Vince

Thank you for your support.

Because such games don't sell and when it comes to action RPGs it's not the most interesting setting. Small indie studios can get away with it because we need to sell less than 1% of what AAAs do to stay in business.

Just to be clear, we aren't aiming to make a full-scale crawler a-la Wiz 8 which was a massive game. We're aiming to make an $8 game (I assume $2 in Russia) that we can put together in 8-10 months. Fight your way out of a prison mine, probably 40 fights in total.

Pretty much. I'm excited to try it myself. We have the overall design done for both games. The dungeon crawler was always our plan B - what happens if AoD doesn't sell enough to pay for the generation ship game's development: do we give up, take our ball and go home or try something else? Trying something else (a quick and inexpensive game that's all about combat) seems like a better idea. While our goal is to put together the dungeon crawler in 8-10 months (otherwise it doesn't make sense), we'll do our best to offer new features to make the game more interesting for people who are well familiar with AoD. The setting does call for a reworked armor system (individual pieces you can scavenge and swap around), but we'll see. As for the generation ship RPG, we want it to have a very different character system and style (focus on ranged weapons, Earth-made single-shot laser weapons vs crude ship-made firearms favoring rapid fire and burst, character levels and feats, environmental interaction, etc). So far the setting is shaping up well. We'll start sharing details a few months after AoD is out. We're in your debt for all your help, so you get a lifetime subscription to all our future games. Whenever you want a key, just PM me.

Thank you for your support, guys. PS. AoD has a very limited appeal, so it will never sell even a third of what D:OS sold, no matter the coverage, but as long as it sells enough to keep us in 'business' and pay for the next game's development, I won't complain.

Putting something playable together is relatively easy. Shaping it into a quality game takes time (clearly, a lot more time than we've anticipated). When we put the first iteration of the game together, I naively assumed that the we're almost done. Turned out it was only the beginning.

Not important and wouldn't affect gameplay (i.e. whether the ship is still in transit or arrived a long time ago would have no effect on your actions, survival, or exploration). Even if NPCs tell you from the start that the engines stopped working many moons ago (implying that the ship has arrived to its destination), what does it change? You're still stuck on the ship and have no access, means, or knowledge to do anything about it. Similarly, we didn't try to convince that the AoD world was invaded by demons only to reveal that it wasn't. Antidas tells you that the Qantari were demons and Feng tells you right away that they were humans. Same reasin - not important. The true ending for the colony ship game isn't realizing that the ship had arrived a long time ago but in making a decision, which in turn would rely on your experience, interaction, and place in the 'world'. For example, what would it take to make you decide that you (and everyone else) are better off on the ship because here you're a somebody, a man of importance and influence? When the ship lands, you're a nobody and would have to work your ass off just like everyone else (think Goodfellas' ending). Etc.

Well, we don't really want to rush things, so... Not true. ^ a smart soldier ^ a tough trader Obviously, it's more challenging to play a 'multi-classed' character but that's how it should be. Too much if you ask me, but kindness to the unwashed masses who would kill innocent people (and did) for a few extra skill points is my soft spot.

A new annotated combat guide by Brandon:

It's a bug, will be fixed soon (hopefuly today). My apologies for the inconvenience.

You can buy it at the pass (guards only at the moment, but will be extended to Aurelian agents as well).

We're now on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/230070/

Then you're missing out on a top 10 RPG - Star Trail. Check it out. http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2365.0.html

We put together the final build at 1am last night and released it to those who have pre-ordered because they come first. Now we'll submit to Valve and see what they say.

Took 6 min for me and I have a crappy connection. So, Albatross, if you're still having problems, let me know.

Not planned but possible (now that you asked). In the past shields were destructible, which is why they weren't craftable. Now that it's changed, we can add more techniques. The only issue is the lack of time (small team, too many tasks, etc), so I can't make any promises. I don't recall if we added the lich potion in the demo release. Other than that, that's all we have, but again, it's easy to add more given time.

