Hot Head <questions for the devs>
Gabriel
Registered User, ClubPA, Penny Arcade Staff, PAX Staff staff
Registered User, ClubPA, Penny Arcade Staff, PAX Staff staff
So I wanted to go ahead and create this thread to introduce you all to the developers over at Hothead. They’re a great bunch of guys and very talented. Feel free to ask your technical questions about the game here. Also please keep in mind these guys are crazy busy making the game so they won’t always be answering right away. Post your questions and I’m sure they’ll do their best to get them answered.
Gabriel on
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Thanks for taking the time to answer questions from the PA fans as well - we were already given a wonderful gift with Gabe's Q&A topic and this is icing on the cake.
If you could drop more behind the scenes stuff like this every once and while, that would be much appreciated.
I understand most of you have been in the industry for some time now. How fully featured is the Torque engine compared to others that you've used? Have you had to put in a lot functionality to meet the needs of this game?
Hothead has 20 people and the majority of those are working on RSPD. This size may be deceptive though because we're also working with some partners who specialize in particular aspects of the game art. So the actual number of people working on the game varies from time to time.
Cheers,
Joel
Joel
Thanks for taking the time to post here.
We have made some changes to the engine during development, but we have an agreement with GarageGames that we'll roll any such improvements back into their code base, for the benefit of all Torque users.
Joel
Biggest difference: Having Gabe and Tycho so directly involved. This has been a really nice change for us. Instead of working for months and then sending materials away for approval, we're in contact with Gabe and Tycho on an almost daily basis. It's been a lot of fun so far.
Joel
Joel
Vlad from Hothead here as well. From time to time, Joel or myself will check in and answer whatever questions that we can. As you can imagine, our collective heads are down focusing on what Tycho calls "our dark purpose."
As for a dev blog, I think I saw a similar question posed to Gabe in the other Q&A. It is interesting idea. I think it is probably going to be bounced around now that it has been brought up and we will see what happens. In the meantime, we'll use this forum to let you know what's going on in dev land.
Also, how much do you guys think you can improve upon the 3D models in the trailer?
There are a lot of huge fans here at Hothead. There is not a chance we would have this opportunity to work with PA otherwise. We tried getting a G&T easter egg into a prior game years ago to pay tribute but were not able to due to publisher legal departments. I was also on an industry panel at the first PAX.
Here There Be Robots - All ages Sci-Fi/Adventure comic
Basically he said that he wasn't allowed to say.
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As far as gameplay goes, how will this come into play when interacting with characters? Will small subtitles constantly roll during dialog? Or will it be a Morrowind style system of stopping the world while you navigate a menu of topics the character can discuss? There are pros and cons of each, but pitfalls can be reached by trying to mix the two. Any thoughts or already-implemented ideas to find a great middle ground? Is Tycho just putting effort into saying as little as possible? (Hopefully not.)
What do you guys do in your free time? Or rather in what I'd imagine is the small amount of free time you manage to find whle working as game developers. :P
I can't speak for all the guys but I basically play video games in my free time . . . . and a fair bit of card games such as poker--love poker. In fact, I wish I was playing poker right now!
The sucky thing about having video games as a hobby and profession is that I am always analyzing the games that I am playing which can steal some of the magic out of the experience.
It will be finished when it is ready . . .
The guys are great at what they do. The game is going to look great and is going to get better every day of development--kind of hard to put a measurement on how much they will improve but will a lot suffice?
From time to time as we move through production, we will be posting screenshots. I will make sure that this request is passed along.
You have piqued my interest. What kind of easter egg and in which game?
Right now we are pretty well setup. If we do, the info will be posted on our website.
Playable character--this was a long time ago and to be honest, I am not sure if even Gabe would remember but we had photoshop reference images to use in case we were able to pull it off. Can't really say which title though.
Well, I would hate to rule anything out but right now, we are 100% focused on the main game experience.
This is more of a question for Gabe and Tycho. Save it for their next Q&A.
That was one of the first technical issues that we worked on . . . and resolved. So from a technology perspective, we are good to go but that is only part of the battle. The design and presentation have to be just right and that will take time.
Secondly, would it be possible to loan penny arcade some tabletennis players.
With all this RPG/adventure talk the closest thing that comes to my mind is the Quest for Glory series.
So my question is... will there be stats/attributes/skills for stuff you might actually want to do outside the combat? Stuff that would help the adventure portion of the game.
For example...
These two phrases have suddenly made me very preoccupied... By any chance, I hope you never laid your eyes on anything related to Duke Nukem Forever.... :P
Are there, or will there be in the future, any wangs of any sort?