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Hearthstone: Down with the sickness?

Just let me start off with two words: Reno Jackson.

Since his release a few months back, Reno Jackson has quite literally become the all-star card in Hearthstone. The most infuriating, keyboard smashing, swear-inducing, monitor shattering card is now a staple in a majority of professional decks. I mean, why wouldn’t he be? Almost doubling the longetivity of the game, as a card he can switch the flow of the game almost instantly. Great as a card, but also probably the biggest pile of (use your imagination) to come into play, ever. However, before I get further into my rant, let’s take a look at Hearthstone’s humble beginnings, and an overview of where we are now. 

Since its launch in March of 2014, Hearthstone has amassed more than 40 million registered accounts. The game release itself, as well as all of its expansions, have been well-received, none seeming to score any less than a 75% on any game review website. It quite quickly became known as a fun and entertaining free-to-play card game that involves strategy, but is still fairly simplistic. As of late, I feel as if these expectations may be a bit lacking. As a long time Hearthstone player, I’ve noticed that over the past few months the game (and community) have slowly been taking a turn for the worse. Gone are the days of being creative when it comes to making your decks, and gone are the days of people helping each other out because they want to help someone else enjoy the game. Gone are the days of playing the game, just to play. Now are the days of copying decks from websites, such as Ivy Veins, which list all the cards and in-depth info you need to win. Now are the days of the community slowly starting to delve into a state of toxicity; the people are ruder and the decks are crueler. Now are the days of everyone playing the same series of decks against each other, just to win. Creativity and passion are at an all-time low; everyone just wants to be Legend. (Example below of deck-lists with reachable ranks, mana curve and cost)

The thing that’s been bothering me the most as of late is the amount of times I’ve run into the same kinds of toxic decks in both ranked and casual play. Any Hearthstone player will know what I’m talking about, but here’s a few examples: Murloc anything (Paladin or Shaman are the most common), Facehunters, Zoo Renolocks, Secret Paladins and Outlast Priests. If I received any amount of money for the amount of times I’ve played against these decks, I would be a rich man. Each game equally more infuriating than the last, the time has come where I log on, do my quests, maybe play a round or two of Tavern Brawl and then log off again. There’s no point in playing ranked or casual because 9 times out of 10, I know what I’m going to go up against (and lose to), and where’s the fun in that? (See below for some of the worst offenders)

Usually, when it comes to situations like this, the phrase “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” comes to mind. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t try, but it’s just so mind-numbingly boring. I don’t feel justified in reaching a high rank using the same deck as 25% or more players who also all reached that same rank with the same deck. I realize that to some degree, having a deck better deck than your opponent does matter… But the amount of irritation it causes to some more casual players like myself is mind-blowing. Every other deck faced in casual is identical to any of the decks listed above, and most of the time whenever I try to get past rank 15 I come face-to-face with a bunch of twinks who lose on purpose to stay in that playing field. Not my idea of a fun time. However, there is one shining light at the end of the tunnel. One glimmer of hope that may be able to revitalize the game that’s become so, so predictable: Standard Mode.

With or without Whispers of the Old Gods, Standard Mode will re-jig the way things work. Without WotOG, it will make some decks more complicated to pull off because of the lack of minions that will synergize with each other, leading to hopefully some more creativity . With WotOG, the addition of the newest card releases will hopefully revitalize all classes with new legendary-heavy combinations and a some more powerful minions with better options. This way, with an option to either get face-rolled by all-inclusive decks or perhaps have a fighting chance and being able to win while utilizing your creativity again, you can play whatever you’re feeling that day! You can check out all of the revealed cards for WotOG here, and get more information on Standard mode here. Keep your heads up fellow Hearthstoners; the game is set to be getting this much-needed shake up this Spring, and it will come sooner than we think. 

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Post Dated: 2016-04-15. Last Modified: 2016-04-15. Written by Neil Rampone

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[Early Access] Phantasmal: City of Darkness

By Neil Rampone Phantasmal: City of Darkness is a survival horror game with a haunting atmosphere, and different twists around every corner (literally). With an environment that is randomized around every turn and a menagerie of creepy sounds and monsters lurking in the darkness, anyone who decides to play is in for quite a ride. Small Dev Talk got an advance press copy so we could write an article about it, so here goes! Playing as Private Investigator John Hope, when your Aunt Jackie disappears from her medical clinic in city located near Hong Kong, you decide to take it upon yourself to find out what’s gone wrong. Getting help from your Aunt’s assistant, something goes wrong and you fall through the floor into another apartment block, which is where your journey through the maze-like apartment complex begins. Note: The first thing that I noticed when I spawned in was the awesome looking HUD. An original-looking and easy to understand concept, it definitely worked well to enhance gameplay. Kudos.

Armed with a pistol and a plank of wood, there is a vendor right around the corner from your spawn point offering various upgrades and items, if you’ve got the coin. My first round going through the complex wasn’t a speedy process; I’m a huge chicken when it comes to any kind of horror game, so I was taking my time flicking my flashlight on and off, crouching most of the time to avoid attention from anything spooky and getting generally freaked out by the sound track (more on that later). My first enounter with some baddies went alright, I suppose. Zombie-like in nature, and very grumpy, I didn’t perish, and my character probably built a bit of muscle smashing them in with my plank of wood (my girlfriend got a good kick out of it while sat at my side, I was screaming a fair amount of obscenities). After going deeper into the apartment complex, I eventually succumbed to the fact that my character went crazy. I restarted and got put back in the apartment for round 2, but had gathered a fair amount of coin so I figured I could buy myself a nice upgrade. Note: One thing that I wasn’t totally hot over with was the rapid inflation of pricing for the upgrade system. Each run through the complex I gathered between $25-45 of the in-game currency, and obviously that amount will go up the better you get at the game… However, the base line for any upgrade to level 2 is $50, and one of the upgrades peaks at $1000 for level 5 (the max level for any upgrade). The appeal to max out all upgrades is definitely evident (because that means you can clear the baddies with ease), but I feel like the range between upgrade levels may be a bit steep (not enough reward for the time played).

My second run through was a slightly speedier process. I got attacked by a haunted garbage can while trying to loot a hidden crate (I’m hoping this was a glitch, but it was hilarious either way) and at one point I stumbled across probably the creepiest room in the game, which I dubbed the “Teddy Bear Room”. Filled with dis-membered stuffed bears, complete with a nasty-looking knife sticking out of the counter-top (which I could not pick up, sadface), it gave me a very… escaped asylum patient vibe. Just plain weird.

One thing that was refreshing about Phantasmal is the fact that the environment is about 95% interactive. It adds an interesting element to the game, because a lot of objects laying around make fairly loud noises and it makes it difficult to sneak around in certain situations (ie. Breaking empty bottles of alcohol by stepping on them is definitely loud enough to grab an enemies attention – But is that necessarily a bad thing?). One downside of the interactive environment is that I’ve found in tight spaces, you have a chance of getting stuck on certain objects, the main offender being empty cardboard boxes. However, that aside, being able to interact thoroughly with your environment and use it to your (possible) advantage is an interesting alley to explore, and certainly opens up lots of possibilities. The sound track, and sound effects (for the most part) are killer. They help add to the mood of the game and you can definitely feel the atmosphere the developers looked to set out for, and achieved. Creature sound effects are scary, expect to hear sound effects at times that will be jarring (anything from snivelling to screaming), and prepare to be thoroughly creeped out. One warning to all players: watch the body of the first enemy you kill for about 10-15 seconds after you perish him.. You’ll thank me later. One final tip for anyone looking to embark on their own Phantasmal experience: aiming down the sight on the pistol is a little bit lacking. However the ADS has been programmed, the bullet (logically) will shoot wherever your aim reticle is pointed while not zoomed in; however, when you look down the sight, instead of aiming down the sight your character looks seemingly straight through the pistol, along the chamber where the bullet is being held. I’d recommend aiming a little bit higher than you normally would. All-in-all, Phantasmal is an enjoyable game. The key appeal(s) for myself is that there’s always a different situation lurking, the soundtrack and effects are refreshing, effective and definitely add to the mood, and there’s a chance at progression if you’re driven enough to do it. Put all that into a mixing pot and then throw in the intriguing mystery story that progresses as you get deeper into the apartment complex? That’s a recipe for an effective horror game, folks. Huge shout out to Eyemobi Ltd. For letting us write an article on Phantasmal: City of Darkness. What do you guys think of the game? Leave your opinions in our comments section, or reach us on Facebook or Twitter. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Post Dated: 2016-04-13 20:30. Last Modified: 2016-04-13 22:13. Written by Neil Rampone

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COLORINO Interview

Challenge yourself with COLORNIO! A new puzzle game by Pete SkyKing and Alex Probst for your iOS and Andriod. You can find out more about COLORNIO on their website or support them on their kickstarter.

Small Dev Talk: What is COLORNIO?

Alex Probst: It's a puzzle game based in double-colored blocks 

Small Dev Talk: How do you play COLORNIO? What is the objective of COLORNIO?

Alex Probst: You can rotate and merge same color sides or whole blocks to make points, the game will feature objective based levels, for example, reach a certain score in x number of moves, or against time, etc.

Small Dev Talk: What power-ups will there be in COLORNIO and how does it impact the gameplay?

Alex Probst: We have 3 power ups so far, probably will have more in the future. Some will be able to be stored to use strategically when needed, others will remain on the game screen.  

Small Dev Talk: What type of enemies will there be in COLORNIO and what do they do?

Alex Probst: All enemies will be disruptive and destructive. Some will multiply and "eat up" spaces, narrowing you chances of success. Other will render blocks unmovable and others will change the colors on the squares.

Small Dev Talk: How often will we see enemies in COLORNIO?

Alex Probst: Very, the number and aggressiveness of the enemies will vary.

Small Dev Talk: How difficult will COLORNIO puzzles be?

Alex Probst: From very easy to hard but never break-your-phone kind of hard. We will try to maintain a level of natural progression in the difficulty settings 

Small Dev Talk: On your Kickstarter, you say there are 250 initial levels, how many levels do you plan on having when COLORNIO is released?

Alex Probst: We will release the game probably with 100 levels and keep working on it, maybe have 50 more a month after launch and so on.

Small Dev Talk: What will the differences be between these levels?

Alex Probst: The type of blocks, the amount of colors present, the enemies, the objectives to reach, the layout of the grid will also change.  

Small Dev Talk: What OS’s will COLORNIO be available on? Do you plan on making a PC version of COLORNIO?

Alex Probst: We'll release it initially for iOS and Android, for phones and tablets, but will work on the desktop and probably browser versions ASAP.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create COLORNIO?

Alex Probst: I love puzzle games, my wife loves puzzle games, we got hooked on many, finally came to candy crush and I was always thinking on ways to make the game play better, more strategic and less dependent on luck. So I decided to make a game I would really enjoy playing. 

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the development of COLORNIO?

Alex Probst: First for me was the task of finding a programmer, took me some time, many emails, lots of people that sounded a bit dodgy and not trust worthy… finally met Pete from Australia, really down to earth guy, very talented, open minded and fast and fun to work with.. after that, it's just been working on the game and the kickstarter. The challenges will arise when we launch the game!  

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming developers?

Alex Probst: Do the game you want to play but make sure to be open to other people's opinions. It's hard but the rewards are big! 

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for COLORNIO and how much will it cost or will it be Free-To-Play?

Alex Probst: Mid April, free download and IAP's for reaching new levels more fast, power ups, extra lives…  

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Alex Probst: Support our kickstarter, support our game, we will do the same for you and hope you enjoy it when you play.

Post Dated: 2014-02-07 20:47. Last Modified: 2014-02-07 at 20:53. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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CENTS Interview

Sammy uses her gift for mathematics and enlist her "frenemies" to revamp the school penny drive into a major moneymaking operations in CENTS, new upcoming movie by Christopher Boone. You can support them on Kickstarter and find out more on their website.

Small Dev Talk: What is the story in CENTS?

