IamA video game programmer who worked at Bethesda on Oblivion and Fallout 3. I've created a groundbreaking indie game called RODINA which has been described as "Morrowind meets Elite". AMA!

Guess I get to be the first. My first question is what is your opinion of No Man's Sky, and do you think it'll distract attention from Rodina?

what is your opinion of No Man's Sky

Looks beautiful! It has an awesome aesthetic, and I love the ships in the game. They remind me of what I love about science fiction art and stories. Too many space games just all look the same and it really is different.

do you think it'll distract attention from Rodina?

Already has. Everyone wants to compare Rodina to No Man's Sky. Just like, before it, everyone wanted to compare it to 0x10c. I was crushed by self-doubt and fear about Notch's game too, but what I learned from that experience is that if you don't give up just because someone else has something similar but shinier than your thing, the situation just might not be hopeless.

Of course I hope Rodina and No Man's Sky will be different enough in actual gameplay for many people to enjoy both. And while they're working towards release I'll be adding cool features, so I've got that going for me.

Also, I really do think Rodina's planets look better from space than theirs do :) We'll see how long that lasts though haha!

Just anecdotal, but No Man's Sky coverage is what introduced me to Rodina in the first place.

Very glad to hear it!

Thanks for giving me the most fun ive had in months with moddingRodina!

-After green light do you have any plans for incorporating workshop?

-Would you consider a console port in the future?

Thank YOU man!

After green light do you have any plans for incorporating workshop?

It makes sense to but I haven't thought about it. The game does need proper mod support though.

Would you consider a console port in the future?

I would love love love to make a WiiU version of the game :P Rodina is highly inspired by games like Star Fox and Metroid and even Zelda, so to be on a Nintendo Console would make my life.

Just another example of my terrible business sense, haha :)

Wii U's sales just quadrupled in a weekend and the eshop's indie scene is mostly barren. Get your game on there and Ill buy it twice.

Thanks. Yeah I'm actually seriously considering it. Right now I don't have any money for the devkit, or time for the port, but I would love to really do it.

I would also love this on Wii u. I'm not familiar with such things, but how much are the dev kits? I would donate towards your cause of getting this on Wii u.

I'm not a PC gamer, so I'd love to help you meet that goal, so I can enjoy your game

I'm not sure how much they are! Several thousand dollars I think. Bigger issue is time right now... But I really appreciate the sentiment! Hopefully one day I can make it happen :)

O man if you could get rodina on wii u with the controller screen functions, my eyes would explode.

On a technical question any future plans relating to shaders/texturing? i know the planets have texturing but i was wondering if objects/particle faces would have them?

Also hijacking your response to pimp your subreddit /r/Rodina lol :D

On a technical question any future plans relating to shaders/texturing? i know the planets have texturing but i was wondering if objects/particle faces would have them?

If you want it, it will be so!

Any news on the new fallout?

I wish I knew! I visited Bethesda's office's a year ago (or was it two?) and everyone had to be very careful not to spill the beans on what they were working on.

What exactly did you work on at Bestheda/fallout 3?

I worked on magic, physics, graphics effects, and general gameplay awesomeness.

My first task on my first day at Bethesda was to "implement fireballs" which was how I knew I had made some good decisions in life.

One of the things I'm most proud of is that Todd tasked me with personally doing arrow projectiles in Oblivion. So, unlike most RPGs before it like Morrowind, in Oblivion arrows would actually fly using physics, stick into walls, stick into enemies, even stick into you. I spent hours perfecting the way that the arrows bounced off of things. You could collect them back after using them. It was fun as heck.

I even programmed specific shit so that when an arrow stuck into, say, a hanging barrel, the barrel would tip slightly from the weight of the arrow.

I did lots of other stuff, too. Lots of the magic effects were me. I did lots of special graphical effects, like lighting people on fire, etc.

OH! And I did EXPLOSIONS! For a long time my job description was "I make things blow up". Normally I roll my eyes when people say that game development must be all fun. It's hard as shit and most people couldn't do it. But I have to admit that the entire day I spent testing explosions by blowing goblins sky-high was fucking awesome and I laughed all day :D

EDIT: And for Fallout it was more of the same , but adapted. Arrows -> bullets and missiles. Magic explosions -> Mines and stuff. Special effects. More physics stuff. You get the idea.

You did the Oblivion arrow physics? You're my hero. I'm an avid Elder Scrolls archer and I loved loved the way arrows behaved in that game. It was so good compared to anything I had played up to that point. My only beef was that they didn't stick in peoples heads, they transferred to torso shots, I believe. What was the reasoning behind that decision?

I'm an avid Elder Scrolls archer and I loved loved the way arrows behaved in that game. It was so good compared to anything I had played up to that point.

Thanks dog! I put a lot of effort into it. Physics makes things harder, not easier. Takes a lot of polish to get the feel right.

My only beef was that they didn't stick in peoples heads, they transferred to torso shots, I believe. What was the reasoning behind that decision?

Simple- it looked stupid when you were being attacked by a guy with an arrow an inch thick sticking out of his eyeball :)

I believe we left them in for kill shots. If you killed the actor- then the arrow was allowed to stick in its head. Otherwise it broke immersion and that's a no-no.

Fun Story: I was playing Skyrim (which may or may not include some work that you had done for Oblivion), and I somehow got trapped in a cage in a dungeon. The lever to open the cage was probably 80 yd. (just barely in sight). The only way I could escape this 5ft by 5ft prison cell was to shoot a lofting arrow to hit the lever. I was able to finally do this on my last arrow, thus saving my hard work on that game save.

That's awesome. A lot of times, we actually program this stuff in on purpose. Normally you would HAVE to click that stuff manually, but we (or the designers really) would make sure that the same functions would be called if you hit the object with your weapon. Sometimes making cool things happen by accident takes some careful planning :)

On your applications you should say "I made magic a reality...."

Haha, that's just what I say on first dates.

i want to be you

(^{sorry was that creepy?})

Haha I'm best on paper. With Brendan, less is more :D

I worked at Bethesda Softworks as a gameplay programmer on Oblivion and Fallout 3

gameplay programmer

Haha, this is an AMA. I think I can do better than that! ;)

What is your favourite thing about Oblivion?

Oh man :D

So, I was hired at Bethesda just before Oblivion was first unveiled in Game Informer. In my interview, Todd Howard sort of practiced the demo he was going to give, making me one of the first people outside the company to see the game (or so he told me!!!).

It blew my dick off! I COULDN'T BELIEVE that you could drag a slider to dynamically change the ages of NPCs. I couldn't believe that you could see all the way out to the horizon. Keep in mind this was like 2 years after Morrowind. It had full Havok physics. It was fucking awesome. The whole game was a huge step forward technically even at that stage.

As I played the game for real, my favorite thing was just the core gameplay- wandering around, getting into trouble and regulating.

Um, as far as things I worked on, it's hard to say. I worked on Gameplay and so had the good fortune of working on lots of neat things. As they introduced me in this interview, they came to me when they had generic "cool stuff" they wanted to happen. I did magic, projectiles, physics, graphical effects, and lot's of other stuff.

One of the things I was most proud of was fixing tranparency. You know how in the old days when an actor was semi transparent, you could see through their whole bodies? Like, see their teeth and eyes inside their head, and their polygons were all mis-sorted? I fixed that :) So in Oblivion we were able to have ghosts that looked good.

I also wrote the shaders that lit enemies on fire. That was a cool one cause I used to dream and wonder about programming something like that as a kid, and then to actually be doing it for a AAA game was surreal.

