We are The Behemoth, developers of BattleBlock Theater, Castle Crashers, and our latest game Pit People. Tomorrow we release Pit People. Ask us anything!

When are you adding the colour teal in BattleBlock Theater for my boy Aleks?

I feel like it's going to be one of those eternal regrets I'll have. -Dan

Will stamper be in any of your new projects?

We don't even know what our new projects are going to be. But I don't see why he shouldn't literally be everywhere. He should be those pre-recordings in grocery stores, airports, and security checkpoints. -Dan

Random Castle Crashers steam code drop!

G8VND-56TP0-KCRN9

We love youuuuu!

Random Castle Crashers steam code drop! 0EAA4-ZFYFB-042R4 We love youuuuuu!

Why did you give northernlion a copy? That egg can't even play the same game for 5 years correctly.

You can ask him to give it back, but it seems the damage has been done. I suggest a fist fight or thumb war. -Dan

I'm so glad you guys are doing this, you guys are some of my favorite developers and artists! Played the hell out of the beta and I can't wait for the early access tomorrow!

That being said, I have a question for the Behemoth as a whole and Dan Paladin.

Behemoth: I know it's way too early to mention this, but considering you guys have said you like tackling genres more than sequels, what ideas are currently being thrown around? A racing game using characters from all of your games and or cartoon developers? Maybe a metroidvania game as well? You guys would be able to tackle these games so well, so that's why I ask.

Dan: I hear Flash is dying and that there are so many ways to do sprites and animations and all that nonsense, but, what do YOU use. Your art style is one of my favorites so it comes natural to try and follow in your footsteps! Also, stay alpha dude, you're looking fit. ;)

Along with learning how to draw, I'm also learning how to code in school and out. So, what language do you guys use primarily for your games? And, what were some of the more technical troubles that you guys had to overcome with Pit People that most people wouldn't notice from playing the game?

Again, can't wait to play tomorrow. I'm waiting to snag like 6 copies for me and my friends. Oh yeah, is it just 2 player maximum for campaign or is that just local?

I'd say the short answer is that Flash is dying if you want it to.

It really depends on what you view as "Flash". I view it as simply meaning "vector graphics" which are not going anywhere in my part of the world at least. Vector graphics have so many advantages over anything pixelated that it's crazy. The artwork does not have to be recreated when zooming in or changing resolution to 800000000x9021383045. This future-proofs the stuff 100%, and if you want it to become raster all you have to do is export the vector out, so it's at least capable of its "rival" format if you wish it to be so.

In terms of flash being dead in terms of what the internet uses, well, that's up to the internet and hardware manufacturers I guess.

The programmers use some form of C. I never really ask too much about the knitty gritty, I just look at what the game engine is capable of and what my hardware/software restrictions are. All our primary tools and engines are built here at the Behemoth. Technical troubles are starting to diminish as the average player has better and better equipment as hardware progresses. On PC, the most difficult one would have to be making the game so it can run on 1000000000000000000 different kinds of hardware+OS configurations.

The game can be played in any format online or offline in at least 2 players. You can have 2v2 in Arena which is my personal favorite. Very very interesting and close fights we had during the betas!

-Dan

What's your favorite dinosaur?

Also, just wanted to thank you for Castle Crashers. My sons and I love playing together. It's hard to find good 4 player split screen games nowadays.

Sorry I hadn't gotten back. I'm quite literally still trying to think of what my favorite Dinosaur is. I really liked those weird little guys with the club tails and spikes on the side. Ankylosaurids, maybe. The ones that were like armadillos. Not to be confused by description as stegosaurus, as those were much much larger than these guys were, but I also liked those guys too. What a crazy concept mother nature had, the stegosaurus, to have a giant spiked tail with spikes taller than any of us. Also, you are welcome, the pleasure is all ours!!!! -Dan

will you make Half Life 3, if asked?

Well we've made 4 games so far, there's also 4 of us here answering questions, and our next game will be Game 5 so .....

4+4-5= confirmed?

Since we've already had a "Game 3" AND "Game 4", I think we'd have to keep moving forward. So, you know, it's Half Life 5 or nothing. - Erin Jungjohann

Well, technically you would be working on Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

and, since 2 + 3 = 5...