Christopher Boone: CENTS is the story of Sammy, an uncommonly smart twelve-year-old girl who uses her gift for mathematics and enlists her "frenemies" to revamp the school penny drive into a major moneymaking operations. Meanwhile, Sammy struggles in her relationships with her single mother, Angela, and her math teacher, Ms. Dyer.

CENTS Teaser from Christopher Boone on Vimeo.

Small Dev Talk: Can you tell us more about Sammy Baca and what her personality is like?

Christopher Boone: Sammy is crazy smart. She does calculus in the seventh grade. But she is also a loner and a troublemaker. She keeps her math skills secret for fear of kids making fun of her. At the same time, she is always angling to make money so she can buy a smartphone she really can't afford.

Small Dev Talk: How will the other girls in CENT’s penny drive affect Sammy Beca and the stoy?

Christopher Boone: Each of the girls in CENTS makes bad choices because they can't see two inches in front of their faces and don't really understand the consequences of their actions until they come back around to affect them.

Small Dev Talk: How scientifically, actually, mathematically, correct will this movie be?

Christopher Boone: CENTS uses math not only as a defining characteristic for Sammy, but also as a plot device. The story treats the math problem the drives the plot in a realistic way. Math provides an opportunity for our protagonist Sammy, but it also causes problems. And that leads to conflict.

Small Dev Talk: When do you plan on filming CENTS?

Christopher Boone: We currently plan to shoot this summer assuming we have a successful Kickstarter campaign and pull together the rest of our financing.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create CENTS?

Christopher Boone: I'm a father with a young daughter. A few years ago, I realized I had no idea what life would be like for her when she reached adolescence. So like any type-A dad, I read a lot of books about the challenges girls face in adolescence, and I was terrified at the stories of girls using words, looks, and social media to affect each other's moods and lives. I also thought it would be a great world for a story.

At the same time, I've always liked math and wanted to include it in a story if at all possible. I also want to see more girls excel in math. As I considered this world of twelve-year-old girls as the environment for a story, a character with strong math skills emerged in my mind. I wondered, "What if she is embarrassed by her gift for mathematics?" That intrigued me. But I still need a hook to drive the plot. That's when I remembered the penny-a-day riddle that I describe in our Kickstarter pitch video.

Small Dev Talk: Are you trying to bring a moral with CENTS?

Christopher Boone: I'm trying to tell an engaging story eventually with the help of a talented cast and an amazing crew. I want to move audiences and provoke conversations after they watch the film, but I don't think I'm trying to deliver a moral. I'll let audiences decide if they walk away from the film with a moral. Once they watch CENTS, it becomes their story, too. That's one of the things I love about films and storytelling.

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the film making of CENTS?

Christopher Boone: We haven't made CENTS yet, so a whole world of challenges awaits us! Right now, we're working hard to have a successful Kickstarter so we can make CENTS.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming film makers?

Christopher Boone: As an upcoming filmmaker myself, I'd encourage my fellow upcoming filmmakers to write, write, write, find a story that drives your passion, and work hard to turn that story into a film to share with audiences.

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for CENTS and where can we watch it?

Christopher Boone: If everything comes together, we plan to shoot this coming summer, then hit the festival circuit in early 2015 with the hopes of releasing the film later in 2015. We have several distribution strategies in mind, but will have to wait and see who steps forward to work with us on distribution. If you pledge $8 or more to our Kickstarter, though, you'll get a digital download of the film when it's finished and ready to be shared with our audience.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Christopher Boone: Thanks for taking time to read this interview. I hope you'll check out our Kickstarter by Sat. Feb. 8 and help us make CENTS. Every dollar counts.

Post Dated: 2014-02-02 12:15. Last Modified: 2014-02-02 at 12:20. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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I know this is not professional for us to reblog and I am not sure how long we will keep this on our Tumblr page but this is something that someone needs.

No matter how grateful and how lucky someone can be, sometimes, someone needs someone to talk to and there will always be someone somewhere, either in real life or the virtual world, that will care for you and listen to you.

Stand strong, and no matter what happens, just keep standing. To the developers that follow Small Dev Talk and to anyone else who is simply lively today, remember that nothing is ever end. Everything, is just the beginning to another moment, to another chapter, to another book, to another memory, to another save file, to another smile, and most importantly, to your life.

We care for you and we are here for you!

You can send me an message at http://joo-hyun.tumblr.com/ask

No matter what you did or who you, I care for you and I am here for you <3

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D'Clic Interview

Fashion is always changing and coming up with new innovative methods to express meaning in a sense of clothing of accessories. A unique way to look at how this is done is by looking at D’clic. A new industrial urban accessories designed by Martial Yapo. You can find more on his Kickstarter or on his website.

Small Dev Talk: What is D’clic?

D’clic: The signature D’Clic belt buckle was conceived by designer Martial Yapo on my frequent travels as a pro athlete.

The classic airplane belt buckle’s primary function is for security, but I saw a unique, raw and edgy material that could birth a new lineup of urban industrial fashion accessories. I immediately went about making my own, receiving constant praise whenever it was worn. This design really clicked, and I set to work on building the belt as a product and a brand.

Small Dev Talk: The D’clic looks sort of like a seat belt, does the work the same as a seat belt will you just snap it in to each other?

 D’clic: Yes it is a seat belt buckle, so it has the same mechanism but a different function

Small Dev Talk: What type of outfits can you match the D’clic with?

D’clic: There is not a specific type of outfit, the good thing with the D'clic products is that you were it no matter is your style. It is adding a dash of funk to your style

Small Dev Talk: What colours and sizes will the D’clic come in?

D’clic: For now it is coming in black/silver/copper

Small Dev Talk: What material is the D’clic belt made of and are there alternative material options?

D’clic: The belt are made out of aluminum and nylon, and there is another collection in leather.

Small Dev Talk: The D’clic purse has a very unique design, why did you choose to design your purse like that?

D’clic: I designed this purse because I wanted, first of all propose a product that is directly addressed to women but also to make a particularity and a difference with what we can find on boutique... creating reaction and surprise is the key of my creative system, you love or you don't you still fascinating by the design of this purse.

Small Dev Talk: I noticed on your D’clic bag, there is a roll area at the top of the bag, is that for purely cosmetic purposes or can your bag actually be expanded and store more things in it?

D’clic: For both actually, as the purse...I want make the difference by the material i used, even if everybody knows leather. You don't find that much leather backpack out there, unless you hit the big brand. And the great thing of this back pack is that you can shape it differently and give him a different aspect by the way you closing it.

It can be roll or fold or leave with the extension up.

Small Dev Talk: Also, what material is your D’clic bag and purse made out of?

D’clic: Leather, cow hide and pig skin

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create D’clic?

D’clic: Me and a group of friend were wearing the actual buckle from the airplane, this is when I was in college 10 years ago but I was always looking for some different color but of course I never could because those weren't made for an aesthetic aspect facing the compliments, and my own demand I decided to create my own.

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of the D’clic?

 D’clic: It is mixing the art, fashion, architecture and the artistic performance without limit.

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the designing of D’clic?

D’clic: I will say dealing with manufacture.

Small Dev Talk: How did you, Martial Yapo, the designer and creator of D’clic, get started in fashion?

D’clic: By creating D'clic I’m a former architect. Always been into fashion for myself, and I guess natural flow of life drag to my everyday interest but to tell you the true I don't consider myself as a fashion designer, for the simple reason as:

A :  I don't have a knowledge of a fashion designer

 B : I don't work the same way and I have a lot of respect for what they do

I truly conceptualize my product as an architect who love fashion...I will say I’m a creator

Small Dev Talk: What other products have you created in your history as a designer?

 D’clic: That is my first creation that is alive but I create few projects as an architect. That still in phase of project.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming designers?

D’clic: Work hard, believe on yourself and be patient!

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for D’clic and how much will it cost? Will we be able to find it online and in stores?

D’clic: On march the real business will start...the product goes from $80 for a belt and $400 for a bag.

You will be able to find the product on my website www.dclicbyyapo.com

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

D’clic: Check my video http://kck.st/1ku6YKu and help me raising more money, and if you can pledge now, do it because it is a good a deal to have a product on Kickstarter.

  Post Dated: 2014-01-25 16:31. Last Modified: 2014-01-25 at 16:40. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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Linked Pathways Interview

Test out your dating skills in Linked Pathways, a new visual novel dating simulation game created by Esteban Gonzalez and his development team. To support them and find out more, check out their Kickstarter.

Small Dev Talk: What is Linked Pathways? Esteban Gonzalez: Linked pathways is a fan made visual novel/dating sim game. It focuses heavily on realistic characters and relationships to help enforce dramatic story telling and involve the player in the narrative they wish to pursue. Our characters are based on real people and real relationships to help make them feel more genuine to the player and help them immerse themselves more in our story.

  Small Dev Talk: What is the story in Linked Pathways?  

Esteban Gonzalez: The story of Linked Pathways focuses on the player's life in a new school as he/she forms relationships both romantic and otherwise. The set up is simple and used often in stories of this genre, but we hope to use it as a jumping off point to explore the themes and ideas we wish to portray. From here we can then branch off to tell more character related stories. Since a visual novel’s strength is its story I will share a small example of one of the stories. We’ll use our character eve as an example of the stories we wish to tell. She is a shy timid girl due to her being terribly hurt in the past. Her story revolves around her very slowly learning to accept the player. But yet once she does she immediately over extends herself and latches on to the player. She can then no longer properly function without them, much to the dismay of the player. She very much needs him and his constant approval. Her story then becomes an issue of you worked hard to let her know she can rely on you and yet then it becomes too much and you need her to divert her energy. Is it wrong for the player to then dislike her for wanting so much attention when it is entirely their own fault she is doing so? Or should the blame then be put on Eve for being unable to help herself in this situation.

  Small Dev Talk: What is a visual novel game?

Esteban Gonzalez: A visual novel at its basics is, as implied by its name, a piece of interactive fiction told using the help of its visuals and interactivity with the reader. It relies heavily on its story and its branching paths to present to its player a unique experience that feels more like a game then your standard story. Visual Novels don’t necessarily have very complicated gameplay or mechanics and instead focus more on telling its narrative in often unique and engrossing ways.

  Small Dev Talk: How will the gameplay work for a visual novel dating simulator? How is it a dating simulator?

Esteban Gonzalez: During various moments within our game the player will be presented choices on how to proceed in the story. These choices will then affect how the characters within the story then treat you. This then in turn changes how the story will be unfolded. The choices you need to make are for the benefit of the person whom you are currently attempting to date. You must keep up in your relationship with them in order to maintain your relationship and arrive at a better ending.

  Small Dev Talk: Being a dating simulator, how realistic will it be to a real relationship?

Esteban Gonzalez: The realism in the relationships comes from how your partner acts around, away, and towards you. Just like in a real relationship everyone has their own issues and how you choose to help them with these problems will affect your overall relationship. Some characters choose to shoulder their burdens and refuse help. Others seek immediate help for their issues. This is not to say you won’t have your own set of problems and how you chose to either present them to your partner or keep them locked away will also determine how trusting and open they are with you. Just as in a real relationship there is a lot of give and take.

 Small Dev Talk: What type of characters will we come across in Linked Pathways?

 Esteban Gonzalez: We have a wide array of really unique characters for the player to date, as well as an assortment of side characters who help keep the world alive and fresh. We made sure to give each character not only deep personalities but fill them with the same type of contradictory traits you find in actual people. Take for example our character Steph. He very much enjoys teasing people and pulling small pranks. However he can be incredibly sweet and caring to those around him. To top it off when he knows he actually hurt someone with his teasing or he feels like people hate him he goes into a depressed state. We try our best to give each character, main or side, deep layers that help shape them.

Small Dev Talk: Can you tell us how the interactions with the characters will work?

Esteban Gonzalez: As stated previously at various moments within our story options will appear to the player and the choices they make will allow them windows of opportunity to meet and spend time with our characters. The more time sent with a character will then take them into a relationship with these characters. From here you can begin to learn more and more about these characters and who they truly are beneath the surface.