EDIT: OH! And Detect Life! I loved that one! That effect had to be reworked for Oblivion, because there was no minimap onscreen. So I just made it similar to a fire effect but ignored the depth buffer, so that you could see it straight through walls. My favorite moments when making games are when the team is like "Shit, what are we gonna do?" and you (or anybody, really) can be like "Don't worry guys- I've got this one" and kill it. Very satisfying.

I have to say, even though I think Oblivion is the weakest game overall in the series, the absolute one thing it got right was the magic and shader effects. You did an awesome job on that my friend, thank you! And you can tell it worked too, they've kept that same style going.

Thank you! Like the game as a whole, they were a group effort for sure but I'm honored to have been part of it! Oh! You just reminded me of something! I'll add it to the post.

Why'd you leave Bethesda and do you miss it?

Why'd you leave Bethesda and do you miss it?

I left for 2 reasons. First, I really loved it there, but I always knew I wanted to experience more from life than just getting a dream job and working 9-6 every day, with X weeks off a year, until I retired or died first from ennui.

Second, my friend Scott suggested we travel around the country on motorcycles, sleeping by the side of the road and getting into trouble. How could I say no? My life was only going to get more settled from there.

EDIT: Here's a pic from the trip. This is about 10 minutes after I put the bike down in front of a deer at 60mph!

I miss Bethesda very often. They used to be my favorite game company, but now they are a group of my friends who made arguable the best game of the last generation. It would be hard to top that.

Also, they had these amazing cookie Wednesdays......

We still have Cookie Wednesdays! It is, without question, the source of our continued success.

Also, booze.

You bragging sunnuvabitch!!!!

Oh my god.. You're sexy as hell too? Like am I dreaming!?!?

brb getting this comment framed...

Uhm.. Like do you have a girlfriend? Ya know.. For scientific reasons.. We can like.. UHHH game all day and cuddle and stuff.. For science! :P

Haha I do and I love her and she's way sexier than me but thank you for the much-welcome ego boost.

I've been following rodina for a year (or has it been 2 years since the first reddit post?) and i would love to work a job at a big name company known for making top games.

I'm a senior is highschool and have a some time left to decide where I want to school. What should I be doing to get myself up there? I have been programming for 5 years and consider myself good for self taught. I just want to make the right choices to get the job I want. Any tips?

I've been following rodina for a year (or has it been 2 years since the first reddit post?)

It has been. I can hardly believe it myself. A lot has happened since then!

I'm a senior is highschool and have a some time left to decide where I want to school. What should I be doing to get myself up there? I have been programming for 5 years and consider myself good for self taught. I just want to make the right choices to get the job I want. Any tips?

Working on stuff in your spare time is the most important thing. As is often said, if you want an entry level job in the games industry, it's best to have years of experience. The only way to do that is to make your own games. Fortunately these days that's easier than ever.

When a company interviews you, they don't give a shit about (to characterize someone who's a fan more than a developer) the games you like or the ideas you have or your opinions about popular releases. They wanna see your portfolio and know you can do the job.

As far as specific advice, besides actually doing programming I would say learn lots of math, and computer science if you can. Beyond that it's up to you! :)

I had that riding jacket in silver. She saved me a fair amount of skin as well.

Yeah, great gear. Between the jacket, the helmet, and the adrenaline, I honestly didn't feel hardly anything.

Understanding porting isn't likely a priority at the moment, does it seem likely that we'll eventually see Mac and Linux ports?

I don't know about "likely". Right now I'm more worried about next month's rent than next year's port.

But, you know, assuming the game is successful and everything, on a long enough timeline the chances go to 100% :P

Since someone asked what your favorite thing about Oblivion was, I will ask.. What was your favorite part of Fallout 3?

Easy answer- blowing up Super-mutant heads in slow motion. Since I was in charge of explosions I also helped out a bunch with dismemberment, and replacing a head with disembodied eyes and brains and making them explooooode.

Can you believe there was a time when I though VATS wouldn't work?!?! I was so stupid :D That shit never get's old- NEVER.

EDIT: Fallout really was fun though. It took that awesome core Elder Scrolls gameplay of wandering around, exploring a dungeon, and killing all the baddies inside, and really made it work in the Fallout setting. That first time you encounter raiders in the grocery store was just awesome, and I loved scrounging for goodies :D

So I went to school with a guy who worked for Bethesda, he was an artist for the weapons on Fallout 3 and Skyrim. I don't know if he works there any longer but his name was Dane Olds. Curious if you knew him.

Of course! I used to get drunk with Dane on the regular :D Did you go to SCAD?

Dane jumped in (along with fellow Bethesda artist and and brick shithouse Jangjoon Cha) this time I was about to get my ass kicked by some 7 foot tall evil redneck at an outdoor concert. Great guy, although I prefer he doesn't tell the story because I'm a coward and prefer to be able to slide that part under the rug :P

You mention 'hacking' enemy computers as a long-term plan - are you going to go the full 'custom CPU running in-game' route (a la 0x10c or Minecraft's Red Power), or do you envision this more as a fun gameplay approximation (or higher level / more accessible scripting)?

A Z80 or 6502 would be nice! :D

are you going to go the full 'custom CPU running in-game' route (a la 0x10c or Minecraft's Red Power), or do you envision this more as a fun gameplay approximation (or higher level / more accessible scripting)?

The latter. The goal isn't to make a computer that is fun for the sake of hacking computers. It's to make one that's fun for the sake of hacking a Nav System, or a Life Support, or a Door, or the Electrical Grid.

I do plan/hope to add general purpose functions to the computer's as well. I want people to be able to hack in their own programs, make their own simple 2D games and whatnot. But you won't be interacting with bits or registers or anything like that. The hacking will all be in Lua.

I think if you were to emulate the real life hacking scene that would make for a very interesting element. Allow for people experienced hacking be able to write there own scripts to actually hack the other ship(s), also alowing in experienced players to find or download scripts to try and hack the enemy ship

Yeah I think that's a great way to think about it. In my grand dreams for Rodina players would be able to write their own scripts and then sort of sell them on the black market or something :P

What sort of features can we look forward to in the near future? Anything exciting?

I was talking about this last night with one of Rodina's backers actually. Honestly there are too many great options and I'm not sure what's right next. Been thinking about adding Drone allies, working on bases on the planet surfaces, or more simulation stuff like ship systems and the like.

My friend suggested that it would be really cool to enter and loot downed ships. I might do that but I don't think we're quite ready for it. Soon though.

I may end up opening the issue to a vote, which is how I give the community some control over how the game evolves.

He's lying. Priority 1 is to implement a hat-based ecosystem into Rodina. Items are replaced with hats. New hat-rack elements for the ship interior for storing your hats. All-new hat-based story content. Trade hats with your friends. Planets are gigantic hats. Hats.

Honestly, if there was a way for me to add a fun, non-game-breaking thing like the hat store in TF2 to Rodina I would. Anything to get the company stable so I could focus on making the game better.

I've thought about creating a "decoration store" where you could buy special or player-created tilesets and items for your ship. I think that's actually a fun idea and, as long as there's plenty of free stuff and it's all cosmetic, I don't think it's objectionable.

But the game needs to have a lot more gameplay and actual fun in it before we start taking bullshit like that seriously.

Maybe the ability to set an item adrift in your universe, along with a message, and it appears in another person's universe message-in-a-bottle style?

Although I get the feeling there would lead to a lot of 3D dickbutts orbiting other people's planets.

I get the feeling there would lead to a lot of 3D dickbutts orbiting other people's planets.

/adding to feature list

Can you hook me up with an IT job in Portland? I really want to get the hell out of the Bay Area CA!

Email me at [email protected] and I'll hook you up with someone, yeah.

