Interview with 'Falchion Games'

We speak with Ben Burns Co-Founder of 'Falchion Games' on there new upcoming game 'Go To Hell Dave'.

'Go To Hell Dave' is a comical, retro point and click adventure game where the player takes control of the character Dave. You will take Dave on a tour through Hell's 9 floors on this hilarious adventure that cannot be missed. We find out more about the game and why you'll want to explore the not so familiar depths of Hell.

1. Go to Hell Dave as described is a retro point and click adventure game, but how did the this concept come about and what is the story line for the game?

Go to Hell Dave is all about a guy called Dave who crashes his car into a lamp-post whilst driving to the supermarket with his girlfriend. He wakes up at the gates of Hell, but this isn’t hell as anyone knows it. His girlfriend is missing, Satan is nowhere to be seen and Hell has become a dilapidated mess, filled with housing estates, strip clubs and all manner of bizarre and wonderful things.
The concept came about when we decided to start up our own studio and basically just wanted to make fun of British society. We had always had a lot of love for point-and-click adventure games and their naturally comedic tendencies were a logical choice for lampooning an entire country.


2.What do you think it is about Retro games that people love so much?

I can only really speak for myself, but I often find that the nostalgia factor plays a huge role. There’s something almost comforting about playing something that reminds me of my childhood; a simpler time when I didn’t have to take out the trash or pay council tax.


3. It is said that the game will have a lot of British humour throughout, what style of comedy inspired this within the game?

We’re big fans of classic British comedy such as Red Dwarf, Monty Python and Blackadder. British humour can often be quite surreal and at times, a little dark. But we also love American comedy, particularly some of the awesome animated shows such as Archer and the Boondocks. So we’ve mixed it up a bit and tried to be imaginative whilst also using references that people (particularly geeks and gamers) will chuckle at.

4 As its said to be British comedy do you think this type of comedy is universal to more than just the UK?

I’ve always felt that humour is universal. There are certain elements of human life that anybody, anywhere experiences. This is especially true in an age when we’re all constantly connected. Comedy is certainly subjective, but I think that when you have compelling characters and cool locations to explore, the humour comes organically from within the context of the setting.



5.The art style for Go to Hell Dave is a very nice cartoon style, was this to fit in with the comical type of game that it is?

Absolutely. The cartoony art-style juxtaposes really nicely with the often harsh locales that one would expect when exploring the underworld and enables us to maintain an overtone of humour, without sacrificing on the badass.


6. On the prototype videos the character of Dave does have voice acting, will all other character within the game have voice acting and, if so, are you looking to get a number of people doing them or do you plan to do it yourself?

Yes. We are currently in the process of casting all of the NPCs and we have already got some excellent talent on-board, including professional actors who have performed in box-office hits such as ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Jack and the Giant Slayer.’

7.There is mixed views on how it can be a difficult process in creating a game independently, how do you feel about development cycle in creating your game?

It certainly isn’t a walk in the park. We’ve had to sacrifice a lot just to keep working on the game and we still haven’t paid ourselves a salary. But we’ve had a lot of support from friends and family and (perhaps most importantly) from the gaming community. When you know people are excited about your game and you know that you have a fun game in the works, that is more than enough to drive you onwards.


8. Except from the obvious point and click aspect of the game will there be any other game mechanics in the game the player can look forward to?

We have some cool ideas in the works. I don’t want to say too much at this early stage but we intend to implement RPG-style combat, but not in the way anyone would expect and it will be purely optional and not even slightly serious.


9. Go to Hell Dave will also have 9 levels of Hell, What kind of level design and places will the player have to explore?

The nine levels will include a council estate, a country club, a Pokémon-style world of stamp collecting and battling and a boring sewer level (because every game has to have one.)

10. The game will be available on Steam, will it be available for any other type of platform in the future?
We hope to port it to Mac and Linux and we would love to get it on PSN or XBL. We’re also looking into the possibility of Android and Ouya. At the end of the day, we just want people to have access to our game and have fun playing it. So any platform that makes that happen is a possibility for us.


11. Go to Hell Dave will be going on to Kickstarter soon, if funded what is the money going towards for the game?

Amongst other things, the main bulk of the money will go towards paying our artists and voice actors, upkeep of our office and any publishing expenses. Pretty standard stuff really.


12. Some Kickstarters have numerous Tiers in which someone can give more money to back the game, have the team looked into what the Tiers will be like and will there be any benefits of backing more?

