A couple of questions...

[Monolith]

I'm curious about some things, VD, mostly about stuff that isn't directly about AoD. I haven't seen those questioned answered yet so I thought I'd give it a go.

1. As an indie dev, how do you plan to distribute the money you'll eventually make among your core team members? Will anybody else get the same share as you? And how did you pay temporary staff (concept artists, sound engineers, Elhoim)? Up front or were promises enough?

2. How did you start working on AoD? Did you start all by yourself, writing a design document and deciding what sort of engine to use/make - or did you wait with such decisions until you had somebody more competent on your team?

3. How intense was the pre-production phase - did you have, for instance, the story and all locations worked out on paper in detail, with full-blown quests and NPCs, or have you worked out the details on the fly, while having the visual interpretation of you ideas already in place? Either way, do you regret not doing it the other way around?

4. How do you communicate with your team members? Through internet only? If so, what do you use mostly, messengers, forums etc.? And how often? Or are you lucky enough to have some of your team members living nearby?

5. How do you and your team handle milestones?

6. What do you think is absolutely necessary for somebody who wants to develop a RPG the way you are doing it? Any advice you can give, or warnings? What were the greatest mistakes you made so far?

I'm not sure if this hasn't been asked before and besides, it's not so important, but still:
Will AoD have any cinematics? Intro, outros, Irontower Logo, anything?

I know it's a lot and initially I had just two questions...but it's nothing urgent so take your time.

 

[Vault Dweller]

As an indie dev, how do you plan to distribute the money you'll eventually make among your core team members? Will anybody else get the same share as you?

The programmer gets the same share, since he was with me from the beginning and did a lot of work. Without his efforts a lot of cool things wouldn't have been possible. Other guys (the animator and the modeller) get less.

And how did you pay temporary staff (concept artists, sound engineers, Elhoim)? Up front or were promises enough?

Upfront. As for Elhoim, he did the interface without asking for anything, but he impressed me greatly with his work, so I offered him a cut if the game sells well (i.e. we cover the expenses and still have some money left on the table).

2. How did you start working on AoD? Did you start all by yourself, writing a design document and deciding what sort of engine to use/make - or did you wait with such decisions until you had somebody more competent on your team?

I started by myself. Originally I was thinking of using the Geneforge engine. I knew that the combat would kinda suck (it's not one of the strengths of the Spiderweb games), so I focused on the dialogues. They were going to be the main gameplay element and attraction. Anyway, Jeff asked for too much for the engine, so I had to look for an engine elsewhere. I talked to the Prelude guys. They said that I can use their engine for free. I started playing with it and did some cool things, but then the offer was basically withdrawn. Oh well, shit happens. Then I started looking at other engines, looking for something simple enough to use. That's when Flashback - the programmer dude - who recently joined the Codex in search of wisdom and free porn contacted me. He had a 2D engine that he wrote and he wanted to partner up. The rest you know.

3. How intense was the pre-production phase - did you have, for instance, the story and all locations worked out on paper in detail, with full-blown quests and NPCs, or have you worked out the details on the fly, while having the visual interpretation of you ideas already in place? Either way, do you regret not doing it the other way around?

I had pretty much everything on paper before we started working with the engine. Of course in 3 years I managed to change a lot of things, maybe up to 40-50%. When you have 3+ years to play with some ideas and stories in your mind, you evolve them. I'm not talking about "nah, I don't like it anymore, I'll make a new one" scenario, but more like "this story would be better if I add these elements and go a bit deeper here". The story and faction questlines are good enough to be the main attraction now.

4. How do you communicate with your team members? Through internet only? If so, what do you use mostly, messengers, forums etc.? And how often? Or are you lucky enough to have some of your team members living nearby?

Emails mostly, 4-5 times a day. More often when something urgent comes up.

5. How do you and your team handle milestones?

With dignity.
No idea what you are asking here.

6. What do you think is absolutely necessary for somebody who wants to develop a RPG the way you are doing it? Any advice you can give, or warnings?