HALF LIFE 3 CONFIRMED

Holy carp, I've said too much! - Erin Jungjohann

Do you hate us for making that battle block theatre tune in the ad?

BATTLE BLOCK THEATRE CHECK OUT THIS STUFF. LOTS OF NICE STUFF LIKE UH, THIS THING, GO UP THERE NOW. THAT'S A NICE TRICK.

It haunts me.

It's a delight, I'd wager.

"IF YOU HATE OUR STUFF, SHUT UP AND DO BETTER!" -Dan

hate to ask but i'm just to excited for this game, is there any estimate time. the game will launch? is it going to mid day,midnight or completely random?

Steam version will launch at 10am PST.

-emil

Automod doesn't let me put this as a top level comment...

Please put some link in the post to a page with more information about the game. Many will come across this post, that have never heard of your games, but might still like to get involved.

Anyway, thanks for doing this!

good call, just added our Pit People game page link in the title. Thanks for the message!

You guys ever consider doing a Baldur's Gate-style CRPG? I think there's room in that genre for some The Behemoth style fuckery.

I've been playing a lot of Diablo III lately, loved Divinity, and I do like the genre. I've considered it, but I'm not 100% sure what our brand new spin or approach to it would exactly be, which is probably part of why we haven't gone for it yet. Also, CRPGs tend to be singleplayer experiences in terms of local play, and we tend to favor things that can be played on the couch together. I suppose it's possible to have multiple people on the screen, as some other games have attempted this with varying results, and I don't intend on not reconsidering it in the future! -Dan

What are your thoughts on oatmeal cookies?

They make great shields, when used properly in battle :) - Erin Jungjohann

Those Mom's Iced Oatmeal cookies which I've never actually properly looked at the name of (with the white/purpleish stripes on the wrapper) are delicious. -Dan

Is there any chance of ever getting a full release of Alien Hominid on PC? I loved the original flash game on Newgrounds and remember anxiously awaiting the PS2 version, and then the HD remake on the Xbox 360 was even better. It's easily one of my favorite games of all time, but I don't have consoles anymore, so I have no way to play it. I'd be thrilled even for a direct port of the 360 version with no other changes.

Thanks for sticking with us this whole way! We are aware that Alien Hominid HD is starting to become unavailable just about everywhere and do hope to find some time/resources to bring it over before it's been too long. But if we bring it over, I'd still like to do at least a little something with it! -Dan

Hey guys! I got the chance to play the beta and it was just fantastic, I got about 30 hours of playtime before it ended.

1. Were there any surprising team compositions that you saw in the beta that you hadn't thought of at the time?

2. What are your favorite units to have on your personal team?

3. How would you feel about your initial release if the apocalypse started today?

How did I miss this one?

1. Yes. I didn't expect anyone to employ a Mascot+Spidaur or see quite so many Electrobots on the field so early on into the game. 2v2 had a lot of people putting their heads together on how they could overwhelm their opponent, and it made for some amazingly interesting battles.

2. Some of my favorite fighters to use are the Kobolds, Cyclops with medium sword (for 3 movement), Vampiress hero, Mushroom hero, Wraiths X4.

3. I'd feel like we got REALLY close, close enough, and most people would be busy killing each other to remember to be upset with us.

-Dan

First off, just want to say that I am a huge fan of Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater, and my friends and I are all ready to marathon Pit People tomorrow. Thank you for making great games for those of us who still enjoy couch coop. My question for you is this: Both BattleBlock, Castle Crashers, and from the looks of it, Pit People, are all pretty outlandish. How do you decide what to include in your games plot and content wise, and what made you decide to focus on completely different types of gameplay with every title?

Thank you! It's kind of like a game of "Telephone" around here at times. We'll all be on the same page, then we start saying bits of ideas to one person or another and those bits of ideas start to snowball into other ones until they come back to us as we're getting on the same page a couple days later and we share what our vision of each one is. A brainstorm ensues, and then we select what happens next! For the plot, it's kind of like making some food and you let it marinate, then try it out, then add some seasoning, let it sit, try it out again. -Dan

Any chance we get to see your new game on PS4?

