I am Kim Jørgensen, creative director and game developer of Interstellar Marines. AMA!

Are you Danish? Your name is kind of Danish-ish.

Danish to the bone .. My mother father was born on Island so that's got to make me part Viking as well!

To anyone who might be confused. Island means Iceland in Danish.

Thanks for the correction! ;)

In promoting your game, you've released several mini games online that I enjoyed, including a shooting gallery and something that appears to be a precursor to the robot fighting co-op you just released. When are you going to out that into the current early access? I really enjoyed that shooting gallery.

Thanks .. then you're going to love this http://youtu.be/1HZjow94atc

The fact that Bullseye was made in 3 months with a gun to our head, meant that it was kind of made in vacuum. We'll reintroduce the whole train your weapon inside the game on Steam in the future, allowing you to train/have fun with the whole arsenal in both interior and exterior shooting ranges ..

How did you become a games developer, what languages did you learn first and what tips would you give to other up and coming games developers?

1. Old school 3D Artist/animator working with commercials, falling absolutely in love with games especially games from First Person perspective and decided to spent all my time working to materialize my dream game.

2. I'm not a programmer, did a bit of basic action scripting in Flash.

3. Always believe in yourself. If your brain can imagine it .. almost everything is possible (Excluding things that are not physically possible .. gotta respect the laws of the Universe!) :)

Thank you.

Everything is physically possible you just haven't yet invented the technology to allow you to do it!

Check!

When will you finish the story?

First Contact is 100% complete from a story line perspective and we know how all this will end including all major event for Worlds Collide and Satellite of Saturn .. The answer then I guess is "as we go"!

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Thanks! Fan fiction is always an option and a perfect way to help us flush out parts of the world story that we haven't yet .. and hopefully a mutual inspirational ping pong will emerge where everything grows based on many brains thinking and materializing the same universe

Oh wow, this is still around? I thought this had been quietly canned ages ago! D:

The last information I read on Interstellar Marines was actually some years ago- around '07 or '08, I believe, and there was talk about how you wanted an interesting First Contact story, unlike the usual deal where the aliens are a bunch of jerks because the player needs something to shoot. In the intervening years, how has implementation on that gone? Were there any molehills that unexpectedly turned into mountains?

We still haven't worked on First Contact yet ... we're "still" creating the tech platform and feature foundation via Project IM ... But trust me we're treating the whole First Contact with other sentient beings as realistic as humanly possible!

Well, hopefully not as humanly possible. :P How "alien" are they intended to be? More Solaris, or more Mars Attacks?

Well, I don't mind either way, it's great to see that this is still a thing!

Less of both, I guess :) .. We want a believable enemy that is not glowing purple, that we can relate too while being as Alien as can be .. Less Star Wars and Halo and more Unbreakable and Saving Private Ryan .. If that makes sense!

I think I get it. Less about the aliens, more about the people as they interact with the aliens, right? c:

Kind of yeah .. we can't understand their language, there is no galaxy counsel for humans to join and over-the-top technology .. just a conflict that scales out of proportions! ;)

That is amazing!!!!! Not implying I could originally wait, but you make it sound so good and I can't wait to see the amazing results!!!!!

Thank you very much; we really want to deliver something new, exciting and very special with Interstellar Marines .. throwing around buzzwords is easy - delivering on these promises is the real challenge!

It was basically put on hold for a couple years, and only really worked on in spare time by two guys.

WOW. That is some serious dedication. Props to the Interstellar Marines dudes.

Thank you from the bottom of my/our hearts!

How are you today?

Very good .. Been playtesting Survival on Operations, Elimination on Stronghold and AI game designing with our awesome team .. loving it!

Question 1: Why'd it take so long to develop?

2: What was your company's experiences with the kickstarter?

Thanks for doing the ama!

1. We haven't convinced the world that our game will be truly awesome, yet. Show Don't tell independently with a game this ambitious is crazy hard and uphill all the way .. at least until we manage to show more of what makes this game so special.