  Small Dev Talk: What game engine is Linked Pathways using?

Esteban Gonzalez: We will be using the Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine. It’s incredibly easy to use and understand and supports Macintosh and Linux as well as Windows.  

 Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create Linked Pathways?

Esteban Gonzalez: The original inspiration of Linked Pathways actually came about from some light hearted joking. What became our team were looking for a dating sim to play and joke around with, although we could find none. Someone opened up the joke that we should make our own dating sim with us in it and we began to say whom would be what type of character. The characters were all very solid and we began materializing them more and more. Before we knew it this turned into something we all actually felt that we wanted to do. Small Dev Talk: What is your favorite aspect of Linked Pathways? Esteban Gonzalez: My personal favorite aspect was creating the stories, or paths, for each character. When we began developing how the character would act, and what sort of personality traits and quirks they have it felt as if these were real people. I wanted to watch them grow up and when we thought of story ideas it felt more like watching a show to find out what will happen next instead of “what is the next logical step”. To me these characters took life immediately and began paving their own paths instead of us needing to sit down and brainstorm ideas. The ideas came naturally and the flow was amazing, and I really hope we can translate this to the players.

 Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the development of Linked Pathways?

  Esteban Gonzalez: In early development we tried our best to make this game completely free. We did not have jobs or the monetary requirements to be able to afford workers. We originally had to message thousands of artists to see if anyone would be willing to work on this game for free. Luckily we found SaitoIkiru who actually agreed to help out with this project. However despite our lucky find they seemed like the only people who were able and willing. It was clear that if we were to try to make this game we needed some kind of funding. There was another scenario where very early in one of our writers suffered massive writers block and our other writer simply disappeared (as it turned out later it was due to life issues). We were stuck as we had 1 writer who couldn’t do much and anyone else we tried to introduce to the project was clearly not interested and would not provide any sort of support. From there our project was nearly dead, we couldn’t make any progress nor could we obtain the means of doing so. We however were very lucky to find Renren Zhao whose enthusiasm and creative talents helped fuel our team and allowed us to break through and make huge strides with our project.

 Small Dev Talk: What is it like creating a visual novel game?

  Esteban Gonzalez: It’s an incredibly excited experience. Coming up with plot details and ideas was one of the best experiences I have had in a game’s development. Whenever we would sit down and discuss things related to plot everyone would get motivated and excited which made us want to come up with even better ideas. Receiving art pieces was simply amazing. I couldn’t explain the joy you feel when you see the character you have spent so long discussing and creating in a fully drawn form. It was like seeing all our creations come to life. I still spend some of my off time looking over the assets we received and just marveling at them and just looking at everything we’ve accomplished.

  Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming developers?

Esteban Gonzalez: For the love of god have a good follow up plan, and enthusiasm and willingness to work out weights raw skill.

 Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for Linked Pathways? Also, how much will it cost or will it be Free-To-Play?

Esteban Gonzalez: Due to school and other priorities, we’re hoping to have the game released by October 20th 2016. We’re hoping for a 5$ price tag on it.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Esteban Gonzalez: Thank you so much for your time and we really hope you give Linked Pathways a chance.

Post Dated: 2013-11-13 20:46. Last Modified: 2013-11-13 at 20:51. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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Champion of Dema Interview

Join along Kade in Hameed Catel’s new afrocentric graphic novel, Champion of Dema. Recently, I got the chance to talk with Hameed Catel from Kiru Comics on his new graphic novel, Champion of Dema. You can support him on Kickstarter and find out more on his website.

Small Dev Talk: What is Champion of Dema?

Hameed Catel: Champion of Dema is a one-shot, 70 page Afrocentric Graphic Novel

Small Dev Talk: What is the story in Champion of Dema?

Hameed Catel: Champion of Dema more or less revolves around the main character Kade.

Every ten years an individual from the village of Dema is randomly and magically chosen to possess spiritual powers. Kade is a young reluctant man who has just recently been chosen to harbour these powers for the next ten years. He is constantly badgered by the citizens of his village to use his powers to uphold justice, defend them against the Soul-takers and in short be their champion. But he has no intentions of doing that, he just wants to be left alone to continue enjoying his life. He enjoys the celebrity that comes with being a Champion but doesn’t want the responsibility. 

Small Dev Talk: What type of characters will we see in Champion of Dema?

Hameed Catel: All kinds, I don’t know if you realise this but even the cast are all different races, Kade is black, Nia is Latina, Zetta is Caucasian, Gobe is middle eastern, Batam and his sister Siani are both Filipino/Malaysian. I try to include a large mixture of races and characters in the short story to show a world where none of that mattered and no one acknowledged it. Also all my characters have something in common; they all have some sort of inner strength, by that I mean none of them are weak minded. Even the weak ones have a hidden strength that comes out if pushed too far. 

Small Dev Talk: What is Kade like and what inspired you to write this character?

Hameed Catel: Lol Kade… ? Well Kade is a confusing young man. He appears confident and sure about himself but inside he’s actually very unsure, he battles with his conscience often but no one on the outside would know that. He really wants to keep up the appearance of being a ruthless non caring guy, basically he wants to appear as a villain so he will be left alone. The only problem is he’s not really villain material, he pretends to cherish material things but he really doesn’t; for example he loves making money but he’s the type that would give it all to a stranger on a whim and just try to make more. However he is incredibly lazy, that’s one thing that he’s not faking or pretending and everyone in the village of Dema knows him for that.

As to what inspired me to write him, well ever since I can remember I have created stories in my head and developed in depth characters. Kade was one of my oldest and most favourite. In the stories I dreamed up, I constantly used him as the guy that would be kind of a villain and then at the last minute help the good guys out. Then after reading the Wheel of Time series and discovering Matrim Cauthon, I realised that Kade was my version of Matt and I wanted to show the world my Matrim Cauthon. That’s where the broad hat and quarter staff came from, from Matrim Cauthon.

  Small Dev Talk: I noticed Kade has a panda tattoo on his neck, what does that have to do with his character?

Hameed Catel: The tattoo actually has very little to do with his personality. It is the mark of the champion, every ten years that mark transfers from the previous Champion to the new one. That is how the people of Dema know who to call Champion next. Kade’s mark is on his neck which is why he always wears a shirt that has a collar, so that he can cover it and go unnoticed but it rarely works out for him. 

Small Dev Talk: What are the Soul-takers and what are they like?

Hameed Catel: The Soul-takers are exactly what their names suggest. They’re spiritual beings that feed on the souls of humans and any living animal. When a human is taken by a soul taker, there’s no saving him or bringing him back. That person becomes part of the walking dead… many in the village consider it a fate even worse than death, so many will take their own life before letting a Soul-taker catch them.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to write Champion of Dema?

Hameed Catel: Believe it or not, Kade did. Like I said Kade has starred in many of my old short stories acting as the wannabe rebel and villain. I decided it was time he had his own story. Also I wanted to do a story where the person with the powers didn’t suddenly accept their role as the hero and just lived up to expectations. Instead I wanted the hero to try and escape his role. So the main challenge would become trying to get him to accept his duty instead of trying to beat the bad guys. 

Small Dev Talk: Do you intend to bring any meaning or moral from Champion of Dema?

Hameed Catel: The way I see it, a story is pointless without delivering some sort of message, lesson or moral. So yes, this graphic novel has its morals which I believe anyone can relate to. I just don’t want to spit it out though, it would be better to see if the readers got the message on their own.

Small Dev Talk: What type of challenges did you and your team face in the creation of Champion of Dema?

 Hameed Catel: One of the main one that comes to mind straight away is the slang. Like I said this is to be an Afrocentric graphic novel so I had this idea of the street slang in Dema being pidgin. Pidgin is a form of broken English used in a lot of African countries, although they vary slightly depending on which country you’re in. The problem with that was, anyone that wasn’t familiar with pidgin had trouble reading the slang and consequently got frustrated. I don’t want that to happen to the readers, I want them to enjoy the reading experience so to solve the problem; we’ve decided to have two versions when the book is complete. The first is that with plain straightforward English and the second will be a version which has pidgin in some parts with a glossary to help those new to it along.

Small Dev Talk: Do you ever plan on making Champion of Dema into a movie, TV series or a game?

Hameed Catel: Woooow! I would absolutely love for this project to go that far and call me a dreamer but I’ve made contingency plans just in case ;) . If the interest and reception is great enough then yes I am fully ready to take it to the animation level or the big screen. Even if it’s just that people like this one so much that they want another one, then I have plans for that too. It all depends on the success of this first book.

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of Champion of Dema?

Hameed Catel: My favourite aspect would have to be the village of Dema itself, the fact that it contains every human race you can think off living harmoniously together is something I really wanted to have. Also the fact that all those races are wearing African type clothing is another thing that I wanted to have. I’ve read a lot of fantasy novels in which you can lose yourself in rich, magical, worlds with unusual customs, culture and fashion. So I thought why not base my fantasy world on the customs, cultures and fashion of people that I know well, my people.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming graphic artists and writers?

Hameed Catel: For artist all I can say is keep practicing and requesting feedback as I myself am not an artist but I know that advice stands strong for them. For writers it’s more or less the same, you will only get better with practice and constant constructive criticism. However if you’re aiming to be a comic writer, the route I took was to take the TV series and film that I really liked and study the scripts to see how a good script is properly written. I also read a lot of novels so I learn from them too. All in all the best advice I can give to both artists and writers is DON’T BE AFRAID TO DO and NEVER GIVE UP! 

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for Champion of Dema and where can we find it? Can we find it both online and in stores? Also, how much will it cost?

Hameed Catel: The expected release date will be sometime in February, it could be earlier or later. I will be sure to keep my fans updated through my many social media channels lol (I have a twitter, facebook, blog, tumblr and a website). When it comes out, it will available to buy in both Ebook and hard-copy format. You will be able to buy both of my website and amazon. I’m also looking into using other avenues to make the purchasing easier for those without amazon accounts but I will update on the progress of that as time goes on. Also I will be at various UK conventions so the UK fans can buy a copy off me there. I plan to put part of the book out for free on manga & comic reading websites such as Manga Magazine and the like. It would only be the first 10 pages or something, just to tease the people. The eBook will cost somewhere around £5-£6 and the hard-copy will be about £10-£12? (70 page is a lot of pages)

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Hameed Catel: I Just want to say thank you all for taking the time to read this interview and Small Dev Talks are awesome people. It would mean the world to me if you guys helped me out with my dream by bringing this project to life. Visit our kickstarter campaign http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1088749339/champion-of-dema?ref=live  pre-order your copy by making a pledge, and share it with all your friends. If you have a blog and you wish to share it let me know, I can send you a press release if you want. Or you can write about it yourself. Either way is fine with me. I just need your help to build this tower of success, without you guys, I really can’t achieve my goal and that’s the honest truth. 

Post Dated: 2013-11-08 23:11. Last Modified: 2013-11-08 at 23:15. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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playsets Kickstarter Trailer

Title: playsets Developer: playsets Release Date: Closed beta in November Website: https://www.facebook.com/playsetsapp Support them on their Kickstarter at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/985647565/playsets-the-future-of-social-storytelling Check out our interview with playsets at http://smalldevtalk.com/post/65902798149/playsets Either comment below or tweet to us @SmallDevTalk (http://twitter.com/smalldevtalk) and tell us what you think of playsets

Post Dated: 2013-11-05 23:40. Last Modified: 2013-11-05 at 23:43. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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Shuttered City Interview

Join Leland on his adventure in Shuttered City. Recently I got the chance to talk with Justin Sadur who is working on his new graphic novel, Shuttered City. You can find out more on his Kickstarter or read a preview to it on his DeviantArt page.

Small Dev Talk: What is Shuttered City?

