The New Age of Cogmind [Screenshots] (Patreon)

WHEW. Well that was a week or three.

Last week was a very successful Beta 13 release, one which both surprised and made a lot of folks very happy, those who really needed the larger interface and/or map zooming capabilities, or those who wanted it but didn't realize before :)

I've definitely noticed more new players hanging around lately, so we'll see how this might affect the long-term uptake as well.

Technically as you know here we already had all those features in testing a good bit before the public release, but despite that, there I was working long hours every day of the week right up until release day, and it felt kinda like 2015 or 2017 all over again! Those were the years Cogmind saw its first alpha release, and later joined Steam, and both transitionary periods involved a lot of extra marketing-type stuff. Yay. If it must be done it must be done... Part of the extra rush was that I looked at various items on the longer-term development calendar, and the fact that I was already signed up for a Steam sale beginning 2/27 anyway, so that put a fairly hard deadline on getting Beta 13 out there.

Then even after the release, I spent a full week fielding feedback, taking notes, getting in touch with people who needed an upscaled UI, and working on putting together our first couple patches. It was just as busy as pre-release, and it wasn't until I'd put out the second patch and streamed Cogmind this week that I could finally slow the pace a notch and return to a more reasonable schedule. Big whew there.

Normally after a major release, which happen on Tuesdays, there's not nearly so much activity or other immediate responsibilities and I can even freely go off to stream a run right away, or take a little break and prepare to analyze some stats from the previous release to share, but I haven't even started doing that part yet xD

In the first week of Beta 13 I did manage to play half a run on my own, but even that was halting and eventually paused for a few days while I worked on a patch to resolve all the issues or QoL needs I discovered while playing :P. I finally had a chance to finish that run this week, which I decided to stream as I hope to get back to doing more of that (archived here).

Going back to the build-up/prep work though, all that "marketing stuff" included of course the usual announcements (though somewhat more this time around), some updates to the Cogmind website (such as a new lightbox and updated details on some pages--a complete review), and most importantly: new screenshots.

Screenshots!

One of the most time-consuming efforts in the final week was the creation of a brand new set of screenshots for Cogmind, 21 in all, to replace the aging set originally put together back in 2015 :P

I mean we've got new layouts now, layouts which do a better job of demonstrating Cogmind on the types of screens most people will be browsing or playing on in the first place, so may as well leverage those.

Also back when I made the original set of screenshots, there was extremely little play experience with the game--no one else had played anything but the 7DRL before, and I myself had barely played the game at all, plus there were fewer features in all, so the quality of the screenshots could definitely be improved over what I compiled back then.

That's not to say I didn't put a lot of effort into them the first time around. Even back then each was designed to reflect some aspect of the game not shown by other screenshots, and not just taken randomly, but created according to a plan for all the requirements and different features I wanted to showcase, however large or small, but mostly just good coverage of the core feature set and experience (without spoilers). In fact, the original categorization was good enough that it served as the foundation for the new set, a foundation that did not change much, even if the screenshot quality differs significantly.

Behold, my spreadsheet for this latest round of screenshots:

Honestly I see a lot of devs who apparently don't really put much time into making good screenshots. I guess if players are just looking for a general idea, any old few screenshots will do to get that point across, but I put a lot of time into every screenshot, considering both the overall aesthetic/balance/color/etc (it's art!) and also finer details under the assumption that a portion of viewers might like to drill down and scrutinize screenshots for interesting smaller tidbits.

21 screenshots took me about 15 hours :P

Back when I first created Cogmind's website and marketing materials, I was under the impression that GIFs were necessary to really show Cogmind off (and those same GIFs still have prominence on the website), but now I think the screenshots almost do it justice!

I will say that it's possible to create still much cooler screenshots if we open the door to spoilers. I have seen (and taken :P) some seriously awesome and inspiring screenshots, both on an aesthetic and content level, but the idea is to let players make those discoveries for themselves. Also it's a generally good premise to under-promise and over-deliver when feasible, anyway. The hope and intent is that as long as people already like what they see when they check out Cogmind on a surface level, the reality and personal experience over time should be better than that. That said, we do need to hook people in the first place :P

In creating screenshots I also keep the save files used for each, on the off chance I want to tweak something later, or need them for something else. In the time since, a few saves have already come in handy for other image purposes.

I also finally dedicated some time to adding several new wizard mode features to somewhat speed up the screenshot composition process. I'll let the wizards know about those in a separate post later.

At the end of the screenshot process I also had to decide which to put on Steam (since the full set is made for the website first), and ended up adding more than I used to have there. It's still better to view them from the website, which has captions explaining what each one represents, and may provide other relevant info.

Having redone the screenshots, no longer will I have to occasionally hear about the fact that it's obvious I was using the dev build to take them, with some impossible stats and situations if you look closely enough :P (especially in the "main screenshot")

For posterity:

I've already shared some of the new screenshots above, but you can see the full set on the website's main page and Media page. They're also attached to this post.

Some of the screenshots could be better still, but I can/should only spend so much time on them, so it's probably a good thing there was an initial deadline and I should try to refrain from getting sucked down that hole too often (my own run was intermittently stopped by a desire to make more cool screenshots...).

In the end though, the combination of website updates, new set of screenshots, new UI layout options, map zooming, and all this (relatively speaking) not long after the item/mechanics rebalance as we head into crazier expansion territory really mark this as a huge transition in Cogmind's history. My guess is 1.0 will seem small by comparison.

Next, please!

So what's up next... time to finally get started on the Beta 12 stat analysis! While I'm not sure how extensive it will be this time around, I'm always taking notes during development of a given version regarding the kinds of things I'll be interested in examining once players have completed their many rounds of that particular release, to inform any further changes going forward, or at least validate assumptions made in the design, or just for fun. So as usual I already have my list of planned Beta 13 analyses ready to go in the future, though this time around there will most likely be an earlier look at the usage of our new interface options!

The annual 7DRL (Cogmind's birthplace!) is coming to a close this weekend, so as usual I'll probably want to pick some of those and stream/share info about them in the search for cool new mechanics and fun little roguelike experiences. That'll occupy a chunk of time starting next week.

Oh yeah, and Cogmind's price is going up starting next month, can't forget that one ;)

I'm still in the process of writing that announcement, but it needs to be announced ASAP because the last discount before that happens is coming up soon (Steam's Spring sale), and there is only a small window (April!) during which a price change will be possible without interfering with other discounting schedules, due to Steam's rules.

About time for a return to $24.99! I bet this will catch some people by surprise, since I know they just keep waiting for a steeper discount (not happening) and are going to get a price increase instead, hence the need to also announce it well enough in advance. I guess it's more specifically a warning than an announcement :P

No, "the other next," please

But yeah what you really want is BETA 14. Me too, me too...

It'd be out already if not for the mega UI detour, but I believe we needed that at this point and it should be good for Cogmind's future.

I'll be getting back to work on b14 soon, though it's too early to talk about a release day, or even point to a specific month just yet. As I've mentioned before, all the little pieces are essentially ready, it's just a question of how long it will take to put them together, which could be rather demanding due to the complexity (and my inclination to try to pack in more stuff anyway :P).