IamA CEO & Founder of The GD Studio, Lead designer for Diabotical and esport personality - James '2GD' Harding AMA!

why do you think quake successors like Reflex failed, and what will you do to stop diobotical failing ?

why do you think quake successors like Reflex failed, and what will you do to stop diobotical failing ?

Most arena fps games that have been released are still the same game you've played in the past just in a new engine. So even though we are hopefully doing a successor to Quake. It's not a Quake clone. We're always working towards improving the game play and supporting features.

But its tough. Lets see how it turns out

I should probably give some more info. But when you sit down to do this kind of stuff. Try figure out some clear goals of where you want your product to win, because you cannot do everything. Then know that polish and visual/audio feedback are huge and will take a lot of time. Blizzard games are well designed sure. But more so they are polished and just give you with a very satisfying feeling on a lot of the games interactions. Does that make sense? yeah I'm def a game developer now because I've learnt to talk a lot of shit! nailed it!

Why isn't there a bot called Bot-Tocks?

FIRED.

sorry, I lobbied for him :(

so a year from now, after the game has hopefully launched. What would need to happen for you to consider the game a success?

so a year from now, after the game has hopefully launched. What would need to happen for you to consider the game a success?

The Dream is... We launched a stable and great product with a player base of more than 17 players. Have the resources to support it over the next 5 years. Then continue to make more multiplayer games. Additionaly start doing content again at The GD Studio for other developers esport titles.

But for the game itself. A healthy player base. Various tournaments per year. I hope we can offer something substantial to the esport eco system.

Success is hard to measure. For msyelf, it's making a difference... and lots n lots of money. I mean difference! That whole sentence was a big typo. damn you keyboard!

Me and my friends have been a bit skeptical of Diabotical's potential success in the long run considering the shift from single-player focused eSports (eg Quake and Starcraft) to the mainstream being entirely team-based games (eg LoL, CS and potentially Overwatch if Blizzard can nurture it enough), do you think there's still a place for the single-player skill-based arena shooters? Do you have any specific marketing plans that you can talk about to help get the game off the ground? How did you get Andy to agree to have 9000 slots in your Kickstarter and how did he take the news that not a single one had been purchased?

Me and my friends have been a bit skeptical of Diabotical's potential success in the long run considering the shift from single-player focused eSports (eg Quake and Starcraft) to the mainstream being entirely team-based games (eg LoL, CS and potentially Overwatch if Blizzard can nurture it enough), do you think there's still a place for the single-player skill-based arena shooters? Do you have any specific marketing plans that you can talk about to help get the game off the ground? How did you get Andy to agree to have 9000 slots in your Kickstarter and how did he take the news that not a single one had been purchased?

I am also skeptical of the games success :) Feel better? No? oh... well... we work a lot with the community and are very integrated in other esport games communities. So we probably share a lot of the same opinions on whats working and whats not across various titles you play.

Diabotical isn't just a 1v1 duel game, there are various team modes. We've also hit the stretch goal to add co-op survival. Which I think will be a great medium to teach gamers the games mechanics in a safe, fun place before they get their asses handed to them in ranked play. I hope that even if you only enjoy the co-op game mode, you'll be able to make a connection with the game and can appreciate the worlds best players going at it in a 1v1 tournament live at DreamHack or PGL.

Marketing wise, We're good in esports (tbh, most big game devs only look at esports as marketing these days anyways...Not that I agree with them. I think it should be a deeper more integrated part of the games experience). We already have budget to do tournaments from various partners. Since my history has been mainly esports and only 4 years in game development across two titles. It was almost impossible to raise the money we wanted for development (Unless we took a really shitty deal). but as soon as I spoke about esport tournaments once the game was released. Everyone was much more interested to support the product post launch.

Andy studied game development before moving into esports and has supported the company in our weird path. Even helped financially at times. Since the project has been so far about 95% self funded, he's seen how everything has gone down from the start of development till now. Plus he's a very legit dude, he always gives us his all. He goes full tryhard Andymage mode! So that's why there are 9k rewards.

But I didn't promote the esport rewards in a big way. I just wanted them there as an option for fans. I'm really grateful everyone said yes to helping the Kickstarter.

Though some of the esport talent are having fun with it. I heard Sheever was winding the other talent up at TI6 because she was the first to sale out :) Though Karma hit and someone decided to move their pledge over to Sing_sing shortly afterwards :)

Hi James! Thanks for doing the AMA. Big fan here. I backed as soon as I could and can't wait to get my mitts on the beta. I have a few questions hope you don't mind them and their length:

• what will kills be called? kills, frags, elims, something else?

• I come from a starcraft background, and as you might know the difference between Brood War and sc2 were pretty massive. Something I noticed is you could rely less on "skill" (coast to a win doing whatever because your mechanics were just that much better) and instead employ strategy (a certain build hit at a certain timing and win unless a certain counter is done correctly). If skill/talent/whatever is aim and strategy is pickups/armor, where will Diabotical rank? Equal between the two? Favor one or the other? More like one version of quake or another?

• What do you think about customization? I know some quake pros completely removed their gun or made it transparent. Will that be an option in-game or allowed if a mod for it is made?

• It seems in all competitive games there is a certain graphics option or menu selection that just about all pros end up choosing because it has some benefit - maybe it lets you see different colors better or enemies better in shadows or something like that - you generally see low graphics being used and things like that. What are your thoughts on this? an inevitability? will you try to make the most average or lowest the "competitive edge" mode? I guess it's kind of inescapable but I'd like to hear what a designer thinks.