Justin: The Shuttered City is a six-chapter, 140 page graphic novel set in an extremely distant future where humanity has spread across the galaxy, but splintered into dozens of subspecies, either  through genetic engineering to adapt to alien worlds, or for other, more sinister reasons. Most of these subspecies of humanity have taken their place in the caste system imposed by the Empire of Man, but more than a few have hidden themselves in the shadows, ready to pounce on any who cross their path. The city of Sylvanshire is one such hiding place, and the slow revelation of the horror it conceals is the framework around which the story is built.

Small Dev Talk: What is the story in Shuttered City?

Justin: The story of The Shuttered City is heavily influenced by Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth" in that it is the (rather common) story of a regular person who wanders into a town that seems merely *off* at first viewing, but is soon revealed to be concealing dark secrets. Without giving too much away, I can say that the residents of the town are not nearly as "human" as they first appear, and they have very specific reasons for wanting to get a hold of the main character.

Small Dev Talk: What type of characters will we see in Shuttered City?

Justin: The main characters are Leland and Ishmael, who are both "Low-Chimera"  that is to say they're animal-human hybrids who are low men on the totem pole of society. They're generally treated by the rest of society as servants or pets, looked down upon by even other Chimera.  Leland is an outsider, Ishmael is a Sylvanshire native; they meet each other after a fight with some local security, and they're growing friendship throughout the story serves as a counterpoint to the encroaching darkness of the setting.

On the other side are the citizens and...denizens of Sylvanshire: The sinister leader of the local cult, with his plastered on smile and hidden agenda, and Councilman Waldgrave, the political boss of the town, who seeks to lead the city into the future, while keeping its secrets well-hidden. Both of them are willing to kill, and worse, for Sylvanshire, but for sheer terror they can't hold a candle to The Great Hag of the Woods, and her minions. They are the true masters of Sylvanshire, and the reason it was founded;  they have ruled it in secret, and unopposed for hundreds of years.

Small Dev Talk: What is Leland like and what is his back story? What inspired you to create this character?

Justin: Leland is by nature a rather sweet and gentle soul, but disappointment and tragedy have made him bitter and melancholic. Long ago he was a essentially a slave in a well-to-do human household, serving as caretaker for a young girl, with whom he was very close. But when the father realized the girl had more respect for Leland, who was actually raising her, than she did for her own father, he had Leland expelled. This betrayal has marked his character through many subsequent adventures, and made him somewhat desperate in his affections.

I originally conceived the prototype of Leland a few years ago as a reaction against the violent tough-guy characters I had created in my youth. I wanted to create a character who didn't have violence as an option to solve his problems. Of course, he still has to fight his way out of a few scraps, but he's certainly no action hero.  Beyond that, I've always had an interest in anthro-art, and it seemed a fitting choice from a story point-of-view to make him a rabbit.

Small Dev Talk: There is a very interesting character design in Shuttered City like how The Great Hag looks or like how the individual in your Kickstarter brief sample looks. Why do individuals in the book look like that and why did you choose to make the characters look like that?

Justin: Well for the "human" characters, since the story was inspired by source material from the 1920s, I gave them a very dated look: lots of dark coats and hats. As for the more monstrous creatures, the idea behind them is that they're sort of taking on aspects of their environment, from the plants and animals of the forest, so the older they get, the less humanoid their appearance becomes, until they end up as shambling masses of vegetation and muscle.

Small Dev Talk: Why did you choose to make your graphic novel black and white compared to colour?

Justin: Well, since it is an independent comic and on a limited budget, I decided to stick with black and white, since getting printed copies out was always part of the plan, and color printing is quite costly. Beyond that,  doing pages in ink-wash is quite time consuming, and adding color would have doubled the time it took to paint the pages. Doing a full-color painted book would be a dream, but I'd have to have some kind of help, or a lot of time and money, to do such a thing.

 Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to write Shuttered City?

Justin: Lovecraft was a heavy influence, but since I don't share his nihilistic outlook, I left a few cracks of light shining through the darkness. Obviously the movie "The Thing" left its mark on the narrative as well, though once again the situation isn't quite as bleak. Guess I'm just a big softie.

Small Dev Talk: Do you intend to bring any meaning or moral from Shuttered City?

Justin: No meaning per se, but obviously my own outlook and viewpoints influences the story.  I think with a story like this, where the characters are just trying to survive the onslaught of horror, there aren't many opportunities for soap-boxing.  Better to just write honestly than to try and bend the narrative to fit your "message."

Small Dev Talk: What type of challenges did you and your team face in the creation of Shuttered City?

Justin: Well there's no team; it's just me, but as for difficulties, early on I had a lot of trouble getting comfortable with the medium of ink-wash, and keeping it under control. Now I have much better working methods, but they took me a long time to figure out. The other problem, of course, is sheer workload. Trying to keep to a schedule is exceedingly difficult with such detailed art. Getting a good workflow helps a lot, but even that can be tricky to stick with, if you get hung up on a specific page.

Small Dev Talk: Do you ever plan on making Shuttered City into a movie, TV series or a game?

Justin: It would be the height of hubris to suggest that I have any plan to adapt the story to film at this time, but I believe it, or other stories set in the same universe, would be well suited to say, an animated adaptation. So if there are any studio chiefs out there reading this, call me. ;)

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of Shuttered City?

Justin: Hmm, that's a good question. I guess I'd have to say the artwork and atmosphere of the setting, though I do have a lot of affection for the main characters and if at all possible I'd like to tell more stories with them in the future. There's a lot one can do in a setting as large as the one The Shuttered City takes place in.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming graphic artists and writers?

Justin: There are lots of people out there who say "I want to make a comic." or "You know I've been thinking of making a graphic novel." in a very casual way, as if it's something you can do as a hobby or pastime.  I don't want to be discouraging, but I can tell you from personal experience that making a comic, if you want it to be good, is one of the hardest, most time-consuming things you will ever do.  To succeed, you must treat it as a job, and take it just as seriously.

My advice is: Plan it out ahead of time, have an entire story arc ready to go before you put pen to paper. You do not want to write yourself into a corner after drawing dozens of pages. Revise the story in manuscript form, and then revise it AGAIN in thumbnail form, and THEN start creating the final artwork.

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for Shuttered City and where can we find it? Can we find it both online and in stores? Also, how much will it cost?

Justin: The completion date for the art I'm shooting for is March 28, and I should be able to start shipping books within a month of that date. At first I'm going to be focusing on getting copies to backers, both digital and physical, then I'll be looking at e-book and small-run print sales through amazon and other outlets. Updates for that info will be available at the Kickstarter page, and on my tumblr here:  http://theshutteredcity.tumblr.com and on my DA page here:  http://benjamin-the-fox.deviantart.com Right now a $25 pledge will get you a physical copy of the book, and a $5 pledge will get you a digital copy.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Justin: Thank you for your time! Check out The Shuttered City. Drop me a note if you have any questions; I'm always interested in what people have to say about my work. And if you know anyone who might be interested in the project, please point them in the right direction. Thanks again!

Post Dated: 2013-11-05 22:42. Last Modified: 2013-11-05 at 22:47. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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playsets

Haven’t you ever just wanted to relax and play a tabletop RPG but you don’t own a tabletop board game. Well then check out playsets! It is a virtual tabletop game including many maps and characters. It brings enjoyment to all players with entertaining emoticons and status effects. Recently I got the chance to talk with the playsets team and you can find more below or you can check out more on their Kickstarter or on their Facebook page.

Small Dev Talk: What is playsets?

The playsets team: Playsets is a digital replacement for tabletop maps and miniatures.  Designed to bring rich immersive experiences to any campaign with a focus on storytelling and ease of use.  It excels not only as an enhanced map for game night, but also serves as a shared game board for users who might be divided by long distance.  High quality maps not only serve to pull players into a story but features like real time token movement, emotes, and animated status effects and actions are all designed to give remote players an “in the room” feeling no matter where they are.  We think a digital map should not only replicate what you use graph paper for, but rise above and provide great features that take your stories further.

Small Dev Talk: Does playsets have a story within the game or any premade stories to play through?

The playsets team: Yes, Playsets will have some premade campaigns that GMs can lead their players through.  We’ve hired a professional writer to come up with stories to help those people looking for some great play sessions without a lot of their own prep time beforehand.  

Small Dev Talk: In your introduction Kickstarter video of playsets, it mentions ‘game master’. Does this mean that the player can create their own stories in playsets? Will the game master have to set-up a custom game before they meet with other players?

The playsets team: That is exactly what we want people to do with Playsets, we provide some really great maps of basic environmental types(like towns or dungeons) with tons of options for layout, and they use them to run their own stories.  In addition to our customizable maps we plan on providing a bunch of extra story props like treasure chests, fire, and traps that help GMs bring the stories they have planned to life for their players.  

  Small Dev Talk: Being a Dungeons and Dragons like table top bored game, how is the gameplay itself going to work? Will there be in-game dice or combat mechanics?  

The playsets team: One of our goals is to include as little as possible in terms of enforced mechanics, we want to free users to be as creative as they want when they play. A good addition to a tabletop session should only enhance a play experience, never limit it, and that’s what we strive to do. We want Playsets to work for any RPG system as well.  There are additional gameplay tools we are testing inside of playsets, but we don’t want to just tack on as many “features” as possible, we want them to integrate well with the experience.

Small Dev Talk: What type of actions will the player be able to do with their character?

The playsets team: We’ve built in a variety of ways for players to use their character tokens, the most important of which we feel is real time token movement.  For us this was an important behavior because it helped to bring back that “in the room” feeling that can get lost in a networked environment.  Players can also trigger animated actions, like attacks, that can add emphasis to the story being told.  

Small Dev Talk: What type of worlds or environments will the player see in playsets? Will users be able to edit or create their own environments?

 The playsets team: Our initial release is planned with what we view as some really common basic environments, a forest, town and dungeon.  We then plan to constantly be releasing optional expansion packs of environments for not only more classic D&D settings, but other genres as well.  In fact our first planned expansion is up for vote to everyone who contributes at the starting tier of our Kickstarter, we really want the community to be involved in letting us know what environments they want next.

Each of these environments contains 5 major features with 3 very different options, for example replacing a bridge into town with docks, or adding a road through a forest.  Given that a GM could create 243 different towns for his players, and thats before they even start adding additional smaller props and NPCs.  The whole idea is to provide many variations on these environments and make it super fast and easy for a GM to create a space that feels new and different for his players even when its the same map.   We also know that some people are going to want to dive even deeper into customization and thats something we are looking at.  Its a topic we discuss frequently, but not something we want to rush to implement.  One of the reasons we started on playsets is because we weren’t happy with editors that had us spending hours laying down tile in hallways, so we only want to implement that level of control when we can make it as easy to use and delightful as the rest of Playsets.

Small Dev Talk: What type of characters will we be able to play as and can we customize or create our own characters?

The playsets team: We are starting with a high fantasy setting, so all the beginning tokens will be designed to work in that environment.  We are planning on launching with 12 classic hero tokens, like wizard, rogue, cleric, etc.  Our goal is to make lots and lots and lots of tokens, so that you can find just the right token for your character.  We have discussed doing different racial packs after launch, like elves or dwarves, as well as different armor levels, like a noob set or an epic set.  Each token comes with five color options, so if your wizard specializes in ice magic, maybe you want to be the blue wizard token, or if he’s a fire mage, you might want the red wizard token.  

We currently do not have a way of adding your own artwork for tokens, but we are looking into options for user created content in the future.  In the mean time, we have several Kickstarter rewards that model an NPC after a backer, so our core NPC tokens will be inspired by the people who helped make playsets a reality.

Small Dev Talk: How is the co-operative play going to work? Will it be online or will it be over Bluetooth? Will there by voice-chat or text based chat when paying with others?

 The playsets team: Online play is definitely where we want Playsets to live, connecting friends all over the country that can’t always be around the same table is very important to us.  We would also like to include the ability to just connect over wi-fi / Bluetooth for those times where your group is in the same place but you can’t get online.   