2. Kickstarter was one of the hardest most intensive periods of my working life. Although we did not hit our goals .. We got new support from new people and through Steams early access program shined another light for us to journey towards.

Thank you!

Hej Kim,

How far ahead of Sweden is Denmark in the gaming industry ?

2-3 Light years! :) .. The Division, Battlefield and Payday!

Sweden IS way ahead! .. Sorry! .. Seriously, I respect Limbo and Hitman! .. Do not play mobile games .. had to complete Flashback though!

Du er nu æresmedlem af /r/DANMAG !

Take that back .. Sorry! :)

Your game previews are interesting, and I love the theme and setting. Am I right in seeing this game as a sort of co-op, survival horror (or at least, elements of) sci-fi game? It sounds like there's a lot of depth and a variety of features to it as well, so what are you most proud of in it?

Thanks! It'll be tactical, very simulated, unscripted, role playing, sci-fi and cinematic ... playing in coop or SP are both available from start to finish! It's not a niche focused game .. you'll face terrorists, security robots, genetically engineered war creatures, mercenaries and a few Aliens as well ... it's not horror or survival only thats for sure .. but each part of the game will feature different moods and options for interacting with the game world .. your game your rules!

Most proud of the fact that we're still here because of awesome people like yourself and the rest of our community. It's no joke when I say that we're just getting started here .. The world can't fathom how awesome and special this game will be once the ball starts rolling for real! ..

Did you ever loose hope in the game ever being made, and if so what brought back your faith in it, and if not what kept your dream alive?

I have a brain malfunction allowing me to only focus on positive things and things that drives the cause .. so nope that's never going to happen unless somebody created the exact experience in another game .. Then I'd just play that 100 times ... and properly think up new goals for interactive awesomeness and follow that goal blindly!

Do you floss every morning?

Only when I remember to do it like once a month and every time I've seen a dentist (shit that's actually several years back) .. Being a perfectionist I actually like brushing my teeth, flushing and the brushing my teeth again .. Structure and order is satisfying!

Hi Kim. I would love to say I'm excited to pick up interstellar marines however I no longer have a PC (had to sell my gaming PC to pay bills. Being an adult sucks) so I will ask do you have any favorite stories about building this game that you can share?

Yeah, It was so awesome not having obligations and responsibilities when we're younger! ..

Launching a small 5mb QT teaser on our own website a Thursday in November 2005 and having Publishers call my phone over the weekend wanting to know more ... just being two guys and our biggest problem was that our web provider wanted to send us extra bills because we where "taking" all their traffic pulling 70gb a day and all their institutional clients websites was preforming bad because of that! ;)

I bought the game a while ago understanding that it's a work in progress. But I'm a but worried that you guys are going to try to do too much and burn out. Can you put my fears to rest with soft sultry words?

Can't do that, sorry .. Although I must admit that I sometimes kind of have the same fear ... The game is very ambitious from a mechanical perspective. AI, randomness, non-scripted etc. and not "here's a new fancy set piece every 5 mins" content perspective ... IM is really really ambitious in how much replay value it tried to establish... ish!

How cool is it that you get to use the ø letter when you type your last name?

Cool or extremely cool?

Can't argue with that .. until you have to write your name on an us keyboard! .. Extremely cool .. it's about enjoying the little things! Life are sometimes too serious!

Really looking forward for this game! It looks really cool!

As a gamer myself, ive seen the trend of early acces. What are your thoughts in general on early acces?

I really think early acces can open up for some opportunity both from the producers perspective but also the gamers perspective.

Early Access is a new way to develop games independently that's for sure and is currently one of the primary reasons why we've been able to pick up a bit of speed in developing the game of the ground (need to work faster I know! :)) ..

Hopefully EA will evolve over time and if chance and determination allows it .. make small developers able to deliver awesome games taking feedback directly from the fellow gamers sharing the same vision and dream of the game.

I need to play this game ... and I'll make sure the unpredictability of the game makes it just as awesome for me to play as everybody else!

Awesome:D!

Thanks for the reply! Im stoked to pick this game up and introduce it to my friends!

