Legend of Dungeon is fun new rogue-like that was recently released on the Humble Store. I picked it up and was instantly taken with its unique look and fun gameplay. It is in my "regular rotation" of games I am currently playing and I can say that, for me, it works flawlessly on Mac and Linux(so far I haven't actually played it on PC). I reached out to Alix Stolzer, one half the amazing Robot Loves Kitty Indie duo that created Legend of Dungeon and other lovely games such as Tiny Plumbers.
Since I sent out the questions to Alix, Legend of Dungeon has been successfully Greenlit on Steam and the game has continued on to garner more fans and positive reviews. I want to thank Alix for answering my questions and wish them to a speedy final game launch.
jdodson: Legend of Dungeon is a very pretty game. One thing that visually stands out to me are the shadow effects and how that allows the game such a dark and moody tone. Was this something you set out to do or did it kind of emerge when you were developing it?
Alix: The Dynamic shading on flat sprites was one of the first things we did. It was a technique that Calvin had been curious to try, and we loved the way it turned out.
jdodson: Indie Games are blowing up the video game industry right now. In fact, I can’t think of an upcoming triple A game on my radar. Being part of the current craze of Indie awesomeness I wonder how you look at the video game industry today? With that, are there any new indie games or companies on your radar others should be aware of?
Alix: We really enjoy the creativity and curiosity you see from a lot of indies, and the passion for creating worlds for others to play in. Some games/devs that we are looking forward to that are newer and less out there are Artemis by Incandescent Workshop, Delver's Drop by Pixelscopic, Mc Droid by Elefantopia, and Starseed Pilgrim by Droqen.
jdodson: For people new to Legend of Dungeon, I wonder what you recommend for them to do or remember when they are winding through the depths of The Dungeon?
Alix: Don't forget the lantern in the tavern, and enjoy your unfortunate but inevitable deaths (you will have lots of them)!!
Enjoy the journey enough that when you die, you laugh, and try again :)
jdodson: How has the community response to Legend of Dungeon been since people have been playing it? Anything surprise you about how the game has been received?
Alix: We have been completely amazed by the response we've gotten, and we feel like we've gained a bunch of friends!
jdodson: I was listening to an interview you both were part of on YouTube by thekillerbits. Calvin mentioned that one inspiration for Legend of Dungeon was the ol’ Ninja Turtles arcade hack-n-slash, which is awesome because thats an awesome game. Recently I hooked up Legend of Dungeon to my TV and was playing with a friend using our USB controllers and it was really fun. I sort of died really quickly because I was trying to be funny and ended up as a ghost, which was cool. After collecting a few pellets I came back with 1 HP. It was really hard to get back into the game after that and kept dying. For people that may just want to play with their friends who are not pros themselves, will there possibly be a “press start to continue” akin to putting another quarter in the arcade machine and your player comes back with full life?
Alix: An actual arcade style "____ to continue" version would be really cool, but it would ruin the game in a lot of ways unfortunately, especially the fact that it would be making it beatable every time you play. We are only in Alpha and still balancing things, hopefully we'll end up with a death system that makes most people happy.
jdodson: I love the dwarf and would love playing that character in the game. Will the Dwarf be available at some point to play?
Alix: We think the dwarf is great, but so far we don't have any way of using him as a character. The dwarf is too small! We'd love to have him do something more in the game, so we'll see!
jdodson: The current version of the game I am playing is the Alpha. It seems really polished for an alpha and I wonder what other amazingness will be added before the beta and the final release?
Alix: We have a ton more items and monsters to add, we need to also put in the random NPC's you might meet on your journey. We are getting close to Beta though, it shouldn't be long now!
jdodson: I wonder what the most requested set of features people have been asking you add to Legend of Dungeon?
Alix: The most asked for thing is definitely Networking. it means that we have a game that people want to play together, which is really exciting for us. It's something we just can't add to the game at this stage in development.
jdodson: Legend of Dungeon was successfully Kickstarted and as such I am wondering if you guys will be Kickstarting all your future games as part of the release process? Do you think this is the new model for indie developers to get a game to fans or just something people are doing right now?
Alix: It helped us understand how people would think of our game while it was in early development, and we loved getting all the input from backers. The freedom of funding our own projects is also very nice. So I think it's a very good way for many indies to get a better understanding of the market and we are definitely thinking about using it again.
jdodson: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, do you have any other awesomeness you want to say before we wrap things up?
Alix: It's been an amazing process, having a game that has become something so big, when it started out as a small side project that we didn't know anyone would like.