There's always a chance. I do hope we find the bandwidth to do so! -Dan

How was it like working with stamper?

It's like xmas everyday on a beach, where strange creatures emerge from the water and give you candy. But there's no toilet, then you realize, hey, there's an ocean. Then you walk in, but it's not water... instead it's cola, but it's not sticky. -ian

Hey guys! I've been a longtime fan,and Castle Crashers is still one of my favourites. My question to you guys, is how do you come up with all your ideas and game mechanics? Is there a main source of inspiration?

For most of it, it's simply just guided brainstorming. For mechanics, I like to think about what would be really cool to do, and if it's already done to death or a staple of the genre I think of whether or not we should include it or change it and whether that fits with the overall idea of what the game should be. For instance, for Pit People it's supposed to be strategic depth with simple inputs and simple things to do. So, choosing a character, then a target, then an ability, and then doing it again 6 times in a row seemed to go against that philosophy even though it's a staple of the genre. In our mix, choosing your character is automated from the start of your turn, and rather than choosing your target/ability you simply choose where you want to go. As soon as you're done with that action it automatically moves on to the next guy for you. We all know the guy with the sword is going to hit the enemy he's standing next to so it was always awkward to me that we'd have to tell him to do that in other games. Poof, it goes away. Now turns can take seconds instead of minutes and the fundamental gameplay feels like just about nothing else out there at the same time! The main sources of inspiration are generally the genres themselves, what type of person wants to play them, what type of person are they excluding and how can we change that, and more things. So for instance, I always thought hex games were cool but they were so complicated I just couldn't keep up with the zillions of rules and ways to attack. I made a game that in ways was for myself -- but I also knew there had to be a lot of other people out there feeling similar to me. Hope any of that gives enough insight! -Dan

What is your favorite game, out of the four that you've published?

Maybe I'm biased because it's what I'm working on right now, but probably Pit People. It's a world where everyone solves their problems by pit fighting, and that's made coming up with characters and scenarios a ton of fun - Erin Jungjohann

How long was the development for each game?

I'm fairly sure this is right...

• Alien Hominid - 2 years
• Castle Crashers - 3 years
• BattleBlock Theater - 10000 years
• Pit People - ~ 3.5 years

-emil

By my own estimates it is:

• Alien Hominid - 1.5 years
• Castle Crashers - 3.5 years
• BattleBlock Theater - 4 years
• Pit People - 3.3 years (currently) estimated to be 2-12 more months, so up to 3.5 - 4.3 years

Which is kind of interesting because that list almost makes it seem like when the core development is done we wash our hands of it or something. However we still support, update & port the games as new generations of hardware come out, or if we add in little treats for buying one of our games in one of the older games and vice versa there's also that. It becomes more and more daunting with each game we've got out there, but I do hope we keep up the practice.

-Dan

Hey guys! I have a question for ya, what was the biggest task making castle crashers?

Beat-em-ups require a lot of care in a lot of spots. Getting the base gameplay to be something we were hoping for took quite a while, as did filling out enough content to last people 5 or 6 hours. Most beat-em-ups before Castle Crashers was made took about 20-40 minutes to complete, so it did feel like quite the undertaking on that end, too. Stringing it together as we went in a way that'd keep things different each step was not easy, either. At the time, we had to fit the game into under 150MB, which is absolutely CRAZY, so the game does some amazing technical things in order to achieve that. The game doesn't have textures in its download and creates them from MATH in somewhere like 3 to 5 seconds - no joke. So that was a notable achievement, too.. -Dan

First off, I love you all so very much, keep kicking ass. Secondly, if you had to live/be roommates with a character from one of your games for a whole year, who would it be and why?

Hmmm, tie between Sofia and Yosef. I agree with Erin, that a grand adventure wold ensue, but Yosef is a bit of a cerebral, cosmic, multi-dimensional phenomena. I feel like you can learn some crazy stuff from him and see how deep the rabbit hole goes... -ian

Sofia. I'd end up stranded in a jungle somewhere with nothing but a sword by the end of it, but it would be an amazing ride :D - Erin Jungjohann

I think I'd not mind having Yosef around. He seems to have a lot of insight/foresight on things, and keep things weird. -Dan

What is your favorite unit to use in Pit People and why is it the rainbow horse?

