Background and plan behind Cogmind's fully upgraded semi-modal interface layout
At last! Today marks the launch of Cogmind's most ambitious user interface development effort yet: making everything bigger! Not just the map where zooming can now be toggled off as part of an updated toggleable feature; all text will become larger as well.
I enjoy interface work immensely, evidenced by my vast array of optional QoL features I've added over time; yet even after spending many hours to improve accessibility and streamline gameplay elsewhere, this feature took forever to implement!
Back when Cogmind first came out, I gave serious consideration to adding it then--creating mockups and discussing possible implementation options with my community--but the timing wasn't right yet. We hadn't established what might constitute acceptable extreme options at that point in time and knew exactly which direction this feature could go in terms of design without jeopardizing other parts of its functionality. Therefore, implementation had to wait.
At its heart lies user interface (UI). Being at the core of player engagement in games, its design must incorporate system requirements - specifically display device compatibility! UI must therefore play an essential part of player experience when designing any given title.
Taken at its extreme, there are undoubtedly different considerations when developing for mobile vs desktop platforms; decisions taken to optimize designs to the target platforms often lead to differences between ports between platforms in terms of technical implementation or feel.
As was predictably observed beginning in 2010, developers began targeting multiple platforms with their game development (most notably desktop PC and console gaming platforms) at once, creating games to ultimately cover as many platforms as possible (desktop PC players lamenting changes introduced into PC titles to accommodate console playback and vice versa; although, to maximize profits I suppose such changes may have been considered necessary). It has certainly created interesting player reactions; for example PC gamers lamenting these modifications just so console games would work correctly as well :P
Finding middle ground so more people can appreciate a form of entertainment is both noble and achievable, though doing so often reduces experience quality. When setting stringent requirements for target players' experiences and optimizing for what you know to be true - your end product should always benefit those specific players!
Cogmind was created over a decade ago with this goal in mind - creating a large enough terminal grid to simultaneously display lots of information at once--Cogmind boasts one of the largest terminal dimensions among any subterranean Roguelike, as well as having massive maps featuring tons of entities doing their thing - some more important than others, all worthy of notice due to various circumstances.
At that time, my strategy for Cogmind could only have been so ambitious if it had included what I decided at that moment: this design will rely heavily on having a large screen to play on; "large" meaning physically large here; resolution being irrelevant as we're talking about a traditional terminal; all info simply appearing larger when playing on bigger displays (compare 80x25 grid of classic Roguelikes with 160x60 display grid found elsewhere for Cogmind)
Over 10 years have gone by since Cogmind was introduced, and more people now play laptop-based gaming than ever before, leading to greater demand for alternative interface solutions such as Cogmind's alternative interface options.
Even when not originally targeted as such, I wanted Cogmind 1.0 to accommodate more people whenever possible; and although my initial intention was for that experimentation to take place around that milestone date (around which point this post will likely go public!), there's now no idea when Cogmind will actually become available:P
At this stage, we also have an extremely clear idea of Cogmind's development needs, player interactions within the game, as well as all UI considerations and limitations that would need to be taken into account when designing alternative interface layouts that still work effectively.
Vising the map, where most of the action occurs, is also critical - but how much of it do we wish to view at once and how large should this view be?
Cogmind was not designed with widescreen support in mind; our user interface layout was originally meant to fit comfortably within 4:3 aspect ratio and only expand horizontally as more space became available.
Therefore, while this layout allows an expansion to show more area, its minimum map view area was set at 50x50 (actually 100x50 due to map cells being square rather than rectangular, each taking up two terminal cells).
Cogmind was designed around a central idea: 50 should not exceed your area of visibility by default. Given Cogmind is focused on ranged combat, being repeatedly attacked from out of view would not make for an enjoyable play experience; nor would having data from enemies roaming all around you yet out of view from you being known would hinder play experience and playability. Therefore having limited views areas cannot create optimal play experiences.
Under 50x50 map view dimensions, placing Cogmind in the center gives players access to seeing approximately 25 miles out in any direction - therefore ranges should typically stay below this value.
Reasons why having an impressively wide map view are necessary include its sheer magnitude of maps to explore and potential high levels of local activity out there. Even at 50x50 resolution, even one view area cannot show more than 1/16th of primary maps' area--more so for smaller ones and even less so for bigger ones.
