Here is a small interview with the guy. I had no question in specifics or much experience in these kind of things so i whipped up a few question and hope the answer will interest some of you.
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1. Tell me about your devlopment process, how long did you work on designs, had any inputs from poeple around you? Any interesting stories or anecdotes?Development process started during the first title, pretty much Star Nomad 2 is the space trader & combat sim I wanted to make, my take on the genre, but back then I was fully aware of my limitations with code so all the cool features were scrapped or dumbed down and that became Star Nomad, a very arcade take on the genre. I tried to make up for it with an interesting tale, but its not really something this genre is about. It needs depth.
Inputs came from players of the first, lots of their feedback were things I wanted as well. For example, the minimap. I seriously could not code a real-time positioning update system for a damn minimap back then. Another example, ejecting your cargo... yeah, seems real simple but I wasn't ready to wrap my head around those logic. These days, any feature I envision, I can make it happen. So it's interesting to see my progression on a personal level, like a Gamedev Level Up and it feels satisfying.
2. How long did you work on devlopment, did you work alone? Any funny bugs during testing? What pissed you off the most and finaly what made you the most proud accomplisment wise. I finished the first Star Nomad around June last year, so it was from then on straight into the design phase and testing concepts. I was also busy at that time with porting to mobiles (Star Nomad & Ninja Girl), support, bug fixes and some family issues so it wasn't heavy dev work. Full development started last December.
I work alone, however I contracted a lovely artist from Japan for most of the game-art (she is very talented!). Most of the crap visuals & UI are mine.
Bugs were related to AI mostly. At one point they decided to do their own random thing, I had no idea why. There's a lot of randomness in the system so sometimes it does things which surprise me as well.
What pissed me off the most was all the UI. I suck at it and it takes a very long time, very tedious. It took me 2 weeks to make the trading UI earlier in the year.. then I scrapped it recently and built it from scratch, took me half a day to make a better version where I can add things in the future and expand upon it easily. These little things make me appreciate the journey of learning.
Proudest achievement ingame, would be the dynamism, faction AI fleet building, all linked to the simple act of trading goods or smuggling drugs. I wanted player actions and in-actions to have a consequence and it does. The second thing which is really cool, is the combat drone AI. The way they move, it's as if they are a "flock of fish swimming in space", evading fire, and they engage other drones in a dog-fight dance of death.
3. If you had help, how was your relation with the other parties, care to tell us some funny joke or insides?My artist is really cool, I like seeing her hiking photos of Japan.
4. Random comments about the game? What gave you will, inspiration, story related to these inspiration.For the NPCs, I tried to make their stories very personal, something players can relate to. Games should trigger emotions. Failure should be anguishing, victory is sweet nectar. This is why I went with some design decisions which some players won't like, such as the Killing Blow mechanic "Winner takes all!". Also the NPC story mission, you can fail them, and its permanent, with consequences. This is where the Roguelike encounters come in too, they serve as comic relief, or nostalgic moments and some which make you think or rage.
As for the game itself, there's a lot of inspiration from games that I liked, Fallout 2 squad play where they do their own thing, based on your AI settings, and the little text msg popup above their heads.. Mount & Blade for the faction conquest dynamism, FTL for the random encounters.
5. What is your best lesson and worst moment during devlopment?
Keeping it simple is my best lesson. Simple does not equate to lacking in depth. Complexity should not be there for the sake of it, it should be fun first and foremost. I don't have a worse moment in development, it's been enjoyable all through.
6. How old are you?Turning 34 soon.
7. Any experience programming prior to the game? Where did you learn.Zero. Self taught. More info here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/414950/discussions/0/492379159716050661/ 8. When you were kid, what was your dream job, some wants to be cops, some firefighter, what about you?Gamedev. Really!
9. Tell us a bit about who you are, what you do for living, familly? If so anything funny happent during devlopement that your familly was part of?I'm a research scientist by training. My specialty is genetics, molecular biology. I used to be a lab monkey at nice places, was paid well enough (which I saved). For the past nearly 3 years, it's been a journey to re-start a new career. With no pay. I have a wife and 2 kids (2 & 4), their pictures are here (
https://halfgeekstudios.wordpress.com/about/)! Before i quit my old career, I gave myself 3 years to reach my goals of earning enough to pay the bills as a gamedev. So time is nearly up and this is it!
It's always fun since I code in the living room and take care of 2 kids. You can imagine 2 young kids running around playing, fighting, yelling, crying. Me half way in coding some complex feature, stopping to help them with the toilet, cook food, clean up... oh yeah, it's fun & games!
10. What is your best game of all time and why ?Two. 1) Final Fantasy 7, the epitome of jRPG with charming characters, depth, beautiful story and great gameplay mechanics. 2) Fallout 1/2, the epitome of cRPG for me because I like sci-fi more than fantasy (BG1/2, Torment are also great), and the option to play a low INT character and the hilarious outcome...
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Topic: Star Nomad 2 (Read 8287 times)