• What sort of community do you want Diabotical to foster? If I get a game with a shitter who does nothing but rage at me / rage quit can I block them and mute them and not see them in game again? Will there be bans for things other than cheating, say, excessive harassment or trolling in a team game or something like that? Not that I want them just interested.

• If you could have 6 quake (or similar games) players from now or the past to compete in a Diabotical tournament, who would you pick?

• Whats your favorite food to snack on while gaming?

• If say I have a waifu and can play with her skin in Sudden Attack, or pick d.va in overwatch, is there anything in diabotical I can do? A korean or japanese flag maybe? A cutie pie schoolgirl bot/mod/sticker thing whatever with long socks?

• How many different pickups are planned? I saw there's guns, a hook, most likely armour and health, anything else?

• I'm not totally familiar with the genre so lets say in Diabotical its 1v1 and I kill someone, do they respawn in a random place? Is there a few set places? How will that be handled in the game?

• My favorite player is Cooller and lets say he picks up the game. Will there be a way for me to, hrm lets say "follow" him? perhaps spectate his games(might suck if it takes stream numbers)? check his stats, config, what bot and stickers and stuff he's using? Maybe watch replays if he makes them available?

• In-game currency. Will it exist? Will all transactions be real world money? If it exists will it be earned through playing, winning, daily quests perhaps? Anything else planned with this?

thanks James

1. Frags
2. It's very equal between the 2. The good thing about FPS is there is always room for improvement on skill. since you will never hit 100%. And you can always beat skill with strategy with armor pickups and strategy. It's a hard genre to dumb down
3. Yeah Quakers do that, myself too. We're trying to make sure where we put the weapons on the screen and how the eggbots pop will result in minimal want to customize it. I quite like the idea of players all having a very similar set up for competitive play.
4. 3 Half answers this, sorry I'm tired but you did put a lot of effort in your questions so I'm trying to answer best I can :)
5. It's not yet decided how we will handle players who are ragers etc. We will focus on trying to minimize cheating first.
6. Fatal1ty, Vo0, Toxic, Cypher, Rapha, Zero4, Cooller. (oops thats 7)
7. Flags, Stickers, Voice chips, eggbot cosmetic attachments, weapon bobble heads.
8. No number planned, It's more about how many go into a map. We just make them and see how useful/fun they are to gameplay.
9. There are X's on the ground where your opponent can respawn. Our spawn system currently generates a spawn rotation, so it will probably feel random. But we haven't finished it.
10. Yeah, we have plans for fanning top players in-game, but its not a priority in the development currently. Nor do we know how it will exactly look. But the idea is similar to what you are suggesting
11. It's planned, in what form it takes we are not sure. It's sometimes best to solve those problems when you closer to beta.

Sorry for short answers, I need coffee :) but great questions!

Even if Diabotical twitter doesn't hit 20.000 followers, may we still see a GD Studio Reunion?

Even if Diabotical twitter doesn't hit 20.000 followers, may we still see a GD Studio Reunion?

No! I am holding your twitter follows as ransom ( @playdiabotical btw ) . I probably didn't promote the GD Show reunion well enough. People spam me about bringing back The GD Show all the time. My advise is spend the next 38 hours of your life making 18k twitter accounts and be the hero we need to get everyone back in a room talking shit about esports again. Is either that or you trust me to do marketing properly. I think you know what to do...

https://twitter.com/playdiabotical - thx Decency

1. As someone who's spend a lot of time in the scene - when do you feel Dota 2 will 'reach it's peak' in terms of: player skill, viewership, tournament sizes (not just prize pool)?
2. Do you think Diabotical will 'need' a highly competitive environment to succeed, or would you be happy with a purely casual player base?
3. When is the next Reinforce AMA coming out?

As someone who's spend a lot of time in the scene - when do you feel Dota 2 will 'reach it's peak' in terms of: player skill, viewership, tournament sizes (not just prize pool)? Do you think Diabotical will 'need' a highly competitive environment to succeed, or would you be happy with a purely casual player base? When is the next Reinforce AMA coming out?

1. Dota 2 cannot die even if it peaks because of Icefrog. Frogs method of gathering feedback and tweaking/balancing the game to keep it fresh is something I'm a huge fan of. I really enjoyed my time talking with the Frog and watching his brain work. You can learn a lot just from watching people work. Now though, I have no contact or more need to contact or be contacted :). But I would say I learnt a lot just from the few interactions we had over the years discussing DOTA2 and TI. I'd say what's hurting DOTA2 the most right now is that it is becoming less fun. Mainly because your team mates expect you to play a certain way. If you want to break the meta or try push the bar you will likely get shouted at. So for sure the overall skill of the gamers has caught up but there are more DOTA2 dos and do nots than ever before in each game which sucks imo. But everything else is still very fresh. Though... Lets say I'm very unsure if next years TI will be bigger than this years.

If it isn't as big, I would actually put that down to Valves and 3rd parties year long esport plans. More so than the games development and TI being a hit or miss next year. So maybe it has peaked, just because esports is growing faster than DOTA2? If you know what I mean?

1. We just want players! join us noxville

2. Fuck Reinforce. Watching him be a pro gamer and win stuff is like watching make a wish foundation.

reddit stop messing up my number system!

Paypal still allowed right? Guess I'll do that ^

:)

What will be the focus game mode? Can we expect Diabotical to go a more team based route like CS:GO and Overwatch, or will you stay focused on duel in the same way as Quake Live has been for the last years?

What will be the focus game mode? Can we expect Diabotical to go a more team based route like CS:GO and Overwatch, or will you stay focused on duel in the same way as Quake Live has been for the last years?