It's strange that the Rainbow Horse seems to have split into two sets of Kobolds! -Dan

What's the most challenging aspect of game development?

I think everyone's brain is wired a little differently. Sometimes it's just a lot of whatever your biggest weakness is as a task. For myself personally, I'm not sure, since we do a different genre every time. I'd say trying to smooth out corners I work myself into design-wise can be the hardest part, and sometimes there's no nice way out of them. And there's always new corners to paint myself into since each game genre is different and we approach every genre from a purposely different angle to begin with!

-Dan

What was the inspiration behind castle crashes?! I loved that game

You mean, besides the crusades, right? Because those were a big part of it. Seriously though, I've heard Dan talk a lot about River City Ransom and his love for it, but I'll let him go over any details if he sees this :) - Erin Jungjohann

After Alien Hominid we knew we wanted to try a beat-em-up. Tom, Stamper and I made a flash game on Newgrounds.com called "Dad 'n Me" ( http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/254456 ). We felt it might not be a great idea to make a game that revolved around beating up innocent children who cannot fight back for mass-market, though, so we went on redressing the fighters. It was initially going to be a lot of very different fighters as the main cast, but once I had made the knight I wanted to try and take it another angle and Tom seemed supportive! Voila! -Dan

How do you work with your game ideas? Do you have a list of game ideas prepared that you work down from, or do you come up with game ideas after your latest game is done and you are searching for a new project? Or is there something in between where a staffmember may come up with an idea while working on a current game? Is it often a collaborative effort or does the ideas often come from single individuals? I'd like to know the details of how you decide what game ideas to go with and how you come up with them.

Anyone (internally) who wants to can present an idea for what the next concept should be. Once we've looked through ideas/sketches and talked about it, we start prototyping one of them. If it has legs it's good to go, and if it falls a little flat we prototype another. We haven't thrown out too many ideas, though we did redo Castle Crashers from scratch (used to be on Gamecube and look/play very differently, you can find it with some google-fu), and a lot of them are pretty exciting so they wait in the wings for the next time out like those space marine guys in Starship Troopers. Or the guy that pees next to Russel Crowe in Gladiator. Which one will survive? -Dan

Will there be pets?

You mean like gnomes? Yes, but they don't appreciate being called that. - Erin Jungjohann

That fully depends how you view creatures that you've killed all the friends of and dragged back in a golden cage. Are they pets? I suppose it's quite similar to hamsters or something. -Dan

do you think pit people will be fully done in 2017? also what do you mean by prizes?

We've estimated 2-12 months for the full release of Pit People to be completed, so there's something like a 90% chance of that I suppose! You know, I personally have no idea about the prizes, but, it might be codes........ -Dan

N87V3-06TEM-9VVF7

3Z4VJ-B3Z5F-FZ667

-Dan

Hi, about Pit People, what will the differences between world maps mean, just visual changes or something else?

Hello! So, the different worldmaps contain their own unique regions and landmarks (that you'll get XP for discovering). Different regions can mean that different enemy teams will pop up and patrol that part of the world. There are ALSO over a dozen bonus missions and hidden stuffs to find that are unique to each worldmap. - Erin Jungjohann

Any more Pit People that take up 3 slots? I love troll mom!

It's fun to think of characters that would be high power/high risk like the Troll Mom, but currently there are no other ones like her in the game. I do have one other that I was hoping to get in at some point or another. -Dan

Are all of your games in a shared universe? And if so do you guys have a timeline of when the games would take place?

That very much could be true. I like to leave that kind of thing up to the player to decide --- but in Pit People, all time and space is merged so it'd definitely include those guys! -Dan

I played the beta and there's a few things I didn't understand:

• How do levels affect pit people?
• Do enemies scale with level or story progression? Can you just grind the game away if you want or try to beat it with a low level team?
• If enemies scale with level or story, are you supposed to train low level pps by just sticking them with higher level ones?
• Are there any differences among pit peoples of the same type (cylops, cupcakes, etc)? Can you capture the same guy twice?
• What's the point of tournament points? Where do you have to place at the end of the day to get the gold items?
• Will there be a 2-pack on Steam?

