Game Dev team BetaDwarf AMA!

Saw the post yesterday and bought it without thinking. Mainly to support dev groups like yours and if it's a good game then that's just the icing on the cake.

So far I'm really enjoying it. I like being able to swap classes at any time, but my concern is longevity. I'm new so forgive me if this is answered but will there be rewards (better gear, building out characters) by sticking with one class?

Also I'm sure you guys are aware of the multiplayer issues, not being able to connect, but any idea when those would be fixed? I'd love to buy this for my girlfriend and play with her.

Thanks! Keep up the awesome work.

Edit: Once co-op is fixed will you guys play with us pleabs? And, when BetaDwarf isn't tooling around or playing FORCED what's the group game of choice?

Thanks for your support! :)

With Forced we are trying to induce a zero punishment for shifting around your character and his skills to encourage people to experiment. We have a lot of other ideas to keep you motivated though, like for example an new game mode we have in mind that is inspired from Binging of Isaac. So you'd have a sort of endless randomly chosen arenas. So that you won't be playing the same stuff all the time! :)

We are aware of the connectivity issues and we are doing what we can to fix it asap.. There are different solutions that work for a lot of people, like hamatchi or tunngle. We will definitely play with you guys! :) we already do it from time to time! :) We've played everything so much that it's not really surprising or new to us anymore, so it's such a joy playing with people and experiencing the game all over with you guys! :)

• Alex

Thanks for the response, really cool to see teams involved in the communities apart from the official website/forums.

Any chance for a PvP mode in the future? I could see TDM or CTF arena maps being very fun.

It's definitely a possibility that we'll be working on some PvP in the future.. however it's not at the top of the list at the moment! :) - Alex

Just wanted to thank you guys for creating such a great game! I have already put 20 hours into this game over the past 2 days. This is by far the hardest game I have ever played. I have been looking for a good challenge for quite some time, and this is exactly what I needed. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment when I complete a stage. Job well done. I also throughly enjoy Balfus's comments and his personality over all. He makes a great narrator for the story.

Thank you very much! :) It's a tough balance to find with the difficulty. We always intended for Forced to be a difficult game, being inspired by games like dark souls, but you also don't want to make it too difficult, scaring people of. Glad you liked it. :) We actually never expected the story and characters to be a big part of the game but we're quite happy with what we ended up with! :) We were lucky enough that our Musician Fredrik knew an incredibly talented voice actor Tim, who was kind enough to help us out! :)

• Alex

Tell us about your music and sound design process.

Hey there! I'm not listed as an "official" answer guy person, but my name's Fredrik Häthén and I wrote the music for the game. :) I don't know if Jesper (the sound designer) will pop in and add his 5 cents, but I'll tell you a bit about the music process!

For FORCED, it's been an interesting ride for me as a composer. I stayed at the old BetaDwarf house in Karlslunde for a week in 2012 and got a feel for the game, and I churned out a couple of early battle tracks (the game was very different from what it is now!). Then I stayed in contact with the BD team through Skype - I live in Sweden, and even though it isn't THAT far to Denmark it was still impractical for me to ride the train back and forth a lot (although I have visited their new office a few times!).

The main challenge for me was to lock down what the music of this game was supposed to sound like. The BD team had a very good idea of what they wanted, but I had to give it a few tries before we found something that worked. Since the game's look and feel changed quite a bit during the dev process the music had to follow suit. The main theme of FORCED happened almost by accident - I was writing the menu track and when I sent it to the team I got a lot of good feedback on it. That lead to a re-write of the track and in that re-write the theme just sort of introduced itself. :) My personal preference is to come up with a couple of themes (or motifs) first of all, and now I had a good melody that could follow the player through the story.