Thanks so much for all the questions!
jdodson: (to you the reader) This morning I noticed a new bit of news that Robot Loves Kitty posted to their tumblr about the state of the game making its way to steam. According to them, the game will most likely be released on Steam during the beta or final versions of the game.
http://robotloveskitty.tumblr.com/post/48442710713/heya-do-you-know-when-exactly-lod-will-be-released-on
http://www.robotloveskitty.com/LoD/
Since I sent out the questions to Alix, Legend of Dungeon has been successfully Greenlit on Steam and the game has continued on to garner more fans and positive reviews. I want to thank Alix for answering my questions and wish them to a speedy final game launch.
jdodson: Legend of Dungeon is a very pretty game. One thing that visually stands out to me are the shadow effects and how that allows the game such a dark and moody tone. Was this something you set out to do or did it kind of emerge when you were developing it?
Alix: The Dynamic shading on flat sprites was one of the first things we did. It was a technique that Calvin had been curious to try, and we loved the way it turned out.
jdodson: Indie Games are blowing up the video game industry right now. In fact, I can’t think of an upcoming triple A game on my radar. Being part of the current craze of Indie awesomeness I wonder how you look at the video game industry today? With that, are there any new indie games or companies on your radar others should be aware of?
Alix: We really enjoy the creativity and curiosity you see from a lot of indies, and the passion for creating worlds for others to play in. Some games/devs that we are looking forward to that are newer and less out there are Artemis by Incandescent Workshop, Delver's Drop by Pixelscopic, Mc Droid by Elefantopia, and Starseed Pilgrim by Droqen.
jdodson: For people new to Legend of Dungeon, I wonder what you recommend for them to do or remember when they are winding through the depths of The Dungeon?
Alix: Don't forget the lantern in the tavern, and enjoy your unfortunate but inevitable deaths (you will have lots of them)!!
Enjoy the journey enough that when you die, you laugh, and try again :)
jdodson: How has the community response to Legend of Dungeon been since people have been playing it? Anything surprise you about how the game has been received?
Alix: We have been completely amazed by the response we've gotten, and we feel like we've gained a bunch of friends!
jdodson: I was listening to an interview you both were part of on YouTube by thekillerbits. Calvin mentioned that one inspiration for Legend of Dungeon was the ol’ Ninja Turtles arcade hack-n-slash, which is awesome because thats an awesome game. Recently I hooked up Legend of Dungeon to my TV and was playing with a friend using our USB controllers and it was really fun. I sort of died really quickly because I was trying to be funny and ended up as a ghost, which was cool. After collecting a few pellets I came back with 1 HP. It was really hard to get back into the game after that and kept dying. For people that may just want to play with their friends who are not pros themselves, will there possibly be a “press start to continue” akin to putting another quarter in the arcade machine and your player comes back with full life?
Alix: An actual arcade style "____ to continue" version would be really cool, but it would ruin the game in a lot of ways unfortunately, especially the fact that it would be making it beatable every time you play. We are only in Alpha and still balancing things, hopefully we'll end up with a death system that makes most people happy.
jdodson: I love the dwarf and would love playing that character in the game. Will the Dwarf be available at some point to play?
Alix: We think the dwarf is great, but so far we don't have any way of using him as a character. The dwarf is too small! We'd love to have him do something more in the game, so we'll see!
jdodson: The current version of the game I am playing is the Alpha. It seems really polished for an alpha and I wonder what other amazingness will be added before the beta and the final release?
Alix: We have a ton more items and monsters to add, we need to also put in the random NPC's you might meet on your journey. We are getting close to Beta though, it shouldn't be long now!
jdodson: I wonder what the most requested set of features people have been asking you add to Legend of Dungeon?
Alix: The most asked for thing is definitely Networking. it means that we have a game that people want to play together, which is really exciting for us. It's something we just can't add to the game at this stage in development.
jdodson: Legend of Dungeon was successfully Kickstarted and as such I am wondering if you guys will be Kickstarting all your future games as part of the release process? Do you think this is the new model for indie developers to get a game to fans or just something people are doing right now?
Alix: It helped us understand how people would think of our game while it was in early development, and we loved getting all the input from backers. The freedom of funding our own projects is also very nice. So I think it's a very good way for many indies to get a better understanding of the market and we are definitely thinking about using it again.
jdodson: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, do you have any other awesomeness you want to say before we wrap things up?
Alix: It's been an amazing process, having a game that has become something so big, when it started out as a small side project that we didn't know anyone would like.
Thanks so much for all the questions!
jdodson: (to you the reader) This morning I noticed a new bit of news that Robot Loves Kitty posted to their tumblr about the state of the game making its way to steam. According to them, the game will most likely be released on Steam during the beta or final versions of the game.
http://robotloveskitty.tumblr.com/post/48442710713/heya-do-you-know-when-exactly-lod-will-be-released-on
http://www.robotloveskitty.com/LoD/