We are looking at Duel & 1 Team mode to be the main 2 competitive modes. The reason being, Duel will always have a place as a fantastic esport game mode. And we are actively working on improving the duel experience from Quakes in terms of spectator and player experience.

But we are very aware that not a lot of gamers enjoy dueling. It can be very stressful. Well these days, not a lot of gamers enjoy TDM or even CTF. So we are working on a new game mode that hopefully more gamers can enjoy, while we still offer the classic game modes as part of Diabotical. But the goal of the new team mode is that players can contribute to a win by not only getting a high frag count but also with more strategical play. (because lets be honest, TDM was yes very strategical yes, but sometimes strategy got thrown out the window once Fox got a railgun and Toxic got an LG)

Well these days, not a lot of gamers enjoy TDM or even CTF.

Those are my two favorite modes :(

same.

Hi Yames! I emailed you days after the 'ass' incident. I know the game's doing pretty well, but how's your relationship with Bruno after the Shanghai Major?

Hi Yames! I emailed you days after the 'ass' incident. I know the game's doing pretty well, but how's your relationship with Bruno after the Shanghai Major?

It's great, I was more worried about him going forward at Valve because we we're both in the public spot light at that time. So like a weird couple we decided to lay down relationship rules! Which was basically not talk about work.

But we're still best mates. He's visiting next month for 4 days which will be awesome! I truly miss him a lot. We talk about once a week still.

Edit: Though saying that if he doesn't show up and say hi in this AMA he's dead to me! Just like.. HL3...

Waiting for Icefrog to deliver. Bold strategy

Let's see how it plans out.

Is the choice of name for one of your developers, FireFrog, a gimmick?

Is the choice of name for one of your developers, FireFrog, a gimmick?

When FireFrog arrived at the studio. From our first conversations it was clear the Frog never wanted to be on camera, or a public figure. Frog didn't choose the Frog name, the Frog name choice him.. or her? or it? oooooooooooooOOOoooOOooo mystery.

Yes... Gimmick.

Do you see any chance of an RTS game with the same development style (being kinda open, having a modern streaming and competetive suiting design etc) popping up or is the genre just doomed?

Do you see any chance of an RTS game with the same development style (being kinda open, having a modern streaming and competetive suiting design etc) popping up or is the genre just doomed?

The next 3 big esport games should be: WarCraft 4 (if being developed). A card game with more depth than Hearthstone (I'm sure a lot of companies are working on this). And a fast paced Arena FPS (The GD Studio and some others like id software are working on this).

Honestly If WC4 isn't a thing over the next 3 years I would be very surprised. But if it isn't. After Diabotical I would jump on the chance to work with ex-wc3 and sc2 pros on a good RTS. In terms of development style, It has to happen. But I don't know how long it will take the big developers to adapt. One of the reasons we are doing an arena fps ourselves with the community is because we lost a lot of faith in the big developers. Not faith in the quality of their product in terms of a fun game. more a lot of the feedback from the esports community didn't seem to make an impact on the dev teams :(

Isn't there a Dota2 mod that's kinda working on being like a WarCraft4 but in the source engine? /u/DarkMio would know more about their goals.

Hello, I'm the guy behind the WC3 remake in Dota 2, DotaCraft. As DarkMio said, it aims to be first and foremost a reimplementation of Warcraft. I've already finished parity on all the abilities including heroes/units of each main race, neutral features and all the items. I've been working on it daily and the code is available in https://github.com/MNoya/DotaCraft so that other modders can benefit from the extense list of abilities & systems that were implemented in the making of this mod.

Currently all that's left is improving some mechanics, tackling some known bugs and working a bit on the building visuals as best as possible. This last building issue is a big turn-off about the project in that, as it's basically a long-term one man project and Dota doesn't have that many building models to use, many of the structures look ugly or are just big placeholders. But as a programmer myself I've been just looking to make the codes work :)

Once the core game is done and working, I would be glad to evolve into a new RTS game if it DotaCraft has a good reception, but I wanted to go full circle just to prove that it was possible withing the source engine & custom game framework.

Sorry for the long post, here have a Zeppelin: http://webm.land/media/hXuI.webm

best of luck!

Who are your top 5 favourite Quake players of all time and short reasons why?

Who are your top 5 favourite Quake players of all time and short reasons why?

Cypher - He played the most beautiful Quake. One of a kind

Toxic - When he turned up the heat, he was actually a machine. again one of a kind.

Cooller - What he offered in and out of game in terms of story lines and star power to the entertainment of the esport.

Fox, Fazz & Purri - Because every event was 100 times better when you got to hang out with them.

What's your opinion on Overwatch?

What's your opinion on Overwatch?

Love it overall, but I'm honestly slowly losing interest. I think they need to push hard on the design side. Just to give an example of my main problem, DOTA2 gives me countless hours of various moments that are almost unrepeatable no matter how long I would play. Overwatch is getting a bit samey too quickly for a multiplayer game.

Is there going to be a shark skin for the eggbots?

Is there going to be a shark skin for the eggbots?

There is now! - http://imgur.com/a/Ql8yF

What's your favorite memory from your esports career?

What's your favorite memory from your esports career?

Pilot episode of The GD Studio, March 18th 2012 If I remember correctly. It was the start of something that was ours, done our way. And there were so many people in the studio who were involved and could share that moment with me. Lets just say spirits were high that day :)

How difficult has map design been for Diabolical? Do you know what kind/style of map you enjoy the most in games like Quake?

How difficult has map design been for Diabolical? Do you know what kind/style of map you enjoy the most in games like Quake?

It's one of the biggest challenges. We have new movement mechanics and do not want to recycle old maps, plus they don't work with our movement. But luckily our editor means we can block out maps quickly. But good maps are the lifeline of an arena fps game. It's why we put a lot of time and effort into the map editor, probably knowing the majority of popular maps will be community made.

