Posted April 18, 2015
Last night at 2 am to 4 am (CET) Craig, the developer from the studio Sinister Design streamed the new game release Telepath Tactics for us at the gogcom Twitch channel. After the stream he came on the gogcom twitch chat to provide a Q&A session where we could ask him all kind of questions about the game. He was very kind to answer them for us and in turn I wanted to showcase it with you guys here. I hope you like it.
Jdelekto: what inspired you to write games in the first place?
I've always liked making games when I was a little kid, I would draw mazes and invent card games I’ve also loved video games my whole life, therefore I think it was inevitable that I'd start making them
Senteria: How long did it take to create the game?
I started working on the engine here and there back in 2009, then started really working on the game in a focused way in spring 2012. I got a Kickstarter successfully funded in spring 2013, which allowed me to hire artists and composer :)
Jdelekto: What language did you use to develop your game, did you use a game engine or "roll your own?"
The game is actually made in Flash, believe it or not. It's programmed in Actionscript 3. I rolled my own engine on top of vanilla Flash
Senteria: How many people have worked on this game?
The number of people who worked on the game is: me, some contract artists (7 or 8, from the top of my head), and a composer.
Hercxena: how many hours of gameplay would a first run typically take?
I expect a first run would take most people between 20 and 40 hours, primarily depending on how many times they have to restart battles. If you sit and read the dialogue, take your time with the battles, and have to restart most of them once or twice, it could hit 40 hours easily
Heimdallplays & Senteria: The art style looks indie and simplistic, but it does have a unique look to it. The characters on the other hand look normal. What were your thoughts on tackling this?
The art style was inspired by the GBA Fire Emblem games. I really wanted something where I could have a huge variety of classes that would be easy to distinguish at a glance. I also really wanted to try having smoothly animated pixel art, and this style gave me the opportunity to do that. Plus, mod support makes it a lot easier to make new pixel art sprites for a game
What was the reason for not including voice acting in this game?
The lack of voice acting was a matter of time constraints and also a matter of the difficulty involved in voicing a cast as big as this game's. Even if I only voiced the recruitable characters, that would be more than 20 characters I'd have to voice!
Hercxena: What difficulty levels are there?
The game has two difficulty levels: Normal (which is Fire Emblem style, with permadeath) and Casual (the same as normal except that characters who die return for future use, but with -1 to max health)
Senteria: I saw characters unlocking new skills by gaining levels. Can you upgrade classes to a new phase?
Yes! Once a character hits level 20, they promote to a special version of their existing class. Swordsmen become Fencers, Bowmen become Bowmasters, etc.
Senteria: Are there (hidden) secrets/items you can only obtain during the course of battle?
Loads of battles have hidden items where you have to break open destructible objects to discover, but most of them are in treasure chests. The main things that are hidden in battle are recruitable characters, and the story / dialogue branches that depend upon you finding them
What measures have you taken to avoid players farming experience points early on?
There are probably ways to exploit the game for experience, particularly due to the fact that characters can regain energy by resting--but I try to limit opportunities for that by creating conditions that put constant pressure on the player.
Senteria: Is online multiplayer a feature you're considering of implementing?
Online multiplayer is iffy at this point. If I did it, it would be a play-by-email sort of thing
Hercxena: Are there any DLC or expansion packs planned for the game?
I don't have any planned, but it could happen. Mostly I'm relying on mod support to supply folks with more content. I have a whole tutorial series on making your own Telepath Tactics campaigns: http://sinisterdesign.net/tutorial-making-a-telepath-tactics-campaign-part-1/
I wish the developer the best luck with his game and I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the gog community for taking his time to answer any questions we had.
Jdelekto: what inspired you to write games in the first place?
I've always liked making games when I was a little kid, I would draw mazes and invent card games I’ve also loved video games my whole life, therefore I think it was inevitable that I'd start making them
Senteria: How long did it take to create the game?
I started working on the engine here and there back in 2009, then started really working on the game in a focused way in spring 2012. I got a Kickstarter successfully funded in spring 2013, which allowed me to hire artists and composer :)
Jdelekto: What language did you use to develop your game, did you use a game engine or "roll your own?"
The game is actually made in Flash, believe it or not. It's programmed in Actionscript 3. I rolled my own engine on top of vanilla Flash
Senteria: How many people have worked on this game?
The number of people who worked on the game is: me, some contract artists (7 or 8, from the top of my head), and a composer.
Hercxena: how many hours of gameplay would a first run typically take?
I expect a first run would take most people between 20 and 40 hours, primarily depending on how many times they have to restart battles. If you sit and read the dialogue, take your time with the battles, and have to restart most of them once or twice, it could hit 40 hours easily
Heimdallplays & Senteria: The art style looks indie and simplistic, but it does have a unique look to it. The characters on the other hand look normal. What were your thoughts on tackling this?
The art style was inspired by the GBA Fire Emblem games. I really wanted something where I could have a huge variety of classes that would be easy to distinguish at a glance. I also really wanted to try having smoothly animated pixel art, and this style gave me the opportunity to do that. Plus, mod support makes it a lot easier to make new pixel art sprites for a game
What was the reason for not including voice acting in this game?
The lack of voice acting was a matter of time constraints and also a matter of the difficulty involved in voicing a cast as big as this game's. Even if I only voiced the recruitable characters, that would be more than 20 characters I'd have to voice!
Hercxena: What difficulty levels are there?
The game has two difficulty levels: Normal (which is Fire Emblem style, with permadeath) and Casual (the same as normal except that characters who die return for future use, but with -1 to max health)
Senteria: I saw characters unlocking new skills by gaining levels. Can you upgrade classes to a new phase?
Yes! Once a character hits level 20, they promote to a special version of their existing class. Swordsmen become Fencers, Bowmen become Bowmasters, etc.
Senteria: Are there (hidden) secrets/items you can only obtain during the course of battle?
Loads of battles have hidden items where you have to break open destructible objects to discover, but most of them are in treasure chests. The main things that are hidden in battle are recruitable characters, and the story / dialogue branches that depend upon you finding them
What measures have you taken to avoid players farming experience points early on?
There are probably ways to exploit the game for experience, particularly due to the fact that characters can regain energy by resting--but I try to limit opportunities for that by creating conditions that put constant pressure on the player.
Senteria: Is online multiplayer a feature you're considering of implementing?
Online multiplayer is iffy at this point. If I did it, it would be a play-by-email sort of thing
Hercxena: Are there any DLC or expansion packs planned for the game?
I don't have any planned, but it could happen. Mostly I'm relying on mod support to supply folks with more content. I have a whole tutorial series on making your own Telepath Tactics campaigns: http://sinisterdesign.net/tutorial-making-a-telepath-tactics-campaign-part-1/
I wish the developer the best luck with his game and I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the gog community for taking his time to answer any questions we had.
Post edited April 18, 2015 by Senteria
