Tuesday 6 August 2013

Interview with 'T-Go Co Games'

Today we speak with Jon Evans the founder of T-Go Co Games creating a strategy mobile game coming soon to IOS and Android. We find out everything about the game and what you can expect when its released. 




1. For the people who don't know, who does T-Go Co games consist of and how did the team come together?


T-Go Co Games was originally just myself with artwork provided by my brother. I started the company while I was finishing university as I had always wanted to make games and the mobile market seemed to have brought back the days when just a few people could work together to make games and actually make a living doing it.

I made my first game (War Machines) just to see if I could make a game. I hadn't done any coding in Objective-C, but I downloaded Xcode and followed a book by Ray Wenderlich called "Learning Cocos2D", and in a few months I had something playable. I wasn't really intending on releasing it, but I decided that it was good enough to warrant having my brother make some art for me and to actually get it out on the app store.

Aside from learning the actual process of creating and submitting a game, I think the biggest thing I took away from this initial experience was that marketing was incredibly important to being successful. I read somewhere that being successful with a game was 1/3 about the game itself, 1/3 marketing, and 1/3 luck. That seems about right to me, yet I still see a lot of indies not marketing their games. It's not necessarily what everyone wants to be doing, but you have to do it if you want to succeed!

This has led me to my current position where I have found talented people to help me make the games that I want to make (and play!), so I can offload some of the development work (and all of the artwork, since I have zero artistic talent!) and spend more time designing and marketing. I've actually spent more time marketing than I had initially wanted to, but I know how important it is so I make sure to keep it up.

The current team consists of myself, Martin Nanni (producer), Ivan Stur (art director), Senshi Antares (texture artist, UI artist), Leandro Wainberg (developer).



2. Diesel Tactics is the new up coming game from T-Go Co Games but are there any other games that have been created in the past that perhaps people aren't aware of? 


As I mentioned, the only game I've made before (that was released anyway!) is War Machines for iOS devices.



3. As i said Diesel Tactics is the new game in development, what is the game about and how did the idea come around?


Diesel Tactics is an asynchronous, turn based, tactical game with an army building component. Wow, that's a mouthful!

The game was inspired primarily by Hero Academy and tabletop games like Warhammer 40k and Dust Tactics.


                               



4. What inspired you in creating Diesel Tactics to be turn based strategy game?


I love tactical games like Hero Academy, but my main issue with it was the random aspect of how you get units and items to use, and the fact that each army had a set deck of those units and items. I wanted a game just like that, but where I could also build my army in the same way that you do in Warhammer and Dust Tactics. I love that aspect of those games (and similarly the deck building aspect of CCGs) as I feel creating your army is like a game by itself and also lets you play the combat portion of the game in a way that you want to.

Something that we want to do with Diesel Tactics is to let players play the game how they want to. They can build a fast, mobile army that can outmaneuver their opponents, or they can make an army of big, tough, hard hitting, but slow units, or anything in between!



5. You discuss on tgocogames.com that you have always had a love for board games bringing the strategy of board games to mobile devices, What created the passion you have for board games and do you have a favourite board game you play?


When I was pretty young I remember being introduced to the board game Talisman, which was a step up in complexity from the games that I was used to playing, and just thinking it was awesome! The fact that the characters were actually different from each other (unlike, say, Monopoly), the idea that you could actually improve your character as you played, and the concept that skill had more to do with things than luck, were all things that made me realize how deep and interesting a board game could be.

I remember after that that I always wanted to modify rules or add new ones to all the games I played, as I often felt things didn't work well (even if it was just the fact that I didn't really understand their purpose as a kid!) and I wanted to make it more like the game I wanted to play.

When mobile gaming came around I saw a real possibility to make games like all the ones that I loved growing up (with my own twist on things of course!), and I think other people are realizing the same thing as so many games are coming out that are translations of board games. I actually had on my list of games that I wanted to make was something like Warhammer Quest since I thought it would translate amazingly to mobile devices, and it turns out I was right!

My current favourite board games are Dust Tactics and a bit of a silly one (but great to play with a few drinks!) called Dungeon Fighter.



6. What happens on a daily development cycle for Diesel Tactics?


Wow, this one really depends on the day! Most days right now are dealing with creating our menus and in game UI system, implementing the code for the combat system, advertising our game through social media (and doing interviews!), finalizing the animations for the units, and a lot of tweaking and changes as we see things come together! I'm basically involved in everything, so my days are generally all over the place, which is nice as it keeps me busy.




7. Diesel Tactics is a game you can play against other players over IOS and Andriod, how does this concept work and how will it differ from the offline modes?


Well, first of all, Diesel Tactics won't have an offline mode! Just like Hero Academy (and a lot of other asynchronous games), there is only an online mode.

The game works just like any other asynchronous turn based game (like Hero Academy or Words With Friends) where you play multiple simultaneous games and you have a few days to input turns. The big difference with Diesel Tactics is that it uses a WeGo combat system. This is because the game has a random chance element that a lot of asynchronous games do not. For example, when you shoot at someone you have a percent chance to hit and to wound them. We can't let the player know whether they hit or not until after they submit all of their attacks as they can undo moves and redo them until they are satisfied with their orders. Because of this we let both players input their attack orders, and only then do we calculate who hit who and who died. All attacks from both sides happen at the same time (though the initiative of the units themselves matters!), which is why it's called a WeGo combat system: it's not "I go then you go", but "we go!"



8. There are thousands and thousands of mobile games available in store. How does Diesel Tactics differ from other mobile games to avoid it being overlooked?


I've honestly looked for years and have yet to find a game with asynchronous turn based tactical combat AND army building. Forget about something like that with a WeGo combat system!

Also, as I said earlier, marketing is something that matters so much for this exact reason. There are thousands of apps out there, so you've gotta make sure people know about yours! I put a lot of time into advertising and marketing and I'm hoping that we're slowly getting into the general gaming zeitgeist. I feel that once we have some gameplay videos and a couple trailers that we can really start getting the word out!



9. Will T-Go Co games always just be about mobile games or will it ever venture into any other platforms?


We'd love to get into games on Mac and PC (and maybe other platforms!) soon, and in fact one of the things we want to do for our (possible) Kickstarter campaign is to have Diesel Tactics come out on those platforms as well. The biggest plus of mobile gaming is the low barrier to entry, though that has dropped dramatically for Mac and PC recently, so having our game out on them is a definite possibility!




10. After Diesel Tactics is there any other games that your looking to develop and what is the next step for T-Go Co Games?


Once the game is released the plan is to add more nations (teams) to the game. We're starting with 2 and would like to have at least 4-5.


While we are doing that we will likely begin work on our next project, which I'm not sure what it will be yet, but we have a bunch of ideas on the table!


Id like to thank T-Go Co games doing the interview with myself and you can check out all there social media below:


I hope you enjoyed the interview guys and be sure to check out the company and the development on the game. 

Thanks for Reading 

Check back for more indie developers and other gaming news,

ZebruhGaming





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