We want to include a voice chat functionality, but don’t want to have to do it in a way that passes along a lot of cost to users, so until we find a satisfactory solution we rely on backgrounding applications like Skype or other VOIP solutions.

Small Dev Talk: Something that I found unique and makes your game look very enjoyable, entertaining and different is your integration with the emoticons and status effects with the playable characters. What type of emoticons and status effects will the player be able to use and why did you choose to put these into playsets?

The playsets team: Our implementation of emotes was inspired by our days as World of Warcraft raiders.  You didn’t want to interrupt the raid leader so you just emoted to the guys near you to make jokes / commentary on a situation.  The same concept applies to a GM, you don’t want to break their narrative flow but if you aren’t at the same table other adventurers may have trouble seeing your reaction.  You don’t want to break in and just say “My warrior feels sad about the mad lord’s plans to feed him to spiders”, its a lot more fun to just make a couple taps and throw up an emote.  It allows you to be expressive without stealing focus. We currently have 9 basic emotes that we feel should cover your gaming reactions without having a menu that is too cumbersome to navigate for fast reactions.

Status effects was an area we never were satisfied with tokens, even with real physical objects. It was always hard to tell what monster / character had what effect and we felt that this was where we could take an advantage in the digital realm.  We chose 9 basic status effect types that we felt could cover just about any status you needed to indicate on a token and had our artist create great animations for them.  It not only looks great, but really helps users conduct combat without asking the GM which kolbold is the confused one for the tenth time.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create playsets?

 The playsets team: The biggest inspiration for Playsets was simply the distance that divided our own gaming groups.  As we grew up and found jobs and families we spread out in the country and sessions became infrequent or impossible to play in the same room.  We tried other solutions for networked games and didn’t feel like there was the right focus so we decided to create our own.  

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of playsets?

The playsets team: The online connectivity, hands down.  Even through just our test sessions I’ve gotten way more opportunities to play tabletop RPGs with friends than we have in many many years.  Sharing immersive experiences with friends across the country is exactly why we were into making this project in the first place and that’s already paying dividends.

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the development of playsets?

The playsets team: Our goal from the outset was to not just produce another type of map, but to push and create something better than just a shared map drawn on paper.  So we actually spent months of time at the outset of the project just testing out maps and how they work.  At one point we had spent weeks of both time programming and making art for super large sprawling modular component maps, and after we got beyond some basic tests we realized it was terrible.  It didn’t feel right, the components were super difficult to fit together in a way that didn’t make them look bad and it was clunky.  It was a huge setback and painful but we had to scrap it and totally rethink how maps work.  After more tests and iterations we finally wound up at how they work currently and are very pleased with the result.  Throwing away all that time and effort is never easy but sometimes its the best way forward.

The interface has also been a huge battle for us, it is both difficult and crucial to our end product.  Playsets is supposed to pull you into a world and then assist you in having an adventure there, and the biggest way to fail to do that is to constantly be getting in your way with clunky UI.  We’ve built, tested, adjusted and scrapped more interfaces all over this project than I care to think about, and at times it can be really frustrating, but I think this sort of dedication to the pursuit of perfection brings the product up to a level that’s above many things already on the market.  

Distance has also been a big challenge for our team.  Our developer lives in Iowa while our artist and designer live in Los Angeles and missing out on working in the same space and having face to face meetings can be difficult.  For about a month at the beginning of the project we all actually lived in the same house and it was a very productive time, but that couldn’t last forever and we were back to our separate places.  Then again if it weren’t for the distance separating us in the first place we might not have felt such a strong urge to build Playsets, so maybe its for the best...

Small Dev Talk: What is it like being a team of three developing a game like playsets?

The playsets team: It’s defiantly a position that has both benefits and hardships.  We get the advantages of being a small team, like a certain level of agility in development and being able to all meet frequently to discuss important concepts or developments. It’s a lot easier to manage schedules for 3 people than say 30. Plus with an odd number of people we always have someone to act as tie breaker, which we’ve found to be very important.  

However with such a small team you have to be careful about the scope of your project, its real easy to be so ambitious that you create enough work that you’ll never finish.  We’ve done a good job of managing that so far, but the size of our team is actually one of the reasons we are turning to Kickstarter.  One of the biggest things holding back our release is time to create artwork.  Our artist is amazing, but even working at full steam she is just still one person, and some funding would allow us do things like hire help for her and move our release up significantly.  On a small team like this its also difficult to get proper beta testing, the more people that are poking around in your app the better the feedback and therefor finished product.  Another one of the reasons we turned to a Kickstarter campaign is to help find more people who are interested in helping us test and polish, with all of us being involved with just about every decision being made its harder to find unbiased people to test new things on.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming developers?

  Alex from the playsets team: Build projects you are passionate about and want to use yourself, don’t just make something because you think it might be popular.  I’ve worked on a lot of different software and making something that you actually want to use motivates you to keep going. It inspires you to really polish and improve, even after that initial release.  You should be just as excited about that next update or feature as your users or its going to show.  

Finding other inspired teammates is another big one. Throughout this project I’ve had to respond to great, but difficult, ideas from Tony (our designer) and create an app that is worthy of, and can handle, all the stunning work from Bronwyn (our artist) and that’s really motivated a lot of great things about this software.  If its only you working on something its really easy to say “that’s too hard and unnecessary, maybe even impossible” and you don’t try and maybe miss something wonderful.  Find partners that encourage you to push your boundaries, its difficult but the results are incredibly rewarding.

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for playsets and on what platforms? Also, how much will it cost or will it be Free-To-Play?

  The playsets team: If we can secure our funding on Kickstarter we are slated to begin our closed beta for backers at the end of November. From there we hope to have our release ready for iOS at the beginning of next year and soon after that we want to launch on additional platforms like OS X and a web app to bring us to other platforms.  We have a stretch goal that would allow us to bring the web release much closer to the iOS one, but the cost of immediately adding additional developers is reflected in its position up that ladder.  Without hitting our basic funding goal however, we could see a greater delay in our launch.

Playsets is designed primarily to be Free-To-Play.  We want Playsets to be an enabler for social interaction and its hard to convince someone to try something new if there is a big paywall up front. We want Playsets to be supported by the content we bring to the table, like additional maps, tokens, and campaigns not putting a tax on each adventurer you add to the party.  

 Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

The playsets team: First, thanks so much for taking the time to find out about us.  It’s incredibly hard as a small indy dev to get attention for your project and by simply taking to time to find out more about us we already think you are wonderful.  If you are interested in the project the best thing you can do to help out is spread the word and then let us know what you think.  Hearing impressions and suggestions from the community not only lets us improve our app, but also drives us to work that much harder.  The excitement and support of users is what fuels our late nights and long hours.

Playsets is ultimately about getting together with friends and having a great time and hopefully we can help you do that.  We want to be your portal to great stories, as an enhanced map that replaces the graph paper of your local game, or as the shared space for a group getting together from all over the country.  So we hope that not only can we enhance your existing groups, but inspire greater reach in your new ones, and maybe even pull in someone who hasn’t yet made it to game night.  Tabletop games are the most fun social storytelling we know and hopefully our work makes it even easier for you to have great adventures as well.

  Post Dated: 2013-11-03 12:50. Last Modified: 2013-11-03 at 13:00. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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[smalldevtalk]

Bound

Have you ever wanted to watch an entire movie made from Lego bricks? Check out Bound, a new dramactic adventure made entirely from Lego bricks! I recently got the chance to talk with Greg Tull from Monitogo Studios on their recently successful Kickstarter film, Bound. You can find more on their website.

Small Dev Talk: What is Bound? 

Greg Tull: Bound is a 45 - 60 min. dramatic adventure brickfilm. It's shot in 1080p on extensive sets and involves hundreds of characters!

Kickstarter Brickfilm Story from Monitogo Studios on Vimeo.

The first promo was cool. I mean, it had awesome effects, great lighting/composition, and was super professional. But there was a big problem. We didn't tell you our story. So here you go, a little look into - us.

Small Dev Talk: What is the story in Bound?

Greg Tull: Darkness threatens a happy medieval world when the rogue knight Guaramoth begins to raise an army. Zathen, a great warrior of the king, vows to kill the rogue and gain vengeance for the murder of his father. When things quickly go awry and Zathen is made a prisoner of Guaramoth in his imposing fortress, it falls upon his half siblings and their elderly guardian to come to his rescue. Nathan and Abigail, led by Micah, embark on a perilous quest to bring back their lost brother and friend. Though they look on the bright side and trust in their Lord, danger lurks at every turn. Their courage and dedication to their quest will be firmly tested...

Small Dev Talk: What is Nathan and Abigail like and what is their story? 

Greg Tull: Nathan is 16, mostly courageous, loves adventure, and is not unwilling to take on challenges - though he doesn't always think things through. Abigail is 12, homely, likes a quiet life, but is faithful and becomes quite a hardy little gal by the end of the story. They're the orphaned siblings of a hunter and a modest women who were lost in a dreadful accident when they were young. Now their older half-brother Zathen and an elderly guardian named Micah look out for them.

Small Dev Talk: What type of characters will we see in Bound?

Greg Tull: Some courageous, some simple, some with ninja-like skill. Ruthless baddies, crazy thieves, and lots of backstory.

Small Dev Talk: What genre can Bound be classified as? 

Greg Tull: Medieval action/adventure drama

Small Dev Talk: What is it like making a lego based movie? How are you filming it?

Greg Tull: Tough and easy at the same time. We have infinite control over our characters, lighting, locations, weather. At the same time, mistakes are brutal and everything in stop motion takes a VERY LONG TIME.

Small Dev Talk: How long does it take to record a one minute scene using lego? 

Greg Tull: A week if all goes well. Sometimes longer...

Small Dev Talk: How much did it cost to buy all the legos you used in Bound?

Greg Tull: At this point we are around $6,500.

Small Dev Talk: Is there a moral focus in Bound? 

Greg Tull: Absolutely. Family is worth saving, and sharing the Gospel is of utmost importance; it's worth experiencing suffering and facing the toughest trials.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create Bound?

Greg Tull: God. Other brickfilms. And my brother was into film. Plus I just love film in general.

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of Bound? 

Greg Tull: Oooh! The big sets and the advanced animating techniques. I can cheat in a double answer, right?

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the filming of Bound?

Greg Tull: Lack of funding, bad timeline estimation, just flat out how LONG animation takes to create, and space limitations. Welcome to indie film!

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming film makers? 

Greg Tull: Study movies, practice a lot, and then come up with a great short story. Tell it to the world!

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for Bound?

Greg Tull: April 2014. That's if we get our funding; otherwise it may be a while.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Greg Tull: If you love film, go find one to work on or support. At least just once. It's awesome!

Post Dated: 2013-08-25 16:54. Last Modified: 2013-08-25 at 17:03. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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[smalldevtalk]

Rick Future

The future of point and click gameplay starts with Rick Future. Recently I got the chance to talk with Sascha from Metal Pop Games on their upcoming sci-fi adventure game, Rick Future. You can find more about their game on their website or support them on Steam Greenlight.

Small Dev Talk: What is Rick Future? 

Sascha: Rick Future is sci-fi adventure game. Classic point and click gameplay, but built with a modern 3D engine. You can expect many puzzles and an original and deep story. The game is based on a popular German sci-fi audio play series also called Rick Future. As the player you will take control of all three main characters, Rick, Hubert and Evi, the crew of the space ship ERIC and set out on a big adventure.

Small Dev Talk: What is the story in Rick Future?

