about game development and I spend as much time as I can reading, watching videos and thinking about It.

[Derman]

I've been waiting for you to open forums for this game for a while now so I can finally find a place where I can have proper discussions about Cogmind (I don't really like using reddit). Finally here, Hello!

I actually can't remember how I found Cogmind, but it was about 8 months ago. The screenshots caught my interest and I started following the dev blog, which has been very useful and entertaining. I don't play many 'pure' roguelikes (other than ADOM, which to this day is one of my favourite games) but I play roguelites, like FTL, BoI, Spelunky etc.

I play very different games but my favorites are usually deep in the RPG genre: Dark Souls, Dota 2, Baldur's Gate (1, not a huge fan of the second for some reason), to name a few. For me the most interesting aspect of cogmind is definitely the graphics, but I'm also curious to see how the mechanics turn out. This game will most likely require a lot of balancing.

My interests are tightly tied to gaming in one way or the other. I'm interested in game development in general, I follow a few indie projects (though none of them are getting regular updates anymore) and I tend to read articles and listen to speeches about game design. I also read books (Pratchett is(was ) one of the few writers I consistently like, usually I randomly pick up books other people recommend) and do random stuff.

Anyway, it's nice to be here. I don't think I'll buy into the alpha just yet, but I will buy the game at some point, at least at release. One of the most interesting game projects this year.

[Kyzrati]

Your posts motivated me to get up and start making my own game 

Thanks for following and I'm very happy to hear that! I love spreading the roguelike development goodness, and if I can do it, so can you guys because I am in no way any kind of software engineer computer guy. I just problem solve and do whatever works.

I usually play rogue-lites and turn based games such as BoI, the freshly released Invisible Inc, Xcom and FTL. Most other RL were either to daunting or inaccessible for me. So I hope that changes with Cogmind!

The idea with Cogmind is to be both deep and accessible, so anything you don't find accessible you tell me about it and we'll see what we can do to improve it!

Hello everyone, I'm the artist behind Cogmind graphical tileset.

Before Cogmind I already knew a bit about rougelike genre but first time I really dived into one of the titles were when I found an Android Brogue port called Pixel Dungeon. It was merely a coincidence since I were looking for any pixel art game then but man, how lucky I were to bump into this one.
I played It for countless hours before moving on, after that I tried a bit of classic Brogue, Dwarf Fortress and more rougelike-like Red Rogue but at the moment none of them were able to make me stay for long.

I think It was Ben "Eigenbom" Porter that shared the tweet with a link to the job announcement on the Grid Sage Games blog. I still remember when I found that early in the morning and spend over 4h writing an e-mail, packing my best art and creating some tile samples that were required. After a few weeks of waiting, making more samples and dramatic turns we started the work.

Right now from rougelike genre I don't play any other game than Cogmind, It sounds like an advertisement but It's true.

From my other favorite games I'd list Dragon Age: Origins, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, inFamous I & II, Castlevania series for Nintendo DS (all three games) and pen'n'paper D&D 3.5 edition.

In the more serious parts of my life I make pixel art and learn programming. I'm quiet passionate about game development and I spend as much time as I can reading, watching videos and thinking about It.

And our artist arrives! Welcome Kacper, and we need to get you a badge. In fact, pixel your own and I'll assign it to you in the forums so everyone knows what you do and can thank you profusely for it (Something around the size of the current badges I've started adding, or a little smaller or bigger if you like. If you don't make one I'll be forced to do it for you! I guess it might also make sense if I gave you some text using the Cogmind font... well, your choice!)

Funny that you found roguelikes by some random art-related coincidence, as did I (albeit earlier). Ben did help me retweet that and I'm so happy that you decided to send in your ideas even though it was past the stated deadline =p

"Right now from roguelike genre I don't play any other game than Cogmind, It sounds like an advertisement but It's true. "
Thank you Kacper we'll use that in the advertising! (Then they compare the name to the credits and hmmmmm...)

I loved the Castlevania DS series! Played those when I still had time before my son was born. Got a DS for my wife and played it more than she ever did . Nice art, too, eh?

I've been waiting for you to open forums for this game for a while now so I can finally find a place where I can have proper discussions about Cogmind (I don't really like using reddit). Finally here, Hello!