Yes. We intend to have some pretty cool tiers ranging from basic game packages that may include t-shirts, soundtrack or art-books. Right up to tiers that will enable you to send us pictures of yourself to be drawn, animated and put in the game as an NPC.

And Thats everything we have today from 'Falchion Games' be sure to check out the progress on the game with videos, art and more about Dave below:

From the office of Falchion Games: Go To Hell Dave

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=109393605&searchtext
Fb: http://www.facebook.com/GoToHellDave
W: http://www.gotohelldave.co.uk/

T: https://twitter.com/GoToHellDave

Thanks very much for Reading

ZebruhGaming

For more updates on Gaming new, Reviews and Indie Games follow me on twitter and more

http://zebruhgaming.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact.html

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:

Website : http://www.tgocogames.com/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/TGoCoGames

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/tgocogames?fref=ts

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

Interview With 'The Basement Studios'

Today we have an interview with a Small Indie development team creating a different kind of game that is fun, innovative and most certainly addictive.

The Basement Studios have been hard at work creating Typocalypse 3D and we get up close and personal exploring various aspects of this sure hit coming to www.Kongregate.com. Enjoy.


1. Firstly for those who don't know, who does 'The Basement Studios' consist of and how did the team form?

Hey! First of all I’d like to thank you Gavin for giving us the opportunity for an interview. We’re a very small indie game development team and we need all the support and exposure we can get.

I’m Andreas Grech, the programmer on the game. With me are Cameron Saliba, the artist and Richard Schembri, the website developer. About six months ago, I started working on a prototype for a typing-shooter game in Unity. A week and a half later, I showed it to Cameron and he was really psyched about it! And that’s when our little indie game dev “company” was born. Roughly two months later, I approached Richard who’s an old schoolmate of ours and told him about the plans I had for a website which would store and display detailed player and game session statistics. He liked the idea and came on board to take charge of this site.



2.The current game in development 'Typocalypse 3D' is currently in the beta stage and will be available on Kongregate.com in the future. How would you describe the game for the readers?
That’s correct. Typocalypse 3D is a typing shooter game which will be released in August, 2013. In the game, you will take the role of a soldier who was assigned to single-handedly defend the stranded army barracks in the middle of nowhere.

To fight off the countless waves of zombies (yup, there are zombies), you must correctly type the word above their heads and this will down them. But you must also make use of the powerups that periodically drop in the field. There are currently four powerups in the game; Slow Time, Landmines, Rapid Fire and C4.

The Slow Time powerup slows time itself, allowing you to handle the incoming zombie waves better. Rapid Fire makes the player go berserk, killing the nearest zombies instantly...while also slowing down time. Landmines and C4 on the other hand are explosives which are dropped on the field. The landmines detonate on enemy impact and the C4 are detonated manually by typing the word above the explosive. Both do area damage to nearby zombies. There are three difficulties in the game, varying from a slow typer to a typing wizard, so anyone can take a stab at it to measure their typing skills.


3. 'Typocalypse 3D' isn't the kind of game you usually see today and it is very original. How did the team come about the creation of the game?

Back in 2010, my friend Marc Tanti and I attended a two-day XNA course at our local university, and for the second day the instructor told us to come up with a small XNA game; so we teamed up, rushed to my basement, and in ~15 hours we came up with a typing game we called Typocalypse.

Both Marc and I worked on the programming of the game round the clock to try and get as much work done as possible in the few hours that we had. When the gameplay was finished at ~5 in the morning, Marc recorded the sound effects and ambiance and then we left the basement to go and show off our game to the class. Funnily enough, we were then too tired the following day (we slept in class) and ended up not demoing the game after all...but I digress.

And so, as my first project in Unity, I chose to “rewrite” my old typing game in 3D...and now we have Typocalypse 3D!

4. The development cycle can be a grinding process, but on a usual day to day basis how does your team go about the development cycle of the game?

All three of us have non-gamedev related day jobs and because of that we have to work nights. Stereotypically enough, we “operate” from a basement and thus it was very appropriate to name our team that. Working in a basement has its benefits; for starters, we can immerse ourselves working on the game without any social distractions from the outside. In fact, the only time we need to leave the basement is when we need our coffee fix...but that’s only until I manage to acquire some coffee machine to leave in our room.

We meet round 3-4 times a week and try to get as much possible during this time, especially collaborative work (level design, mechanics tweaks and fine tuning, etc...). We start by jotting down on the whiteboard what stuff needs to be finished by that day and then brainstorm the best way to go around it. After every couple of hours we stop for a coffee break and then carry on with the “work”.