Leveling up heals your character on the battlefield. It also gives your character a small permanent boost to their defense, health, and damage output. You'll notice if you give a level 1 guy a sword and place that same sword in fairly higher level guy's hand that the damage output is increased.

Enemies scale, but not 1:1 and not necessarily in the expected manner. The math is complicated and I hesitate to expose it too much so there's not gaming-of-the-system, but you should never feel like a level 1 guy or a level 99 guy are a bad idea to bring if I've done it right.

There are no differences between fighters of the same exact type aside from their name. You can find a fighter of the same name and theoretically have an entire army of them, but it is highly unlikely.

Tournament points put you in a Gold/Silver/Bronze standing within the bracket you've been assigned to. Each day whatever bracket you've been assigned to is remixed and you'll be against completely different people in the list. You don't have to fight anyone in the list, you just need more Pit Points than others to compete, which includes either doing Versus or Unfair Challenge modes in the arena. At the end of the day, the game looks at whether you are Gold/Silver/Bronze and awards you the corresponding amount of items. The items are not tiered themselves, but you'll receive less of them if you are a lower medal type for the day.

We hope to have a 2-pack. I'm not 100% sure if an Early Access game can offer that, however. Here's to hoping! -Dan

Any plans for an alien hominid sequel?

On average, how many big fat dicks per hour does Stamper suck?

Alien Hominid has to come back one day or another since it's starting to get lost on availability. I don't know about a sequel or an update or a port or what, but it should happen sooner or later.

You're a lewd boy aren't you? You lewd, lewd boy. You should be spanked!!!!!!! -Dan

Dan has such a unique art style, is it taught to all artists, is unique style encouraged, or does Dan really just do all of the art?

Hi there! We like unique stuff, from design to looks to approaches. It varies from game to game for how much I've personally put into it. On Alien Hominid I did the vast majority, for Castle Crashers that's about the same but with Jeff Bandelin coming in to make those awesome character portaits on character-select, for BattleBlock Theater I had Eric Haddad helping me stay fresh by covering environment stuff, and for Pit People I'm not entirely sure how it breaks down yet but I've got a guy named Patrick (not saying last name until it's out so nobody tries to steal him away!!!!!!) who is kicking butt on absolute tons of environment stuff and any other loose ends. My stomping grounds would be in the character/FX art, which are my strengths. I generally ask our other guy to help me tackle environment stuff, some marketing art, and other loose ends that just aren't my strengths. We've never had more than 2 artists total (myself included in that number) on hand, however, this time we do have 3 total as Stamper is doing the cinematics almost entirely on his own (art+voice acting+written dialogue). I'm just considering myself lucky there's people out there that can emulate whatever style it is and learn to navigate around the fact that my art breaks rules and even its own set rules for a lot of things. -Dan

Dan - what's it like growing up in the mean streets of Ohio, to have come so far?

Ohio is a piece. I'm thankful I came out mostly alright I guess. -Dan

It's awesome to see such cool games from small company. How many people were working on each game?

Whoa, this one is tough, so I'm applying only partial info here. Maybe someone else can help? So these are my calculations which include both development, test, and any additional helpers.

Alien Hominid - ? Castle Crashers - ? BattleBlock Theater - 15 Pit People - 23

Alien Hominid probably had like 3 people and a sock puppet If I remember correctly. -emil

If you add musicians in to the core count that number will go up by anywhere from 1 to 10+. For their amazing selves in list format, just check out the credits in any of the games!

How much will early access on steam cost? sorry but im a bum and i need to find enough bits of metal to sell to get a copy

$15 for Early Access, $20 for the full release

Backs_People_Up, thanks for backing us up! Same to you el-zach! -Dan

What was the origin of your company name and logo?

It took us forever to come up with a name. After we were happy with one, it seemed everything was already taken. We reverse engineered it by having the drawing first and then naming it. "Behemoth" is often in reference to a gigantic lumbering company that no one has any control over and was kind of our worst personal nightmares. It felt exciting to sort of embrace it as a joke. We also imagined the chicken as being big enough to crush cities, so it fit. -Dan

One thing I've always liked about BBT is all the different heads you can unlock and play as. I've always wondered though, how long did it take to come up with all those head designs and implement them?