For maps we like. It's maps with a healthy amount of vertical game play. for example DM6 since our eggbots work very well in vertical combat.

You're a very effective presenter. What have you learned about how to grab and keep people's attention?

You're a very effective presenter. What have you learned about how to grab and keep people's attention?

My best advice to those who want to be on camera. Is when you do get to be on camera, watch yourself back and be very critical of what you do. Then watch main stream presenters and compare. But really do this, be very critical of what you are doing and what you want to achieve.

Also feedback is always true no matter how flamey it is. If that's how that person felt while watching you. They are not wrong. So learn to love the flames they will help you.

But if you don't have time for all this because your actually working multiple jobs off camera. Just adopt the homeless drunk man talking mindless shit technique.

Heres how: Turn up on camera looking like a bum to lower viewer expectations. Say a bunch of crazy shit while really not giving a fuck about what people think of you, Hell, you are barely aware of your own existence as alcohol has killed a lot of your brain cells, let alone there's actually an audience watching you. Then just enjoy your time on camera while you talk about the interesting games and hang out with interesting people. Plus if you manage to sit there long enough you'll eventually get a free lunch and later a bed for the night. Return to that fact if you need motivation to keep you from going to the nearest pub. GL future commentators and hosts!

Return to that fact if you need motivation to keep you from going to the nearest pub.

Couldn't we just save time by finding a good pub to set up shop in to begin with?

can you be my agent?

Do you think Battlerite has the potential to take off since we lack this kind of game in the esports scene?

Do you think Battlerite has the potential to take off since we lack this kind of game in the esports scene?

This is tough to answer. I will instead rant! BLC the original sat in a very similar place to games like Smash and Quake. Mainly because the skills you had to master were very intricate and you needed a lot of practice to pull them off. There weren't obvious game choices to master like picking up an item in Dota2 or a build order in WC3/SC2. So when BLC took off in esports, It didn't grow much from its presence on Twitch. Spectators who wanted to replicate the strategies and tactics they saw in tournaments on Twitch couldn't do it. You would have to train for a solid 6 months to even get close. This is the same for a lot of fighting games and Quake.

A better example is maybe Dota 2. I love Dota2 and when I watch a big tournament and see someone play a support who does an interesting item build, rotations, priority kill targets and save targets. I can still replicate that myself no matter my skill level and have a great experience. Since it's a lot of tactical choices. So Dota2 understandably gets a lot more play time from gamers after tournaments because we get excited about in game choices. BLC and Quake didn't have this.

Battlerite have added some choices to each round to inject more strategy and more of your personal play style in its game. How much impact this will have on Battlerite being an interesting game for esports is yet to be seen. But as far as I know its a great product by a great team and the game is hella fun. I would love to see 3v3 arena in esports again. We'll probably host some tournaments for it at The GD Studio

Sorry about this rant, I can't go into a huge amount of detail on this, But you get the gist of it? I'm basically saying there are so many factors in to what makes a game take off in esports. I could write a book about games in esports one day! I would fill it with a lot of pictures though :)

What are your expectations for Diabotical?

Do you think it will be able to compete with Overwatch and CS:GO (Esports scene-wise)?

What are your expectations for Diabotical? Do you think it will be able to compete with Overwatch and CS:GO (Esports scene-wise)?

We hope to offer something good to old and new fans of arena fps. I don't mind if we are not as big as Overwatch or CS:GO, since we are such a small team on a limited budget. So I doubt we will ever be as big as CS:GO. Though I wouldn't be surprised if our tournament finals are close in terms of spectators to an Overwatch final.

Overwatch is still quite hard to watch. But it's getting better as the commentators improve and yeah, development things too. If I was in the Blizzard esport team I would focus of course on the obvious spectator experience, But also heavily on player story lines. The most interesting thing about esports are the people who play it. Riot did a great job with that initially, though now it feels a bit like reality TV over there.

I described Overwatch esports to Bruno recently as being the American football of esports. So let's see how it improves over the years.

If you were given another chance to host a Valve event, would you accept it Yames? pls say yes

If you were given another chance to host a Valve event, would you accept it Yames? pls say yes

Only If Bruno would do it with me, and hold my hand... also I want puppets. I was very jealous of TI6's puppets. Bruno and James puppets would go on amazing adventures. Oh the antics that would be had would put the amazing Mr Wangs antics to shame!

Do you plan to make event like TI for Diabotical with crowdfunding ?

Do you plan to make event like TI for Diabotical with crowdfunding ?

We plan on a world championship each year, probably during the winter. Plus we have some nice crowdfunding ideas that should be very rewarding to those who want to chip in and support the game and esport tournaments. How deeply they are connected to each other is yet to be discussed. But we'll probably figure something out closer to launch and get community feedback before we implement it.

Will it be possible for a player who uses exclusively mousewheel to switch weapons to become a Bonjwa of Diabotical ?

Will it be possible for a player who uses exclusively mousewheel to switch weapons to become a Bonjwa of Diabotical ?

We feel that allowing PC gamers vs mousewheel weapon switch gamers or console gamers cross-platform play would be unfair.

Also stop trolling dem0n

So you can resume the gdshow after this?

So you can resume the gdshow after this?

We have a reunion stretch goal in the Kickstarter at 20k twitter followers for @playdiabotical . After the game ships I have esport plans for 2017 that involve The GD Show. Though it's dangerous to put me on camera talking about stuff.. because reasons! So I will have to really see how possible it is. But I think a show like that is needed in esports right now and I'm down to burn some more bridges.