Dear Brendan,

I LOOOOOVE The Elder Scrolls titles, and I've tried hard to get into space trading/exploration/combat games, but they always seem horribly involved. how accessible would you say Rodina is, compared to other games of its genre?

I've tried hard to get into space trading/exploration/combat games, but they always seem horribly involved. how accessible would you say Rodina is, compared to other games of its genre?

Wow, this is lovely to be able to say with a straight face: Rodina may be the perfect game for you! :D

It's super simple to get into. Don't get me wrong, the game requires some patience and the ability to explore a bit before giving up. But it's about as far from the whole spreadsheets-in-space thing that some games have going as you could possibly be.

Rodina's a lot less like a hard space sim and a lot more like: What if in Star Fox you could just fly anywhere, and get out of your ship and walk around.

spreadsheets-in-space

Ah, so you've played Eve Online, then.

Haha yes :D Man did I ever want to like that game!

Hello there! I am currently in my 12th year of High School and I am currently in the dilemma of 'what I want to do with my life'. I have looked around but I have quite a large interest in being a video game programmer like yourself.

My question is, if I were to follow in your footsteps, where should I start? What sparked your interest for being a video game programmer. Any tips on how to get started/motivated?

Thanks for doing this!

My question is, if I were to follow in your footsteps, where should I start? What sparked your interest for being a video game programmer. Any tips on how to get started/motivated?

My interest sparked in elementary school when I got my first console (NES) and played games like Zelda. My parents were always really great about keeping up with the whole newfangled computer craze so I got interested in computers early on.

I would say starting early and being proactive was my biggest advantage. To get into the games industry, you HAVE to make games in your spare time. Learn how to program, or how to use a popular Devkit like Unity or UDK. It's never been easier to make games than it is now. There are tutorials, forums where people will help you, it just goes on and on. All you have to do is take the first step and then keep moving.

As far as motivation, that's a bigger topic, but ultimately you have to remember that once you leave high school and college, nothing will ever be given to you again as long as you live. Whatever you want in life, whether it's success in a career, a relationship or sex, your health, whatever, you have to fight for it. You have to work hard and be miserable sometimes and stick through things anyway. Lots of people go through life taking the path of least resistance, or the path that makes them happy in the moment, and then wonder why they aren't making progress in the big picture. That kind of life can be a happy one but it can never be a rewarding one.

WHEN DO WE GET FALLOUT 4?

You'll have to ask someone who won't be sued for telling you!

What was your favorite Bethesda game you worked on?

Also do you play the games you helped make? I would love to work for Bethesda, but then I'd be scared that I wouldn't enjoy playing the games that I'd worked to create.

What was your favorite Bethesda game you worked on?

I don't know! Maybe Fallout 3? I wasn't there for too long, only a few years, so I don't have a long list to choose from...

Also do you play the games you helped make? I would love to work for Bethesda, but then I'd be scared that I wouldn't enjoy playing the games that I'd worked to create.

I will say this- I love Oblivion an lot, but it's probably my less-favorite of the series, probably because I worked on it. It has a different feel for me, for sure.

That said, I still put like 150 hours into it after it came out, hahaha :D

Why do Bethesda games tend to be filled with bugs? Great work though. What games do you plan on buying with the steam summer sale?

Why do Bethesda games tend to be filled with bugs?

It's just the huge nonlinearity of it all. There's just so much space, so many features, so many quests. Even most open-world games don't have full NPCs with schedules and dialogue. They don't have quest-lines with multiple solutions. They don't have huge, customizable magic systems, or give you the ability to pick up every fork and spoon and book you see. Their games are just massive.

Maybe there's something about Bethesda specifically that contributes to this, but I couldn't speak to that.

What games do you plan on buying with the steam summer sale?

I'm not sure!!! I have no time, haha. What about you?!

Probably a dumb question, but, do you have any Czech background? Asking, because "rodina" means "family" in that language. Regardless, your game looks cool, will have to try it.

do you have any Czech background? Asking, because "rodina" means "family" in that language.

Not a dumb question! I don't have a Czech background, but 'Rodina' is named after the Czech word! The themes of the game haven't been developed enough for it to make sense yet, but it all will in time.

Unfortunately I realized too late that Rodina is also a Russian word meaning Motherland or Homeland, and is used a lot like Brittania or Columbia. It's also the name of a far-right Russian political party. :)

Oh well!

What kind of work goes into the writing of a videogames plot and lines? I'm going to school for creative writing and would really like to collaborate with some game designers in the future.

This would be a great question for /u/HeadlongDownhill to help with.

I haven't been a game designer for long (I never worked in Design at Bethesda, for instance), so it's hard for me to say with regards to games like Oblivion and Fallout.

I would say the most important thing about game writing is brevity. I LOVE books in games- love lore, and emails, and secret notes and the whole thing. But, fundamentally, people do not play games to read or for the script in cutscenes (IMO). If your writing ever has people sighing and waiting to get back to the game, you're not just failing to add to the experience, you're detracting from it. The most important thing is to learn how to focus 100% of the content in to 10% of the space. I could talk about this a lot, actually.

For me as an indie game slave, the most important thing in a collaborator in general is that they make my life easier, not harder. I've had too many people try to "help" with Rodina by making demands, increasing the feature list, needing handholding, etc. I hate that shit. I'm already too busy. Be a problem solver, not a problem creator, and people will like you. Like /u/HeadlongDownhill.

The story in Rodina is fantastic. I agree that people don't want to read novels in a game. If the whole storyline of Rodina had been presented all at once, I would have TL;DR'd it. However, because it was presented in snippets, I read it, and because it was so well written and parcelled, it actually incentivised me to keep playing to get the next datastick. And because the journey of unveiling the story was drawn out to just the right extent, it made it more engaging, like a good drama series.

The end of the story still gets me, every time I play through the game again. I would present the storyline of Rodina chapter 1 as a model of how to do writing in games.

The end of the story still gets me, every time I play through the game again. I would present the storyline of Rodina chapter 1 as a model of how to do writing in games.

Wow thanks man!!! /u/HeadlongDownhill has got to see that!!! :D

I've been following Rodina coverage for a while now and it honestly blew me away. What was your inspiration to make an amazing concept come to life? Thanks in advance!

I'm delighted you asked! :D

My main inspiration were old SNES games like Star Fox (easy to see the connection there), Super Metroid, and Legend of Zelda. I've always been really attracted to the idea of open world games, even back then, because I saw them as being more coherent "worlds" as opposed to games made up of levels. They really got my imagination going.

When playing Star Fox or Metroid I would think: Man, I really wish I could just fly this spaceship around like I owned it. Or: I wonder what the inside of Samus's gunship looks like? I wonder what it would be like if I could just take that thing and live out her Bounty Hunter life for REAL.

Then, when I got older and player games like Daggerfall, and saw tech demos like the one for the Infinity Engine, it became obvious that games like that were possible. If just required focus and sacrifice. You can't make a AAA game as good as Skyrim but as big as Daggerfall. You have to be willing to give up something to get that freedom and scale.

Finally, games like Deus Ex and Dwarf Fortress showed the power of simulated game worlds. That if you make the gameplay intricate enough (and Rodina's isn't yet, nearly) you don't necessarily need to hand craft game events. They might happen naturally and still be fun.

Honestly, this sounds cheesy but it's all about dreams and imagination. I want to know what it's like to explore space in my very own flying Winnabego. Rodina gives me a chance to bring those dreams to life, and I'm confident that as long as I stay true to that vision I know there will be an audience for it because those dreams are so widely shared.

Will planets in Rodina have features in them, or maybe biomes in the future, to further spice up their character and give more unique feel to certain parts of them, rather than planet as whole?