No idea. I got this PM from another gentleman: "I recently pre-ordered AoD and have been clicking the download link obsessively all day (checking to see if the extended demo had been uploaded). BMT looks down on such behaviour and have blocked my password. The link I received was: ..." I assume if you download the file on a daily basis, they will flag it as suspicious behavior and lock the account. I'd suggest to email them as we have no control over such things. We can always give you (and anyone else who's having problems) a private link once the demo is released, so we *will* ensure that anyone who pre-ordered will get the demo, but if you want the BMT link to work, talk to them. For the record, we aren't the type to upload early and sit on it while writing pretty press-releases and contacting the media. The moment we have the final build, we'll upload it and make an announcement. So, no announcement - no demo in the placeholder file. We *are* getting close. 99% of issues - bugs, flow, transition, balance, etc are fixed. We gave the testers build #11 yesterday and are planning to give them the final release candidate tomorrow and let them test the balance throughout the weekend. If they say it's a go, then it's a go. If they uncover more issues, then it's a no-go.

I'd say yes. Freestyle interaction tends to be meaningless, nothing but filler. It's an illusion of freedom, much like Bioware's (or recentlt Shadowrun's) multiple dialogue lines that say the same thing in different ways. True freedom can only come from non-linearity, multiple quest solutions, choices & consequences.

Good question, good topic for discussion. I can't say that I like these gameplay elements, at least the way they're done in 99% of RPGs. - sneaking - click a button, your character becomes transparent and can walk everywhere in broad daylight (talking about isometric games here). When you fail an invisible check, you become visible and attacked on sight. We had an idea for a TB sneaking system, but didn't have time to implement it (which, coincidentally, goes to show that we don't throw every interesting idea into the game). - stealing/lockpicking - this one I really dislike. From the design perspective, it's a 'free stuff' skill. You run around, looking for chests to lockpick and people to pickpocket. It feels like a retarded mini-game: somewhere on this level hidden various, meaningless treasure and you should collect it all, sell it, and feel good about it. So, basically, we didn't want to do the 'traditional' implementation, but didn't have time to design something interesting. Instead, we went with scripted events in text-adventure mode that let you use skills in hopefully rewarding ways. There are tough locks, with built-in traps and such, that you'd have to figure out, there are sneaking quests (the palace infiltration, kaeso's house, etc), and so on.

It's a design decision. I remember playing PST and getting to the part with the giant skeleton guards and enchanted armor. The text description and the options to unravel the spell were like a breath of fresh air. Then later I was discussing Fallout 2 - the area where you get the part for the car, with a chickenwire fence. You couldn't climb it because it would require different climbing animations, yet a simple textbox with a check could have accomplished that easily. High Agility - teleport to the other side. Low Agility - drop on your ass. So for me, the text adventure design is about freedom and atmosphere.

Not at all. You can make a great quest even out of a simple delivery quest (like the New Vegas' plot), but usually - 99% - you get something delightfully simple and uneventful. Go to [relative], tell him that his/her [relative] is sorry, return to the first relative, collect a reward, ask yourself why you're playing this game. Google Translate does a great job letting me stay in touch with French, Italian, and Russian gamers.