I continued writing tracks for the game and sending what I'd written to the team, got feedback and did re-writes. I also did a couple of on-the-fly tracks for promo videos, and the deadlines were always pretty tight - not that I mind, I had fun, but it could get a bit stressful! :)

Once we had a very good idea of the full story, and a good idea of the areas and scenes that would be in the final game, I went over to the BD office and we began discussing a final list of music tracks that would be required. Then I basically went back home and started hammering away at the list, in order of priority. I had a very, very tight deadline at this point and didn't have a lot of time to write the music, but I work well under pressure, so I pretty much just went on trucking! When you don't have a lot of time you're forced - ahahaha - to work on instinct, and you can't always abandon ideas you had halfway through because there is no time to rewrite anything. So I came up with ideas during the night when I tried to sleep, wrote them down, started writing when I got up and then threw the tracks at the team as soon as they were done. :)

I wanted to make sure that each area, and each guardian, had their own distinct music feel to them. As you'll probably notice, the guardians' themes are prominent when you fight them, for instance (and the final boss battle is sort of an amalgamation of all of them, plus the main theme of FORCED). Since I handled the recording of all the voice acting in the game I had a very good handle on the different boss characters and I tried to instill their themes and battle tracks with as much of their personalities as I could.

I hope that answered your question from the music side, at least! If you have any more specific questions about the music in the game, please tell me and I'll try to answer them the best I can. :)

I'd just like to confirm that SakimotoFanboy is fact our music producer! :) And also add that I completely overlooked the sound design part. Sorry Jesper! ;)

We were so lucky as to meet a very talented Swede called Fredrik. Who have done all our music, both in game but also various trailers and the like! :)

Hey i just bought the game earlier today and i was wondering if you could add the ability to draw on the map, I can only yell at my cousin "by that statue" soo much :D The game is awesome!

We've had similar requests before, and it's not unlikely that we might put it in a patch in the future! :)

Hey Team,

i was wondering - how was the launch day?

Like .. how many people picked up the game in steam, and how many people were playing the game at the same time? Did you have a big party, and who was the most drunk?

Oh, and did your highly illegal stay at that university have any consequences?

Hi! Release day was quite incredible a lot more people picked it up than we expected. I don't have the exact numbers, sorry! :) I think we've had around 1.5k people playing at the same time! :) We did in fact not have a party, we popped a champagne and we celebrated together for a little while. But then it was more or less back to work! :) The mood was really high but I actually don't think anyone was drunk! ;)

Not any long term no! :) The school was actually really cool about it, we were told we could not have our office there, but we weren't expelled or anything like that! :) - Alex

Hey guys - thanks for doing this AMA.

I really enjoyed reading the story behind the game according to your image, and I was really impressed by the dedication and effort you guys put into it. With all the obstacles you guys had to overcome, were there times where you thought "fuck it, this shit's not going to happen"? How did you pick yourselves up again?

Also, I would imagine that when things started to roll, and you got closer and closer to releasing the game, the feeling of success and accomplishment must have been phenomenal. How did it feel to finally release the game?

Thanks again!

There were a lot of times when things looked bad. Getting rejected by steam or microsoft, getting a bad preview, that kind of thing. Sometimes I think most people felt most like just walking away... But for some reason we kept going and with time we got back on track. I think one of the things that kept us driving is that we really view this as a learning experience. It's sort of our education and this game is our final exam! :)

Getting closer to the release was a mixed feeling. We were happy that in good or bad we were now done, at the same time really frantic about getting the last couple of features implemented in time and even cutting some. None of us really knew what to expect upon release so we've been incredibly nervous. When you been sitting with something for so long it's sort of hard to just let it go.. You can't help but take a lot of the feedback very personal, so bad reviews and even worse, players hating the game was a reoccurring night mare for a lot of us I think! :)

• Alex

can you please address the lagging problem? At least say something ! buying a product and not be able to play it is the worst case scenario. receiving no communication from the game studio behind it adds the extra bit to complete uninstall frustration....

We are doing everything we can to fix all the issues that are reported in a timely fashion.. We really don't mean to be overlooking anyone, we're just trying to take this one bug at a time! :)

• Alex

not sure if this has been asked, but how would you feel about adding in a loot system? i think it would make this game extremely addicting not to mention a hell of a lot of fun! who wouldnt want to have the BEST looking gladiator :)

It's not at all impossible but at this point we don't really feel loot suits the type of game Forced is. Forced is so much centered around the players own skill! We feel like adding loot only blurs that element out! :)

• Alex

[deleted]

Hi! :) that would of course be very disheartening, and I'm sure some would take that as a sign that this is not for them. But I'm also sure that some would keep on trucking! No matter what this is a learning experience that has taught us a lot about the industry and making games in general, something we can take with us wherever we go!.. :)

• Alex

I have questions for you all further down in my post, but first I have to share my story. You guys have poured so much into this game that I figured sharing my experience would be worthwhile.