Is Draskyl still playing a part in the studio?

Is Draskyl still playing a part in the studio?

Yes, but he works from the 'No fucks left to give' Island. It's where Andy is happiest.

Who is now involved with the talent agency you set up? And to clarify who is actually left in the GD House? Otherwise thanks for all the great content, watching the GD Show ranks up there in my e-sports memories and the Finding Semmler Saga is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. So thank you for bringing that to the world. Good luck with the Diabotical and anything else you get involved in.

Who is now involved with the talent agency you set up? And to clarify who is actually left in the GD House? Otherwise thanks for all the great content, watching the GD Show ranks up there in my e-sports memories and the Finding Semmler Saga is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. So thank you for bringing that to the world. Good luck with the Diabotical and anything else you get involved in.

We've supported anywhere between 5-35 people per year in esports. Either getting them gigs, helping them with negotiations, contracts and invoices etc. Lately it's mainly just Skrff, Weppas, Draskyl, Reinforce and Kristina. We have always given 100% of talent earnings to the talent. We didn't run the agency for money. Just wanted to create a safe place for talent to launch their careers from. Once they knew how shit went down, they went off and did it by themselves. Which was always the plan. But the agency still helps where we can. This month we helped get a couple people to Dubai for Dota 2 commentary and helped an old SC2 friend get some invoices paid. So yeah not much to do on a monthly basis.

Low or high sense?

Low or high sense?

Honestly depends on the game and game mode. Purri once told me that if you can master a high sense you will be the best player ever! That guy was a liar!

In terms of game mode and game. for Example. If you play Quake 3 TDM, There is a lot of turning because of the amount of opponents you are facing in almost constant battle and its not so much about track aim its more about knowledge and being fast to react to where opponants are. So for me as a wrist/high sense player that worked great. But once I went to play other game modes like Duel (which was a lot of LG) I found I had to lower my sense for better tracking.

My advice is though. Learn how to play with arm and wrist. Don't just be a wrist player. You will learn to master tracking better over time and as long as you can easily do 180's comfortably you will be fine in any current fps game on a competitive level.

I've been following you for the last 5+ years, and still remember the days when you and Semmler would cast SC2 games and he'd call people "sacks of shit" like it was a compliment or something lol.

My question for you is this: if you were forced to repeat a day/period of time (less than 1 week tops) kind of like the movie Groundhog Day, which day/period of time would you like to repeat? Also like Groundhog Day, you'd be forced to repeat it until you got every single detail perfect. I'd like to know what day(s) you choose and why. Would it be a specific tournament you competed in, or something you were on the production side?

Quakecon 2v2 Finals. We lost because I tried to do too much for the team and didn't play my usual role. I could keep fucking up until I was the ultimate Quake player! and the hotel had a piano so that's a nice bonus. Oh and room service because fuck cooking everyday in this fantasy.

Where do you think esports are headed in the future?

Where do you think esports are headed in the future?

A lot of big names and big money are fighting over it right now behind the scenes who are not game developers. Trying to strategies how to own it. Little do they know it's owned by the game developers. I really have no good answer for this currently, it depends on what each game developer allows with their IPs.

What is your opinion regarding what went wrong with No Man's Sky? and how do you think it could have been handled?

Will the news about No Man's Sky affect the future game projects on Kickstarter?

Edit: I am also very excited for the release of Diabotical !

It's too hard to say. But I will say things can snowball out of control pretty fast. Which it seemed it did for them on the hype train up and down. Plus, they are a pretty small studio so being able to step up and try to control it wouldn't of been an easy task. I don't think it will affect KS, they weren't even on KS right?

Old QuakeWorld player here... Are you considering adding achievements in the game? How do you plan to monetize it? Take a look at MechWarrior Online (MWO) monetization, i think it's spot on. Are you planning to deliver the best stats for any fps game ever? <- this is often overlooked. Matchmaking is a must too.

Achievements: yes Monetize: We are not f2p but we do still have a shop for some fun cosmetic options etc. I will look into MWO. Stats: Of course of Bruno wouldn't like me We have Match making and a tournament system

Was Game Design something you always saw yourself getting into eventually? Any particularly memorable parts of the development so far?

Was Game Design something you always saw yourself getting into eventually? Any particularly memorable parts of the development so far?

Yeah it was. Just because I'm a designer before all this on camera stuff. Most memorable part of development so far was when we hired the art team this time last year in September. I was just so happy we we're going from a 2 person studio to a 6 person and things we're getting more real. I did however make them build their own desks and chairs from IKEA on arrival as I sat there judging htem. Just wanted to see who was the most Swedish.

What's the chance of a nude cooking show with Bruno and Trance in the near future?

What's the chance of a nude cooking show with Bruno and Trance in the near future?

We would need some serious body nets.

Thoughts on Quake Champions?
Best pro gamer to have whiskey with (say Fazz ;)?
Favorite cat?

Thoughts on Quake Champions? Best pro gamer to have whiskey with (say Fazz ;)? Favorite cat?

Quake Champions are doing something very similar to my original design document. So I think it can work out, i'm excited to play it for sure. Though I'm happy we are being a bit more pure because so far it just feels and plays better than what had originally.

Hmm... Honestly I'm very particular with whom I share my whiskey with! Fazz of course is up there. We should be heading out together this Friday after the kickstarter finishes. Though hes not always the best drinking buddy. There are 2 fazz drinking modes, if he reaches mode 2 he often suffers from memory lose the day after, and needs to remember the previous night by the use of receipts and phonecalls times from the night before. :)

Nelson and Mingles are tied! There is actually a Nelson courier in the Dota2 Workshop here - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=682628054 A TI4 EU Hub throwback for you by some amazing artists!

