Post questions here for an interview with DarkGod!

[Nori]

Two questions...
Where do you see TOME in 2 years?
What are some major features you'd like to add?
What, if anything, needs to be changed because its not how you want it yet?

Guess I had three...

[tomeaddict-T4]

Here's one, kind of a two-parter.

Rogelikes typically feature permenant death.

Can you speak to the importance of permanent death in your approach to the design of the game?

Tome 4 has an Adventure mode where death isn't exactly permanent---Why?

[onyhow]

Some questions:

1) I remembered back then when originally there seems to be more story when you defeat bosses...I think it was back before setting change, I remembered I killed Bill and there's a pop-up pondering why does Bill even walking around, wasn't he supposed to be turned to stone? I think it was interesting to see pieces of lore pop up after you killed a boss, so why did you remove it?

2) If you can truly complete TOME development, what do you expect it to be like?

3) What consideration do you choose for UI design? Why do you think other roguelike developers neglect UI design, and how much do you think UI impact a game's popularity?

[Grey]

1) I remembered back then when originally there seems to be more story when you defeat bosses...I think it was back before setting change, I remembered I killed Bill and there's a pop-up pondering why does Bill even walking around, wasn't he supposed to be turned to stone? I think it was interesting to see pieces of lore pop up after you killed a boss, so why did you remove it?

This at least I can answer. The original Bill text was to help make the "settled" Tolkien world unsettled. At the end of the Lord of the Rings everything was pretty hunky-dory, so ToME4 needed a way of upsetting things a little with strange events and new dangers. The reappearance of the orcs is part of that. The new setting has similar elements, but doesn't need to go out of the way to explain them since it doesn't have to deal with people's expectations of an existing setting. There is some lore-on-death though, in particular the random bosses.

[naptimeismagic]

I just started playing about a week ago, and I am hooked. What I really find interesting is the class and talent system. It adds a new level of strategy to the classic roguelike formula (at least, for a relatively sheltered roguelike fan like myself). The unlock system accentuates this very nicely, I think. My question is: how much more of classes/races/unlocks do you plan to add? Is there an intended amount, or is the sky the limit? I'm sure a lot of thought and balance goes into this sort of thing. And, undoubtedly, you have a million other things to work on.

[onyhow]

Oh thanks Grey!

[Canderel]

For me the Orc lore is the best in the game. Garkul in particular, but many of the other orcish lore pieces as well. So I have a bit of a fascination with the Orcs. I know there is a module brewing in your mind. Whet our appetites for the SteamTech module/campaign.

Perhaps start with the timeline relative to the Maj'Eyal campaign.

[edge2054]

How did you get started coding?

How old were you when you started working on Pern-Angband?

Are you a self-taught coder or have you had schooling?

What resources do you use when you need to learn something new like you did with the SDL and graphics stuff for Tome 4?

[tiger_eye]

How awesome are we the community: the players, forum posters, contributors, donators, and well-wishers?

A particular example of awesome community involvement was the creation of ~800 talent and effect icons, which I still find mind-blowing. Another (less extreme) example is the maintenance of a bugfix addon to make the game more playable while you were on break. What would you do without us?

[Grey]

For me the Orc lore is the best in the game. Garkul in particular, but many of the other orcish lore pieces as well. So I have a bit of a fascination with the Orcs.

Funny how the "enemy" race has turned out to be the most characterful. I guess I don't like writing much about the good guys - there's no fun in heroism.

[Grey]

How high must be monthly donations be for you to work on ToME fulltime? ( Like Dwarf Fortress. )

Over 2600e per month is the answer. Episode is recorded, and I'll get it edited and online in the next couple of hours.

[Grey]

And here's the interview:

http://roguelikeradio.blogspot.com/2012 ... rkgod.html

Enjoy, and please upvote us on iTunes if you get a chance.

[naptimeismagic]

Very interesting interview. As a newer player, I did not know about the rich history behind the game. It was also nice to hear about game-play and design philosophies straight from the developer's mouth. I am super excited about the news of version 1.0 and beyond. The level of support and communication this game receives truly makes it wonderful.

[Nori]

Listening to it right now!

[Final Master]

Boy, DG sounds VERY French. :p