Iron Tower Studio - Interview @cshpicone

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Cshpicone interview Vince D. Weller and Ryan Easton of Iron Tower Studio about the studio and its games past and present.

...
Joining me is Vince, the lead designer of Iron Tower Studio, which is the developer responsible for Age of Decadence, a text-based RPG which I reviewed very positively last year, and Dungeon Rats, a tactical game set in the same world. Ryan Eston Paul, the composer, also joins us to talk about his role in the studio. Throughout the interview we chat about the AoD and the studio in general and, most excitingly, Iron Tower's upcoming game The New World, which is still in the early stages of development.


Please note, you will find the following abbreviations in abundance:

AoD - Age of Decadence

TNW - The New World


***


CSH: Iron Tower Studio has an interesting slogan, "proudly serving 0.003% of the Global Gaming Market since 2015. The remaining 99.997% need not apply." Why have you chosen this approach, and do you think it has helped or hindered your success as a developer?


Vince: You don't choose your passion. Some people are really passionate about action RPGs or MMOs. We happened to be passionate about hardcore, text-heavy RPGs, which is a very niche sub-genre these days.


We knew that AoD won't be a top-seller from day one and we were ok with it. Same goes for The New World. Think of it this way: when you open a corner store to sell what the locals can't buy in a supermarket, it's never about money. It's about doing what you love and dealing with people who love the same thing.


CSH: Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life, eh? So who is Iron Tower Studio and how did the team come together?


Vince: When we made AoD, we had a team of 6: A programmer, animator, artist/designer, writer/designer, 2D artist, and composer. For TNW, we upgraded our animation rig and enlisted a concept artist, a 3D artist, and a second programmer.


I've met Nick (our programmer), Oscar (artist/designer), and Mazin (artist best known for his superb portraits) on RPG Codex, a go-to site if you suspect that a game you like might actually suck but can't figure out why.

[...]
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More information.
 
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I find ITS, and the content in their games, to be obscene, and anti-Christian. If you are a Christian, I recommend staying well away from all of their cRPGs.
 
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beldurax said:
I find ITS, and the content in their games, to be obscene, and anti-Christian. If you are a Christian, I recommend staying well away from all of their cRPGs.
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Unfortunately, you may need to stay away from 90% of the games in the world then...
Most games involve some type of demon or gods.

I can barely think of any without these elements.
 
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Praise Beelzebub, and all his little wizards.
 
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beldurax said:
If you are a Christian, I recommend staying well away from all of their cRPGs.
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I'm catholic. You'd never guess, right?
There is no way I'll stay from any game with a story whatsoever. Why?
It's - games.

I wish all games went full art criticizing everything that stinks in society (societies to be more precise). Sadly, another Antigona that'll deal with modern "values" in games is a rare occurence, most of games went decadent route where mindless grinding is widely praised and accepted as the peak of gaming by the majority although Chaplin made Modern Times a 100 of years ago.

Instead of suggesting people to avoid "disturbing" stories, how about offing parasitic censors who receive paychecks for doing absolutely worthless thing.
 
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It was nice to see a mention of Van Vogt in there; one of my favorite authors from my youth. The Stars My Destination is another classic… but yeah, I remember the part in Bessler's work where the protagonist decided to hand out PyrE to random strangers -- the equivalent of giving out portable nuclear weapons to any old sod. That wouldn't play too well today.
 
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beldurax said:
I find ITS, and the content in their games, to be obscene, and anti-Christian. If you are a Christian, I recommend staying well away from all of their cRPGs.
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Ah, right, this again. As noted above, this is a pretty bizarre place to plant your soap box. Do you screen everything you read and watch according to your beliefs too? That would be hard, without having another un-"obscene" Christian consume and review it for you and let you know if it's acceptable.
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Oh yeah, great interview! He really hit the relevant points in a concise way.
 
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In fairness to Baldurax, he says his piece, but doesn't complain when we take the piss. A lot of people that like to publicly air their religious criticisms act like their views are free-speech, but any counter-reaction is somehow unfair. If they can put their views out there and accept the response, fair enough, really.

I remain puzzled by how the representation of the occult is any more offensive in one RPG than another.
 
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CS Lewis recognized a value in fantasy literature, especially for children.

More importantly, the Apostle Paul recognized value in secular writing and even pagan philosophy when the same principals could be applied to the ones he was teaching, as a method of bridging the gap to his intended audience.

I tend to not overly worry about it unless it was trying push some agenda and advertised that fact like the last few Bioware games.

But I duly note your heads up Baldurax.
 
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Love me some Van Vogt. The Enchanted Village is one of my favorite stories.
 
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beldurax said:
I find ITS, and the content in their games, to be obscene, and anti-Christian. If you are a Christian, I recommend staying well away from all of their cRPGs.
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What a weird thing to say, since it holds true for so much bigger titles or franchises as well.
I played through AoD twice and really did not find anything specifically anti-Christian there - not compared to most other games. Not that I would mind, of course.

Now I'm confused.
But that is my usual reaction to religious people, so all is well. :D
 
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CSH: Now I know The New World is only early in development, but do you have any thoughts on what the next game might be? Another pseudo-Roman adventure? Another sci-fi?

Vince: An occult RPG set during the Spanish Inquisition. Cavort with Lucifer and his minions or serve God and the Inquisition, that sort of thing.
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Something for Satanists and Christians alike. Whats not to like about Iron Tower Studios?
 
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With absolute certainty, we can say all but one of the world's religions are wrong. It is also entirely possibly that that they are all wrong. Now if you want to scoff at these odds and believe that you happened to have chosen or been raised into the one true religion, that's your prerogative.

However, why in Helheim should that prevent you from consuming and potentially enjoying works of fiction (that doesn't pretend to be otherwise) simply because it may not jive with your personal beliefs? Is your faith that fragile that a mere game can corrupt it? You only live once. Unless of course you believe in reincarnation, or that you are the messiah of said religion, I suppose.
 
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