Do you think you'll have issues getting the game on steam, given your recent history with valve/Gabe?

Do you think you'll have issues getting the game on steam, given your recent history with valve/Gabe?

If the games good, I'm sure it will be fine. Valve folks are very very nice people overall, but at any company there are always a few knobs. I hold that title at The GD Studio myself! and sure some of these knobs dont like me it seems, but the feeling is quite mutual.

Though Steam is an interesting topic these days. Lots of competitors for Valve in that space now. I wonder how they will react.

I'm not sure if this has been answered before in a dev-update stream, but do you have any plans, beyond the coaching mode, to make the game more accessible to new players?

I feel one of the biggest issues with aFPS in the modern world is the investment needed to get decent at them (modern FPS players seem more "pick-up-and-play" and less focused on practicing skills) and no other modern aFPS now has a good way for new players to improve whilst not only getting owned by veterans, but also none have a good way of introducing things that are completely/almost completely foreign to newer, popular FPS games like air strafing, bhop, item timings, bounces from rockets, etc. etc.

I hope the game turns out well, it looks great so far.

For sure. The tutorial will have to be really really good and fun. Also our movement system is quite easy to pick up compared to other arena fps games. I think Akke was moving around the map like a quake semi-pro within 15 minutes of testing it out.

Any interest in a VR spectator mode? Or thoughts on VR for gaming/esports in general?

Keep up the good work!

Any interest in a VR spectator mode? Or thoughts on VR for gaming/esports in general? Keep up the good work!

Interest yes for sure. We will do it or have time? don't know, probably not. Stunlock Studios are doing some cool stuff for Battlerite though, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejMENKUx03A

Have you had any significant communication with Gabe following the "ass incident"?

Have you had any significant communication with Gabe following the "ass incident"? None, I reached out once, but got nothing back and that's fine by me. Some people were telling me weird whispers about him not being a good place at the time of the assening. So hopefully he's doing alright if that's even true.

How would you buff Silencer?

How would you buff Silencer?

Bring back disarm and mana burn. Also make his hat pointier. Mainly the hat thing.

Hi 2GD,
Having myself always felt deep love for Quake, as it being unique in every aspect, I kinda felt, that its impact on the esport scene was constantly slightly decreasing starting from when fatal1ty became a superstar.
While the scene is thankful for players like rapha, av3k, vo0, k1llsen, and lots of other pros, it still always felt to me like it never made the step from a hobbygame to a pro-game (in terms of infrastructure and so that it made sense for a pro to be fulltime-player).
On the other hand, CS, Dota or Starcraft have been pro-games with real dedicated professionals for over a decade now and they are still quite successful.
Why do you think did Quake never really establish as a real pro-game, requiring players to be fulltime-dedicated players?

Well, we were full time dedicated players (some of us). But Quake was right at the start of esports. We didn't have Twitch, esports was so small back then. my biggest salary was 500GBP a month as a pro gamer on Fnatic. Lets just say we were early and since then no one has released a good arena fps game with the supporting features needed that we see today in other games. So yeah, lets see what happens with Quake Champions and Diabotical. So its a combination of things really. But I believe in the genre and it's potential longevity if done right.

Games live and die by the quality of their matchmaking nowadays. All these quake clones for the most part lacked matchmaking which is why they died so soon after release.

I'm so glad it seems to be a strong focus in Diabotical!

Will custom created modes be able to take advantage of ingame elo/mmr matchmaking? Will we have to provide a server for custom maps/matchmaking or will they be handled your end?

No sure how we will handle it, but the plan is to allow others to use our mm and tournament systems for custom modes. It's more of a firefrog question this one. also hello SirDodgy!

Congrats on the KS success!

I'm working on a game in the same genre: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=714536761

I was wondering if you had any tips based on your Kickstarter campaign for marketing. I'm also aiming to get crowdfunded, however I don't have the same following or background, and I'm working on the project alone currently. I've been growing a small mailing list and twitter followers during the development but I'm not sure how to step it up in order to get the best from a KS campaign.

I get a fairly positive reaction from people who see the game (high % of votes on Greenlight for example, good conversion to subscribers from the website), it's just the problem of getting it in front of a lot of people in the first place.

Heya, cool looking game, I would say it's really down to the video. and rewards that make sense for your game. If we had built a hack n slash we could have probably done rather well with the backer count and the average pledge might of been higher. So really just focus on a strong video and know that arena fps are quite niche so try give all the backers great value for their money

Do you think that the success of Overwatch will have an effect on your game? What're you doing to make sure that your game doesn't fail where previous "bringing back Quake" games have failed?

Do you think that the success of Overwatch will have an effect on your game? What're you doing to make sure that your game doesn't fail where previous "bringing back Quake" games have failed?

I wouldn't say they failed, a lot are still being worked on. But for us its more about making a product, the complete package so to speak.

I think Overwatch will help us honestly. People will compare us which is good for us to get compared to a blizzard game even though we are very very different. But Overwatch has got a lot of people playing FPS maybe for the first time.

Hey James, I'm a KS backer and I am very excited for the Diabotical beta! After watching your updates, I couldn't help but share them with my friends and talk about all the amazing features you discussed and planned for the game. The custom intro animations, the clan lobbies, twitch chat scrolling in game, all sound like amazing things that haven't quite been put into a game before. But my friends brought up one thing to me that has been on the back of my mind, so I want to ask you personally, what steps are you going to take to ensure that you don't over promise on things that may not come to fruition (see: No Man's Sky, Peter Molyneux)? I have all the confidence in you and the GD Studio, but some assurance would be appreciated! Thanks and good luck with the rest of the development.

