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[sambojin]

Yeah, it's always a hassle working from small->big. Scaling down sharpens edges, but it's often quite the reverse when scaling up (even linear scaling adds artifacts). Downscaling can still bugger things up no matter the res or palette size, but if you limit the available shades, it usually works.

I was also going to suggest the quick'n'dirty "Just scale the lot to 24x24, add detail if wanted, then downscale to the resolution desired under a 4 shade palette" way, but it looks like you've got it sorted.

Again, great work Kyzrati, as well as to your artist.

[Kyzrati]

I was also going to suggest the quick'n'dirty "Just scale the lot to 24x24, add detail if wanted, then downscale to the resolution desired under a 4 shade palette" way, but it looks like you've got it sorted.

This is what I started doing myself, aside from the add detail part--upscaled to double res, then have PS automatically scale the in-between resolutions with shade restrictions, and touch up as necessary.

Kacper originally wanted to add a little bit of detail with the extra space, but I didn't like the effect and preferred to keep everything simple, basically aiming to have the same feel of the 12x12 at all sizes (one reason being higher resolution monitors often have greater PPI, anyway, so newly inserted pixel-sized details are easily lost).

My own scaling attempt for demonstration wasn't too pretty, but Kacper did an amazing job of it after he got where I was going.

[sambojin]

Should you actually need any detail, my suggestion is to reserve three or four colours on the palette (that can look exactly like any other colour you're currently using). Then, rather than go all silly with detail, use the greatest of robot-y pixel-art techniques and do colour cycling on those reserved palette entries.

You could even have four (count them!) different colour cycle effects on the same robot! Or just a pixel or two, here or there, in one of the reserved "programmery" colours.

Might be useful for mini-bosses, elite swarms or full bosses, to differentiate them from the mob.

Evil red glowing bits, pseudo-life-bar green blinkers, "I've got a special weapon" blue. The world is your oyster. It actually might fit in pretty well with the basic feel and look of Cogmind, as long as it's only on certain enemies. Colour cycling is as old as the hills, but a very effective technique for 2-d games.

I'm not sure how hard it would be to put into the engine coding wise, or if it would even be that useful, but it's an option for beta or post release if you're having a hard time making "super-enemies" stand out. Just set up the palettes and the cycle (can even be linked to an attribute like health remaining) and go. Very little extra sprite work needed, a few exactly similar looking recolours of a few pixels, then just a bit of engine coding.

It's a thought anyway. Flashing or pulsing lights *is* detail, and could be a useful visual aid. But would it take the tiles version too far from the ASCII? Then again, there's nothing stopping you colour cycling an ASCII tile either.

[Kyzrati]

One thing that keeps detail limited is that each sprite can only use different shades of the same color (by varying pixel brightness), not different hues.

I think multicolored sprites add too much noise, especially seeing as the main color of a robot carries rather important information for the player. (There are multiple other ways to obtain the same information, which will no doubt be useful for color-impaired players, but color is the most straightforward one for the average player.)

In general regarding "flashiness" of the map, one personal design principle I'm adhering closely to is the avoidance of any ongoing animations that don't provide important tactical information. Unless something is actually happening "right now" (an attack, calling up information, etc.), the map view is very static. This is the best approach when we care a little less about having the coolest screenshots and a little more about avoiding any representations that could be an unnecessary distraction for some players.

Despite all the game's content and mechanics, there are currently only two things that are continually animated on the map: intel markers, which can be turned off, and glowing prototype parts, which are really important to notice. Both effects are also quite subtle. Much more interesting effects are within the realm of possibility, but I think following that route too far detracts from the gameplay, which takes precedence.

[Kyzrati]

Cogmind Release Schedule
[Cross-posted from the devblog here--follow link for better formatting and light-on-dark style.]

When Cogmind was rebooted in mid-2013, the intent was that it would be a relatively quick production that would take "about a year" to finish. As we approach the two-year mark, it's looking like an accurate forecast would have been more than twice that.