Dan was drawing new prisoners all they way up to release, and would often go back and spruce em' up with color and animations if they were looking a bit boring next to their newer cellmates. Pit People has come along the same way, there's just MORE of it. Like... a lot more. It's actually gotten pretty ridiculous, you guys - Erin Jungjohann

What is your prediction as to the most meta and OP team setup? If you don't want to answer that, just tell me about your personal favourite setups. Thanks for the AMA!

I don't really believe anything is OP. There are 'annoying' setups to fight against, but nothing where you should feel like they have a clear advantage if I've done my job right.

I suppose there are things that are much more difficult for the average player, or things that seasoned players would have enough experience to get an edge on anyone not-seasoned, or things that are particularly good for co-op story.. but I'd rather not inspire anything like that directly.

Personally I really like bringing 4 sets of Kobolds with a Cupcake and Vampiress. It demands careful management and has a lot more utility than it initially seems. I'd call it risk/reward but it really isn't necessarily classified as that. It's just a weird, different feeling to play with in a versus environment.

Spidaurs have absolute tons of utility, and even more if there are 2 of them. I've been toying with lots of those setups and find all kinds of potential in there.

-Dan

What is your favorite character you've drawn so far??

That's really hard to choose, because all of them were things I decided to create and enjoyed creating each and every one of them! I really like the Barbarian Boss/Painter Boss from Castle Crashers, the Racoon Monster from BattleBlock Theater, The Alien/Fat Kids from Alien Hominid, the Hair Trolls/Vampiress from Pit People. -Dan

Yes, what would you do if Marvel came to you tomorrow and asked you to do an X-Men video game?

I think the obvious answer is dating sim. Without question. - Erin Jungjohann

I whole heartedly agree. The first thing that comes to mind is a Cyclops POV VR game where you use your powers in everyday life scenarios, but then I realized we don't make 3D games. So I would take what Erin said and harken back to the Chris Claremont X-Men days where we cared and were entertained with the everyday aspects of X-Men life... like dating. -ian

and then I realized more that we also don't play with others' IP as we like to create our own. -ian

What feature was underused or the biggest accident that turned out great?

How characters target was actually something that kind of occurred mid-prototype phase. As it was first being put together, traditional direct targeting (or any targeting at all) just wasn't available yet -- but movement was. It spurred my inspiration to strip direct targeting out completely, which made playing defensively/wisely a very interesting and emergent sort of strategy in itself! We of course tried it with direct targeting but it just wasn't as curious, and it reminded me of what I didn't really like about that kind of thing. Whoever steps forward first gets focused down and destroyed, and mistakes are far more punishable. -Dan

Why do you make all of your games so different in their gameplay?(Castle Crashers is hack n slash, Battleblock is a platformer, and Pit People is a strategy game) Keep up the good work, can't wait for Pit People!

It's fun to try new stuff, but I also think one of our unspoken missions is to try putting our own spin on a lot of different genres. The more solidified the genre is the more I kind of want to tackle it and shake things up! -Dan

Will Pit People be coming out for the XBOX360 at all, or just the One? Love your games, and have slowly made all of my friends fans.

I did the beta for steam and my computer seemed fine, but would love to play it on my XBOX if possible. Thanks for doing the AMA, guys!

Thanks for spreading the word! We have no current plans to bring Pit People to Xbox 360, sadly. Reflecting on it all, it's kind of crazy to think the Xbox One came out 4 years ago and that the Xbox 360 debuted 12 years ago! -Dan

Greetings! Sorry to say, Xbox One and original Xbox only. There are currently no plans for the 360. Also, I was kidding about the Xbox. xoxoxoxo - ian

What would your top tips be for an aspiring video game developer?

1. Make mods with people. It's 100% emulation of the real deal and a great foot into the door if you want to be hired elsewhere. If you make mods for a popular game and it is received well, you might even get some recognition prior!