Sascha: We have a completely unique and standalone story in the game which does not require the player to know anything about the series. The story in an adventure game is quite important, even more important than in many other types of games I think. Many players play adventure games just to experience a great story, so we are taking great care to craft an interesting and engaging story for the game. Of course I do not want to spoil too much here, but there is quite an adventure waiting for the player. A simple routine cargo run leads Rick and the crew of his spaceship into the dangerous Gon’Dual sector, near the outer territories. Just delivering a cargo of some freight containers turns into a dangerous threat when they are attacked by pirates who show quite an interest in their seemingly harmless cargo.  Well... and maybe also an interest in collecting the bounty which has been put on Ricks head...  With no choice left Rick maneuvers the Eric, his seasoned and sturdy cargo ship, into the mysterious Corvula nebula to hide from his pursuers. But instead of escaping, the Eric collides with an old alien emergency probe which holds an ancient distress call from a long forgotten alien ship.  And suddenly the crew of the Eric in the middle of a new adventure which leads them through the dangerous Gon’Dual sector, where they do not know who is friend or foe... 

Small Dev Talk: Can you tell us about the three playable characters, Rick, Hubert and Evi?

Sascha: Those three are also the main characters from the original audio play series form the crew of the ERIC. Rick is the captain of the ERIC and one of the few surviving Humans in the galaxy. Hubert, the grumpy Golwonian is the mechanic and co-pilot of the ERIC. And finally there is Evi the female Android. In the game all three characters will be playable, which adds a lot of variation to the gameplay. Certain puzzles for example can only be solved if the heroes work together. There will be situations where only Rick might be able to talk his way out of it, while for other puzzles Hubert’s strength will be needed.

Small Dev Talk: Your game gives the player the choice of dialogue giving Rick Future a more interactive feel to it. Depending on how the player decides to interact with the characters, will that change the environment or future interactions in Rick Future?

Sascha: Yes, a lot of things you do will have an impact and might even change the environment. But never in a way that would stop the player from being able to finish the game.

We wanted to make the conversations in the game as meaningful as possible. All the NPCs and characters you talk to are not only there to provide you with information but also make the game world come alive. Of course being friendly or mean to the characters in the game will have an effect on how you can progress.

Small Dev Talk: What type of puzzles and minigames will we see in Rick Future?

Sascha: We really like the idea of breaking up traditional gameplay with small minigames. I don’t want to give away too much but we will have a lot of small games and puzzles in the game which add more variation. Rick might have to crack a door code, or Evie will have to access computer terminal, etc. All those thing can be done in an interesting way by presenting the player with a small puzzle or minigame.

Small Dev Talk: Will Rick Future be an open world game where players can explore the universe or will it be a linear game?

Sascha: Although we have certain elements in the game which give the player a lot of freedom of choice I think the game could be considered rather linear. Linear games make it a lot easier to tell a strong story, which is very important to us. Of course we added a lot of elements that help to make the game more replayable. There will be achievements, collectibles, etc. that will hopefully have the players come back and play the game through another time.

Small Dev Talk: What type of characters and creatures will the players come across in Rick Future?

Sascha: Since Rick Future is a sci-fi game there will be a lot of Aliens and other rather unusual characters to interact with. There are not too many Humans left after the destruction of the earth many years ago, so the majority of the NPCs in the game will be of Alien nature.

Small Dev Talk: What is the environment like in Rick Future?

Sascha: The game is set in the dangerous Gon’Dual sector of the galaxy, which is really not the safest place to be. The player will be able to travel between different planets and stations in the sector. All the locations in the game are being built in 3D which adds a lot of new possibilities if you compare it to traditional 2D locations which are still very common in adventure games.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create Rick Future? 

Sascha: After having worked on many big AAA games like Crysis, we really wanted to make something smaller and something that allows us to put in all our crazy ideas. These days, in big AAA productions you cannot just say, ‘Hey I have this great idea, let’s put it in’. Everything is planned many months in advance, which makes it very difficult to make changes or add in new ideas. So we said, let’s build an adventure game in 3D. This allows us to put in all the features and ideas that are very hard to add in a big large scale production.

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of Rick Future?

Sascha: That’s quite difficult to answer, since there are really so many small things in the game that make it great. But if I had to choose one thing it would probably be that fact that you can play three characters instead of just one. This leads to so many interesting and funny gameplay situations that it just became my favourite feature of the game.

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the development of Rick Future?

Sascha: Coming from the corporate AAA world where you just throw money at problems to make them go away, we had to learn that producing a game with a low budget is much more difficult. Solving problems without having a big budget is hard - really hard. You can’t just say, ’Hey let’s make some concept art of this location before building it’, because there is no money to pay the artist. Then again, maybe this circumstance challenges you to be more creative, work with what you have and focus on the important parts. 

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming developers?

Sascha: One advice I would give all new teams is to not underestimate how important it is to keep everything organized and have a good pipeline. Even if you are a one or two man team, use a version control system, bug tracking and a software for internal documentation. It takes time to set up initially and people need to get out of their comfort zone and familiar with new software – but it can save you sooo much time later on, not to mention save your ass when you are trying to figure out how and when a bug made it into your game. I have seen indie teams neglect all that and use a shared Dropbox folder for development. That is a disaster waiting to happen.

There are probably a million more things that I could list… J

Small Dev Talk: Why did you choose to use CryENGINE to develop Rick Future? 

Sascha: Using CryENGINE was a logical choice for us. Everybody in our team is very experienced with the engine since we have worked with it for many years. In addition to this CryENGINE is a very powerful engine that allows us to do very complex things in a short amount of time. It not only the rendering that makes CryENGINE great but the toolkit it comes with.

Small Dev Talk: I noticed that Rick Future is on Steam Greenlight. If your game becomes greenlit, will you take advantage of Steam’s great features such as Steam Workshop, Big Picture, Inventory, Achievements or Trading cards?

Sascha: Absolutely. I use those myself at home and love it! Of course I want my game to support as much of that as possible. We have a lot of plans and ideas collected internally about this. Everything has to fit in with the game though. We do not want to add in a Steam feature – or ANY feature - just for the purpose of having it in there.

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for Rick Future and how much will it cost or will it be Free-To-Play?

Sascha: We are planning to release the game in 2014. Ha ha, I really cannot be more specific than this right now. There are a lot of question marks there! J We are a two man indie company with a small budget and have to be flexible, altering between working on the game and working for money. Paying our rent comes first, obviously. Personally I would be very happy if we can release the game with a price of far below 20$, but we have not made any decisions yet.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Sascha: Please check out our game and give us feedback! J We are always happy about feedback and like to include players as much as possible even in the early phases of production. We have put a handful of cool things in the game that were brought to us from other people, telling us their ideas about the game. Tell us what you like or what sucks and we will have the chance to fix it.

Post Dated: 2013-08-23 21:16. Last Modified: 2013-08-23 at 21:26. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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[smalldevtalk]

After Reset

It has been 132 years since the Reset and now, it is your turn to explore this world. This is opportunity. This is After Reset. Not long ago, I got the chance to talk with Mr. Nixon on his new game, After Reset. You can find out more about the game on their website.

Small Dev Talk: What is After Reset RPG? 

Mr. Nixon: After Reset RPG  is a classic open world roleplaying game with an old school top-down view, in which the action takes place in the future on a slowly dying Earth after a nuclear cataclysm that destroyed nearly all life on the planet.

Small Dev Talk: What is the story in After Reset RPG?

Mr. Nixon: Planet Earth. 132 years after the "Reset," the thermonuclear apocalypse that ended human civilization. Around one third of the globe is covered by "Yellow Zones," where the ruins of cities are covered with radioactive dust. In these areas, anarchist "Survivor" groups have taken control, and uncontaminated food and drinking water are valued at parity with human life. Another third of the Earth is in the agony of the "Red Zones," the epicenters of the deadly anomalies which arose as a result of a nuclear chain reaction in the atmosphere, and the morphing of the planet. The majority of terrestrial organisms are not capable of surviving in the "Red Zones," which makes it a perfect home for mutants and "guests" from deep space. The planet is unrecognizable and looks empty…

An unfamiliar woman’s voice wakes you up with phrases like “Wake up, Commander!” You come to naked on the floor of some kind of laboratory surrounded by shards of glass and some kind of liquid. You can’t figure out who you are, where you are, what you are doing there, and what kind of voice you’re hearing.

Small Dev Talk: Can you go in detail with us about the branching character development system in After Reset RPG? What type of perks and skills will the player be able to choose from in After Reset RPG? 

Mr. Nixon: I'm still working on our game mechanic, SACPIC, so any details aren’t for sure, and could change. In general terms, it takes the best (from my point of view as a player and Game/Dungeon Master) features from DnD (specifically edition 3.5) and SPECIAL (the development of which should have been integrated into Fallout Van Buren).

At the moment of our release on Kickstarter, I’d like to be able to show a clip about character creation for future bakers. And in general for those who are already looking forward to our game and believe in us.

But I can already say that the level of the player will top out at level 20, but it won’t necessarily be a vertical progression. First of all, if you’re unarmed in the desert, 20 feet away from an attacker with a firearm, your chances of surviving the attack are nearly zero. And that’s regardless of your level. We try to aim for “real science fiction” in the same way A Song of Fire and Ice tries to be “real fantasy.” Our target gamers are fairly grown up and well versed in games, which is why, in order to guarantee the maximum immersion in the severe world of After Reset, we have to be able to guarantee a certain level of reality. In everything, including the branching character development system.

Small Dev Talk: Being an open world game, what will the player be able to do in the open world environment of After Reset RPG?

Mr. Nixon: There are at least two regions available to the player: The Great Desert (mostly ex-Nevada) and The State of Eagle (mostly ex-California). You can travel and do whatever you want within those regions and do whatever you want. This is the open-world part of the game. The range of your movement across the Global Map is limited by your water reserve and is affected by stats/skills/perks.

Small Dev talk: How is the co-op going to work in After Reset RPG? 

Mr. Nixon: For now, let’s let that stay a secret. We don’t want to tie that down for marketing reasons. The game will not have to be connected to the internet, there will not be DRM-protection , nor an in-game store, auctions or other heresies. All the same there will be plenty of good reasons, in my opinion, for you to WANT to play the game with the internet on.

Small Dev Talk: What type of weapons will the player come across and get to use in After Reset RPG?

Mr. Nixon: As in the setting of DnD (edition 3.5), the world will have a lot of types of weapons. Most of them are home made, but some rare specimens are hold-overs from the Past Era. Private weapon ownership is fairly widespread in the US, and the climate of Nevada helps preserve things. Many types of weapon could fully survive the Reset. It is also impossible to write off some kind of metallurgy being practiced in the growing New Confederation.

If your question is what are feats, which you have to accomplish to have this or that type of weapon, the answer is: Weapon Proficiency: Unarmed, Weapon Proficiency: Cold Steel, Weapon Proficiency: Firearms, Weapon Proficiency: Energy Weapons, and others.

Small Dev Talk: What type of enemies will the player come across in After Reset RPG? 

Mr. Nixon: Mankind's biggest enemy is people themselves. But other than other people, you could come across such beings as Animals, Synthetics, Biomass, Aliens, Aberrations and some others. Each species could have several subspecies.

Small Dev Talk: What will the environment be like in After Reset RPG? How will it be lifelike and serious?

Mr. Nixon: As you remember, Fallout 1/2 was always satirical and phantasmagoric. And we loved it for that. The retro-future world of Fallout 1/2, drenched with romanticism, and having already rebuilt after the catastrophe, found it’s path to the development of a new world.

The setting of the game After Reset RPG is drenched with the atmosphere of a dying desert on the planet. Human civilization lost the battle for the Earth by hiding. The earth itself in large areas is reminiscent of Mars. It’s a miracle that a handful of people are still clinging to life. All the same, for those who were born on the earth’s surface among the survivors of the Reset, that world is taken for granted – they simply don’t know any other one.

Over the 100 years without humans, lots of traces of the civilization of the Past Era have been erased. That’s one of the reasons we chose an arid region as a scene – the desert climate guarantees the highest amount of traces of past civilizations possible will be preserved.

What are the morals, norms of behavior, values and psychology of the descendants of people who survived the Reset on the surface – then it’s different from ours no less than our modern habits and dogmas differ from those that were prominent two centuries ago.