Will planets in Rodina have features in them, or maybe biomes in the future, to further spice up their character and give more unique feel to certain parts of them, rather than planet as whole?

Oh yeah, for sure. I've got to add more things to make the planets more interesting. The game is still so early, and I'm soooo busy, that I don't know when things like that WILL happen, but I just know that I intend to do it.

I think at first we'll see bases on the planets, which you could invade. Then maybe I'll add rocks and stuff. Maybe even caves. Eventually domed settlements.

Eventually (looooong term) I'd love to add biomes and stuff, but that's a long way off, both in real life and in the game world. Terraforming takes time!!!

Will Rodina contain mountains? Will you be able to climb said mountains?

Haha, you jest, but I actually addressed this in my my very first tech demo of the game. As an homage to my former boss Todd Howard :)

What I'm trying to say is that I did it before it was cool.

I have two questions. 1. Why did you leave Bethesda? 2. What was it like starting your own company and what were some challenges you faced?

I have two questions. 1. Why did you leave Bethesda? 2. What was it like starting your own company and what were some challenges you faced?

I talked a bit about why I left Bethesda here. Basically I have a fear of commitment :)

Starting my own company has been a huge adventure. I'm very much an absent minded / head in the clouds type, so I've got 0 business sense to guide me. Nothing in my life has been more thrilling than putting my entire life and career on the line on a long-shot, haha. It really is the most exciting thing I could do. There's real risk and fear, but also a true sense of accomplishment I've never felt before.

After working so hard for so long on something, when a customer writes you to say "I've been waiting to play this kind of game my entire life, and my eyes watered while I was playing yours".... I mean, that's just a kind of feeling you can't describe. That's what I set out to do, so it's like having all your dreams and hard work crystallize in another person's experience. It's wonderful.

As far as challenges, the number 1 challenge I've faced is contractors / collaborators. I don't have a good sense for hiring people yet. Sometimes when you work with someone (like /u/HeadlongDownhill or Rodina's composer John Robert Matz) it's like a fucking dream and everything gets better because of them.

Other times, the people you work with drag you down. I've lost sleep, hair, time working on the game, and money on shitty collaborators. I hate that and it makes me resent having to be anything other than a lone wolf. My greatest wish is that Rodina is successful enough that I could hire some of the people I actually trust to take some of the stress off of producing the game.

Have you ever been told to do something by Bethsesda or something that you didn't really agree with?

Also, did you just think of the name raptormeat right now?

Also, did you just think of the name raptormeat right now?

Ha, Andrew is right. Raptormeat was actually my very first screen name when my family first got AOL back in the mid 90s. I had just read "Jurassic Park" in elementary school and "Raptor" was already taken.

I don't like change.

Have you ever been told to do something by Bethsesda or something that you didn't really agree with?

No, definitely not. Bethesda is a very collaborative company. I can't remember if I was ever "told" to do anything that I didn't like, but I do know that I had PLENTY opportunity, like every single day, to direct the course of the company in ways large and small. They gave us a lot of autonomy to work things out the best way we could, and we often made decisions in teams.

That said, while Bethesda is my favorite game company and The Elder Scrolls is one of my favorite series, I don't always like every last thing about them. Rodina is my attempt to sort of inject an alternative take into the genre. I wish there were a handful of games like Daggerfall existing alongside modern handcrafted open worlds.

When the team found out that the monsters in Oblivion would maintain the same level range as your character, what was the general feeling?

Well, Bethesda prides itself on making games with big ideas, that are hard to make. Enemy leveling didn't work great for lots of players, but it was a decision in response to a real problem- how do we make sure a player can wander anywhere around this game and have fun, while allowing for character to advance, all while keeping things simple? It's hard to dismiss that when you have the responsibility of making a game a mainstream success. Ultimately Bethesda has learned from the experience- I think the levelling situation is a lot better in their more recent games.

But, you know, honestly I don't really remember. The things the fans experience / care about while playing a game aren't always the things the team cares about while making it. I was probably far more concerned with my bug queue, honestly! I'm sure the design team argued this decision over extensively, but I wasn't part of the design team so I don't know.

Personally, that's not my philosophy :D I like to throw players into the deep end, so that's what I did with Rodina :D But then again, I'm not in charge of a multi-million dollar project haha.

Was there much grumbling or resistance at Bethesda to Oblivion being so simplified compared to Morrowind?

Not that I could tell. Keep in mind Oblivion came out right after the success of the Lord of the Rings movies, so it made some sense to emphasize the aspects of Tamriel that were more traditional fantasy. And while the gameplay in Oblivion was simplified in some ways, the gameplay experience was massively improved. So I'm not sure in what sense you mean "simplified"- it could be a lot of things :)

Of course there are always ideas that people have that don't end up making it in game. But I probably shouldn't talk about that.

That said, I loved Morrowind and so in retrospect I am disappointed that Cyrodiil in Oblivion didn't reflect the weird uniqueness of Cyrodiil in the Pocket Guide to the Empire. I think Morrowind was a masterpiece in that sense and I think it's the best thing about the Elder Scrolls series.

Who was it that put buttholes on the horses in Oblivion?

Robert Altman, the president of Zenimax, saw the horses and said "STOP THE GOLD MASTER! THESE HORSES HAVE NO BUTTHOLES!"

Hey there, I want to thank you for taking part in creating one of the best made games I've ever played, Fallout 3 is what took up a good portion of my teenage years!

Now for a question; Right now I've been stuck on stupid collision problem for the past couple of days and it just makes me want to chuck my computer out the window and quit. What keeps you motivated when things get frustrating?

When you're at the end of your rope, take a break! Chill out, have a beer, take a nap. I believe problems like that can only be approached when you're in top form - they can't be brute forced - and that means rested and fed!

But yeah, motivation is tough. Ultimately you have to stay happy somehow.

Hey Brendan, fellow gamedev here. Everybody always has interesting and different ways of breaking into the industry. What's yours?

Hey!

Everybody always has interesting and different ways of breaking into the industry. What's yours?

I'm not sure! I "knew" I wanted to make games since about 3rd grade, when it dawned on me that Mario and Zelda and the like were created by actual human beings, and that it would probably be awesome to be part of that.

So it was always in the back of my mind as I focused on Math in school, then Computer Science in college. I worked on games in my spare time and learned how to program in DirectX.

My proudest college-age achievement was discovering Game Boy Advance emulation. I programmed a real GBA game called "Cestode" where you played an intestinal parasite. It was sort of a Snake clone but it was my first fullish game and I used it as portfolio material for my first internship in the games industry, at Vicarious Visions near my home in Upstate New York. The GBA was fun and easy to program for! EDIT: I totally blew that internship though, haha.

After I graduated school, I wanted to be a game designer, but I saw Bethesda was hiring for game programmers. Bethesda was by far my favorite game company, so I couldn't pass it up. Two days after I applied, I got a very surprising phone call from Todd Howard. I visited the office and, despite the fact that I was the creepy fan who had made Morrowind fan site, was hired. It was the first real job I ever applied to!

Hey don't forget you were an active forum member and had a forum buddy on the inside who said "Hey Todd, make sure you check out this guy RaptorMeat!" -Gavin

Hey man! I didn't know I owed you shit! Haha :) Seriously though maybe it's the time gulf but I had no idea. Thanks man :D That was a huge moment in my life to say the least.

Besides, you paved the way for "creepy fan who runs fan site getting hired and only being marginally as creepy as expected"

How long do you think you'll be busy making Rodina? And do you have any plans post-Rodina?

How long do you think you'll be busy making Rodina?

As long as I can! I'm really jealous of those Dwarf Fortress guys. I wanna be working on this game when my dog dies.