From the NMA interview:

As for the tips, well, you can make your own game. It doesn't take a rocket scientist. There are great free or almost free engines, there are many tools that make development easy (everything is relative though). A successful team requires 4 things:

* A team leader, who can run everything (anarchy does not make games).
* People who are reasonably knowledgeable in their fields: a designer who can put a game together, a programmer who likes programming and whose experience doesn't come from "How to become an uber programmer in 24 hours!", and artists who can play with shapes and colors, without reading the Help section first.
* Patience and dedication. It would be hard, it would take years, it would feel like working a second job (assuming you have the first one). If you are not ready for that kind of relationship, don't do it. If you are, congratulations, you will make your own game one day.
* Being able to accept the fact that your game isn't perfect and that some design elements are kinda stupid. Why? That's just how things work. You can't avoid those things, but you can listen, really listen to feedback and look at your game through someone else's eyes. That would highlight all the stupidity you've managed to put into the game, and give you a chance to remove it.

What were the greatest mistakes you made so far?

Lack of good art direction. That's what I regret the most. The rest I can live with.

I'm not sure if this hasn't been asked before and besides, it's not so important, but still: Will AoD have any cinematics? Intro, outros, Irontower Logo, anything?

Not planned.

 

[Fez]

If he can't afford cinematics, I'd still like cut scenes and slideshows for setting the scene or overall story (I know that good FMV ones like in Dawn of War can be enormously expensive compared to the rest of the budget of most games), similar to Geneforge and Avernum.

 

[Claw]

Well, I suppose scripted scenes shouldn't be difficult and can substitute cutscenes to some degree.

 

[Vault Dweller]

We have scripted scenes.

 

[Monolith]

Thanks a lot VD.

 

[Fez]

And there was much rejoicing.

 

[Ander Vinz]

Two quick questions:
1. Are you planning mac version?
2. Will I be able to choose screen resolution larger than 800x600?

 

[Vault Dweller]

No.

 

[Fez]

Take that Steve Jobs! Is the form it is written in too difficult to convert and justify the cost or time for the Mac market? The Mac owners get hardly any games, they'd lap it up no matter what.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Ok, let's change it to "maybe".

 

[Ander Vinz]

I don't understand you, Vd.
Fallout and Arcanum looks like crap on modern computers not because of bad art design but because of damned monstrous pixels. Even Prelude and Geneforge4 greately benefited from resolution augmentation. Why not to add it in your case? Very hard to code? Not supported by the engine?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Ok, fine, "yes", you've won. Happy now?

 

[Ander Vinz]

Damnit. Is it too late to return to "no"?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yes.

 

[Roqua]

Caving in to the demands of graphic whores is the path Pete Hines took, and now he's rich. Can you add in some nice bloom while you are at it, and maybe get Phyllis Diller to do some voice acting?

 

[Elhoim]

Actually HDR is more next-gen...

 

[Jasede]

Solution to your problem: Run it in a window.


Also, if Fallout or Arcanum looks like crap to you you're a graphics whore. [Or you have an LCD with an inconvenient native resolution. Run stuff in windows if that's the case.]

 

[Elwro]

An even better solution if it's not a laptop: get back to your old, trusty, small CRT monitor.

(I'll only stop using my CRT screen when it breaks down - really, apart from space considerations, I can't find a reason for swicthing to LCD.)

 

[Shagnak]

Solution to your problem: Run it in a window.

Please please yes.
Window = good

 

[Monolith]

Looks like I'm the only person here that is absolutely satisfied with an LCD. I even prefer it to all the CRTs I had. :shock:

 

[Castanova]

Windowed mode is a given. Right? ..... Right?!

 

[Nick]

Windowed mode is a given. Right? ..... Right?!

Right!

 

[bluecuracao]

So i won't be able to run AoD in 1440x900? because it looks pretty shitty when a 800x600 (4:3) picture is upscaled to 1440x900 (16:10).. I mean like, really shitty. Tried it once with hearts of iron 2 (which was in 1024x768), but my lcd scales so bad, there were a dozen blurred vertical lines visible. It's not totally unplayable, but it sure is a big drawback and turns me away from the game into anger at the lcd-manufacturer.


And windowed mode? come on.. theres not one single game i played in windowed mode, not even monkey island or summer olympics back in the Amiga 500 days.. Looking at my desktop with all the work waiting while playing is not an option for me..

 

[Nick]

Well, 1024x768 will be supported.