Of course, the original plan was to simply make "a polished version of the 7DRL, with some new mechanics." And that would've taken about a year. But it turns out the project had so much potential that it seemed like a wasted opportunity to not expand it further. Thus we end up with a huge number of assets, significantly expanded mechanics, and a bigger world and story to go with it.

Not to offer these up as excuses--I wouldn't have it any other way! As one follower mentioned earlier this year: "I'm away from Twitter for half a year and you turn Cogmind from something amazing into something I can't describe!" Drawbacks of having an indescribable game aside, that's a good summary of exactly why it's been worth the additional investment =p.


Alpha Access
Development could go on for much longer, but the desire to steer clear of feature creep gets stronger with every passing month. So it's about time to release this thing into the wild.

Cogmind Alpha Access is essentially a paid early access program scheduled to launch in May.

Setting that deadline has also had the positive side-effect of accelerating development beyond full time (we're deep in overtime territory now). At the beginning of January I drafted a three-month development plan leading up to the alpha launch, and that plan remained right on schedule except when we ventured outside my familiar territory and into tileset land, mostly due to handling the strong response from pixel artists looking to join the project.

For three months I've worked day and night to make the intended April launch despite all the additional tileset-related work, and while we could theoretically still be ready to release by late April, I should probably stop developing at breakneck speed to avoid a complete burnout.

The release is still too far away to set a specific date, which probably won't be announced until shortly before launch. Regardless, now that there's a feature freeze in place it's only a matter of (finite) time before we launch. Much of what's left to do is peripheral business and marketing nonsense rather than actual game development.


Release State
Just because there's a feature freeze doesn't mean the game is complete--the freeze is temporary so we can get this thing out the door in a tested, playable state.

As an alpha launch the game is naturally still a ways from its intended final state. That said, the core experience is there and it's plenty fun, so you'll without a doubt be getting something you can enjoy immediately.

All the core mechanics are complete, and you can salvage parts, engage in combat (or avoid it) with help from hundreds of unique components, hack multiple types of machines, and interact with dozens of robots while exploring the "main areas" of the world and a couple of the early branches.

Still to add are environmental sound/music, many more "branch" maps, bosses, more story elements, fluff, and NPCs, plus a few other features that aren't required but will improve balance and/or the overall experience.

Progress has been reported intermittently throughout the development process, on the website FAQ. The pre-alpha progress chart and roadmap have been replaced by new ones which will continue to receive updates as development continues, as before.

Cogmind's state for alpha release.

A follow-up post after this one will go into even more detail regarding the state of the game and how it will evolve in future months.


Supporter Benefits
Back to Alpha Access: The obvious primary benefit is access to all alpha release builds of the game, including everything up to 1.0 and beyond, forever. While enjoying the game you can also join us in the forums (not open yet) to help improve and shape its future.

Assuming Cogmind eventually finds its way on to Steam, as currently planned, you'll also be the first to have access to the game on that platform (via private beta testing before it goes public). In that case, everyone in Alpha Access will receive a Steam key.

Your name (or a name of your choosing) will also appear in the game, but not just anywhere...


Item/Art Collecting
Introducing the ASCII Art Gallery and Item Compendium! The game menu Credits page now includes access to a new area where you can browse the many hundreds of pieces of ASCII art from the game. But, you can only view art for those items you've discovered so far. Art and names for items never seen before are listed as "unknown."

The art gallery also keeps track of an interesting piece of meta info: the total number of times you've attached an individual part across all your plays combined. So there's a reason to open it other than just to look at art.

Where do supporters come in?

Everyone* who joins the Alpha Access program is randomly assigned their own unique personal item from among Cogmind's huge selection. One supporter per item. Your name (or a name of your choosing) is then forever listed with that item in the gallery (you can of course opt out of this if you prefer). Consider this "adopt a component drive" a chance to be immortalized in roguelike history .