And do you have any plans post-Rodina?

I've got games I want to make, yeah. I want to make a game about bugs inspired by an old SNES game I loved despite it's flaws called EVO. The tagline is going to be "Like Spore, only fun".

I was wondering how much Asimov inspired the stories that we find, they gave me a I,ROBOT vibe especially RUNAWAY?

This is definitely one for /u/HeadlongDownhill, but I can say that the whole concept of artificial personhood is the underlying theme for the game.

You don't really get this from the story so far - there's a lot to develop in the future - but the idea behind the game is to use this setting and context to explore the idea of slavery, ownership, duty and responsibility. It's about whether or not robots will have any right to their own lives, or if the fact that we created them and have a huge need for them means that they we have dominion over them. Most of all it's about power, because that's what all of life boils down to.

Rodina's story is about a situation where that dominion breaks down. Though again, we're just at the beginning stages of that.

That's also why the main character in Rodina is a (sort of) a woman, though that's really subtle. It just adds another layer to the themes of objectification and rebellion.

As far as I know, /u/HeadlongDownhill is definitely an Asimov fan. We even named a line of robots in the game after him.

I've been watching Rodina for a while now but I haven't been watching closely lately. I'm excited for it and would like to know, what do you think set Rodina apart from (what I consider to be) similar games like space engineers and Starmade?

what do you think set Rodina apart from (what I consider to be) similar games like space engineers and Starmade?

Well, with those particular games, it's the freedom and immersion. Rodina isn't a game where you load up a level or a sandbox and start playing, it's a game where you enter a world and start exploring.

I have always been very influenced by the Elder Scrolls mantra of "Live another life, in another world". I want to add features until Rodina isn't just a game, but is actually a simulation of a burgeoning star colony.

that answer made me really happy. space engineers bugged me because it seemed like yeah... you can built this stuff but theres not really much room to DO things with it.

Unfortunately there's not enough to do in Rodina yet either, haha. But I'm working on it!!! :D

1. What features are planned for the future?
2. Is there a possibility of multiplayer coming?
3. What about vegetation? 2d trees and plants would do! ;-)
4. Can we get a speedometer?
5. Can we get shipugrades like better shields and laserbeams?
6. Are you planning to add the possibility to load textures for the ships?

Thank you for making this awesome game!

Multiplayer would really be super duper awesome.

Hey man!

What features are planned for the future?

It's too big a list to comprehend. I don't have a small, specific vision of the game. I want it to be big like Dwarf Fortress, where shit just keeps being added in until it's crazy. Ultimately I want to make Daggerfall in Space. So really the only limiting factor is how long I get to work on it.

Is there a possibility of multiplayer coming?

I would love to do that. Of course it's a big job, but the payoff would be awesome. Probably won't think seriously about it until the game has NPCs.

What about vegetation?

Yeah, the planets do need to be more interesting for sure :D

Can we get a speedometer?

Maybe, haha ;) Mod it in????

Can we get shipugrades like better shields and laserbeams?

Yeah of course as the game get's more developed and complicated, more upgrades will definitely come into it :D

Are you planning to add the possibility to load textures for the ships?

Not yet but I might add something like that for mod purposes. I like the simple, texture-free look of the ships, but my specific programmer art for them definitely sucks so I'd like to revamp them at some point. The interior art that Miriam Nagi did for me looks a hundred times better than the ships do.

If they're procedurally generated, what's going to stop the planets from being boring, useless wastelands?

Well, if by wastelands, you mean actual terrain-wise, then of course I can add as many different algorithms into the procedural engine as I like. The more factors you control, the more interesting they can be. Rocks, foliage, biomes, ecosystems, etc. The more they affect gameplay, the less useless they will be.

And it wouldn't necessarily even be just terrain. Procedurally generate settlements, roads, buildings, NPCs, dialogue, quests.

So in that sense, the answer is: time and opportunity. Of course everything I just said represents a crazy amount of work. That's what this whole campaign is about: buying the time to keep making the game more interesting.

On the other hand, if by "wastelands" you mean devoid-of-fun, on account of not being hand crafted and therefore polished up, then that's just a taste issue, and I can totally respect that my game isn't for everyone. TONNNNS of people didn't like that aspect of Daggerfall- that's precisely why Todd Howard smartly did away with this whole approach and part of why Skyrim was the best game of the last generation.

But I'm not making my game for that niche. I'm not interested in what's proven to be good, I'm interested in trying out something I wish I'd see more of.

I have a super important and pertinent question: if I stare long enough at the strange signals found embedded in transmissions within Rodina, will I see a sailboat?

Hahaha :) Someday, SOME mad genius will uncover the TERRIBLE SECRETS¹ of the strange signals!

¹ It's boobs. It's always boobs.

What is the hardest thing you programmed while working at Bethesda?

Tough question. Probably just cause things are so hazy from so long ago I will refer to this an interview I gave a long time ago. Check the part "What is the best part about being a programmer? The worst part?"

Basically it was the lightning bolt effect. It was super hard to get the shader and the math for that right, I struggled with it on and off for months, and it was a little beyond my comfort level as far as how much responsibility I had over it. I even spontaneously stayed at the office all night one night completely reworking it. It was all worth it though because the final effect was pretty cool.

Funny story: The "breakthrough" that I describe in that interview, happening "late at night, away from the office", happened because I was stoned :P Who would have through some reefer could help me solve a math problem at work??? It was exactly like the scene in HBO's Silicon Valley where the main character gets inspiration from the 5-minute dick joke scene. That show is legit, BTW.

I've never felt less conflicted about drugs than I did in that moment. :P

Thank you very much for responding and you know what I am going to start watching that show because of you thank you!

That's awesome man! I doubt you'll regret it :D Cheers!

What are your thoughts on Skyrim? What do you think was done well and what could have been done better?

I thought it was awesome! SO awesome. I had a blast running around. I remember the first time I ran across the hot springs in the game, it was a total awesome surprise. Loved climbing up the Throat of the World.

This is a tough one to answer :P It was a total masterpiece so I'm not sure what they could have done better. I guess it would be really interesting to play an Elder Scrolls game with more skill-based combat. I do get sick of health potions, and the idea that you will win the game as long as you've got health potions to run through, but as soon as you run out, you're screwed.

That would sort of make TES a different game though. Not a flaw, just something that would be interesting.

I followed this for a while and I guess I forgot about it. Guess I'll try it out tomorrow! What are your plans for the future for this?

In the near term, I want to make the ship simulation deeper by adding more ship functions that can be messed with and can go wrong (like the fires in the newest update).

In the mid/longer term, I want to find a way to make the jump to more character based gameplay. NPCs and gunning combat, etc. Sort of a big jump so I'm not sure how to do it so that it's fun the whole way and people aren't waiting for 6 months for an update :P

As a huge fan of both oblivion and fallout 3, thank you so much! Best games I've ever played!

What do you think about the modding team trying to recreate oblivion in skyrim?

I didn't know about that one! I knew there were several Morrowind projects...

It sounds awesome. A testament both to the hard work of modders and the open, easy moddability of the games!

Quick question- Is this coming to Macs? Being a gamer on a mac is sometimes not much fun :(

Sorry to hear that! I wish I had concrete plans, but I don't right now. I have to focus on getting Rodina to be more successful and adding more gameplay features before I can start thinking about big projects like that!

Hey! Thanks for doing this AMA! Do you have any advice for amateur programmers? Where is a good place to start or how can I make myself desirable for game development companies?

Thanks again!

Do you have any advice for amateur programmers? Where is a good place to start or how can I make myself desirable for game development companies?

