Robobob Interview Repost
Interview with Gnomoria creater Robobob
Gate’s Interview with Gnomoria Creator Robobob And here is his website
Hello, this is Gates with Eccentric Tirade and we’ve something exciting to share with you! We recently reach out to independent game developer Robert West who shares with us some insights as to what it takes to make a successful game. Some of you may know him better as RoboBob, owner of Robotronic Games and developer of the up-and-coming title Gnomoria. Other contributors for this game include fun pixil Art from Rhopunzel and classic game audio from James Primate. For those of you who don’t know, Gnomoria is a game that finds itself breaking ground in the growing field of sandbox games. You’re tasked with an expedition of no more than nine gnomes who are to establish a new home in the wilderness. Explore, exploit and expand in this new world with whatever skill you have in whatever way you care too using all the creativity you know. Success will bring worth to your kingdom and attract other Gnomes to your cause as well as the envy of increasingly vile creatures who would undo your work.”
Gates: Tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from and what you were doing before this project.
RoboBob: I’ve been in the games industry for about 4 years and have wanted to work on games for as long as I can remember. I grew up in southern California and moved to Seattle about 8 years ago to attend DigiPen Institute of Technology and ended up sticking around the Seattle area. Before working on Gnomoria, I was at Signal Studios and worked on Toy Soldiers and Toy Soldiers 2 for XBLA and was Lead Programmer on Ascend: New Gods which is still in development.
Gates: Do you have any favorite games or hobbies?
RoboBob: With so many good games it’s hard to have a favorite! I’ve been playing video games for 25 years and there are too many favorites to list . Currently, I’m splitting my little free time between Guild Wars 2, Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 and have snuck in a few minutes of FTL. I’m really into game mechanics and system design, so outside of video games, I naturally play a lot of board games. I’ve had a weekly board game group for the last 4-5 years and it’s awesome. If you like games and haven’t played a modern board game in the last 5-10 years, you’re really missing out. Outside of games in general, I like to rock climb.
Gates: Have you created other games, or maybe have others planned after this? RoboBob: I’ve worked on some games in the past but Gnomoria is Robotronic’s first game. There are always game ideas floating around in my head and one in particular that I’d really like to work on. Right now though I’m focusing all my time on Gnomoria for the foreseeable future.
Gates: What pushed you into the Gnomoria project you’re on now?
RoboBob: There are a few reasons that all add up together and it’s hard to pinpoint the 1 thing that pushed me. There is always the desire to work on something you’re really passionate about and also be able to make your own decisions on the project. So while that is a big motivation, I think the thing that was the final push is my family. With milestone development, it’s common to constantly be in crunch mode. While I was at my last job, my wife and I had a son and it became really obvious to me that I wasn’t home very often. You start to think about what you’re working for and why you do the things you do and I quickly started looking for ways I could spend more time with my family. I love being able to work from home and being a part of my son’s life. Talking about Gnomoria specifically though, I’ve always had a passion for AI, procedural generation and systems design. I really wanted to work on a sandbox management game where I could program things I was interested in and design gameplay systems that worked together in meaningful ways.
Gates: You’ve mentioned where you’ve draw some inspiration from, including games like Dwarf Fortress and even the Sims. Would you like to talk more about these or other inspirations?
RoboBob: I’ve always been more interested in the sandbox format than say a strict level design. A lot of developers want to tell a story or create an experience and walk the player through it. I think that’s great and I enjoy playing those kinds of games but I’m more interested in creating a setting and letting the player muck about in it. Growing up, games like Civilization, Elder Scrolls: Arena and The Incredible Machine had a big impact on me. In a different way but similar, multiplayer games like Quake and Asheron’s Call had a big impact on me because the added factor of other people made new and interesting experiences possible too. Games like Dwarf Fortress, the Sims and the Settlers had a bigger impact on Gnomoria than on me personally because of where I wanted to go with the game. I wanted to work on a sandbox game and I really like management aspects in games and felt like it’s a really good fit here. The way the game scales when you have multiple agents running around works a lot better than having a single avatar and scaling up with say better tiers of tools. As Gnomoria develops, you should see the gnomes differentiate more from one another and a little bit more of an emphasis on them than exists currently.
Gates: Can you tell us anything about some of the equipment or software you use to develop your Game?
RoboBob: Nothing really exciting here. I use Visual Studio when programming and Mercurial for version control. I also use workflowy.com to organize thoughts and track different things. I have a pad of paper that I use as scratch but I’d like to upgrade to a white board eventually Software wise, Gnomoria is written in C# and I use parts of XNA and some other third party libraries.
Gates: What, if anything, has changed since you began selling alpha copies of Gnomoria?
RoboBob: Not a whole lot. Development has slowed down since part of my time is spent talking with people on the forums and replying to emails. It’s also slowed a little since I have to prepare more formal patches every week and that effects how I prioritize tasks. Overall though it’s been great since there are more eyes on the game now. I’ve been able to fix a lot more bugs and overall make the game better from community feedback.
Gates: As the community continues to grow how has it affected your project as far as content or priorities are concerned?
RoboBob: It has a huge effect on what gets worked on. With so many people wanting different things, the hard part is figuring out what’s the most important thing at the time. I pay close attention to what people are saying and do my best to prioritize accordingly.
Gates: I personally found you through a ‘let’s play’ by Sips. Do you feel that the growing let’s play community has had any impact on your game? RoboBob: Yeah, I think it’s had a really big impact. I don’t really spend any time marketing Gnomoria or really telling people about it. I just focus my time on development and I think word of mouth and Let’s Play videos have really done a lot to let people know Gnomoria exists.
Gates: You talked a little bit about upcoming features, mostly combat related. What other content are you considering for this game beyond this current goal?
RoboBob: I made a really long post on the forums just after the initial alpha release a few months back that gives a general vague kind of goal for Gnomoria. The forum post I tend to focus on one area before moving on and the one recently has been combat. I have a lot more planned for Gnomoria and I’m getting close to taking a break from combat for a while. The next focus is going to be on the management aspects. I plan on doing a bit of an overhaul on crafting and there is a lot of UI work that needs to be done to help manage jobs, stockpiles and pretty much everything.
Gates: Some community members have talked about how their militia can take on any challenge. Do you have any surprises in store to test this? RoboBob: Most of the combat changes recently have helped work out some problems with military and overall make the squads stronger. Now that people can be better prepared, I’m ready to add in new enemies very soon
Gates: The community has been very active on your suggestions board. Do you have any favorite suggestions from the community?
RoboBob: There have been a lot of great suggestions, but if I had to pick 1 it would probably be an in depth suggestion for sifting dirt to obtain new crafting materials.
Gates: Might any of these ideas be implemented in the future? RoboBob: Definitely! There have already been suggestions that have worked their way into the game and I know there will be more. Gates: If you could address the community as a whole right now, what would you tell them?
RoboBob: You guys are awesome! Thanks for putting up with some things you see in an alpha game like stability and lack of content and thanks for all the great bug reports and overall feedback.
Gates: Can we expect great things in the future? RoboBob: I think so! Saying “expect” sounds kind of funny to me since it can be subjective. I have a lot planned and I hope that you will think it’s great though
We hope to stay in touch with Robert and watch the development of his game unfold. For anyone interested in following his progress or even supporting this new game please check out their website. If nothing else you can see a good pixilated picture of a gnome there.
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