Diego Roldan rolls out the red carpet for TPG as he talks about his castle-building MMO RTS, Kingdom Of Knights.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the development of Kingdom Of Knights.
My name is Diego Roldan, I am gaming fanatic and enthusiast. My role in Kingdom of Knights is to assist in the production of the game. Working closely with producers throughout the production process. Involved at the preproduction stage of the game and marketing of the game.
How did you get started in developing PC games?
All my life I have been a major gamer, from Atari 2600, to Wolfenstein to online gaming. The game industry has always been an interests of mine and last year I had the opportunity to be part of Animus Interactive’s first title Kingdom of Knights. It has been a tremendous experience for me to be part of such great team of talented programmers, designers, producers and music composers. I am embarking into this new journey doing what I always loved and I am having fun doing it.
Where did the idea for Kingdom Of Knights come from?
Kingdom of Knights rose from the fictional place and time of Avalon. We wanted to portrayed these fantasy times in an environment that would allow us to project our vision of a legacy, immense battles and triumphs of Avalon to the gamers.
What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Kingdom Of Knights?
During the development of Kingdom of Knights we certainly have had our share of failures and successes. Fortunately we have a brave and strong team that has stayed true to the game and to the original vision of its creators. Many of the failures we have experience thus far can be attributed to the fact that we want to project our vision of gameplay, including graphics, sound effects, background music, 3D models, and animations to the user as we had originally vision. We like to flirt with technology, and we have certainly pushed it to the point where we are satisfied. A good example is the ability to allow the player to play the game from different angles, have high resolution graphics and animations so that the player is absorbed in this world of strategy, suspense and hardship.
Successes have definitely given the whole team boosts of motivation throughout this process. We have improved the game’s performance drastically within the last few weeks; which was a big win for us specially now that we are heavily testing the game and we need our testing team to be able to get in there. And get their hands dirty. Music compositions, have been a long and painful chapter in our book, but our great team of music composers have really pulled some magnificent compositions that will get your heart pounding and give you goose bumps. I can tell you that no failure or success has come without its own reward, learned experience and with great deal of pride. The team is highly motivated and we are still going strong to finish this little epic of ours.
In its current form, how close is Kingdom Of Knights to your initial vision?
Currently, we are in mid development stage. We still have quite a journey ahead of us. It has been 8 months since we embarked on this journey and we have done a great deal of progress. To get Kingdom of Knights to the first phase of our initial vision (Alpha state) we have taken the leap to seek the help from the gaming community through Kickstarter to get sufficient funding to get to that Alpha state.
Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring Kingdom Of Knights would run on the various PC system configurations?
Unity was our engine of choice and compatibility with multiple PC system configurations was one of the main reason. As I mentioned before we are heavily testing the game and we are doing both under multiple PC configurations, Mac and Linux configurations as well. To bring our vision to the masses we have to reach across platforms and deliver a game that looks, feels and is engaging under any environment as any other that we support. This is a high priority for us.
Please talk about developing the art style, level design and music for Kingdom Of Knights.
I must admit that the development process of the art style, design and music is as awesome as it sounds. Of course, there is a lot of back and forth, frustration, anguish, sometimes even as dramatic as the story of Avalon itself.
We have an amazing team of graphic artists and music composers that have been nothing but the most fun, professional and energetic personalities we could have wish for this project. Our development process is really about constant engagement on a day to day basis. We want the whole team to see new developments as they happen. It inspiring to all of us to see new concept art or to listen to how a music composition is coming along. The team gets much more involved. It is a positive contagious energy.
Together, we have seen this vision come to life. Day by day. It is quite amazing to think how far and wide we have marched in this journey, and to see every individual in this team contribute towards that vision and to be part of it. It is really magical.
Outside of creating the game itself, what is the toughest aspect of being an indie developer?
Outside of creating the game, I’d say building a solid fan base and maintaining good community engagement. Outreach is a key component and should not be neglected. It should be planned and strategized from day 1.
How did you go about funding Kingdom Of Knights and did you receive financial or emotional support from friends and family?
So far we have self-funded the game upto its current stage, and yes we have received extremely emotional support from friends, family and big community of fans who have begun taking interests and showing us support through social media and forums. In terms of finishing the game, we are launching a Kickstarter campaign to help us get the game to an Alpha state.
Do you have plans to submit Kingdom Of Knights to the various digital distribution platforms?
We are still looking into the various platforms and deciding on whether or not the cons of our small team joining up with these publishers will outweigh the pros. At the moment, the game currently functions with a single download and a patcher client that updates the game files from our internal test server.
How important is it to get instant feedback about Kingdom Of Knights from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?
The community realm, whether from forums or social networks is crucial to us. The community engagement and constant feedback helps us deliver a better game experience, and is really quite a privilege to be able to interact with users from different parts of the world.
For instance, we have had hardcore gaming fans from Brazil come to us and show us their support by spreading the word through Facebook. Online communities love to see constant updates on new developments, interactions from the team and status of the game, and we certainly make it known. As of today we have reached over 14K likes on Facebook alone.
How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review Kingdom Of Knights professionally?
To us, the opinion of game journalist and critics matter a lot. Definitely do not go ignored. Professional reviews, when constructed, provide insight into trends, direction of the game industry and effects in our development, and in many cases be a deciding factor to taking certain turns. We take them very seriously, and we value the time and effort journalists and critics take to bring us their opinion.
How do you feel about the various indie bundle promotions and the “Pay What You Want” pricing methodology? Would you be interested in contributing to a project like that in the future?
I think the PWYW model is a great model that has been very successful in facilitating game end users to try different style of games from Indie games as well as big publishers. One great aspect of how the PWYW model has been used, is to allow users to donate the money they pay to a charity of their choice. I’d definitely love to be part of it in the future.
What are your thoughts on how the PC gaming industry as a whole are dealing with the problem of intrusive DRM and piracy?
It is a set of several problems that hurts the gamers and the publishers. I am a true believer of cloud computing as a powerful tool to facilitate gamers to buy, try and store their purchased games, but it won’t solve these issues. It will still be intrusive. And about piracy. Well, this is hobby for people out there. These piracy challenges are just stepping stones. Just moving the problem from one medium to another.
How do you feel about individuals posting videos of Kingdom Of Knights?
Oh, I’d love to see individuals out there talking about the game on video, or showing their game-play experience on YouTube or Twitch for the whole world to see. We want gamers to have fun with this game as much as we are having fun building it.
How do you feel about DLC and its current implementation in the PC gaming industry?
I am a big fan of DLC. There are a lot of gamers out there (including my self) that loves to try customize maps, characters, weapons and spinoffs of the originals. It’s an art in and of itself.
How do you feel about the online modding community in general and specifically if mods were created for Kingdom Of Knights?
The online modding community is a very dedicated, fun and super engaging community. I personally enjoy seeing and playing modded games. I’d be intrigued to find out what the modding community has in store for Kingdom of Knights, and we welcome your ideas.
What advice would you give up-and-coming indie PC developers who are trying to break into the business?
Plan, focus, execute and outreach. Don’t lose focus of your vision, keep your team highly motivated throughout the whole process and utilize all the tools out there to help you finish your game. Exploit all social networks and forums to expose your game and to interact with users. Community engagement builds momentum that’s crucial for gamers to participate in events, to preregister, for campaigns, etc. Building a great game is just part of the process. Start working on building that fan base from day 1. – End
_____________________________________________________________________________
Follow TPG