Fortunately, RPGs can be enjoyed all year-round and AoD can be enjoyed in 2014 as easily as it could have been enjoyed in 2012. The only difference is that the 2014 edition is much better. Even if it's not ready? Then you've read a poorly translated interview. I want to make a good RPG. Whether or not it has a lot of interesting ideas (or a single one) isn't one of the concerns. We changed a lot of things over the years and expanded a lot of characters, quests, areas. Not because we were looking for some great ideas, but because what we had wasn't good enough, or had glaring issues, or was too low on quality content. I've used this example before, but let's try it again: When we started working on the game, there was a number of "traditional" elements I wanted to eliminate to, um, "streamline" the gameplay: - mindless running across maps and locations. You know, the typical "fedex" quests or "now run all the way back and tell the questgiver that you finished the quest!" It adds nothing to gameplay and just wastes your time. - mindless sidequests. You run around and talk to NPCs with silly problems. "I'm a hunter, can you please kill 10 wolves for me?" "Um, yeah, sure, I love killing wolves." "How would you like to listen about my family problems and then talk to my father/brother/wife/son to solve them for me once and for all?" "Oh boy, would I!" "My [place] is infested with [rats/spiders/bandits/tax collectors]. Please help me, I don't know what else to do." "Say no more, my good man. That's why I play RPGs I live for this shit!" - mindless looting. "Hey, a barrel! I wonder what's inside. A magic sword?!! Wow! Hey, another barrel..." So, we've eliminated all 3 and focused instead of developing interwoven questlines with different options and outcomes. The outcome? There is no need to explore the towns, 'cause there isn't much to do outside the faction quests. If you want to walk around looking for spontaneous stuff to do, you're in the wrong game. In other words, only when we skipped the mindless stuff, did we realize what it was there for. Take Fallout 2, for example. Even though it was inferior to the first game (that's just, like, my opinion, man), it was a well-rounded game with a lot of content. Sure, some quests were silly but when mixed with the good stuff, they didn't seem to bug me that much. Now, let's do a mental exercise. Take Den - a two-map town with a lot of stuff to do: 1. Collect money from Fred. 2. Get book from Derek. 3. Lara wants to know what is guarded in the church. 4. Get permission from Metzger for gang war. 5. Find weakness in Tyler's gang guarding the church. 6. Help Lara attack Tyler's gang. 7. Deliver a meal to Smitty for Mom. 8. Free Vic from his debt. 9. Sabotage Becky's still. 10. Get car part for Smitty. 11. Return Anna's locket. 12. Talk to Stacy and ask her to tell you the story about her cat. I hope we agree that "quests" #1, 2, 4 (the name implies more than the quest delivers; it's a straight "go to NPC A, tell him something, report back" type stuff), 7, 9, 11, and especially 12 are kinda shit. Quests 3, 5, and 6 are basically one quest. So, overall, we have "helping Lara to put Tyler out of business, permanently" (sadly, without the option to side with Tyler) and "freeing Vic in different ways". Without the fluff, without running between NPCs on different maps, you could do Den in about 5-7 min. Exploring, looking for stuff (no matter how silly) to do, running back and forth is 3/4 of Den's "menu for tonight's entertainment". Once the testers pointed it out, we had to fill the town with something. Naturally, we didn't want to fill it with barrels, ripe for picking chests, NPCs suffering without quality delivery services, etc. At first we wanted to do something quick and stupid. You walk down the street and see - perception check - something hidden in that, uh, wall? tree? barrel? In the end, we decided to do it right, as painful as it is during the beta test. Trust me, we all want that fucking demo out so that we can relax and, like, not think of it for a week or two? Have fun, enjoy life, run outside naked, play Skyrim, troll some forums? One by one, we added 8 - I don't know how to call them? mini quests? situations? events? something something? They filled in the town, expanded the gameworld and lore, and gave you a reason to explore. So, I guess we did learn something in the end. Neither do we. Thanks.

It would be nice to send another email, but I'm not sure if the BMT system has such a capability. We can send another email individually, which is handy in case someone loses the original, but I'm not sure about mass mailing. Overall, the way it's supposed to work is we swap the placeholder file with the demo file and you use the link that was emailed to you when you pre-ordered to download it. Naturally, there could be some issues, lost links, changed emails, but we'll be there to sort them out and make sure that everyone can download the demo, even if we have to upload it somewhere else.

Many old books have this strange naivette and simplicity. Take "The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester, circa 1956, for example. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination It's a great book because the ideas are fascinating, but the ending (and the main plot element) are downnright silly. So, you have this new super powerful explosive that can be detonated by a thought and everyone wants it, sparing no expense to get it. It's silly, but whatever. In the end the main character decides to tell people the truth (that this weapon exists) and scatters it around the world. So, now anyone can blow it up. In Bester's mind, people are good and will never do such a horrible thing, but we all know that someone will 'pull this trigger' within a minute. And yet the setting he painted, the background for all the above mentioned silliness is superb and very imaginative, which is what makes the book worth reading.

Torque is a pain to work with as it is a multiplayer engine that constantly shoves the server-client setup down your throat, but at least we know the engine inside out after all these years. Unity looks pretty, but it's an uncharted area. So, I'd favor caution and sticking with proven things, unless our programmer assures me that Unity is unquestionably better in all and every aspect. We know, of course, that inXile and Obsidian are working with Unity, but who knows what corners they had to cut and what compromises they had to make.