I actually can't remember how I found Cogmind, but it was about 8 months ago. The screenshots caught my interest and I started following the dev blog, which has been very useful and entertaining. I don't play many 'pure' roguelikes (other than ADOM, which to this day is one of my favourite games) but I play roguelites, like FTL, BoI, Spelunky etc.

I play very different games but my favorites are usually deep in the RPG genre: Dark Souls, Dota 2, Baldur's Gate (1, not a huge fan of the second for some reason), to name a few. For me the most interesting aspect of cogmind is definitely the graphics, but I'm also curious to see how the mechanics turn out. This game will most likely require a lot of balancing.

My interests are tightly tied to gaming in one way or the other. I'm interested in game development in general, I follow a few indie projects (though none of them are getting regular updates anymore) and I tend to read articles and listen to speeches about game design. I also read books (Pratchett is(was ) one of the few writers I consistently like, usually I randomly pick up books other people recommend) and do random stuff.

Anyway, it's nice to be here. I don't think I'll buy into the alpha just yet, but I will buy the game at some point, at least at release. One of the most interesting game projects this year.

Hi Derman! I had the forums ready earlier, but decided it wouldn't be too meaningful to open them when there wasn't really anything to discuss except blog posts and speculation

And even if you don't play many 'pure' roguelikes, ADOM's as pure as they come

Hopefully the balance in Cogmind is pretty good, at least it's about where I want it for now, though it will take some getting used to for new players because there are a lot of different ways to make mistakes . Later on however it will quite probably need some rebalancing once we expand the mid/late-game into the branches. We need to make sure that both the main route and branch routes are viable, but neither can be too easy. The theory behind how it's all organized seems to hold up, but I can't talk about that bit!

Enjoy the forums!

[phonic88]

-How did you learn about Cogmind?

Joe (most likely) from Psydragames tweeted you out the other night. Scooped it up immediately.

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?

Recently started in the roguelike genre with BoI / Rebirth, Delver, Diehard Dungeon, Claustrophobia: The Downward Spiral

-What are your other favorite games?

I play pretty much anything (with the exception of FPS). I'm usually down for short-attention span gaming as I only get a few hours of week to really play games.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?

When not playing games, I play piano, or wrangle children (but that's more of a necessity than it is fun).


So far, I'm really enjoying the game. I'm terrible at it, but it's a lot of fun.

[Kyzrati]

Hi phonic88!

Nice that you jumped in so quickly after learning about Cogmind. It's good that some people just "feel it" . A majority of our early players have been following development for a while, or even began several years ago with the first prototype.

Wrangling children can be fun when you've got the energy

Good thing for you that Cogmind can be played in short bursts and still offer plenty of concentrated fun. I like that aspect of the design's flexibility. Enjoy!

[Sick_Willie]

Hey everyone, I'm Zach!

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
Been following the dev blog for a long while, and lurking around on /r/roguelikedev... Cogmind just kept getting more and more interesting, and I was totally sold when I saw the post with the crazy text explosions from shooting the guns.

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
ADOM has been one of my favorite games for at least the last decade, even though I've only came close to beating it once or twice. DoomRL, brogue, and Dwarf Fortress are a few of my other often replayed favorites.

-What are your other favorite games?
According to steam, I have apparently played a lot of Civ5 and FTL... Mostly when I'm in a video game sort of mood I'll fire up ADOM or DoomRL.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
I enjoy camping and hiking when the weather allows it, otherwise I tend to stay inside and read (a lot). I do a bit of programming, and made my own silly little roguelike that I like to mess around with when I have time.

Cogmind is awesome, so far. Every run through, I get a very tiny bit better... or at least I think I do, then die horribly. Either way, it's a blast!