Okay. I was in a co-op dry spell when I saw the Reddit post regarding how Forced was developed. I thought, "What the hell, they seem cool and everyone likes an underdog," and bought a four-pack after telling my coworkers about it briefly. We admitted it sounded kind of neat and forgot about it.

That all changed when I got home.

I briefly told my roommate, who is also going through co-op withdrawal, about the random game I purchased earlier. He sounded mildly interested at first but warmed up when I said I'd give him a copy from my four-pack. We installed the game, figured out how to join a game (looks like Steam friend invites don't work?) and settled in. We shared a laugh when the spirit ball would ask us a question like, "Now are you ready?" and then immediately follow - literally no pause - with "Gooood" and settled in for a quick game.

Probably five hours later we were in a daze. We couldn't decide what our favorite classes were at first since they all seemed so balanced. Nothing was too easy or too difficult. At first we thought the game was just a point and kill game, but then the puzzles started coming in. We'd stop and brainstorm how to get past certain areas or complete challenges, and the teamwork felt more rewarding than any other game I've played. The catastrophic failures in trying to get past certain puzzles are almost so hilarious to experience, especially with Steam voice chat, that I look forward to them just as much as completing a hard puzzle. The game got even more awesome when we had two more friends join to complete the experience.

You guys have made a great game and it's an incredible pleasure to play it. Best on-a-whim purchase I've ever made.

--- Questions (and I've tried to avoid stealing from others) ---

1. How much has this title's gameplay changed since you first started working on it? Was this game just a co-op combat game that slowly evolved into having puzzle components?
2. What's your favorite gameplay mechanic? The combat, the teamwork, the puzzles, etc.
3. What was the most frustrating aspect of developing this game? Balancing the combat, level design, puzzle design, etc.
4. What other titles inspired this game?

Hi! Thank you for sharing that! We are really glad you guys like the game! :)

1. The gameplay has actually changed A LOT. The project (Then called Faith of the guardians) was originally intended to be a half year facebook-game project. Runningly we just got more and more ambitious with our ideas and kept pushing the deadline. The only thing I can remember that has stayed with us from the start is that it is very coop focused! :)
2. I think we all have different favorites. Personally I like Balfus a lot. :) I peronally haven't experienced anything like it before and I feel it's very defining for the game play! :)
3. There has been a lot of frustrations during the development. At one point we basically did not have an art department for half a year which is kinda of stressful! :) But also when hard decisions to scrap 80% of the design and almost start over where made. That can be quite stressful to the team! :)
4. we've been looking at a lot of games, Diablo series, Left4Dead, Tomb Raider Guardian of Light og Alien Swarm to name a few.

• Alex

Dis you have a hard time getting along? What was the worst that one of you did that got him voted off the island?

Yes and no! :) We actually forgot to vote people off.. I knew there was something we was supposed to do!

If you ever expand, will you be forced to move because of lack of qualified workers, like the guys who made hitman?

Masser af kærlighed fra København!

Dunno, hard to say. At this point we have no reason to believe you can't find plenty of quality right here in Denmark. But who knows what the future holds! :)

Do you guys want to stay together and do something after Forced or is this just a one time thing, and if you do, do you want to continue how your doing it, sleep, eating, living in the studios or do you want to turn into a normal developer?

We'll probably be trying to get a more normal life going now! Getting our own places and stuff like that. It's great to do this whole board school kinda of living. But it's also very stressful and intense. At some point you want your own place, just like everybody else! :) B

However we will definitely continue to work together as long as we can! :)

It is weird seeing a gamedev AMA without actually seeing the game you've developed. Not only it would be a good PR for your game, but also a way for us to see how good you are at making games.

I'm not sure, is there a question in that?

The question is - could I see a link to your game? =)

Sure you can! :) here's a link to our youtube page if you just want to watch some videos! :) http://www.youtube.com/user/betaDwarf

and here's our steampage http://store.steampowered.com/app/249990/

Hey guys, thanks for the awesome game. It was all worth it! It's definitely one of the best couch coop games out there.

I have a few questions for you:

1. Now that the game is out, what are your plans for the future? DLC? Sequel? Armies vs Champions? New IP?

2. Was anyone in the office actually able to complete all the challenges in single-player? I'm getting there but some of them are crazy!