And btw, it just makes it more awesome that you are danish! Is the whole team Danish or?

1 Brit, 1 half breed Dane/Swede, 1 Icelandic, 6 Danes, 6 Swedes and 1 Portuguese .. All crazy and all loving it! ;)

Awesome :) Godspeed to you guys!

Thank you so much! ;)

Thank you for all your great questions!

I look forward to do an AMA again and interact with all of you again,

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME!

Kim

Will *nix support ever happen? Looks pretty cool so far at least.

We're at Unity's mercy when it comes to extending the game to more platforms .. Not knowing exactly what Nix is, sorry .. had to resort to google! ..

*Nix is just slang for Unix Like operating systems. I really just mean Linux. And Unity DOES support linux platforms ;)

Edit: I have been shown the error of my ways!

Thanks for the translate .. :) .. Linux is available .. just not sure if we work just as well across the different versions!

Oh awesome!
I couldn't find system req's on your website and was going off something that said steam keys for (PC/Mac) which sometimes means Windows/Mac.
Guess I will grab a copy later this afternoon!

Shit, you're right .. our website is not fully up-to-date .. Damn you Steam for making us forget our own home!

1. Since game plans to have customization for your character, why type of marine you looking to build?

2. What is something that you really dislike about early access?

1. You're the protagonist in IM .. you decide through skills, appearance, gender etc.

2. That we're not as popular as DayZ! :) .. Other than that it's all love to Early Access!

Meant when you play the game, why type of marine do you want to play as. Like i will do a support medic kind of guy.

Arhh .. now I get it .. I'll most likely be a hacking, sneaking, silenced ninja .. prioritizing movement speed and low equipment over fire-power and armor .. Knowing our AI ambitions! ;)

No classes in IM. The role playing system will be completely flat .. XP coming in can be spent in 3 areas character training, weapon training and equipment and you choose where to upgrade .. only limit being increase in "prize" to go up a tree and some basic inter-skill requirements ... like this armor requires Level 5 strengths etc. .. other than that you mold your character as you see fit

Kim H Jørgensen? From VEF?

Virtual Effects and Fantasies, damn that brings back memories; Why/how did you know and who are you?

How goes the Landsharks?

Still lurking in the background and they'll be released when the time is just right .. and hopefully time will stop around the world for a few days! :)

Your game is one of the few games I've been eyeing for a long time but for some reason always talk myself out of buying it. If you had to sell your game to someone on the fence, how would you do it in four sentences or less?

The current state of the game on Steam only presents a few glimpses our goals and ambitions; but we have the concept of ALL IN, so once you own the game you will get ALL future updates - NO DLCs!

Our game is being designed around replay value, consequences, multiple paths and solutions, not holding your hand, role playing, realistic believable science fiction, tactical gameplay, immersive simulation .. and a long list of other buzzwords.

I bought your game like a year ago. What have you and your team added to it to make me reinstall it?

If you can spare 2gb of space on your HD; leaving Interstellar Marines installed means you'll get exciting new updates at least every month; some small some big .. and sometimes you'll boot up the game getting completely unexpected experiences, like this guy: http://youtu.be/pi-ebFQ4JvE

When will you be contacting the preorder people so we can give you our info so we can be in the credits? =) I'm so excited for this.

It's going to be an ongoing process, we'll add a list in-game to begin with showing all Spearheads and eventually the finished pieces of the game will feature hall of honor and official credits lists. We're as eager as just to share the love and support from you awesome people!

What is the difference between a duck?

"One leg is both the same." and "One has feathers"! ;)

But how can there be duck if there are only SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD?!

Might have to get ITO AI SARA to answer this questions and she just says 42! ;)

When playing, I've noticed that holding C (custom keybindings by the way) causes me to stand up after I let go of the button, but tapping it acts as a toggle, same with sprinting when I press A. Is this a bug, or is it by design?

That is by design; toggle/hold is implemented to work with laser, flashlight, walk/run, crouch, aim etc. works in both cases without having to set settings for preferred behavior in a menu.