[Phuket]

Hows it going everyone! Name is Matt. I'm from New York but currently living overseas as part of my job. I am an aviation's mechanic. When I'm not at work or the gym I find myself constantly playing video games. I also run a Youtube channel where I play rougelikes, strategy, and survival games. I tend to prefer playing games that are difficult and on its hardest settings. You will rarely (If at all) catch me playing AAA titles. I go by the name of "Phuket" on every game/forum/blog and even my youtube channel and twitter. It is the capital of Thailand (A place I have been to a few times now) and even though it is pronounced "Poo-kett" in actual Thia I chose the name a long time ago because a lot of people pronounce it differently. I'll leave that part up to your imagination. It is strictly a pure coincidence that this game happened to be thought up whiles the creator was in "Phuket". What were the chances? I guess that means it was my destiny to run this game as a "Let's Play" series on my channel.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I learned about Cogmind on Reddit. I just happen to be browsing the /r/rougelikes like I normally am when I noticed the post. I had never heard of this game before and popped in to check out the trailer. The hooks were already in me before I got half way through. I HAD to play this game!

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
I very much enjoy playing Nethack, Dwarf Fortress, SlashEM, DCSS, TOME, ADOM, and Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead. Although most of them I have only dabbled in. Cataclysm DDA and Dwarf Fortress are my two biggest favorites right now and I have dedicated hundreds of hours into them.

-What are your other favorite games?
Other favorite titles of mine are Distant Worlds Universe, Eve Online, Project Zomboid, EUIV, Dominions 4, Total Annihilation, and probably a ton more.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
When I'm not playing games I'm either browsing Reddit, at the gym (Dem gains), running, hiking, traveling (Been all over the pacific so far), or browsing colleges that are good for programming and design. (I have one more year till I have the money saved up for college and I wanna learn how games are developed. Even if I never make anything myself. It's just something I am really interested in)

Either way I look very much forward to being apart of the community and playing this awesome game! I'm sure ill get lots of hours out of it! Thanks!

[biomatter]

Hello y'all, Biomatter reporting in. I'll be your local cynic and wanna-be tryhard. If you see me whining, please do future-me a favor and tell me to can it. I will still try to be helpful though, if anyone has questions about the game. I'm very active here and on the subreddit.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I don't quite remember, actually. I think Kyzrati had linked to his blog over on the /r/roguelikes subreddit a long time ago - like over a year ago or something, and I've been following his blog ever since. Fantastic stuff there.

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
ADOM is my roguelike of choice. I love the cohesiveness of the world - it doesn't just feel like an arcade roguelike where everything 'fantasy' related has been thrown in the pot (looking at you DCSS...). Every character I make means a lot to me. I think that's why I like Cogmind too - the setting is very well-done and there's no silly immersion-breaking elements.

-What are your other favorite games?
EVE Online is the game I'm currently feeling really guilty about not playing because of Cogmind. I'll pretty much play anything that's got a decent 1v1 competitive mode: Street Fighter, Project:M, Reflex etc. I also love pixel-perfect platformers like IWBTG, La-Mulana, etc. Oh, and shmups, like Warning Forever! I've really got my fingers in every genre.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
Trick question. I'm always playing games, even at work. ADOM is great for this

[Kasaris]

Well, I'm Kasaris, 25 y-old (yes I know I'm quite young). Late 80's - first half 90's ; I never knew this golden age of video games, only superficially due to my age, this is my biggest regret in life !
IRL, I'm a french guy living in south of France, just for you to figure that my english will be bad.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I think it was originally a link from /r/roguelikes to grid sage games. I read a bit and discover what the game was all about. I never played the 7DRL version though. Then, when the Cogmind alpha was released, I bought it because WHY NOT !

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
A good amount. I'm not particularly good at it but I enjoy most others traditional roguelikes : Nethack, Angband, DCSS, Brogue, Sil, Infra Arcana, DoomRL etc... I'm awaiting Ultima Ratio Regum.
Just doing advertisement but I'm a member of a little french roguelike community, (http://forum.roguelike.fr/) and we also have a youtube channel, for those who are interested to see... Of course, all of that is in french so maybe no one here will understand a word 

-What are your other favorite games?
I have many other favorite games. I think I enjoy every type of video games ever created, maybe. Give me Doom with all the mods and maps and I can go on a desert island. Joke aside, I really like every type of games.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
Good question. Reading (a lot), listening to music, trying to write things... Well don't know what to say more, I guess I do what most people do : having friends, playing with them, drink, smoke weed everyday etcetera. I actually want to learn a programming language like C++ and/or Python to make little games and do something of my life, not gaining money mind you. It's a quite recent desire but I'm so lazy I can't do shit...

