Colin Day has 20 years of professional game development experience. Working on such very notable titles as Diablo 3, Marvel Heroes, and Command & Conquer: Generals. Colin Day has now created his own video game development company, Spellbind Studios.
Taking to Kickstarter, Day and his team look to raise the funds to develop a new game, Rogue Wizards.
Rogue Wizards is a new rogue-like for desktop and moile that combines the joys of dungeon crawling, monster killing, and loot collecting, with town-building RPG elements.
Project Lead Colin Day took time out of his day to answer a few questions about Rogue Wizards, its development, and what to look forward to in the game.
What has been the most difficult part of development this far into the game? Has there been anything that has proven to be more difficult than originally anticipated?
Games are difficult to create and every one presents its own unique set of challenges and issues; that’s part of the fun and is a big reason I enjoy making them almost two decades later. For Rogue Wizards, one of the most challenging aspects is certainly the game balance and pacing. Because the game relies heavily on randomized content, the number of possibilities any given player will experience are staggering.
I have no idea what a level will really look like, what the player will find there, what obstacles will be created, where they’ll be placed, and how all those elements might interact together in either beneficial or harmful ways. I’ve gone through this a few times before on big projects, but it never ceases to amaze me how no matter how much I thought I had planned for it, in the end it just takes a lot more play-testing and tuning than you think to get it right.
Another difficulty I didn’t expect but encounter every day is the fact that my cat wants to be in my lap … a lot. Every time I get a text message she gets up from her cat trap (aka cat bed) on my desk and demands attention; which I have to give or she’ll just keep jumping on the keyboard.
I noticed one of the first dungeons was in the “Den of Evil”. Is this a reference to Diablo 2’s first quest? Are there more Easter Eggs later on in the game referencing other games you can share?
Haha. Yep, the “Den of Evil” is definitely a nod to Diablo, one of my favorite series and that has been a part of my gaming DNA for a really long time. Back in school I remember squeezing in even just 30 minutes of play between classes whenever I could. While developing Nox, we were always watching news on Diablo 2 to see how we measured up to the competition. I even worked on the early years of Diablo 3 at Blizzard North and continued to work with some of those creators on Hellgate: London (Flagship Studios) and Marvel Heroes (Gazillion).
Easter eggs are a lot of fun to both create and find. Players can look forward to a number of them in Rogue Wizards. I’m particularly fond of cross-over characters from other games, so you might want to be on the lookout for some of those in the dungeons. Being an independent developer is really great in this area because indies love to share this kind of stuff between each other, it’s a awesome community to be a part of.
How did you get the idea of introducing a town-building mechanic in a rogue-like? Will there be a limit to how many buildings you can have in your town?
In the early days, I was talking with Erich Schaefer about doing a project together. Inspired by a recent resurgence of turn-based dungeon crawlers like Dungeons of Dredmore and Sword of Fargoal, I really wanted to use my years of experience building these things in my own project. Erich wanted to include some simulation style elements, perhaps even including battles somehow involving a town itself. So we thought we’d try to mash these two things together and see if it could work.
When Erich decided to focus on what became Double Damage Games instead, I kept running with the town dungeon crawler idea and began implementing and iterating on its design. Iteration and refinement is a key component to my development process and is critical building something fun. I experimented with sprawling your city throughout an overworld map nestled between natural borders, growing magic components, and at one time your town was mobile atop a floating island that you moved around an over world map full of dungeons.
It quickly became apparent that I was building not one but two games, which was pulling my attention in too many directions at once which is a common problem when creating games. Over time, the town mode became more refined as I focused on the most fun elements while throwing out ones that were too complicated or that didn’t work well. Now your town really serves as an extension of your character where you can customize your game while simultaneously improving your chances in the dungeons. However, it isn’t so complicated that you feel like you have to learn a whole new set of game rules and serves as a great break between the dungeons.
You won’t be able to create an unlimited number of buildings, but I haven’t settled on the final numbers for what will be allowed just yet. Some structures make a lot of sense to replicate as many as you can, such as a gold mine that literally generates gold for you. However, when it comes to something like a blacksmith, I find it a bit tedious to have to go around to lots of them all the time just so I don’t potentially pass up a valuable item that might be there.
What inspired the design for the main character?
For that I think you have to look back to my 10 year old self. For just about as long as I can remember I wanted to be a wizard, have a magic staff, and live in a castle – that’s what all kids want right? I would create these elaborate stories and kingdoms in my backyard, and I guess I never really fully grew up so that little kid is still a part of me all the time.
When it comes to the actual visuals of the heroes today, Alex was given minimal direction and used his creative vision and talent to create a few concepts. I think it’s important that each team member has a lot of creative freedom in everything they do, both the team and the game benefits from that. He really nailed it on the first try and I couldn’t be happier with them.
Will the core game play the same between desktop and mobile platforms? Also, Will it be possible to continue your same adventure when moving from desktop to a mobile platform?
Yeah, the core game will be the same between desktop and mobile, but each platform will take advantage of platform specifics when it makes sense. A design goal of mine is to create a game that would sit well on both platform and reaching an audience who are looking for a deep role playing experience that is beyond a simple casual distraction. Although the art style helps to bring a light-hearted vibe into the mix and works well on mobile, I don’t want to make that experience so light that it alienates desktop gamers more accustomed to deep complex RPGs. I have very deep roots in the desktop RPG wo0rld, so I think players on both platforms will enjoy the charm and depth of what Rogue Wizards has to offer.
If you would like to see more about Rogue Wizards, show your support on Spellbind Studio’s Kickstarter page or vote for Rogue Wizards on Steam Greenlight.
Published: Oct 22, 2014 06:40 pm