Yeah! I would say the biggest piece of advice I have is that the distance between where you are now and where I am (writing a whole game) is a lot less than what it seems. Your biggest enemy is your sense of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of what you want to do (at least that's true for me).

I don't have any specific advice for like what tutorial to read or whatever. I would suggest trying out something like Unity, and just not stopping until you have made a game. A simple as shit one, like Pong or something. Then make another one. Before you know if you'll have something you can put in a portfolio. It's just like anything else- putting one foot in front of the other.

I played the demo a little and it seems like a very bare game. Couldn't figure out how to exit the ship once I was in it. I tried flying away from the asteroid you start on but got bored before I ended up anywhere. Not very impressed, but maybe I'm missing something. What am I supposed to do in the demo once I'm flying around?

I tried flying away from the asteroid you start on but got bored before I ended up anywhere. Not very impressed, but maybe I'm missing something. What am I supposed to do in the demo once I'm flying around?

Haha, yeah once you start piloting the ship, there's a little cross indicator on screen. You've got to go check that out. At the moment, you're kinda missing the whole game :P

To stop piloting the ship, you've got to land it, or go out into deep space, then press TAB.

That said, you're still right that the game is a bit bare right now- it's still early in development. But it's not quite as bare as you experienced it, haha.

Part of the design philosophy is letting people uncover things on their own, without holding their hands or condescending to them. I want to talk up to my audience. I think that makes for a far more rewarding experience but it does leave people confused or lost sometimes.

Why oh why couldn't you improve animations in Fallout 3 and Oblivion. It always bugged me.

I mean you had a multi-million AAA corporation and no one spotted how weird the walking animations were?

Was this discussed? Was there some kind of "elephant in the room" thing of no one really talking about it?

Sorry for zooming in on a minute subject and detail. You seem like an amazing guy who gave to the industry. It simply always bothered me how something that simple wasn't fixed in 2 AAA titles. So no offense. :)

Haha, well I hope I don't have to defend why I personally didn't load up 3DSMax and tweak those anims :P

Honestly, this is funny, cause I could be the worst possible person to ask about this. I just don't care about animation quality. It's just not on my radar in the slightest. I woudl implement something like this for Rodina in a heartbeat. To me it looks awesome and the flexibility far outweigh the aesthetics (But I don't even know if that looks bad or good!!! That's how bad I am on this issue!!!)

But, I digress.

One thing that might help you swallow this stuff is: try to think about what PC RPGs were like in the 90s. They were clunky, unintuitive, ugly, and not fun at all for a huge majority of people. The Elder Scrolls series came from that era.

Bethesda has been a huge force in making RPGs that actually DO look good, that actually ARE viscerally fun to play, all while chasing big crazy goals like giving every NPC in a huge open world their own full schedule. But it's been a process. They have to do 1000 things really well to make that happen, and ultimately if any one piece isn't up to people's standards, the best thing they can do is to try to improve next time!

Hey brother - on a scale of 1-10, how much do you like chorizo sausages?

I don't eat meat but the great thing about sausages is that they're so fucking filled with spices you can make veggie chorizo that tastes awesome. My girlfriend puts them in these breakfast casseroles that I love. Definitely 10.

Hello thanks for doing this AMA, your game looks very interesting by the way, so good luck with it!

Anyway I just wanted to ask did you guys at Bethesda ever consider your game animations were subpar? Especially since modders always release new animations for the game. This always bugged me, especially after seeing this particular animation in Fallout 3.

Anyway I just wanted to ask did you guys at Bethesda ever consider your game animations were subpar?

I addressed this in another comment. I didn't tend to pass judgement on the work of fellow employees, unless they were programmers :)

Also I'm really bad at judging things like this. I'm not the one to ask :)

But in general the thing I always say is: Bethesda games are hugely more huge than you could ever imagine. If they don't get one feature perfect, even a forward-facing one, that's regrettable but all they can do is do better next time.

I don't really pay too much attention to the point that modders can do better. I mean, it's true, and modders are awesome, but of course it's true: there are like a million of them, and they only work on the things they care about :P

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Any times you looked at a source file and thought the person working on it was high?

LOL are YOU high?! "No Comment!" Hahaha :D

I will say this: the people at Bethesda care very much about the quality of their games. Most of them work there because they love, not just games, but Bethesda games.

I love your game I have had an idea like that before a few questions though.

1 Where do you think someone should start to learn what is the best programming language?

1. Will the update system be similar to minecraft with constant things being added to the worlds creating a never ending adventure?

I love the game by the way thank you for answering.

Where do you think someone should start to learn what is the best programming language?

I wish I had a better answer! I don't know- I started with C++ and that's a VERY useful language but it's a lot for the beginner.

I would suggest possibly downloading something like Unity. You can use C# for the scripting in Unity, which will teach you about real programming (I think?) with the side effect that you can make cool games :)

But, you know, honestly any answer I have won't be better than anything you'd find from Googling "How can I learn to program?"

Will the update system be similar to minecraft with constant things being added to the worlds creating a never ending adventure?

That was always my intention, but it's taking a lot longer to get stuff out than I'd hoped. I'm hoping that focusing on small gameplay updates and maybe even getting on Steam will help with that.

Totally unrelated question, but I think you're the right guy to ask. What should my PSN name be?

You came to the right place. I suppose if you don't wanna go with "ILoveRodina" or "BrendanAnthony4SexAmbassador".....

I stalked your profile briefly and I think that you should wear your affliction with pride, "SausageMan".

I remember being extremely excited about Rodina after seeing Scott Manley play it, and I've desperately wanted to play it since then.

So, out of Fallout 1 and 2, what is the best town / location in the two games, and why?

I remember being extremely excited about Rodina after seeing Scott Manley play it, and I've desperately wanted to play it since then.

That's great man, I'm glad to hear it :D You should let him know! I think he got the feeling that the community was sort of like "WTF is this indie game all about?"

So, out of Fallout 1 and 2, what is the best town / location in the two games, and why?

O_O I never played them!!! I'm bad, I know it.

He's kinda become my go-to place for Space games I might not have heard of, or don't have access to yet (like Elite).

That was the bset question I had! So instead, I'll ask something about the game. All I've seen is Scott Manley's video and what is on the Greenlight page. So, what is the scale of the procedural generation, are you going full-on Space Engine and simulating the entire observable universe, or just one galaxy? Are the planets /space objects going to be generated below the surface, or are they just surfaces? And aside from planets, asteroids, suns, and space stations, will other stellar phenomena exist? Whether it be other stars like Wolf-Rayets, or Nebulae, Supernovas, Black Holes, Comets, whatever else you can think of?

I should clarify I'm asking regardless of whether or not the features are in the game yet.

Right! Actually much less than that, at first. The game is actually set only in one (or two) star systems. There might be comets and possibly black holes, but nothing like Nebulae.

The reason for that is that my first priority is to develop the character-level gameplay more then the galaxy-level stuff. I want to focus on letting the player board and steal ships, visit settlements, interact with NPCs. The goal is to start at the Planet level and move downwards from there.

Maybe Rodina 2 would be a galaxy-wide empire with a lot more space stuff (I love space stuff!) but only if the character level stuff is sufficiently developed. For now the scene is the Zorica/Danica System :)

That makes sense. The reason I ask is that pretty much in Space games my first priority is I just like flying around and exploring whatever I can (Or in any game, I'm the guy who spends most of Minecraft just exploring caves). So as long as there's interesting stuff in the systems / planets, I am happy.

Yeah! Honestly there's so many possible features I sometimes don't know where to start. But stuff like caves and neat things to see... the game needs as much of that stuff as possible! :)

I'm pretty sure you were already asked about planets but I was wondering how much thought you put in to gas giants and ring systems,is it something you have figured out or is it on your list of programming nightmares?

is it something you have figured out or is it on your list of programming nightmares?