[Derman]

Well, I'm Kasaris, 25 y-old (yes I know I'm quite young). Late 80's - first half 90's ; I never knew this golden age of video games, only superficially due to my age, this is my biggest regret in life !
IRL, I'm a french guy living in south of France, just for you to figure that my english will be bad.

-How did you learn about Cogmind?
I think it was originally a link from /r/roguelikes to grid sage games. I read a bit and discover what the game was all about. I never played the 7DRL version though. Then, when the Cogmind alpha was released, I bought it because WHY NOT !

-What other roguelikes do you enjoy?
A good amount. I'm not particularly good at it but I enjoy most others traditional roguelikes : Nethack, Angband, DCSS, Brogue, Sil, Infra Arcana, DoomRL etc... I'm awaiting Ultima Ratio Regum.
Just doing advertisement but I'm a member of a little french roguelike community, (http://forum.roguelike.fr/) and we also have a youtube channel, for those who are interested to see... Of course, all of that is in french so maybe no one here will understand a word 

-What are your other favorite games?
I have many other favorite games. I think I enjoy every type of video games ever created, maybe. Give me Doom with all the mods and maps and I can go on a desert island. Joke aside, I really like every type of games.

-What do you do for fun when you're not playing games?
Good question. Reading (a lot), listening to music, trying to write things... Well don't know what to say more, I guess I do what most people do : having friends, playing with them, drink, smoke weed everyday etcetera. I actually want to learn a programming language like C++ and/or Python to make little games and do something of my life, not gaining money mind you. It's a quite recent desire but I'm so lazy I can't do shit...

You think you are young? I've never actually thought of the average age of the roguelike audience, but I guess most of them are born in '80 +-10 years. I guess by the audience standards you are young, I happen to be younger . Funnily enough, I never had the high-tech stuff in my childhood so I got to enjoy a lot of the same stuff people who where born 10-5 years before did.
 
Your english is fine as far as I, as semi-decent non-native speaker, can tell.

[Kasaris]

Yep, you're right. I'm saying that I'm young because I think that the audience for roguelikes must be born in the 80's, more or less but not really past 1990-1995.
 Hey, maybe I'm mistaken, for all I know, I didn't make this assumption based on real data, just a feeling looking at some forums or reddit :-) To give you an example, in my forum, most people ( let's say 10) are above 25-28 y-old and 2 or 3 are under 20 y-old. I'm in the middle. The overall age tend to the thirties.

And looking at the internet, it seems that most roguelikes players, traditional roguelikes I mean, are above 25 y-old. Again, it is not solid data^^

[ironpotato]

The old Troubles of Middle Earth (TOME3) before the name change to Tales of Maj'Eal for TOME4.
For a while, about ten years ago, I (poorly) maintained a PSP port of TOME2.3.x after Gendal, but before Daddy32.

So you're the one I have to thank for PSP TOME! I played a fair bit of it. Man the PSP is just not suited for roguelikes...

Hi, I'm ironpotato. You may catch me stalking around on reddit during the work week when things are slow.

So I heard about Cogmind through the /r/roguelikes subreddit development post, thought it looked really neat and the progress was really cool to watch. I saw the post about the alpha and knew I had to try it. Now I'm addicted....

I started out with nethack as my first intro to roguelikes and I continue to play it up to this day. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. I have to say my current favorites are Brogue (which I sunk way too much time into, and then just abandoned), Dwarf Fortress (I'm so bad at it), DoomRL I spent a long time playing and still haven't beaten, aaaannnddd that's about all I've played for more than 10 hours.

My other favorite games are mostly strategy, Starcraft II, Fire Emblem, and Advance Wars to name a few. But I'm also a giant Pokemon nerd.

When I'm not playing videogames I'm probably programming something, setting up a new NAS, turning a netbook into a firewall, or anything generally computer nerdy. But I also enjoy swimming, hiking, fishing, and shooting guns like a good American. I enjoy playing guitar although I'm really bad at it, and I spend a ton of time reading scifi and watching random animes. Not to mention I do occasionally play some Pen and Paper RPGs when I can get friends together and I'm also a really bad Magic the Gathering player.

Can't wait to get some Cogmind tournaments going so I can lose but have some fun checking out everyone's builds!