I wonder who will get Matter, the most basic and common item in the game, or any of the many rare items that could take a while to discover. Some of you may embark on a "personal quest" to find your item . Or perhaps you could enlist help from others...

ASCII Art Gallery and item discovery records (click for full size). As an example I added in names left by some of the blog's more frequent commenters . Unshown is some descriptive text telling you which item is yours (unless you haven't found it yet) and an indicator of the total percentage of the game's items you've discovered so far.

*Personal items are assigned randomly on a first come first serve basis. If all available items are taken by previous supporters, your name will be added to a waiting list and assigned in order as new items are added to the game, though there is no guarantee that new supporters will have a chance for assignment beyond the existing set of items. If we really have so many supporters that becomes an issue (there are a lot of items), I'll add a separate scrollable list of every supporter. (I may add that anyway, but it's not in there yet.)


T-Shirts
Alpha supporters who, like me, really want a Cogmind T-shirt also have that option by adding the cost of the shirt and shipping (I'm not looking to make money on the shirts).

I went through a lot of potential design concepts, and most of what represents Cogmind doesn't work too well on a shirt. In the end I settled on two main designs, the title logo and a (previously unshown) Heavy Battle Rifle in ASCII. I ordered a few samples to make sure the ASCII details would come out alright. They sure did:

Cogmind T-shirts Samples! (click for full size)

Aw yeah, I finally got me a Cogmind shirt--so official

Now that I know how this company's process works and the quality of what they can produce, I may add another design or two later on. (And no, I didn't try green because high-contrast saturated green doesn't work so well with ink printing.)


Price and Distribution
The Alpha Access price is set at $30. With a T-shirt (mentioned in the benefits section above) it's $60, which includes the cost of the shirt, printing, handling fees, and international shipping anywhere. It's not the absolute cheapest shirt available, but I figure that if much of the fee is the base cost for printing anyway, adding a little extra for better quality is worth it.

Alpha Access sales will only be processed through the Cogmind website. This is better since I can receive a much bigger cut than going through a value-added distributor like Steam. It also helps us ease into sales and gradually scale up, rather than jumping in the deep end with more chances to screw something up on the business side of things.

The price of the final game will be lower, but you'll have to wait, and will miss out on the other benefits. There is no set time limit on Alpha Access availability--it depends on reception and the pace of subsequent development. The details are also subject to change since I haven't yet set up the business side of things. Final details will be announced on launch. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.


Money Matters
In a perfect world we could all sit around and make and play games all day . In the real world (or my world at least), making Cogmind a reality has required that it be my full time job for more than a year now. Otherwise it would simply never see completion (unless 2030 is soon enough to be considered outside the figurative realm of "never"). To clarify, I'm not a young carefree kid anymore--I have a family to care for, lots of bills to pay, and nearly zero free time outside work and other responsibilities. Not to put down any carefree devs out there spending their copious spare time making free games! I did that for a decade myself, and my advice to them is to do their best to take advantage of that opportunity!

I felt that it's worth it at this transitionary period in my life to take a shot at making something grand, with the hope that the investment could be recovered and possibly fund "other grand schemes" . Even if it doesn't turn out that way, we still get a grand game out of the deal, eh?

Cogmind in particular has cost over US$ 25,000 to develop, and I expect total costs could reach $45k or more by the time it's complete. For those of you unfamiliar with expense budgets behind indie games similar in scope to Cogmind, this is actually a very modest amount. (There will be a detailed budget breakdown at or after we reach 1.0, when such data will be more meaningful.) Based on sales potential, recovering that investment is quite possible. Many will agree Cogmind is a unique quality game and has a good chance at being fairly popular. In any case, with enough support during Alpha Access we can continue to make this game better, and hopefully lead to more like it in the future!


Post-Alpha
We should probably reach 1.0 some time this year, though the pace of development will depend on Alpha Access reception and feedback.