Myself and Firefrog have been very careful about this. It's also why there are only a few stretch goals. I didn't want to promise the world for extra money. Also we know it will be a lot of late nights for both of us over the next year. I think we can deliver.

If Sweden decides to kick all of the Brits out after Brexit which one of skrff or Weppas would you marry for citizenship?

Also do you think there will be any kind of playable demo before the end of the year for Diabotical backers?

If Sweden decides to kick all of the Brits out after Brexit which one of skrff or Weppas would you marry for citizenship? Also do you think there will be any kind of playable demo before the end of the year for Diabotical backers?

Probably Skrff because we already have trust! We've already agreed if something would happen to one of us the other would dispose of the the HD and clean out the others bedroom.

Not sure when we will hit a public playable demo/beta. if it takes us longer we want to hit beta, I'll try figure something out.

Did you watch the QuakeCon finals?

Did you watch the QuakeCon finals?

Of course! Was just sad they didn't invite me out to cast a match or two. Well actually I was busy with the Kickstarter. But I still follow Quake :)

What do you think the current competitive/esport games are currently missing? (especially community/competition wise)

What do you think the current competitive/esport games are currently missing? (especially community/competition wise)

Integrated tournament systems. We put one in Bloodline champions and it rocked. That's the big one for me. I've been ranting about it for years. It's only now catching on 7 years later. Normally it's never the person with the idea that can make the movement happen but often others in a better spot. I like that Valve now have something similar, they can make a lot of noise so others might pay attention. It's like this whole gg business. I owned glhf.gg then Alex Garfield asked where I registered it, then boom. Alliance.gg etc and now everyone is on the .gg train. I think tournament systems will be like the gg thing. One company will make it popular. Blizzard and Valve are in the best place to do it right now as Alex was with the .gg for esports.

What are your competitive matchmaking plans? How will the system work?

We want to test a few systems first like glicko or as some call it elastic elo right? mm is super important. You hopefully should always be in a game you can win if you play well.

When you talked in KS update 1, you called the Rocket launcher, Lightning gun, Rail gun and shotgun the 4 main guns. Does this mean the 4 guns you will see in standard modes, or will there be some more guns in the basic modes? Also the game looks sweet.

When you talked in KS update 1, you called the Rocket launcher, Lightning gun, Rail gun and shotgun the 4 main guns. Does this mean the 4 guns you will see in standard modes, or will there be some more guns in the basic modes? Also the game looks sweet.

There will be more guns coming, but those were the first 4 we wanted to finish. Also the community have renamed them. Lightning gun is Magma gun. Railgun is PnCR (point n click rifle). Shotgun is Shelly and when it gets upgraded to triple barrel It's then called Shelly Spreader... or SS for short... Thank you for that Twitch chat.

• Can you develop a bit more on the Wingman Coop 1v1 mode ?
• Is a plasma like gun planned in the main game?

Can you develop a bit more on the Wingman Coop 1v1 mode ? Is a plasma like gun planned in the main game?

The Idea is 2 players control sometimes 1 Eggbot, where one is the pilot (exactly the same in other game modes). The other is more about strategy and pickup based, where you can interact with the map, pickups, team-mate and opponents. You should also be able to detach as the wingbot for small periods of time. The goal is each player contribute to the win/game 50/50. It's very tricky to design but It's going ok as a fun game mode :) Who knows if it will stick. It's not a huge focus for me until we nail down some other game modes.

Plasma type gun for sure. I prefer projectile over hitscan any day in Arena FPS. It's just more fun.

What was the first game you owned that you truly fell in love with? One that you just couldn't stop playing.

What was the first game you owned that you truly fell in love with? One that you just couldn't stop playing.

First PC multiplayer game that hooked me big big time was Mechcommander. fuck that game was legit good for its time. It's a weird one I know.

Are you still gonna find the time to do esports casting, hosting, presenting, etc? For Dota2, Battlerite, or even Overwatch?

Are you still gonna find the time to do esports casting, hosting, presenting, etc? For Dota2, Battlerite, or even Overwatch?

In 2017 yes (maybe some Battlerite in 2016). The plan is to hire some people to help take some of my game dev & company work load off me.

Those bots are like 90% head.

Does that mean no positional damage?

Those bots are like 90% head. Does that mean no positional damage?

Yeah, there is a spot on the back we might consider opening up for additional damage to punish players who run away! But currently no headshots.

Any chance we can see you host something with incontrol?

Any chance we can see you host something with incontrol?

Oh god, I don't think we'd get away with anything close to what we did back at ASUS ROG. Maybe if we can host a tournament in a pub. No game dev would buy that kind of content these days. we'd probably have to make my own game to have a chance of it happening. wait a minute...

Will Diabotical have a game mode based on Mr Wang's Amazing Wheelchair Antics?

Will Diabotical have a game mode based on Mr Wang's Amazing Wheelchair Antics?

The license alone would bankrupt us. Mr Wang is a big asset sure. But we'd get shafted in negotiations I just know it.

I remember when you where streaming Reborn Diabotical a long time ago you showed us some kind of a "rewind" feature, like your character Eggbot would jump in the void and then you could make it come back by pressing a key. Is it still planned?

I remember when you where streaming Reborn Diabotical a long time ago you showed us some kind of a "rewind" feature, like your character Eggbot would jump in the void and then you could make it come back by pressing a key. Is it still planned?

It's still in, It's a pickup that needs more work still.

Beta 2016? Will beta be short or extended? If short, will there be multiple shorter betas?

Beta 2016? Will beta be short or extended? If short, will there be multiple shorter betas?