I’ve developed the setting based on real scientific studies and original documents remaining from our reality. Thus for example, according to present USA military doctrine, atomic attacks will be made on their own densely populated cities, on their own inhabitants in certain circumstances. And they do that only if necessary, but that doesn’t mean that decision will be made in cold blood. A similar decision will change the USA forever.

What are the Survivors? They are people for whom murder, might makes right, thievery, drugs, power, short lifespans, and treason are as natural as a cup of coffee in the morning for most of us. On the surface, there is no more Government capable of protecting and guaranteeing something – nothing remains to hold back Human Nature. And no one’s around to make TV shows about that nature – it’s like TOR brought to life (note: Tor is a fully anonymous internet network, not controlled by any governments or corporations). But beyond that, among all that horror, we can see sparks of real valor, honesty, morals, self-sacrificing, and empathy as other spark sides of human nature. They’re called “sparks” because they quickly fade in the darkness, because a person with these qualities on the Earth’s surface in After Reset world wouldn’t live long.

Well, if you’re totally disillusioned with humanity, or generally find your self experience social phobia, you can always throw your backpack over your shoulder, rifle on the other, a flask on your hip and set off to wander in the Great Desert. To study the remains of a human civilization that never quite reached the stars, or simply to live the life of a wanderer, searching for yourself, and your path.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create After Reset RPG? 

I was sick of waiting for a decent Fallout 3 :) But to be serious, yes I was really sick of waiting for an interesting RPG to come out. Over the last 4 years I made Fallout D20, the fan-made PW NWN2 and got it to a playable server. But due to legal issues, I had to stop development. And then, from my 20 years of experience as a gamer, 6 years of experience as a Dungeon Master, and 5-year experience as a businessman, the setting of After Reset was born.

Intenseness of development of the game sharply grew after I found out about Kickstarter, and the game Avernum: Escape From the Pit. Successful gaming startups on Kickstarter have shown that it’s completely possible to attract the necessary funds to develop a worthy old-school RPG (from a minimum $900 thousand collection + $100,000 of my own personal savings). Avernum: Escape From the Pit with its huge world, hundreds of hours travelling, and created by just one person really convinced me that even independent of the results of co-founding, I could really create After Reset RPG, even at the level of a hobby.

Small Dev Talk: What is your favorite aspect of After Reset RPG?

Mr. Nixon: Atmosphere, Story, Roleplaying, and Freedom of Actions.

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the development of After Reset RPG? 

Mr. Nixon: Just as in anything, the basic problem, and simultaneously secret to success is people. It’s really hard to find high quality experts in their business with an adequate self-assessment.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for upcoming developers?

Mr. Nixon: Ups and downs are unavoidable on the path to your goal. Try to stay calm during the ups, and have unshakeable confidence during the downs, and monotonously, and inevitably walk toward your goal. If you can’t take a step, crawl inch by inch. If you cant crawl, at least lie down in the direction of your goal. And then everything becomes possible.

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for After Reset RPG and how much will it cost or will it be Free-To-Play? 

Mr. Nixon: If we get support on Kickstarter, I think we can expect this game to come out in around 1-2 years. If no, then we’re talking about 5 years. Here’s the simple math:

Game = Time * Money * Perseverance.

Money = Time * Perseverance.

Thus, Game = Time² * Perseverance or Game = Money² * Perseverance

I’m not much for Perseverance, so the release date will be totally dependent on the wishes of the gamers.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Mr. Nixon: Clearly define your goals and never give up. And of course follow After Reset RPG and read/watch Small Dev Talk.

Post Dated: 2013-08-22 00:29. Last Modified: 2013-08-22 at 00:36. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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[smalldevtalk]

Stone Rage

FREE-TO-PLAY! Stone Rage is a Free-To-Play online third person multiplayer action game set within the Pleistocene and Eocene eras and it looks beautiful. We got the chance to talk with some developers from Mountainwheel Games on their new project, Stone Rage. You can check out more on their website or support them on their IndieGoGo.

Small Dev Talk: What is Stone Rage?

Mountainwheel Games: Stone Rage is a Free-To-Play online third person multiplayer action game set within the Pleistocene and Eocene eras, featuring prehistoric tribalism, prehistoric landscapes and prehistoric animals. Players will take control of a single character of either a human class, Neanderthal tribe or animal genus and wreak havoc in either survival, team objective or deathmatch game types. As players win games and progress through achievements, options in weapon layout, upgrades and personalized character customization will be unlock, giving a large array of choices to those who do not wish to completely conform to a single archetype.

Small Dev Talk: Is there a story and if so, what is it about?

Mountainwheel Games: Stone Rage tells not one specific story, but rather allows the players to tell their own stories of survival and heroism.  While the setting of the game places it in a unique position within the story of Humanity as a whole, we take care not to depict any specific moment in history.

Small Dev Talk: What time period is this game set in and why that time period?

Mountainwheel Games: Stone Rage is set within the Pleistocene and Eocene eras.  That was a truly pivotal time during human evolution, and is dramatically under-represented in the context of modern games.  It is a period in which Humanity truly became the world-dominating species it is today, and the last time we truly interacted with other species as equals.

Small Dev Talk: On your website it says 'online third person multiplayer action game', will it be only online like an MMO or will there be a single-player option?

Mountainwheel Games: Stone Rage is a PvP game, and an internet connection is naturally required to connect to other players.

Small Dev Talk: How are you going to incorporate the mutliplayer into this open-world game?

Mountainwheel Games: This is not an open-world game.

Small Dev Talk: How is the multiplayer going to work in this game?

Mountainwheel Games: In multiplayer, 2 groups of players are collected from one of the 3 playable races (Human, Neanderthal or Animal).  That means one team might be Animal, and the other might be Neanderthal, for example.  For each pairing, a different scenario is picked.  In the case of Animal vs Neanderthal, the scenario is: "Watering Hole".  At the beginning of the match, the animals start out in one big group, clustered around their camp, with baby animals to protect.  The neanderthals are hunting them.  The Neanderthals win if they can kill all the baby animals or all of the adult animals controlled by players, and the Animals win if they can kill all the Neanderthals or outlast the timer.

Small Dev Talk: What type of character classes will there be and can you describe their role in Stone Rage?

Mountainwheel Games: We've got a ton of character classes lined up for lots of different roles and player types.  The core roles of Tank, DPS and Healer are all there, with several class choices for each.  Counting all the skill and weapon configurations that are possible creates thousands of possible customized player experiences.  Whether you like lying in wait in the tall grass as a Gastornis or charging through the gates as a Mammoth, there is a class for you in Stone Rage.

Small Dev Talk: How will the weapon layout work in Stone Rage? What type of weapons will the players get to choose?

Mountainwheel Games: Human and Neanderthal races will each get a diverse set of weapons, ranging from bows and arrows to maces and staves.

Small Dev Talk: Due to the time period the game is set in, can players create their own tribes? If so, how will that work and what could they do?

Mountainwheel Games: Players will be able to group with their friends, which is its own little form of tribalism, but the Races in the game are set.

Small Dev Talk: What unique features does your game have?

Mountainwheel Games: The first unique selling proposition is of course the setting: prehistoric survival. The pre-historical Stone Age era is unspent and unique within the game branch. The game is slightly orientated at the RPG-like game play with emphasis on team play, which made “Defence of the Ancients” successful. But Stone Rage focuses more on action and less on RPG elements

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of the game?

Mountainwheel Games: I love the beautiful, lush worlds our artists have created.  The pre-historic setting is a really powerful thing to play in.

Small Dev Talk: What engine does your game run on and does this game require high specs to play?

Mountainwheel Games: Stone Rage uses CryEngine 3 to produce beautiful visuals on a wide range of hardware.  While the game will look fantastic on high end PCs, it will scale down very well to entry-level hardware.

Small Dev Talk: What is it like being part of an indie development team? What challenges did your team face?

Mountainwheel Games: It's a lot of work!  We love what we do, but it's always a challenge.  The Stone Rage team in particular is globally distributed, so it can be tough to coordinate everyone.

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected launch date for Stone Rage and will it have a cost or will it be Free-To-Play?

Mountainwheel Games: Stone Rage is coming out soon, so keep your eyes peeled, and will be Free-To-Play!

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards the reader?

Mountainwheel Games: Thanks for your interest in Stone Rage.  You've got a few months left to prepare, after that, get ready to have your face bitten off!

Post Dated: 2013-08-19 13:50. Last Modified: 2013-08-19 at 13:55. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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[smalldevtalk]

Salt & Burn

Gear yourself up to hunt some monsters in Salt & Burn. A new tabletop monster-hunter RPG board game by Unicorn Empire Prints. I recently got the chance to talk with Amber Whitney about her new exciting new boar d game, Salt & Burn. You can support them on their Kickstarter or find out more on their website.

Small Dev Talk: What is Salt & Burn?

Amber Whitney: Salt & Burn is a tabletop monster-hunter board game that incorporates action RPG elements with classic board game style.

Small Dev Talk: What is the story in Salt & Burn?

Amber Whitney: You are a Hunter of the Supernatural, trying to save innocent lives and kill the things that go bump in the night! Each Hunter character in Salt & Burn has a different backstory, with different reasons why they became Hunters, included in the extended game-book. 

Small Dev Talk: How do you play Salt & Burn? What are the rules in the game?

Amber Whitney: The rules can get a little bit complicated, and I'm not exactly known for brevity, but I'll try and give you a quick rundown. In the original Salt & Burn you pick a character and a vehicle at random to begin the game. The primary goal is to save more lives than the other Hunters. As you travel the board you can collect magic spells, items and weapons to use to make your character more powerful or save your butt when you run into something you can't handle. Hunters can be Angels, Demons or Humans, and each race has different advantages and abilities over the others. There are over 30 monsters in Salt & Burn, and killing each one awards you a different number of lives saved based on just how dangerous that particular monster was. If you manage to take down a Big Bad, you could save as many as 5 lives with a single kill. There are many ways to play the game, including a co-op version with the Brother Booster pack. Variant rules will be included so that people can try different ways to enjoy their game to ensure a lot of replay value.

Small Dev Talk: Can you describe to us how the game mat/board works in Salt & Burn? Is it mandatory to play Salt & Burn?

Amber Whitney: The game board enhances game play, but personally I wanted to make sure that the game was really affordable. The mat is a simple rollable print that can be put on any flat surface and used as a game board. It's just an affordable option compared to getting the actual game board, which is being professionally printed and will be made like a classic Monopoly board. We've also worked on developing a cards-only version, so that people who could only afford the cards would be able to play as well. People who buy the cards-only version of Salt & Burn will receive a few extra cards to replace the functions that they lose from the game board to keep it well rounded.

Small Dev Talk: Can you describe to us the different types of cards in Salt & Burn and their purposes? 

Amber Whitney: Character cards - Your Hunter can be a human, angel or a demon, and each race has different advantages. Each Hunter comes with a base attack and base health; both of these can be modified throughout the game with the use of items.

Item Cards - Items can protect you and add to your base health or make you more dangerous as a hunter and add to your base attack; some of the best items will do both. Other items might actually hurt you- a Demon who touches a Blessed Knife will actually lose health points and have to discard the item. 

Trunk Cards - These are like magic spells, you need to keep them secret from other Hunters and use them at your discretion. These spells can do any number of things; curse other Hunters, heal you, or make you immune from a group event or curses enacted on you by other Hunters. There are cards in the event deck that allow other Hunters to steal from each other though, so it's important to not give any tips when you've got something good, otherwise you might find yourself getting carjacked by a greedy Hunter. 

Vehicle Cards - Your vehicle can have a pretty big impact on your Hunter in the game. Each vehicle has a different amount of trunk space, and some have speed modifiers that make you go faster or slower around the board by subtracting or adding to your roll. A bigger trunk means you can keep more Trunk Cards; but it often means you'll go slower. If you have a -1 speed bonus and roll a 1, you'll be sitting that turn out!

Small Dev Talk What type of supernatural creatures and event cards will we see in Salt & Burn?