I may put Cogmind on Steam Greenlight around or shortly after the Alpha Access launch, just to begin some community interaction over there and get the voting started. And because by then we'll also have our first trailer .

[Pencil_Art]

Sounds great. Looking forward to Cogmind going onto steam.

[jocan2003]

And i was about to ask what was the release schedule... somebody was reading my mind.

[tompliss]

Two months and I get a new T-shirt

[Darkening Kaos]

    Amazing T-shirt, Kyzrati, looking forward to getting my own.  Would we be able to order (extra) T-shirts separately?

     And I am still waiting for the rocket-propelled, explosive harpoon to be included in the game, and maybe it will be called the Kaos Harpoon.

[puke]

Kyzrati:

I have been unemployed since November, since ever since I had the brilliant idea to put my successful career on pause and start fresh in a new country.  Finances are a little tight, and I'm not spending much on non-essentials.  But I will still buy your game!

I very much want to encourage this sort of development.  Besides, I might end up starting my own development projects if I don't get a more normal career going again.  This seems like a good way to keep my finger on the pulse of things, as it were.

I'm wondering if you've done any sort of data based analysis on the tradeoffs between the additional marketing and publicity value of Steam or Kickstarter, vs what you would keep from running it in house?  And if so, what the projections looked like?

I know the Introversion guys started down the kickstarter path, but ended up running their own kickstarter-like campaign so that they could keep more of the revenue.  They eventually moved to Steam EA, and I think the additional publicity has been very worthwhile for them.  They might have blogged about their numbers at some point.

[Kyzrati]

Many thanks for the support guys

And i was about to ask what was the release schedule... somebody was reading my mind.

Hehe, took a while to get around to making the official announcement. I'd written it all up at the beginning of March, but kept putting it off until I could be absolutely confident about the month. Had to rewrite part of the post this morning since it was originally written for April :/

Two months and I get a new T-shirt

Glad to hear another taker on the shirt . Not precisely two months, since I don't have all the shirts now... They'll be ordered in bulk after enough orders come in, because they'll be shipped directly from the supplier in the amounts and types needed. To more efficiently take care of it all I'll want to wait a bit until there are enough orders. I don't think it will take too long for those to peter out, probably less than a month. Then if anyone wants a shirt after that, they'd have to wait much longer for a second and final batch.

Amazing T-shirt, Kyzrati, looking forward to getting my own.  Would we be able to order (extra) T-shirts separately?

And I am still waiting for the rocket-propelled, explosive harpoon to be included in the game, and maybe it will be called the Kaos Harpoon.

To the first question, I don't see why not. I haven't set up the payment system, but I'll figure some way to work it out as long as there's demand.

Oh I still remember your harpoon. One reason I didn't go the KS route is I didn't want to add content-affecting tiers, which are pretty standard these days. I am putting Easter eggs in the game as we go (though not yet a huge number), though unfortunately it's not super quick as in a standard ASCII game to add weapons because I also have to spend time doing the art, particle effects, and sfx, as well as of course the stats. I do like the sound of it, and can even think of an angle from which to add it (despite the fact that it doesn't fit in with the normal weapon themes we have), but I can't promise it. Adding it would open the flood gates for everyone else!

Sounds great. Looking forward to Cogmind going onto steam.

Steam availability will be quite a while in coming, but we'll at least be on Greenlight for the voting and publicity before too long.

Kyzrati:

I have been unemployed since November, since ever since I had the brilliant idea to put my successful career on pause and start fresh in a new country.  Finances are a little tight, and I'm not spending much on non-essentials.  But I will still buy your game!

I very much want to encourage this sort of development.  Besides, I might end up starting my own development projects if I don't get a more normal career going again.  This seems like a good way to keep my finger on the pulse of things, as it were.

I'm wondering if you've done any sort of data based analysis on the tradeoffs between the additional marketing and publicity value of Steam or Kickstarter, vs what you would keep from running it in house?  And if so, what the projections looked like?