We also have a lot of game design sessions where we sit down together on one computer and collaboratively tweak the mechanics of the game for hours on end to make sure that we get things right.


5. 'Typocalypse 3D' is a unity developed game and with unity it can be put on various platforms. In the future is there any plans to make it available for different platforms?

Given the textual and typing nature of the game, it is a bit difficult to port the game to a mobile device (small screen, small keyboard etc...) so for the time being we have no plans of porting the game to other platforms.

Then again, we could always remove the on-screen words and add joystick support with a cross hair to turn it into an Action game ;p


6. Is there any specific kind of games that created an inspiration for the kind of genre that you have developed for?

There is no specific game that was of particular inspiration, apart from the original Typocalypse, but after the idea settled we did some research on the current typing games that are currently on the market to see what’s been going on in the the genre. We found some good typing games, but we also realized that there aren’t actually that many games which focus on this genre specifically, especially games that combine typing skills with action elements.

7. There are a number of zombie games out in the gaming industry and it is a very popular genre. What does your game offer that differs from the others currently in the genre?


In it’s essence, Typocalypse 3D is a typing game but what’s particularly interesting about it is that unlike other games of the genre, it takes more than focused typing to survive. See, the game starts easy enough and you will definitely survive with just your typing skills in the beginning, but as the game gets progressively harder, you will need to make strategic use of the multiple powerups you collect throughout your endurance to survive the waves.

There is some learning curve when it comes to using the powerups strategically due to some induced tunnel effect in the game, but every new powerup you collect is presented with a small instruction panel so that the you understand what the powerup is responsible for and how to use it to your advantage.



8. With the beta version of the game out the players can, for now, only take the role of an 'Endurance' level in essence really a survival mode. What can the players be excited for in the 'Story' mode within game and is there any other modes that will be released?

Exactly, the Endurance mode serves as a battle for the highest score with the leaderboards shown on Kongregate.com. On the other hand, what we have in mind for the Story mode is a rail shooter in which the player moves from area to area clearing waves of multiple enemy types, while at the same progressing on the main story.

It is not yet confirmed if we will work on the Story mode of the game or not, and this all depends on the feedback we get once we release the game with the only the Endurance mode.


9. Apart from 'Typocalypse 3D' is there any other games that The Basement Studios are working on or hoping to work on in the future?

Typocalypse 3D will be the our first game, and after it’s released, we will be working on a new game which we’ll submit for a game development competition here in Malta. The competition is tied to a preset theme, so that will restrict us a bit...but I’m sure we’ll come up with something which is, hopefully, both fun to play and interesting as well, whatever that may be.

During a coffee-driven and sleep deprived week, we came up with a Unity joystick-supported local multiplayer coop prototype for the new game, which we’re hoping we’ll be able to use for this competition.


10. Aside from being hard at work in developing the game, how does the team like to relax in their spare time?

When we want to take a break from the game, we usually stop to make some coffee and then either watch some standup comedy or play some games. This gives us time to clear our heads and be able to come up with new ideas for our game (thinking outside the box and all that...).

All in all though, we actually consider the time we spend working on the game as a break from everything else, including the day job and other real life responsibilities. That makes us appreciate more how lucky we are to be working in such an industry.

This is a wee extra for the fans who are already following the development of the game and would like to know more about the people behind the creation. We asked there hobbies, there favorite game and a genre they'd like to see more in the gaming industry.


Andreas Grech, the programmer.

Hobbies: Programming and Music.

Fav game: Uplink

More genre expansion: Local coop multiplayer games


Cameron Saliba, the artist.

Hobbies: Playing games on the PS3

Fav game: Uncharted

More genre expansion: Action-JRPG games.


Richard Schembri, the website developer.

Hobbies: Boxing, drawing and motorcycle riding.

Fav game: No More Heroes series

More genre expansion: RTS on mobile platforms



Id Like to thank The Basement Studios for taking the time out there busy schedule to participate with the interview. Be sure to check out the game you wont be disappointed and who doesnt love shooting zombies?...Exactly!


You can for now play the Beta here : http://www.kongregate.com/games/agnt666/typocalypse-3d_preview?guest_access_key=c76fbfc36958b892437d06fd0746cbd985ac8dab69592fe4e1af134c40da8315


You can also 'Like' and 'Follow' The Basement Studios for updates on the release of the game and future projects :

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebasementstudios

Twitter: https://twitter.com/0xTheBasement

IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/company/the-basement-studios

Thanks for reading

ZebruhGaming

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