![]() Item art always fits into the same rectangular area at the top of the data window, and as such it's a good candidate for an evenly distributed spritesheet: Cogmind currently has two different types of spritesheets (adapting to what seemed like the most convenient method for each situation): even-distribution spritesheets and irregular spritesheets. Related assets are grouped into fewer image files, and the game knows how to find and extract specific images it needs. Great for frequent inter-image work.)ĭepending on your workflow, the one-image-per-asset approach could quickly become unwieldy once you have more than a handful of small assets, so another method is to create "ASCII spritesheets." This borrows the concept behind asset storage for most pixel/texture-based games, and it's what I do with Cogmind. (Tip: Ctrl-tab is a new hotkey that instantly swaps back and forth between the current and most recently opened image. REXPaint is equipped to facilitate this approach, since it includes a built-in image browser which enables you to quickly swap between different images for editing, comparison, or copy-pasting. The most straightforward method would be to simply draw each piece of art in its own image. In terms of organization, there are a couple different ways this can be achieved. Rather than hard code art into the source or rely purely on text files, it's much more efficient to use a dedicated tool designed to streamline the creation process, then import the results into the game at runtime. Not every roguelike needs ASCII art, but those that use it can definitely benefit from a tool like REXPaint. Coding the UI is so much easier with a pixel/cell-perfect representation at hand. (click for full size)Įventually you'll build up a little library of convenient reference material. Multi-layered mockup-overlaying the original image with some data windows and the hacking interface (all handled in REXPaint). Any given layer can be hidden/revealed to show how different elements interact. With Cogmind I design many related parts of the interface in a single image, using multiple layers to store each one. These can be drawn from scratch, or better yet expand upon the original mockups to save time and ensure compatibility. More fonts are coming in future versions.)įor a developer, being able to see everything as it will be / as you want it can be very motivating, especially as it gives you a clear goal to aim for and reduces the need for tedious trial-and-error design.Įven after there's a working prototype, and really all throughout development, there's often a need to add new features and UI elements. (Or use one of REXPaint's own fonts for your game, which is fine, too-classic terminal fonts are available, as well as many from legacy systems. Some earlier Cogmind mockups have been mistaken for screenshots, because there's no way to tell the difference! (Sometimes I have a mockup displayed on my desktop and click on it to interact before realizing it's not actually the game =p.) Of course, to achieve this effect you'll have to load your game's custom font into REXPaint. The original Cogmind primary UI mockup, as drawn in REXPaint. One of the nice things about creating a roguelike is that with the right editor you have an extremely reliable way to preview what the game will look like even before building a prototype! Any visual element from UI and maps to text and art can be accurately drawn and assessed for the right layout, colors, and overall "feel." In the early stages of game development you have the design and mockup phase. Thus a single editor like this can benefit work on many different aspects of a traditional roguelike. It turns out that interface, maps, and art, all three separate elements in other games, are unified in roguelikes that embrace the ASCII aesthetic. Exports to PNG, ANS, TXT, CSV, XML, XPM, BBCodeįor gifs showing many of these features in action, see the features page on the REXPaint blog.Īs you can see, it's a fully-featured paint program, albeit focused on manipulating ASCII images.Extreme image compression (far better than png). ![]() Zooming: Scale an image by changing font size on the fly.Image-wide color tweaking and palette swaps.Preview effects simply by hovering the cursor over the canvas.Edit characters, foreground, and background colors separately. ![]() Featuresįirst, an overview of what REXPaint can do: After two years of using and updating it, I'm pretty familiar with how to take advantage of its features for roguelike development, and would like to provide a little guide to ways REXPaint can make your life easier. anyone who might need a powerful and user-friendly ASCII editing program. It has since been made freely available for other devs, artists, players. REXPaint is an in-house tool I developed in 2013 shortly before resuming work on Cogmind.
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