Kyzrati

Welcome! I'm Josh Ge, better known online as Kyzrati. 
 
I've been making roguelikes since 2011, and full time since 2013. You can hear a bit about my past in 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yJflbg0V38">this talk</a> I gave in 2016. Over the years I've written hundreds of thousands of words on roguelike development via <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/">my blog</a> and a sizeable collection of crowdsourced <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/wiki/faq_friday">FAQs</a>. I've helped build and moderate the largest group of roguelike developers in the world, <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev">r/roguelikedev</a>, and I do lots of work to promote the genre and help other developers. I also built <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/rexpaint/">REXPaint</a>, a user-friendly ASCII/ANSI editor popular among devs and artists. 
 
My largest project is 
<a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/">Cogmind</a>, on which I've already invested over 10,000 hours and still update regularly. It's a sci-fi roguelike that's been <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/innovation.html">innovating</a> on the genre for years as a polished immersive experience in a <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2015/04/living-dungeon/">living world</a> with <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2016/10/weaving-narratives-procedural-worlds-part-1-value/">compelling lore</a>, <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2018/08/65-robot-hacks/">deep mechanics</a>, an <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2014/11/ui-feedback-map-dynamics-2-0/">accessible quality interface</a>, and plenty of <a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2014/04/making-particles/">audiovisual goodness</a>. 
 
<div style="text-align: center;">
	<img src="https://i.imgur.com/WJUNpFL.gif"> 
</div>
 
My work has been recognized in Rock, Paper, Shotgun, PC Gamer, Destructoid, Strategy Gamer, multiple gaming magazines, and according to RSS aggregator Feedspot, my blog is one of the internet's top 50 development blogs. A number of my crossposted articles have featured on the front page of Gamasutra as well. Actually, if you're interested in roguelike development (or maybe you don't know you're interested but will be soon ;)) check out my primer available in both 
<a href="https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2018/10/how-to-make-a-roguelike/">text form</a> and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jviNpRGuCIU">video of the talk</a> I gave at the 2018 Roguelike Celebration in San Francisco. 
 
Why contribute? 
 
There are perks listed in the tiers, but it's not really about those incentives. The best part is that I'll be able to keep doing what I do, with less pressure to focus purely on commercial endeavors and more freedom to share helpful and creative roguelike content. Eventually with enough support this could even include additional side projects that wouldn't be financially viable on their own, but that I'm sure fans of my work would enjoy.
 
 
Specific to Cogmind, releases like 
<a href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/722730/announcements/detail/1734352028594444300">Beta 8</a> are a great throwback to the alpha days where we'd get significant chunks of new content added to the world, but without DLC (which I want to avoid) it's not sustainable in the long term to continue this line of development when most of the niche core audience has already purchased the game and revenue starts to dry up. By this point a smart developer would have already moved on to their next project, but I see so many more ideas that would be right at home in Cogmind and it'd be nice to unlock that extra potential. This is one reason I've decided to try transitioning to a new supporter-based model, or (more realistically) at least a hybrid model. I may have released a commercial game, but after years of updates above and beyond what were "necessary," I've clearly never operated like a normal business :P
 
 
I have other goals as well, including more 7DRLs (have you seen 
<a href="https://kyzrati.itch.io/polybot-7">POLYBOT-7</a>? :D), an even more powerful REXPaint 2.0, probably a Cogmind sequel, and hopefully one day reviving <a href="http://xcomrl.blogspot.tw/p/files.html">X@COM</a>. And of course I'll continue writing, too! I have so many more topics to 
cover, and my blog will continue as it always has, albeit assuming 
there's demand for it we'll be getting even more articles ;) 
 
So if you have the means and would like to support my work with the roguelike genre and community, I am grateful for any amount you can provide! I appreciate everyone's support over the years, and couldn't have done it without you all :D

Free

You'll get: 
<ul>
<li>My thanks for helping make my work sustainable</li>
<li>Early access to dev blog articles</li>
<li>Exclusive behind-the-scenes updates</li>
<li>Exclusive discussion about potential features/content/projects (includes occasional voting)</li>
<li>Access to stable Cogmind prerelease builds before they go public (must already own the game)</li>
<li>Patron role and channel on Roguelikes Discord</li>
<li>Optional email notifications for updates</li>
</ul>

Rogueliker

I get it, you seek more power. And science. This tier includes:
 
<ul>
<li>Everything from the previous tier, plus...</li>
<li>Access to Cogmind's Wizard mode (must already own the game)</li>
</ul>

Wizard

You somehow got into the database! This tier includes:
 
<ul>
<li>Everything from previous tiers, plus...</li>
<li>Forum badge for your Grid Sage Games account</li>
<li>Name/pseudonym on Cogmind's in-game patron list (distinction by tier)</li>
</ul>

Hacker

For each month at this level you've (for example) enabled me to add a simple item to Cogmind. This tier includes:
 
<ul>
<li>Everything from previous tiers, plus...</li>
<li>Random item attribution in Cogmind's in-game gallery (limited/while supplies last)</li>
<li>Access to all previous versions of my roguelike projects (Cogmind, REXPaint... everything)</li>
</ul>

Sage

You get everything from all previous tiers, and you're helping build something great with this, but I can't offer anything specific at this level.

Roguelover

You get everything from all previous tiers, and you're helping build something great with this, but I can't offer anything specific at this level.

Recent posts by Kyzrati