3. Any chance we can get a hint on the Hodor achievement?

Thanks Paradoxie! :)

1. We're really determined to supporting Forced, at least for a while. So DLC's, both free and purchasable! :) At the moment we are looking into a couple of ideas including Level Editor, Random arena's, and we also have some plans for a vs survival arena! :) Armies vs Champions is a project some of us really want to realize but it will probably be quite a while! :)

2. Yes, but not all! :) We have a couple of pretty hardcore gamers plus we know all the tricks! ;)

3. Hodor! ;)

• Alex

Hey Game Dev Team,

great game you guys released, iam having alot of fun with it.

I have some questions about future-content though, because i can imagine that after one or two playthroughs with friends it will get boring/repetitive.

Do you plan to release new trials or characters?

It would be cool to equip your Gladiator with new gear, even if it has no impact on the game - some Skins, just like in League of Legends, or maybe unlockable weapons for the Gladiators with different abilities (Boomerang, Blow pipe for Archers f.e.), will we be seeing some of that soonish™?

Will you release the Kraken? Woops, will you release a Trialbuilder so players can create, share and play other ppls trials?

Last but not least, are you going to spend alot of time on Forced, or are you guys allready 1 Foot in another project?

Keep up the good work!

Thank, very glad you like it! :)

We are in no way planing to abandon Forced anytime soon. We have a lot of plans and Ideas for improve it. Some of the ideas we are discussing at the moment are, A Binding of Isaac inspired endless random arena type mod, vs survival arena and yes a level editor as well! :)

We might be introducing gear or another type of cosmetic customization in time, but at the moment it is not at the top of our list! :)

• Alex

Will my MacBook Air run the game even though I don't have a 2.2 ghz processor?

Maybe.. can't promise anything. Sorry! :) - Alex

Is it some sort of a monster the platform you are fighting "The Master" on, and if so why is it?

There are 5 (or 6) large Wurms of Doom as we call them. They we're mainly added to create an interesting environment with some movement to it. But also to illustrate just how badass the master is, that he capture these massive beasts and kept them as accessories for his throne room! :)

Oh ya, stick the coders in the basement...it's not like they need the sun anyways.

precisely! They'll just start getting and actual day cycle! We an't have that!

How Challenging of a game do you think Forced is? Is there anyone in your group who would not have trouble getting all 75 crystals?

i don't think anyone can do it effortlessly, but we certainly have a couple of guys who can do it. :) It's not impossible! :)

I just want to say how much I like the game and the great support you all provided in beta. As strictly an end-user it was nice to have some insight into the development of the game. Sadly I broke my left ring-finger so unless I suck it up and buy a controller I won't be able to play much or very well.

Thank you very much! :) and Auch...

Steam Workshop or mod support, would you guys consider it?

Yes, we are definitely considering it! At this point we have a lot of different paths we can take, DLC's, Steam Workshop, new game, etc... We're pretty sure we are going to start out working on some DLC's both purchasable but also free ones. What happens next we don't know yes! :)

As a medialogy student, do you recommend taking the master at AAU or go to another university? Intrests are software development, management (This includes games, or other software)

Hard to say! :) Depends on what you want.. My impression is that medialogy is more theoretical than most other masters, but then again I haven't been at the other masters! :) In the end I don't think it matters too much. What really matters is what you do with your time at any master you chose. No master will do any more than try to help you get where you wanna go. You have to do the walking yourself! :) So my best advice is, figure out what your goal is, and then try to create a plan for how to achieve it. If you want to make games and you choose to stay at medialogy, make sure all projects you do are centered around making games, and learning something relevant to you interests.! :) hope that makes sense! :)

• Alex

Will your next game have camels in it?

maybe, we haven't ruled that out yet! :)

With so many people living together for such a long time, you must have very good stories! Tell us about some of the funniest moments, the happiest days or those hard times when you thought you couldn't keep going but you pushed through anyway. Were your neighbors worried that you were a cult?