Amber Whitney: Event Cards can be good or bad, they are entirely up to chance and you will draw one for a majority of your turns because each grey space on the board means it's time to draw an Event card. You might draw a monster to fight or you might get a nice slice of pie and earn back 2 health points! We have a very wide variety of possible things that can happen to your Hunter.

Small Dev Talk: What type of player cards will we see in Salt & Burn? What is the difference between them?

Amber Whitney: The biggest difference at the moment is the ability to carry items; Humans can use the most items, though they also have the lowest base health and damage to start. Each Hunter also has a unique backstory and different stats, so some are definitely better than others from the get go. In the Bitten Booster pack we're introducing Werewolf Hunters and Vampire Hunters, and each will have special abilities which we're looking into expanding across all species groups. For instance, if you're playing a Vampire Hunter and you land on or within a space of another hunter, you can roll a D6 and steal that many health points from that hunter. Fun little things that will really accentuate the difference in the character species!

Small Dev Talk: The card Plaid Shirt of Awesomeness immediately reminded me of CW Supernatural’s Sam and Dean and their clothing. Did that show ever have an impact or inspiration for Salt & Burn?

Amber Whitney: Very definitely! I'm a big fan of the show, and there are a few Supernatural jokes in the game itself like the Plaid Shirt or the Tuesday event card (I won't tell you what it does, but I'm sure you can guess!). But I also designed the game specifically wanting to make something that stood alone and could be fun for people who have never even heard of the show, and I'm pretty confident that we've succeeded in that regard. 

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create Salt & Burn? 

Amber Whitney: There was a SPN Challenge about Supernatural being redone in the style of video games actually; crossovers, artistically, all kinds of things and I really wanted to participate. I'm pretty busy so the idea sat with me for a few days and the more I thought about what I wanted to draw the more I realized that I didn't really want to do a video game so much as a board game; I've always really loved board games and I used to make them with my little sisters all the time. I got pretty excited realizing that I could actually make a board game now much better than when I was 10 years old, so I started cultivating the game idea and fleshing it out and doing some of the art and I was encouraged by some friends to share it on Kickstarter.

Small Dev Talk: What is your favourite aspect of Salt & Burn?

Amber Whitney: For me it's definitely the humor. I really love puns, pretty much any kind of pun or joke I'll laugh at, and I really worked hard to make sure that the cards have a lot of personality to give everyone a few good laughs during the game. I know that the subject matter can sound pretty dark, hunting down and killing monsters, risking life and limb to save other people, but I wanted to make a game that was not just fun but also pretty happy and left people who played it feeling happy too.

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the development of Salt & Burn? 

Amber Whitney: The biggest challenge was getting the cost down as much as I could; The game is really something I developed and made for me and my friends, and it grew from there, so I'd have bought it even if it was a lot of money. But selling things to other people, personally, has to come with a variety of pricing options and a level of affordability that I'm very passionate about. Getting each of the items priced out and as low as they could go has been a real challenge, but fortunately I make and sell art for a living so I have a lot of tools at my disposal and I'm pretty used to sourcing wholesale options.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for anyone that wants to create their own board game and card game?

Amber Whitney: I would say make something that you enjoy first and foremost, and I always say that for everything. If it's something that you're passionate about then you're more likely to follow through when you come up against challenges; if you're making something just because it's popular, it's not as fun to make, and people can always tell when there's passion behind a project. 

Small Dev Talk: What is the expected release date for Salt & Burn and how much will it cost? Will people be able to find Salt & Burn in stores and online? 

Amber Whitney: I'm hoping to get the game printed and assembled by October, but I can't really offer guarantees. Experience would tell me to never set a hard date, because you never know what problems might spring up! Salt & Burn will be available in my Etsy shop and it will cost probably pretty similarly to what people are pledging right now on Kickstarter. If people can't get all parts of the game during the Kickstarter but would like to buy a booster pack or the full board later on they can.

Small Dev Talk: Once Salt & Burn is released, do you plan on continuing making booster packs and decks with new cards?

Amber Whitney: I'm not sure what I'll make later on, while I do have some plans for a pretty big End of Days expansion pack that allows for group-play against a common enemy. Other than that, I'm already thinking about other possible games that I might make in the future, and we've been talking about a possible Salt & Burn: After Dark that expands a lot more on the character aspect and brings in more of a classic D&D vibe with skill development and professions that you can pick for your character that would really influence their abilities. 

Small Dev Talk: Do you plan on making an online version of Salt & Burn, whether it be PC client, mobile app or browser version of Salt & Burn?

Amber Whitney: I would if I had the skills, but I know next to nothing about mobile apps or coding! If I had an unfortunate friend to pick their brain I might ask them, but since it's not something I know how to do it's probably very unlikely.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Amber Whitney: Thanks for taking the time to read about Salt & Burn! We really hope to provide a quality game that is fun for all kinds of gamers that has enough diversity to give you plenty of replay value. We made sure to keep the numbers low so the math elements of the game can be done quickly and keep everything moving at a quick pace. Health point counters are also included in the game to keep track of your character's current health easily from turn to turn. We've done our best to create something that everyone can be happy to have on their game shelf!

Post Dated: 2013-08-18 17:19. Last Modified: 2013-08-18 at 17:22. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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[smalldevtalk]

FluoroVu

Have you ever wanted your own UV camera to detect fluorescences on your phone? Well check out FluoroVu, crated by Eigen Imaging, a new portable and reliable physical addon to your smart phone that allows you to view and capture Ultraviolet-induced fluorescence images of certain objects and materials. You can find out more on their website or support them on Kickstarter .

Small Dev Talk: What is FluoroVu?

Eigen Imaging: In simplest terms, it is a hardware and software package that allows you to view and capture Ultraviolet-Induced Visible Fluorescence images of certain objects and materials.  The device consists of a proprietary optics module that is attached to your smartphone or tablet used in conjunction with a specially developed app.

Small Dev Talk: How does FluoroVu work? 

Eigen Imaging:  The optics module emits UV light parallel to the optical axis of the smartphone’s camera.  Any fluorescence will be captured by the APP’s live camera view.  The optics module has a color correction filter that helps bring out the fluorescence against the blue background caused by the UV light.

Small Dev Talk: What are the practical uses for FluoroVu? Is it meant for professional use or can it be used for the home? Will this be suitable for students in University/post-secondary school?

Eigen Imaging: The FluoroVu can be used almost anywhere by anybody regardless of technical background.  All you need is a smartphone or tablet.

Here is a short list of the many applications:

Laboratory, Research and Industrial - Many organic and inorganic compounds and substances exhibit UV fluorescence. Applications include coatings analysis, checking cleanliness of work area, epoxy analysis and quality control. 

Identify your valuable personal property. Use it to capture and retrieve images of your personal property that contains invisible markings that you create and only you will recognize.

Education - Fluorescence Demonstration and Analysis.  Use the FluoroVu to educate on contamination and cleanliness

Counterfeit  verification - check altered/fake documents, counterfeit currency and other official IDs.

Art - Use to the FluoroVu  to see hidden fixes paintings, carvings and various objects.

Mineralogy - rocks and gemstone.  Different rock and gemstones fluoresce in intricate and beautiful patterns.   Use the FluoroVu to get cool images and share with your friends.

Automotive - refrigerant leak detection, locate repaired windshield cracks.  The FluoroVu is a convenient tool for field inspection.

Small Dev Talk: How accurate is the UV detection with FluoroVu? 

Eigen Imaging: The FluoroVu is not for detecting UV.  It emits long UV light and detects fluorescence of certain materials that are sensitive to UV light.  How well it can capture fluorescence depends on many factors, like the type of materials, ambient lighting, the distance from object to camera, etc.  Although it is true that a generic UV light source has the same ability to induce UV-fluorescence, we feel the FluoroVu's optic module in conjunction with the specially developed APP offer several advantages. First our LED ring light design ensures that the light travels parallel to the optical axis thereby producing more uniform illumination. The optics module also contains a color-correction filter to remove the excessive blue in order to better reveal fluorescent features.  Last but not least, the FluoroVu App can be used even on non-UV fluorescent subjects.   In other words, it can enhance features even without the use of the optics module. The FluoroVu App uses an image processing method that can bring out color contrast of very faint features in objects that are almost invisible to the human eye.

  Small Dev Talk: What devices and mobile operating systems will the FluoroVu work with?

Eigen Imaging: All android OS smartphones.  Iphone versions 3 and 4, Ipad versions 1, 2 and 3.  We have had success on a few android tablets but don’t have everything out there to test with.  Tell us which model tablet you have and we can look into it. We are currently working on a version that is compatible with Apple devices that have the lightning connector, such as the iPad 4 and iphone5.

Small Dev Talk: What can the user do on the FluoroVu app besides function the FluoroVu? Will it be able to record what it sees and be imported onto computers for analytic purposes? 

Eigen Imaging: The APP allows you take images just like a normal smartphone camera.  Therefore the images taken can be exported to reports, presentations and shared with friends and colleagues. The app also allows you to load and enhance an existing image, taken by the device itself or even from an external source.

Small Dev Talk: What about magnification? Due to FluoroVu being a physical addon to the mobile device, will it have any enhanced magnification?

Eigen Imaging: We have made a prototype version that included a lens for more magnification.  If there is sufficient interest we can certainly offer a version with magnification as part of our standard product line. The app has a software (digital) zoom feature to enlarge the subject for easier viewing of small details. If your device has optical zoom, you can use that when taking photos of the subject.

Small Dev Talk: Will there be any desktop version for FluoroVu? 

Eigen Imaging: We don’t have plans to make a desktop version since it is not practical to use in such a set-up.

Small Dev Talk: What inspired you to create FluoroVu?

Eigen Imaging: The FluoroVu is rooted in the core technology of Eigen Imaging Inc. Drawing inspiration from our background in smartphone APP development, electro-optics and image processing we brainstormed to find a product that was useful for everyone. The FluoroVu is one such product. Naturally we met (but finally overcame) many hurdles. Our first test prototypes consisted of two LEDs attached to a plastic ring, attached to the smartphone using a rubber band.

Small Dev Talk: What was you and your developers intention and focus of FluoroVu?

Eigen Imaging: We want to provide people with a cost-effective, portable and easy-to-use device which can help them with work and daily chores.

Small Dev talk: What is your favourite aspect of FluoroVu? 

Eigen Imaging: Everything, but we especially like the fact that you can use the APP even without the light module.

Small Dev Talk: What challenges did you and your team come across in the development of FluoroVu?

Eigen Imaging: Cost is a major hurdle.  We have to compromise high-end finishes and color choices to keep the cost reasonable.  Making our product compatible with all the different models smartphone and tablets has been a great challenge.  We had success with many models and are constantly working to expand on compatibility.  Products that incorporate the lightning connector by Apple (ie. Iphone5, Ipad4) are proving to be much more challenging.  But we strongly feel that a solution is soon forthcoming.

Small Dev Talk: Do you have any advice for developers creating their own devices? 

Eigen Imaging: Take one step at a time and enjoy the process. The mistakes you encounter (and you will encounter them) will not be wasted if you learn something valuable from it.

Small Dev talk: What is the expected release date for FluoroVu and how much will it cost? Will people be able to find FluoroVu in stores and online?

Eigen Imaging: We are running a funding campaign at www.kickstarter.com which ends on Aug. 22.   Backers on Kickstarter can get it for $39, US shipping included.  We have plans to sell the product through our on-line store but do not have an exact date and price since it will depend on the results of our initial funding.

Small Dev talk: Do you have anything to say towards our readers?

Eigen Imaging: Already we have gotten many interesting feedback from supporters concerning the intended use of the product.   Sample areas of applications include forensics, paleontology, chemistry, mining, education, and others.   People plan to use it at the office, in the field and/or at home.   Anywhere you can take your smartphone you can use the FluoroVu.

Post Dated: 2013-08-17 02:33. Last Modified: 2013-08-17 at 02:39. Written by Alexander Sullivan

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