I haven't done them yet but I don't think gas giant should be a problem! I've already got the Star in there, and gas giants are basically stars that don't glow :D

Rings are definitely another whole issue. Cause you want them to sort of turn into icy bits once you get in them, right? I'm sure it's possible but it would definitely be some work :D

I figured the giants might be hard because you could technically fly in to them and they'd have big nebula's clouds and and the like.

Yeah! I think the way I'm going to handle this is to just make them out of several layers of atmosphere. Then you could still fly into them!

But the clouds..... I hadn't thought about the clouds yet. Rodina doesn't have clouds, but man they sure would be nice! One of my planets, Veles, is supposed to be like Venus with a thick poison atmosphere. It could definitely use some super thick clouds as well.

Veles did cache me as the hell world type, thick poisonous clouds would be a great edition, or a bad one depending on how you think about it :) also how has the green light been going, the actual page doesn't seem to show the progress.

Up to 39% after 4 days. I don't know if that's good or bad :P It would be awesome if it kept going like that, but I know it's gonna slow down dramatically and then I don't know WHAT I'm gonna do! O_O

How do you feel knowing you are an absolute badass? Haha but seriously how did you get into Bethesda and how would I go about it myself? That's kind of my far fetched dream job.

Haha thanks. I don't know how I made it in! I worked hard on my portfolio, so there's that.

I was always really interested in making games in my spare time, so I'd learn DirectX, or how to program GBA games. I think it means a lot to an employer like that that you are a "go getter" and can learn things on your own and show what you've learned. They don't wanna have to hold your hand.

I did ask Todd once, and he told me that the recommendations from my college professors made a big difference. So i guess it helps that I used to do this routine for them.

What do you consider the biggest threat to the gaming community?

Man, that's a great question. Actually I think the gaming community is in a great place right now because it's so diverse. Consoles getting shitty? Switch to PC. AAA games going down the tubes? Try out indie games. Between digital distribution and everything, it's hard to imagine anything crushing the industry, ever.

Personally, I really don't like things like Kickstarter, and I think that too many games abusing Early Access and the like could really do damage to devs like me who are just doing their best to sell a quality product the best way they know how. But on the other hand, you can't deny the success. 40 million for Star Citizen is just nuts, and that game will make people super happy when it comes out.

I used to think that the biggest threat to games was our addiction to polish and slickness. The need for those things means a lot less time for gameplay, in a way that most gamers don't even understand. Put it this way: in order to make Rodina, I couldn't use the off-the-shelf engines that most people and even many AAA companies use for their games. I had to make my own engine. And that's just because we've gone so far down the rabbit hole of what games historically have been, that we have formed this addiction to that kind of game. So it takes a lot of extra effort to make something different. You have to climb out of that hole and start digging somewhere else from scratch. And it's impossible to catch up, meaning that game will have less of that slickness that people expect.

With games being so technical, it means that it's harder to innovate when you can't reuse common work.

But, you know, it wasn't that much of a problem. Here I am, after all. So I guess I just feel really optimistic about the medium!

Thanks for doing this. 3 questions for you.

1) how did you first get into game design?

2) any tipa for someone who really wants to get into game design but no idea where to start

3) would you suggest trying to get a job at a big video game company (bethesda, bungee), a smaller one (red barrels, projekt RED) or join or start a tiny indy group.

Thank you for your time.

how did you first get into game design?

Well, many people use game design and game development interchangeably. I started in game development by learning programming and working on game projects in my spare time. I didn't start actually designing games for real until I started my own company, haha :)

any tipa for someone who really wants to get into game design but no idea where to start

Yeah! The best thing is to learn a valuable skill. In my case, that would be programming. But might be 3D modelling, or level design. It depends on your interest.

It's also a great idea to download something like Unity and playing around with it. It's easier than it ever has been before to make games. And the best way to get really good at making games is to just make games. You have to just start off somewhere! :)

would you suggest trying to get a job at a big video game company (bethesda, bungee), a smaller one (red barrels, projekt RED) or join or start a tiny indy group.

Hm, I'm really not sure. I'm not sure I have a recommendation as they all have their pros and cons. Indy groups are a great way to hone your skills and build up a portfolio. Real companies pay better :) But the barrier for entry is higher, and no job in the games industry is totally secure.

It's hard to give general advice on this one. I've worked at a AAA studio, at a small mobile studio, and on my own, and there are good things and bad things about each. I was probably happiest in my day to day life at the mobile studio. The pay was good and the hours were fine. That company did get shut down though, haha.

Wait a minute, YOU worked on Oblivion/ Fallout and YOU are making Rodina? SHIT. Now I need to go buy it.

EDIT: I love space games, that's Why I want it. Not enough money yet though Soon^tm

Wait a minute, YOU worked on Oblivion/ Fallout and YOU are making Rodina? SHIT. Now I need to go buy it.

Haha finally! I've been pushing this damn Bethesda angle FOREVER! :P

I played your demo a bit after I learned it about it from this AMA, and I think it's awesome so far. I've just recently started getting interested in space related games/content (after years of disliking the genre), so I'm hyped.

For the $25 Bossypants tier, what method do you allow contributors at that level to help with developement? By that, I mean, is it a private message board, occasional email asking for votes, etc.?

Keep up the good work!

That's great! Thanks and I'm glad to hear it :D

For the $25 Bossypants tier, what method do you allow contributors at that level to help with developement?

Yeah, there will be irregular official votes, where I present a few options for what I'm going to work on next, and then I have to do what the audience decides!

We had one already, which is why the first update contains Ship Fires (everyone knew I was excited to work on them) :) Unfortunately like an idiot I wasn't able to email people telling them about the vote, so some people did miss it. But next time, whenever it is, there will be an email :)

So Bossypants means you get something that's binding. Everyone else is free to post / email any time they want!

Hello Anthony, I'm following Rodina since a long time and I really like it. But I have some questions regarding the development speed: It seems that you are a busy man and have great projects for Rodina. How will you conciliate those two aspect: The desire to create a great and deep game, and having only few time to work on it ? Will you work on it at full time (like Tarn Adams with Dwarf fortress), will you make a team (Minecraft) or are you planning a slow development (cube world) ? Anyway thanks for the job you already done and good luck with Rodina.

I'm working full time on Rodina.

will you make a team (Minecraft)?

I'll happily make a team of the best gamedevs I know if I make Minecraft money, haha :) Don't get me into all the things I'd do with that kind of cash :P

are you planning a slow development (cube world) ?

Does anyone plan a slow development? Haha, slow development is something that happens when things don't happen according to plan :P

We've talked a few times on Twitter right? :D Yeah I mean here's the thing: game development is hard, slow work. Things take time. Fast programming is actually a bit of my specialty, but that doesn't change anything really. I'll work as fast as I can, if on your end you promise to have patience! :)

How did you come up with the name for this game? I know it means homeland in Russian. Why Rodina?

I talked about this in another thread but basically the translation in Czech is "Family", and that sort of addresses themes in the game that are in there, but not fully fleshed out yet.

A lot of the game is about utter, complete loneliness. Like, not just being the only person in the room, but being the only one of your kind in the entire hostile Universe. What would you want to do with your life? What would your basic needs be and how would it conflict with the rest of the world? That's something that I hope to get into in a future update.

Just watched the trailer, the game looks cool, but when I think of Morrowind I think of places teeming with life. That's what makes it Morrowind! Any plans to add more life to the game?

