''Cogmind'' is a tactical

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most ro ...

available for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

developed by Grid Sage Games, a company founded by Josh Ge. Before its

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

early access release on 16 October 2017, it underwent public testing through

alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

and

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stages.

Gameplay

The player character is a robot, which is able to salvage parts from the remains of other robots; the game includes over 1000 of these parts. Character development is primarily focused around equipment: parts can be gained and used to level up, but also lost. Another distinguishing feature is the in-game interface, which is considered to be

user-friendly Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a softw ...

compared to other

roguelikes Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most rogue ...

. The game also features a

destructible environment In video games, destructible environments or deformable terrains are environments that can be destroyed by the player. It may refer to any part of the environment, including terrain, buildings and other man-made structures. A game may feature dest ...

, "a living ecosystem" of robot types, and a detailed stealth system that minimises dependence on combat.

Development

''Cogmind'' originated as an entry for the 2012 7-Day Roguelike Challenge, and was based on Ge's previous roguelike X@COM. After the challenge, Ge decided to develop the concept further, releasing the first public

on 24 May 2015, though Ge considered the alpha to be on the level of many games' release candidates. In the beginning of 2016, it was selected as one of ''

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017 and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. Histor ...

s top

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to look for that year. Grid Sage Games released a public beta on 6 May 2017. This was followed by an

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

release on

on 16 October. Despite it being labelled as early access, Ge stated that it was "a very complete experience", and that he only planned to withhold it from full release for around 6 months.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/ Roguelike video games Video games developed in Taiwan Windows games Windows-only games 2015 video games Science fiction video games Video games about robots Hacking video games