Nice! I thought so. That's a genuinely genius idea. Why haven't people thought of that before?!?

Also, are there plans/is it possible to see a lean function as the game develops?

Thanks! I don't know, sometime it seems like really good design choices made in other games is just lost or maybe most developers is so engulfed playing their own game that they forget to play others games or forget to write down what was good in other games?

Lean and peak is a huge part of our tactical movement plans ... but most of our advanced movement options are still to be implemented. We haven't even completed the whole stamina, exhaustion, accuracy loop yet .. so there's much more work to be done.

What kind of tactical aspect are your game offering exactly?

We only have a few basic tactical systems in place at the moment: HUD can be disabled from damage taking away all your info. Variable movements paces; Crouch slow, crouch fast, walk, run, simple cover system .. stamina, exhaustion and accuracy system is still not available (will add much more tactical options) and with Update 14 (next update) we'll add Sentry bots that are relentlessly deadly .. forcing you to play very tactical in a good way! :)

Hey there, thanks for doing the ama! I am just wondering if you would be able to give us a few hints as to where the co-op is going to go next, as in are you planning new environments with different enemies (organic life?), also if there will be new weapons introduced to the game such as smaller side-arms etc or cqb weapons like shotguns. Thanks again! EDIT: Also may I add that I absolutely love the Neurogen incident and it has been one of my most enjoyable co-op experiences in a very long time.

So glad you enjoyed NGI, thanks! Coop is very basic atm. revive is currently the only real coop enhancing feature. Right now we're enabling the option to play sp/coop on all our maps in various incursion modes such as Elimination, Survival, Escape, Hostage, Assassinate etc. and with time we'll also add many more specific coop/team mp enhancing features such as the ability to tag enemies, hack security cameras for tactical overview and much much more! :)

Thank you very much for your reply, I am definitely looking forward to getting to try out the new incursion modes. You guys are doing a great job with the game so far and I look forward to enjoying it as it progresses.

Thanks you so very much!

My friend (who I bought the game for a while back) has a question. To put it in his words: "when am I going to get to fight sharks with you?"

He and I just finished our first session of the co-op tonight and it was terrifying. Thanks for putting so much effort into the immersion like the weapon sounds, visor, unpredictable AI, the creepy f***ing whisper, the lighting, the... Yeah we like it!

Unfortunately our session ended on a bad note because I got disconnected out of the blue and another player filled in my spot before I could reconnect. So I don't know the ending yet, but I'm sure we'll get to it another night. We're hooked.

Like I wrote further down: Still lurking in the background and they'll be released when the time is just right .. and hopefully time will stop around the world for a few days! :)

It's the best feeling in the world when awesome gamers like yourself enjoy what we're trying to achieve. Can't wait to bring you guys much more awesome content!

Heya Kim, interstellar marines is probably my favorite FPS game at the moment and I cannot wait for more updates to this kickass game. I have a few questions:

How frequently can we expect content updates to the game?

As the game progresses in it's development will we be getting more customisable settings or does unity prevent this happening? (For the love of mid-lower end machines)

What's your favorite map?

Warms my heart beyond words, thanks for the support!

1. At least once every month with bigger updates every quarter.
2. We working on performance as we go .. we still do not use mesh LOD's etc. and as Unity adds more advanced features for optimization .. we're moving along as well.
3. Currently Stronghold in Elimination (Available in Update 14) .. love fighting Sentry CTR's on Realistic getting that Raven Shield wipe! ;)

I dunno if this AMA is over or not, but do you guys plan on making Interstellar Marines for other systems such as PS4/Xbox?

When we have the game finished we'll love to port the awesome PC version to consoles making it play good and intuitive with controller (we'll add controller support for Steam Big Screens at some point anyway)! ...

And if/when M$ or Sony ever where to allow early access for indies on their consoles like Valve .. it would be awesome to start the work early .. if time and resources allows it!

I remember watching a tech demo from you guys years ago that showed off positional audio so the environment influenced how you were heard. Is this something that you are looking to bring into the game still?