Thats a tough one! Like you said when you live together and work together like that you spend all day together so it's quite easy to get on each others nerves. We were quite good at being open and honest with each other though and we always talked a lot about how we could improve things. So it never really got too bad, we usually caught stuff before it evolved and got it sorted out! :) One funny moment was when a danish reality tv wanted to audite us for a show, but decided we weren't interesting enough because we didn't really have enough conflict! :)

When you work so closely together the mood really reflects the state of the project a lot! So in times when everything was bleak we'd be really irritable with each other, but in times like these and when the kickstarter went through it's a whole lot easier! :)

It really tests the teams capability to work together but it's not that bad at all, after a while it's sort if like having 7 extra brothers! ;)

Can we get a comment on whether or not co-op lag is a bug? I've heard from you that it is merely the nature of p2p games but I can't see how that is true given numerous other games that involve player hosting that do not have the same lag problems. I love this game and really want to enjoy it with my friends but it's unplayable. I hope y'all are looking into it.

It is definety something we are looking into.. We are doing what we can! :)

Would you make a subreddit for forced to post updates and such?

We actually already have a subreddit.. http://www.reddit.com/r/forced

I thought it was just amazing that you guys lived in a school for 7 months unnoticed. So my question is, what was the closest you guys came to getting caught? Also, how did you guys shower and use the bathroom?

well it's not like we were hidden, people just didn't notice us, thought we were just studding. :P

Was your dream to make a video game together or FORCED specifically?

If you started with no intentions of doing FORCED, where did you get the idea/inspiration of it?

If you started with the intentions of doing FORCED, why that game?

I'm really curious, since I'm studding animation and I hope some day I can work on a video game with a great team too :)

Our dream and the very base of the company, is that we want to make cooperative experiences. Not that it excludes PvP, but we are very focused on the cooperative part of our games. So Forced didn't start out like it ended, not at all actually. We started out with an idea but we kept testing our ideas and we actualy ended up starting almost from scratch a couple of times because we weren't satisfied with the outcome. -Alex

where do I send support tickets? the game doesn't go beyond the first area (tutorial)

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3532-PDFB-5639

We are aware of the problem though, and we are working on it! :)

Hey?

Hi! :)

BetaDwarf -- What is the story behind this name?

PS: It's nice to see some fellow Danes releasing a game like this successfully :)

Tak Aezay! :)

The story is sort of lame but a little funny I guess! :) We were submitting our first project Armies vs Chapions for IGF and for that we needed website, so we have to come up with a name! We didn't have a lot of time because of the deadline, so we started brainstorming right away. Some different ideas came up, SneakyMoose, StickyWizard to name a few.. but the one that stuck was BetaDwarf. We liked the sound of it and the symboli of being beta. But also because of the fun little puns in it, beat a dwarf a bet a dwarf made us laugh! :) So we went for it! :)

• Alex

I sent alex something [email protected]

Where did you send it? email?

[email protected]

oh.. without the 's' at the end! :)

did that ;D just spelled it wrong this time. topic : cow level also I'm the 1 making ppl send so man output logs to alex xD le candybear.

hmm.. I really don't see anything from that email or with that topic! checked spam as well.. maybe try again?! :)

I read somewhere that you guys used the Unity3D engine. As an aspiring solo indie developer using that engine myself, I just wanted to ask how you found it? Were their times you felt/wished you had opted for something else, or any major problems you faced along the way? And how would you rate it after having such experience?

I'd also like to use this space to say congratulations on succeeding with your dream. I hadn't heard of your game until I saw Steam mention its release on Twitter, I then stumbled upon your story on Imgur the same night, what a crazy and inspiring tale! I immediately fell in love with the concept and art direction, the game looks beautiful and while I have yet save up for it / play it - I know it'll be something I'll enjoy; my girlfriend and I are always looking for fun co-op games and I can't wait to show her this one :)

Well done to you and your team, a well deserved victory :)

I'll start with the second Paragraph! :) Thank you very much! :) We're so excited our image got so much attention, and the reception have just been amazing! - we're a little surprised how many girl gamers seem to like Forced, so I hope your girlfriend will too! :)

Now to the question! It's true that we are using the unity engine. We came across it at our school. Unity is a danish made engine so naturally it's quite popular here. It's easy to get into and really opens up a lot of possibilities for young developers who are just starting out, like us. So we immediately ran with it! :) Any engine has it's problems, so of course unity has some as well... Some of the artist have been a bit grumpy with the shaders for instance, and network coding have been a bit of a challenge as well. But it also has a lot of upside, price being one. Ease of use and cross platform porting to name a few! :)

We are very happy with Unity and will recommend it to any game developer, especially indie start ups!

