Ask the developer a question!

[Zackirus]

Why does Fate chose to intervene in the death of the hero in TRPG2, but not in the death of the Hero in TSoG...

[ArtDrake]

How important are sounds and sound effects and music in video games, or what is your opinion to that effect?

[CraigStern]

Sounds and music are important to set tone and mood, and to convey important information about in-game events. I tend to think they're very important, even if they do necessarily take a back seat to other considerations (such as visuals and gameplay).

[bugfartboy]

How long is it until you're swimming in your pool of money from NERF RPG? :D

[CraigStern]

In an alternate reality, I already am.

[bugfartboy]

Cool! I guess. Well, what are you doing on your forums when you could be working on your game?!? :)

[ArtDrake]

He's probably answering questions from you...

Craig, have you heard of the game "Caravaneer"? Its battle system is closer to yours than anything else I've ever seen.

[Xemadus Echina]

He's probably answering questions from you...

Craig, have you heard of the game "Caravaneer"? Its battle system is closer to yours than anything else I've ever seen.

I've played that before. and you're right, it is.  *wonders how i forgot about referencing it in an earlier post in this forum*

[Ertxiem]

There are lots of turn based games with fighting systems like the Telepath games. For instance, fights between fleets of ships in Space Empires is similar (at least in Space Empires III and IV).

Nevertheless, in Caravaneer our characters can evolve (up to a point), making it more close to TRPG2 and flowing games (by the way, I played TRPG2 before Caravanner, so I assume TRPG2 appeared first).

And there are a few differences in combat, namely, in Caravaneer there is a probability to hit and you can equip any weapon to anyone (so, all attacks are available to anyone).

[ArtDrake]

One more question:

When would a good time be to ask you a multitude of questions?; I don't want to crowd the Ask the Developer a question thread.
I'd like to conduct an interview of sorts for a school project, and you seem to be the best person to ask; you're a game developer, you develop in Flash, you're indie, and you do pretty much everything I aspire to do*. So, if there were a good time for you to be able to answer questions (I'd like to be able to ask follow-up questions, and that's why it's a time-sensitive thing), if you would let me know...

[spoiler=*exception]Well, not the bit about being a lawyer -- no offense intended -- because I find physics more interesting.[/spoiler]

[CraigStern]

I've been a fan of Caravaneer for a long time. It was one of the first games I chose to review when I started up IndieRPGs.com. ;)

[ArtDrake]

Okay, this is a lot of questions, so feel free to pick and choose:

Can you allow swfs to be attached? It would make it a heck of a lot easier to share my game, and combined with the fact that the Embed Flash option now works, people could play the game on the forum!

1) How does making games with large amounts of content and additional features, like saving, sharing, microtransactions, ingame advertisement, and a satisfying achievement system, affect the lifestyle of a game developer?

5) How complete should a game be before the developer hires the services of an  illustrator/animator/voice actor/other artist to assist them in the process of creating assets for the game?

7) Is hiring the services of an asset artist worth the cost, for the benefit it does your game?

8) Is a story essential to a successful game?

[Ertxiem]

Demon Duck: you numbered your questions 1, 5, 7, 8!

By the way, using "8 )" without the space showed the cool smiley 8).

[CraigStern]

1) How does making games with large amounts of content and additional features, like saving, sharing, microtransactions, ingame advertisement, and a satisfying achievement system, affect the lifestyle of a game developer?

It makes a game take longer to develop, but it can also increase the amount of income a game generates. The developer has to decide whether any given game warrants this sort of treatment. Microtransactions, for instance, are best suited for multiplayer games, social games, and games with episodic content.

5) How complete should a game be before the developer hires the services of an  illustrator/animator/voice actor/other artist to assist them in the process of creating assets for the game?

Depends on what role you want them to have. If you're giving them a revenue cut, they should be on board from the beginning so they can give input during the development process. If you're just paying them a flat fee based on a contract, you should hire them as soon as you need your game to look polished. Maybe that's after it's fully developed, or maybe that's in the middle of development, when you're trying to promote the game. That's up to you.

7) Is hiring the services of an asset artist worth the cost, for the benefit it does your game?

Depends on the game, and how much you're paying. For a small physics-based game that's just going to go on Kongregate? Probably not. For a game you're going to sell to people? Definitely.

8) Is a story essential to a successful game?

No. It's central to many types of games, but other games get by just fine with little in the way of story.

[Deagonx]

Not sure if this is 'in reason'


but who did you vote for?