Yes absolutely! .. we've recently integrated an internal VOIP solution and we'll build on this moving forward. Next step is to simulate that you're communicating through a mic and a speaker in the helmet .. with equalized noisy effects and turning it off when suit system is offline .. and other cool interactive magic with time.

Awesome! I'm greatly looking forward to the implementation of this feature. I think it will enhance the multiplayer experience x10!

Yeah, no doubt about that .. the real challenge will properly be to convince people the "play along" and not use Skype or Team Speak in the background .. but again we just have to make it awesome enough and make sure nobody is "cheating"! :)

Will there be radishes in the game?

You never know .. if someone is serving cheese sandwiches on one of the space stations or solar colonies ... then sure! :)

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Melted blue cheese and old stinky sliced cheese on heated toasts!

When are we going to see a virtual reality version of Interstellar marines?

The dream of VR is kind of what started this madness .. So absolutely and the reason we focus so much attention to immersion!

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Not yet Baby! .. Still trapped 2 clicks below the warm sands of Groom Lake Nevada! :)

I picked up Interstellar Marines on Early Access on a whim, though I haven't looked at it super closely, at the time it seemed there wasn't a single player option there, but from reading another of your answers here it appears Single Player will be an option?

I will admit I haven't looked at it in a bit, as I got a little burned out on Early Access stuff, is this Single Player option there now? Where does the game stand?

And, on a more nebular question... what inspired you to make this game in the first place?

It's still very early in development (with our current ressources we'll however move slow but steadily ahead). We only have the basic movement and immersion mechanics added with so much more to come, no role playing features added yet, two weapons (that'll change soon) .. very simple barebone multiplayer, one coop and sp mission (as of this day) and there is so much work needed to allow you to customize the experience etc. ...

1. Hired Guns, Quake Coop, Aliens, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, X-files, Discovery channel and a long list of other awesome sci-fi movies and FPS games released over the years. Trying to learn from what other games did really well and avoid the things that sucked .. basically!

You've just listed off a crap load of awesome reference material, I'll be keeping a closer eye on this moving forward!

Thanks! System Shock 2 in coop is to this day still one of the best game experiences of my life ... We just want more, and more tactical, more sci-fi and more choice! .. Non-scripted, open ended, consequence etc. more more more! ;)

All missions will also be available to play by yourself. Later this month 2 more small missions come out.

Thanks backdrop551 for being my guardian angle .. Could you identify yourself?

Oh its dalton, just made a quick reddit account. Realized I actually never made one.

Thanks for the support and help here .. Proud to have your awesomeness in our ranks! :)

Are you jorgen's son?

Nope! Son of Peter

You should be called peterson.

I've been called Head or Hoved in Danish by my friends .. because I have such a huge head! :)

Do you have a neck beard? How do you shave it? Or is that a stereotype?

All Vikings have neck beards .. Every week when I shave the head .. the neck gets a few passes as well! .. Do not like judging or boxing people inside a type .. ;)

How come the game has changed in forever? There are only two guns last I played.

Many changes added to the game, some exterior and some interior .. Not in the speed/scale we'd prefer that's for sure .. and yeah only two weapons is kind of embarrassing .. but that'll change as we move forward!

Thanks for the reply. The game is really fun, I like it a lot. The changing levels are great! I also like the lighting, it can be really fun. Just a couple new weapons would be neat.

Thank you! When we have 3 models of each weapon type .. then we're getting somewhere and even then we'll add more weapons ... our roots are tactical shooters and we need a whole arsenal of weapons and equipment .. and after that we'll add more weapons and equipment! :)

Do you have a release date yet?

Nope. We're on Steam early access and are releasing updates as frequent as possible. Taking forever I know .. Can't really do anything about that .. do not have the resources to scale the team beyond our current capacity.

No biggie, I was just wondering since I bought the early access 2 years ago. the coop killer robot mode looks interesting.

Thanks for your support, we'll deliver you an awesome game .. one update at the time!

As one of the Spearhead Backers from the original campaign i think i speak for all of us when i ask this question.

Ship date?

