Josh Ge, solo developer of the roguelike Cogmind, writes about game development, procedural map generation and his REXPaint ASCII art editor.
Commenters praise Cogmind for its animations and UI, and describe the developer as generous to the community, especially through the REXPaint editor.
After seeing the demo, I felt like the Reddit commentator who wrote, "I've never gone so quickly from seeing something to buying it" [or wanting to!]. Unfortunately, the buy page is pretty complicated:
http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/buy.html
The page has a lot of graphics and characters using strikethrough which confused me and looks somewhat unprofessional. I suspect the author might be losing conversions due to the complexity of this page. I would prefer a simpler buy page that put the actionable content right at the top. (I'm just looking for a regular commercial-type purchase of an early access game, not being a backer per se.)
I'm sharing this as constructive feedback in the hope the author might see it. A customer like me will appreciate a simpler, direct buy page that doesn't require a lot of thought from "oooo this looks fun" to making the purchase. Capitalize on impulse buys coming out of your demo.
Anyway, very polished and fun from the few minutes I've had to play it so far. Nice work!
This game is easily as polished as, or more polished than plenty of games on Steam Greenlight. Steam was the first place I looked for it, actually, after reading the article. A game like this should attract huge interest among the right audience if it's replayable. You have flashy and normal enough graphics with an easy-to-understand interface that regular gamers can enjoy it, and it also seems like it will appeal to the hardcore roguelike gamers. I'd highly recommend…
Dropping 32bit support is game-over for gaming on macOS. The numbers already didn't add up for indie developers [1]. Even AAA game developers often ignore macOS because the ROI is just too low. And from the $5/month subscription how much will end up to the developers [2]?
Essentially what Apple Arcade will end-up hosting is ports of run-of-the-mill mobile games. And I'd bet the advertised number of developers will diminish as soon as the agreements they secured for the launch expire. But if this is the kind of gaming you're interested into, you already have your iPhone/iPad.
[1]: https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2019/09/sorry-mac-users-apple-doesnt-care-about-us-devs/
[2]: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k4ww/its-hard-to-use-apple-arcade-without-wondering-how-developers-will-be-paid
I suspect it's all about whether your game is mainstream or niche. The latter probably will earn more with a slightly higher price point. It won't achieve mainstream success anyway, and you also do not have to worry about scaring the dedicated core audience away.
Cogmind is a good example of this[0]. Traditional roguelikes are typically in the "completely free" category. But that core audience that loves the genre is a lot more likely to pay twenty dollars for such an extremely polished and well-crafted game in this genre.
EDIT: Of course, whether or not clicker games are niche games with a hard core audience is highly questionable. If anything they are surprise addictions for casual players browsing the web.
[0] http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/
The entire dev blog [0] here is really great for anyone interested in game dev, roguelikes, graphics, etc. etc. Lots of in depth information and great images/gifs. Such a nice resource and to give to a community of small game developers, lots on there on my reading list!
(It is from the developer of Cogmind, Josh Ge, who also has a nice video [2] on their journey to becoming a game developer. I love how the game looks, but haven't yet tried it.)
[0] https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/
[1] https://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yJflbg0V38
You probably know all this, but for others:
Cogmind is a lot of really thought out small touches that sum up to an engaging experience despite at first glance looking like any other roguelike. It's got great animations/explosions and an intuitive UI.
The developer is the main mod of r/roguelikedev, has been running a great blog for years where he dives deep into aspects of roguelike dev (https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/), and is also just a wonderful human who genuinely loves supporting the community and playing roguelike games.
1) Games should be able to operate in more moral ambiguity than clear black and white prescription
2) Game mechanics should violate your expectations more.
3) More variations on theme see https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/gsg-content/uploads/2018/10/roguelike_theme_list.png
most games operate in a very narrow rangen of expectations that lead to a staid and predictable experience. Almost all first-person games suffer from this sort of homogenization.