I know the Introversion guys started down the kickstarter path, but ended up running their own kickstarter-like campaign so that they could keep more of the revenue.  They eventually moved to Steam EA, and I think the additional publicity has been very worthwhile for them.  They might have blogged about their numbers at some point.

Of course it's true that if players don't support development there's just no way to turn out a good deep game in a reasonable time frame, but don't put any significant burden on yourself, it's just a game! It will be cheaper eventually.

While I haven't done any specific data-based analysis, I have done a lot of informal market research and watched other devs and early-stage projects for years.

I decided against KS for a few reasons:

• I can't do it myself (not in my country)
• It's a huge amount of work for something that may or may not succeed
• I'm going to make the game anyway, so I'd rather put that time into development and let players support via early access if they want
• KS rewards should generally include tiers that allow backers to add content, which amounts to giving up some creative control; it would either be priced too high (to cover the necessary dev time) or not worth it for me or the game, and neither situation appeals to me. Plus a lot of the game is actually secret and making it possible for backers to add appropriate content would require revealing a lot of things about the game and story, which I don't really want to do. (Though I did come up with the hybrid idea of having backers be remembered in the game along with a component, just as another little something that doesn't impact play or content.)

Despite all that, for the right project I do believe KS is a good choice for both publicity and keeping more of the funds than you'd otherwise end up paying to Valve if you just start on Steam.

Steam EA is nice for the publicity, too, though I wouldn't say Cogmind is quite ready for the Steam audience. I'm not sure if Cogmind will be on EA ever, actually, but it'll definitely be on Greenlight which I believe should help with some publicity during alpha, too. That said, it would seem most Steam users are only interested in buying on Steam itself, so that avenue is unlikely to lead to many sales. Once the game is further along it'll be a better fit for Steam, maybe EA first if it seems like a good idea at the time.

I like the idea of running my own early access because I don't have to deal with all the negatives I listed for KS, and can also intentionally start with a smaller group (I assume?) rather than jump in the deep end and have to deal with too many problems at once (on top of making a game...).

Then of course there's the big bonus that I get to keep most of the revenue. I've been gradually building up a following over the past couple years in a number of different places, so we might as well let the many who have already expressed interest join immediately and have more of that money go directly towards covering expenses rather than to a third party!

In the end, there is no best solution. Every game and team is different and needs to take into account their own factors.

[puke]

$30 isn't a burden. 

There's a phenomenon -- particularly among online communities -- where people aggrandize and glory in whatever unfortunate circumstances they find themselves in.  I'm not one of those people.

I might be living frugally at the moment, but only due to my own decisions, and I'm nowhere near poverty.  From a financial perspective, I could continue doing nothing for years.  From a sanity perspective, I won't last that long... but that's another story.

That ridiculous digression aside, I'm very much looking forward to following the ongoing development process.  As I mentioned, I'm a hair's breadth away from starting my own development projects.  Because, you know, why save money when you could be spending it on something crazy and pretending that it is work?

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

   Hmm, I think I might end up paying for early access but not playing it. My general opinion on any sort of early access is I would rather play the game at release. Though of course since I do YouTube videos so I will probably play it a little bit just before release so I can have a video up for it as soon as it is out. About the only thing I could see being a problem is the actual payment as I don't really have an online presence moneywise. Most I do tends to be occasionally stopping at a gamestop to buy a steam card which honestly doesn't really count.

[sambojin]

Yep, I'm in for $30US, even as the Aussie dollar has the arse drop out of it. Actually, I need some new shirts, so I'll grab one of them too. Been doing heaps of work recently.

Just give me the word when I can pay and I'll grab a copy (maybe a couple, I owe a cousin of mine a decent game. He gave me alpha access the "new Ultima" thing from Richard Garriot. I'll give him something with actual quality, just to one-up him )

[flame99]

I'd love to buy it, but afraid I don't have much money of my own. So, for now, here's hoping you do well, and that I can badger my parents for enough money to get into early access.