RPGWatch Feature - Insomnia Interview

Myrthos

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With just 8 days to go, the recent Insomnia Kikcstarter is still needing some more funds to reach it's Kickstarter goal. To see what the current development startus of Insomnia is and what motivated the devs to come back to Kickstarter again, Farflame talked to the Insomnia devs about that.

RPGWatch: How much is the combat dependent on player's skills and how much on hero's skills and stats? Because your initial pitch was about RTwP combat with companions and special morale system. Now it seems its a little more action oriented with real physics (cover can be broken etc.). So I wonder what was changed in combat design and why?

The initial concept remained the same. We always wanted to have a realistic close and distanced combat system. The only thing that did change is the role of companions - now it's less prominent and we pay more attention to main the character's gameplay. When we first implemented the basics of the combat system, we had blocking mechanics, punches and covers. We started to test it and realized that the player won't have time to take control over his companions as well. However, you will still have an ability to pause the game and give orders to your NPCs, such as "take cover" and to "perform a distant attack", or "rush into the battle" to give yourself more time. Mostly the effectiveness of any battle will be determined by skills of the player himself, and not the level of his character.
More information.
 
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Thanks Farflame, for sending in the Q&A.
 
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RPGWatch asks some hard-hitting questions. Colour me surprised.
 
Great interview, thanks!
 
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Thanks Farflame and Studio Mono for the interview.
 
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So I was about to pledge, but then I saw something about "seasons", that you would get if you pledge > £150? Am I to understand that these are DLC added to the game after? Extra chapters?

Can anyone shed some light, because I couldn't immediately find more info on that? Game looks good otherwise.

EDIT:

Hmm. I found this in the original campaign:
FREE post-release support - we will regularly release minor content updates, which will allow you to participate in various additional scenarios, each of them will add more depth and details to mysterious world of InSomnia. with rich storylines updated every 2-3 months with both single player and co-op in mind
Are they referring to these content updates? If so, those were free in the first, but tied to a high pledge tier in the second. Not backing in that case.
 
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Farflame, you asked super questions. I wish I had thought of them! :)

I'm disappointed about the combat, mainly because I asked the developer extra and they said it was real time with pause. It sounds more like an action game now, and I feel a little deceived.

I like their answers though, they seem thoughtful and honest. What I've seen from Kickstarter updates has looked good so far.

@Wiretripped As I recall they said the game would be somewhere around 20-25 hours initially, and that was before this season crap, so I assume that would be the length of season 1. If you're having doubts about whether to back them, though, I'd send them a message. They answered mine within 48 hours.
 
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It still doesn't sound like they've learned to live within their budget. Yes, they say they are more efficient, but that doesn't mean they'll have enough money to finish. Sometimes you need to cut less essential elements to stay solvent.
 
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You are welcome, guys. Im glad that we did it.
BTW It was lead designer Anatoliy Nekrasov who answered that answers. Kudos to him.

There is KS update about that switch to UE4… it complements first answer:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1892480689/insomnia-pc-max-linux/posts/1570385

And few other updates… like bunch of interesting or crazy characters from the game:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1892480689/insomnia-pc-max-linux/posts/1571798


----

RPGWatch asks some hard-hitting questions. Colour me surprised.

Did you think that RPGWatch cant ask tough questions? How could you? Serious mistake, man. :) :whip:

And keep in mind that not every studio accept tough question. Some may decline the offer completely. It happened at least once in the past. So we are lucky that studio MONO was open and honest. I hope they will make it at the end.


forgottenlor said:
Farflame, you asked super questions. I wish I had thought of them!

Thanks. BTW The first few were from Myrthos. :)
 
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And keep in mind that not every studio accept tough question. Some may decline the offer completely. It happened at least once in the past. So we are lucky that studio MONO was open and honest. I hope they will make it at the end.

If a studio does not accept tough questions, do you cancel the interview, or ask them more agreeable questions instead?
 
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If a studio does not accept tough questions, do you cancel the interview, or ask them more agreeable questions instead?
Well as a person who did interviews on this site it depends. As some developers are honest and will tell you why, and others just demand you not ask those questions.

So based on my experience I decline to interview a developer/publisher if they make demands before I even ask them questions, and only canceled one interview before.

Also thank you everyone for the questions and answers.:highfive:
 
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So based on my experience I decline to interview a developer/publisher if they make demands before I even ask them questions, and only canceled one interview before.

Sooo ... which one would that have been? :)
 
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Sooo … which one would that have been? :)
Since I'm no longer part of the staff, and bound to a code of silence why not.

It was Bare Mettle the developer of Sui Genres and the games prologue EXanima. They didn't want any negative answers about the games development as they were tired of the community's responses on this site.
So I politely declined to interview them as I wanted to ask about the major delays.
 
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Haha, not what I was expecting! But not surprised either, they did get a lot of flak here (rightfully too, imo). Anyway, well done on not giving in to any of this sort of pressure.
 
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So I politely declined to interview them as I wanted to ask about the major delays.

I would think that's the right thing to do. If they are allowed to dictate the questions (or remove the ones they don't like) then it's not an interview, but simply part of their marketing.
 
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@Wiretripped As I recall they said the game would be somewhere around 20-25 hours initially, and that was before this season crap, so I assume that would be the length of season 1. If you're having doubts about whether to back them, though, I'd send them a message. They answered mine within 48 hours.

Here's the reply:

Season I is the full release of InSomnia we'll be launching later this year once this Kickstarter is funded. Season II is the next big release for InSomnia and it will include a ton of new content to expand on the InSomnia universe! You could think of Season as the old-school "expansion packs" that were usually released for PC games where they pretty much could be considered their own massive game!

The free post-release DLC is different from the Seasons.

I'm still on the fence.
 
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Pause is still there. Its said in interview.

It is. But if you have to block and roll it isn't rtw/p like Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age. Originally I asked if the game was more like Baldur's Gate or like Diablo, and they answered that their big influences were games like Baldur's Gate and Fallout, so I assumed rtw/p would be something like in Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age. Granted the pause is there, and they didn't tell me something untrue, but its not at all the type of combat I assumed it would be.
 
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