Edit: Also, the last cool concept indie game I got interested in was Paranautical Activity, but the developer had very little interest in bug fixing so not only is the game still broken, but from what I hear, it's abandoned now. Do you have a development blog? What about an "upcoming feature" list? And I know nobody wants to be stuck working on the same game forever, but how long do you anticipate continued development?

when I think of Morrowind I think of places teeming with life. That's what makes it Morrowind! Any plans to add more life to the game?

Yeah! Over time :) It's all about picking features at a pace that I can actually make them happen. Soon (relative to geological time) I will add NPC-type characters, and stuff related to that, and then there will be lot's more life to add to the game.

And I know nobody wants to be stuck working on the same game forever, but how long do you anticipate continued development?

I would like to work on Rodina forever. The only thing that will decide that is money. I want it to be like Dwarf Fortress where I just keep adding stuff until people can't even wrap their brains around it anymore. But again, what decides that isn't my personal feelings but whether its realistic.

I don't have an upcoming features list because I hate making promises and talking about things I'd LIKE to do is already stressful enough :P

he developer had very little interest in bug fixing so not only is the game still broken, but from what I hear, it's abandoned now.

Yeah, you can talk to my community here. I'm not perfect, and I certainly can't fix everything, but I do take complaints very seriously and am seriously committed to delivering a product that people enjoy over the long run.

which game would you make if you wanted to maximize the profit to effort ratio, and had only one week to make it?

which game would you make if you wanted to maximize the profit to effort ratio

I'm not sure but if my only goal was to make money it would probably have something to do with porn, haha. I'm not sure how games and porn would link up, but I'm sure if you could do it you could make a billion dollars :P

EDIT: It occurs to me that this is a very shitty answer, haha. It's just an in-joke with me that I feel like the solution to any money problem is to put porn in it, just cause of the whole "porn drives technology" thing.

Honestly I'm not sure what I would do. A week is pretty tight. Those goat simulator guys did OK for themselves with a ridiculous idea. One thing's for sure, it's got to be super silly and fun.

Do you think you could work on Half-Life 3?

Sure thing, just tell Valve to get in touch!

Will Elliptic Games have any need for writers who have had extensive experience in the video game industry?

Maybe someday if I'm lucky :) Right now /u/HeadlongDownhill has things more than covered. But I'm always thinking about the day when I make a cool billion like Notch, haha :)

When that happens, email me!

Hello there! I'm in grade 11 and this past year I took an intro to computer science class at school, which was really interesting and fun, probably the best class I've taken in high school so far. Anyways, I know that to be a programmer or something in that kind of field, math and physics are required. I haven't done that well at either this year, is there still hope for me if I want to become a programmer? How good at math/physics do you have to be? Thanks.

Anyways, I know that to be a programmer or something in that kind of field, math and physics are required.

Yeah, math is important, especially for what I do. When you're making a game in 3D and doing the whole thing yourself, you've got to have an understanding of linear algebra, transformation matrices, trigonometry (very important for gameplay), geometry.

However, it's not everything. There are plenty of game programming jobs that don't deal often with math. And in the wider programming world, there is plenty of work that doesn't involve a lick of math. Logic, you need. The ability to wrap your head around formal logic ( A or B and C, etc ) is beyond critical. But with math, it will depend on what you want to do.

Ultimately, you said it yourself:

computer science ... was really interesting and fun, probably the best class I've taken in high school so far.

That's really all there is to it. The people who are never destined to be programmers are the ones who take the course and say "I hate this, and I don't understand it." They never say "this was the best course I've taken in high school."

Congrats! I hope you keep it up! Programming is an incredibly rewarding pastime and profession, as it's an incredible combination of art and science. And it's super lucrative too unless you're an indie game developer haha :D

Thanks for the reply! Just wondering, how much time goes into making a game like Rodina? I made a simple mini putt game in my computer science class this year and even that took me like half a semester to make...

Yeah, I've worked 7 days a week, with frequent nap breaks and the occasional vacation, for about 2 1/2 years at this point. Coming up on 3 years. Rodina has officially ruined my life :D

Of course, the previous 10 years of experience smoothed that time over considerably. I'd have been fucked if I started this when I was just starting out.

That's amazing. Must be nice to see your hard work paying off. Also, if I wanted to mess around with programming in my spare time, what would be the best way to do so? At school I believe we use java and run it on some software called netbeans(?).

That might be a good place to start then! You can download Netbeans for free, and start off with something you're used to. I think that's always a good idea. Individual languages don't matter quite as much in the beginning as getting comfortable with programming in general, IMO.

I'm not really good at questions like these though, sorry :) There's lots of sites online where you can learn to program though, if you look for them.

Developers and publishers of AAA titles seem to be increasingly moving away from the PC as a target platform in favour of consoles. Is this something that development studios are pushing for or are publishers the main driver? What are your thoughts on PC vs console from a developer's standpoint?

Developers and publishers of AAA titles seem to be increasingly moving away from the PC as a target platform in favour of consoles. Is this something that development studios are pushing for or are publishers the main driver?

Oh man, big question, and a hard one for me to answer because A) I've often been insulated from decisions like that and B) At Bethesda, the developed WAS the publisher.

I think though, that it's just a question of money. The sad truth is that for a long time PC really was dead. It's easy for us to ask for PC games, but when you are in charge of a huge, multimillion dollar business, you have to pay attention to reality, and in reality for a long time PC games didn't make nearly as much money as console games.

I've got no idea what the situation is now but it seems to me that Steam has improved that a LOT. Sure, we get PC ports that are cheap afterthoughts now, but it's better than it used to be I think.

What are your thoughts on PC vs console from a developer's standpoint?

Some consoles are a dream to work with. I LOVED programming for XBox 360. Just like a PC but even better in some ways. I tried to stay as far away from the Playstation as possible, and I'm very happy that their new systems are much saner than they used to be, though I haven't tried a PS4 devkit yet.

I love programming for PC. The only problem with it, especially for an indie dev, is people with different specs. Assuming my game was for XBox, if a customer's game had a bug, I could just load it up and test it. But now, when people write me with a bug that only happens on their machine, it's just like: "Well, shit". I don't have access to huge arrays of different machines. It's just me on my home computer.

For a lot of indie games, that's not a problem because they're so simple or they use standard tools. For a tech-heavy, built-from-the-ground up game like Rodina it's a real problem.

What were some interesting things you/the team wanted to do with Fallout 3 and Oblivion that didn't make it into the final game?

How would you describe Todd Howard in one word?

What were some interesting things you/the team wanted to do with Fallout 3 and Oblivion that didn't make it into the final game?

Hm, I don't think I can / should talk about this stuff. Sorry man :( I don't wanna get in trouble..

I do remember there were a few special kill effects that we had to cut, just for time. So, you know hoe sometimes when you kill someone with a laser, they just disintegrate into a pile of goo or ash? Yeah there were more of those planned but they were on my plate and the plate was full!!

How would you describe Todd Howard in one word?

Competent.

(And I mean that in the sincere, good way. The guy knows what he's doing. He's a good boss, knows just what most people find really fun, and is good at helping employees deliver that fun and cut out everything else.)

Fallout 4?

Don't know and couldn't say if I did, sorry!

Didn't really expect you to be able to do so :)

Haha can't know if you don't try, right? :) You might have gotten a scoop!!!

Bethesda is a huge name in the RPG market, and the mod team basically shows that Bethesda was unable or unwilling to make their game run properly. With how many bugs Bethesda games have when released, does any one in the Bethesda team ever feel ashamed of how they NEED their modding community to make their games properly run?

I'm not going to answer this question, both because of the hostile tone and because I've addressed the actual substance of your question elsewhere. Happy to discuss this issue but not like that.