Thank you for the support, we're here today because of gamers like you!. Realizing this game is taking forever and there is nothing I would love more than to play the finished game with you in coop .. But we're not there yet, sorry!

Only played the demo few years ago. I also watched the trailer..One question. Is the alien sharks part of the game?

It's not an alien shark! The Carcharodon Polemos is one of ITO's Interstellar Warfare Initiative prototypes. A biologically gen-engineered war creature in the making ..

What do you look for in a sound designer? What do you look for in a composer? Do you find yourself devaluing a sound designers work if they also call themselves a composer and vis versa?

Creating soundscapes for realistic games such as IM is all about "observing" and listening to the real world and good creative skills to recreate and adjust to the science fiction!

A composer have a full orchestra in her/his head and the abilities to make them play at will .. finding inspiration (in our case) for masters such as James Horner, John Williams, Howard Shore etc.

Not at all! .. Music makes you feel and audio makes it real! ... Like Nicolai one of our founding partners (Audio Director) have always talked about!

I picked up your game when it first appeared on Steam and I must sadly report I didn't play much after my initial tests due to lack of content and beating the competition pretty easily.

What has happened since then that I could check out to rekindle my interest in your game? And I by no means think it's a bad game, the stunning visuals are what got me to buy it without thinking. I have high hopes for your game.

We know it's not a proper shark-hook we have in your back, yet! .. :) .. with a bareboned multiplayer, two weapons and only the basic movement mechanics implemented .. it not a very competitive offer compared to finished games.

We've however just added the tech for Coop and SP inside a small campaign mission and with this tech in place we'll add much more SP/coop content challenges, incursion and mission coming update after update ... and more weapons ... got to have more weapons!!

Well you guys are just getting started so the hook will come. I'm glad to hear you guys have added the tech for new modes and the like, that's definitely worth investigating and as much as the AAA guys say SP is not important, it is. Single player with compelling story is a selling point and they only think it's useless because they write pathetic stories. Please more weapons, I personally love DMRs like the MK14.

I never uninstalled it so I will be sure to check this out and the following updates. Thank you for your time and keep up the good work!

Thanks for the support and know that you're awesome! ;)

is there any easier systems planned for the group/community/clan system for the game instead of people reanaming their steam name?

Second Question Do you think you could provide some no benefit advantage trade system thing like CSGO/TF2 had where less fuss say for example if it were simple small custimizations. Something very simple so that people would hype at buying things liek they do when they buy csgo cases etc but in a more mature way for the IM to present that. I know likely this is a no but I just wanted to suggest and ask if theres any plans for something like this to be able to gain more money from that alone.

1. Not at the moment. But we're determined to deliver awesome tactical gameplay for the competitive scene (still early days, like everything else) .. But that's something to look into .. We have a lot of awesome feature requests/ideas coming in via our FogBugz feature request option and will always look for high request tendencies such as Server rollback / lag compensation (which we've been fighting to add to the game for a while .. as it's been on the top of our own list for a while).

2. We're so focused on just delivering the core game .. but are also talking about ways to add more support options, from time to time .. without going "free2play"'ish in the offerings .. Our primary focus atm. is to make it much more valuable and awesome to be a Spearhead!

Yeah, thats why I meant really small things for the way future not for now as it's in such early development but to have really small things as it does actually affect people to try unlocking things and show them off etc but in a very small way nothing big like guns etc.

You're right! A real challenge, because most of the time big features and must-haves can sometimes cloud the ability to identify small low hanging fruits that can make a big difference!

Daws. ;)

Do you take visitors at your office? In case "someone" whose been following the project since... Forever, suddenly is in Copenhagen. ;)

Anytime, anywhere! ... A quick hello is always welcome!! .. Just please remember to bring cookies, otherwise you'll be added to the wall of shame! :)

You would by any chance miss a marketing internship guy from January? Im free!

Not really my "department", but if you're beyond awesome you can ping pong with Thordis; this is her account I'm borrowing to answer this AMA!

I will throw an email your way, and see what happends then!

Thanks mate!

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Only after we've purchased Microsoft, sure! ;)