No ETA on Beta yet. Also once it's up it will probably stay up unless we really need it not to be. I assume once we go into beta, people will already want to run tournaments. So that's why it would have to stay up and already be quite a stable and polished product. It's gonna be a challenge.

Are the screamy guy, weapon skins and eggbot skins from the 11 pound backer tier also buyable when only having the 7 pound tier or exclusive?

Are the screamy guy, weapon skins and eggbot skins from the 11 pound backer tier also buyable when only having the 7 pound tier or exclusive?

They aren't exclusive, but when they will hit the in-game throw your money away on stupid but cool stuff shop I cannot say.

What do you think about the implementation of Bright Skins in Diabotical? Is there a way to ensure competitive visibility even with marketable eggbot skins?

What do you think about the implementation of Bright Skins in Diabotical? Is there a way to ensure competitive visibility even with marketable eggbot skins?

We are trying to make sure the eggbots pop vs our environment first. If we fail here, we will have to solve it somehow. Playing vs an opponent you cannot easily see would suck. Not just for competitive play but all game modes. There is a lot of ways we can go, but we will test them out and show you guys probably on a Twitch stream in the future.

Do you expect old Quake pros to take up Diabotical right away or do you think new faces to the pro scene will take up the esports side of things?

Do you expect old Quake pros to take up Diabotical right away or do you think new faces to the pro scene will take up the esports side of things?

I want a healthy mix of new and old. Also I don't think Quake pros will come in with a big advantage at all. Since there are a lot of differences between Diabotical and Quakes of old. Much to learn for everyone :)

Indie multiplayer games tend to die from lack of player base rather than anything gameplay related. What will you do to gain and maintain an active player base?

esports is the priority, but we will have to do more than just tournaments for 50k usd etc.

Hi James! The game is looking great, cant wait to try it out! #partybot4life

Are you guys hoping to eventually run official GD Studio Diabotical tournaments? Giving any thought to a pro-circuit/season?

Hi James! The game is looking great, cant wait to try it out! #partybot4life Are you guys hoping to eventually run official GD Studio Diabotical tournaments? Giving any thought to a pro-circuit/season?

Yeah circuits and seasons is a must. I think it's really important to control the amount of esports the game delivers on a weekly basis especially for tier1 content. DOTA2 took a big hit because of saturation before Majors and roster locks fixed it.

We will run some grass root tournaments ourselves.

Do you think some of the in game skins will effect model visibility? E.g could we see everyone choosing a certain skin because it makes you harder to see in certain areas of a map?

It could be a thing, but we're trying to solve that without losing the enjoyment of being able to play with a custom skin. We may have to regulate or add other visuals that help eggbots pop in maps.

Are you familiar with the current development status of ut4? If yes, what do you think about their approach? About which competition are you more concerned: quake champions or ut4? Why?

Are you familiar with the current development status of ut4? If yes, what do you think about their approach? About which competition are you more concerned: quake champions or ut4? Why?

Quake Champions is our competition for sure. They have the brand name and millions of dollars (zenimax and bethesda). UT4 really isn't my cup of tea. I follow what they are doing and think Flak is awesome! But I find the game a bit too fiddly and non flowing for my liking. But the game is still a WIP so let's see how it turns out.

First of all, i love your content (hosting, casting, etc...).

When will you go back to dota?

I donated to diabotical, when will i receive the battlerite beta?

Best of luck!

Send regards to /u/IceX

I donated to diabotical, when will i receive the battlerite beta?

Before Sept 20th. It's the first kickstarter deliverable we will... deliver. Also would like to do more pro-am DOTA2. But lets see if that works out.

What kind of support would you be willing to offer event organisers? Things like event based skins that split revenue have become the norm and help both those running events and those competing financially. Do you have any other ideas on how you and other developers could be supporting events?

What kind of support would you be willing to offer event organisers? Things like event based skins that split revenue have become the norm and help both those running events and those competing financially. Do you have any other ideas on how you and other developers could be supporting events?

Yeah lots, Our tournament system will offer in-game promotion for those organizers complete with admin tools. plus they can upload sponsor logos and their logos to maps in the tournament pool. We basically want to make sure if someone is doing a tournament which is bringing value to our community, we help them the best we can. A lot of organizers still don't get the help I think they should from developers whether it be promotion or financial support. You'll get more info on this kind of stuff the closer we get to launch.

Is fox still helping out with playtesting? How many are playtesting outside the dev team?

Is fox still helping out with playtesting? How many are playtesting outside the dev team?

About 12-15 outside the dev team playtest with us or among themselves. Fox and Fazz check in about once a month. Both very busy but very useful to play test with.

Hey James, congratz for reaching the goals!

My Question: In the eSports World as it is today, do you think there is enought space for a Duell Shooter?

What is your biggest Goal for Diabotical in eSports?

thnx for answering :) cheers from switzerland aemjay

Heya, I answered something similar to this above. But I think there is space for a 1v1 shooter in esports. and hi :)

will you do a show match with the team vs another group of people e.g. CS GO pros or your friends who are pros in other games to show it off?

will you do a show match with the team vs another group of people e.g. CS GO pros or your friends who are pros in other games to show it off?

First show match will be NA vs EU at our Studio. We don't want to invite Korea because eerr VISAS...yup.

Do you agree that noctis did good in q3/ql tdm only because everyone else quit? :)

Do you agree that noctis did good in q3/ql tdm only because everyone else quit? :)

I think he could hang with the TDM greats if he played his level back when we were playing. Yes I said we! I was great. honest! But I like noctis style, it reminds me a bit of mine, foxes and mists play style. But he added some whine to it to make it his own.