• Alex

A couple friends and I are looking at getting Forced, but we're poor college students and would like to make sure we're getting a good deal on playtime per dollar earned- I just found out about the game today. To that end:

1) How long is a story playthrough for 1 person? Does it get shorter with co-op, on average? If so, by how much?

2) How much replay value is there?

3) Do you have plans for future expansions or patches? Level Editor or other UGC?

4) I saw some complaints about lag - if we're all on the same wifi network, how bad will the lag be?

Basically I don't know much about your game besides the trailer on Steam, and I'd like to know more.

Thank you for your time, and good job on living in a university for so long.

1. It's about 8 hours if you're good! :) All trials are designed specifically for all four version 1,2,3 and 4. So both lenght and difficulty should be just about the same! :)

2. Depends on the type of player you are. There are 25 trials, all trials have a normal objective a special challenge(I.e. don't take damage) and a time trial. And finally if you're a speed run kinda guy there are leaderboards for ever single trial, so you can battle for the best time in the world! :)

3. Yes to all of the above, however at the moment their only plans. nothing is confirmed yet! :)

4. Really hard to say, some experience terrible lag and others none at all... However, which might be a solution for you? :)

the youtube channel Video game awesome did a good playthrough of a big chunk of the game in 4 player. I'd recommend checking that out if you want a better idea of what the game is like! :) -Alex

Does BetaDwarf pause to read quotes?

We most definetly do! ;) - Alex

Can I have a job now? My job sucks and I want a new one. Pls send help, SOS.

You can.. Start by applying for a couple until someone hires you ;)

Hey I congratulation on your launch, the game is even better than what I expected after seeing your kickstarter!

I just wanted to know if you made some publicity about this game to big youtube personalities, like say TotalBiscuit ?

Tristan

P.S: It was awesome to discuss a little bit at gamescom! I hope you'll have a bigger booth next years like the one that magica had this year or even bigger ;)

Hi Tristan, Thank you! :) We have been trying to contact some of the bigger youtube personalities. So far no dice. At the moment we're hoping Yogscast might do something on Forced, but not sure yet. If you guys would like to see Forced on fx. Total Biscuit or similar shows let them know... The more people are asking for it, the more likely they are to pick it up! :)

• Alex

How far were you guys with your individuel educations, when you started to create the game? Since i'm a dane who wants to study game design, i'm very interested in this.

It's a little varied. When the company started we we're four of us had just started our Master, and a couple we're finishing up their bachelor! :)

• Alex

How tall are you, and what does Snow White fuck like?

I think the average height is about 6 feet! Gentlemen (or dwarves) dont kiss and tell! ;)

So, not enough people bought your game last time you tried to sob-story yourselves into our hearts, and now it's time for an AMA? Good job on marketing the game without any dignity.

Downvotes here I come :) You still know it is true.

Hi! :) You pose an interesting question here, even though it's not really meant as one, I know! :)

Well I guess if you look at it copletely stripped down, yes it is all a big marketing stunt. But really you say it like we're trying to fool or scheme people. Personally I give people a lot more credit than that. I don't think anybody is fooled? Doesn't really take a rocket scientist to see that a lot of what we do is to create attention around ourselves and our game, of course hoping some people will buy the game. I mean isen't that always the end goal? But I have a hard time seeing how we could do things differently. I mean we put up a picture about our story to a service that gets hundreds of thousands of images every day, hoping it would catch somebody's attention. Luckily it did, but at the mercy of the people who use the service, not some bought marketing add. I have a hard time seeing how it can become less intrusive than that.

That being said, we are firm believers of giving back wherever we can. So when the idea of an AMA was presented to us, we thought it'd be a good way of, yes, creating some more awareness about ourselves and our game, but also do it in a way that you guys might also get something out of it. Trying to create a Win Win situation out of it. Again I really feel it's one of the lest intrusive ways of doing it! :) I mean nobody is Forcing (pun not intended) to take part in the AMA much less of buying the game. :)

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter though, how do you feel would be a better way of approaching this from our point of view? :)

• Alex