2. Tackle all problems with positive energy.

3. Remember that "haters" care about you. They wouldn't show you any emotion otherwise. It's possible a hater might actually like your game but have a dislike of a mechanic, technical or design issue that you could adjust.

4. Learn to interpret requests. A request for a button that kills everything on the screen every time they press it might be a symptom of a game being too difficult, a sign that you have awesome explosions in your game and need more, or something else.

5. Accept that you'll never know what you're doing. We all have an expectation when we make a game that when someone sits down to play it they'll know exactly what we know about it at some point. The truth is, that's not the truth! Learn where the game fails to communicate or motivate something for the player and adjust it until it does.

6. Try to always breathe something fresh into your own mix. Inspiration of other games is great, but is even greater when you rethink it from the ground up as you go and experiment the whole time.

Good luck!!!! -Dan

1. Make make make. create create create. The tools are there and making a project from start to finish, no matter the size, is always an informative, educational, and rewarding experience.

2. If you want to work at studio, then portfolio. When hiring you need to see the work. Anybody can walk in and say yeah, I'm good at this or that and worked on whatever.

3. The world is not short of ideas. Yes, a great idea is unstoppable, but getting that idea across the finish line is the key attribute we all need as developers. In my humble opinion of course. -ian

Random Castle Crashers steam code drop! WNL72-KR3JH-YN62V We love youuuuuu!

Since the Oatmeal made a card game, and Cyanide and Happiness made a card game, has the Behemoth considered working on a card game based on the characters in their games?

We've considered board games and card games, and have some ideas. We're noobs when it comes to making physical versions of games as most of ours have all been digital, so it's a little difficult to know our boundaries but I believe one day we may get there! -Dan

Random Castle Crashers steam code drop! QCXIA-MN3LI-2W6MH We love youuuuuu!

What exact time is tomorrow?

The exact time of tomorrow is Tomorrow O'Clock.

The exact time of tomorrow's Pit People release on Steam will be at 10am PST!!!!!!

-Dan

Is there perma-death option/mode in Pit People?

We did think about this more than once as we were deciding what would and wouldn't go into Insane mode. Ultimately, it felt a bit inconsistent to have some fighters permanently die, while others (Horatio, Pip, etc) couldn't for story reasons.

Personally, I just consign my failed fighters to the pit of shame, under the house and off of my team. How else will they ever learn? - Erin Jungjohann

Thanks for doing this AMA. I am mostly a Linux gamer, so I have some questions regarding linux of course.

Have you guys thought about porting your games (Castle Crashers, Pit People, Alien Hominid) to Linux/SteamOS?

Thank you for porting Battle block theatre.

Yes! We do consider Linux among other OS's each and every time we make a game, and while we'd love to support it forever and always it is difficult to find the time and resources to meet each and every SKU. Since we are unable to do so, we have to pick and choose. There are many different places you can buy Castle Crashers and Pit People, so at least part of the hope is that we've supported enough popular platforms (Xbox 360/XB1/Mac/Windows/PS3) that you wouldn't require it on Linux. Perhaps if we grow the team a little more we could assign someone on the code side to look into supporting the titles for Linux, but currently it's a bit difficult to juggle. My sincerest apologies. For Pit People, we do have Linux as a hopeful to-do after the game has been released, but I hesitate to make any promises since it is not 100% certain! -Dan

Will there be easter eggs?

There are literal Easter Eggs that you can wear in place of the masks for the Wraith character.

There are the traditional easter eggs, as well............ -Dan

What was you favorite part about working on Pit People?

Playing it, honestly. The fact that Pit People is always a crapshoot on where you'll be fighting and who you'll be fighting means it's always another type of encounter. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I love competing in the game against others, as I'm not much of a competitive player anymore. In terms of straight-up work, I really liked making the character looks and designing their strategic functions around a unique stab at the genre. -Dan

Hey guys, big fan of your work! Will definitely be looking into Pit People. Question, are there currently any plans to release Castle Crashers on PS4? Thanks for doing this AMA!

Unfortunately, nothing to announce on that front. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but with us it's always a matter of bandwidth. Right now, as a whole, we are focused on Pit People. We've done all our ports in house to date as we like to keep things close. Once Pit has shipped... well, then you never know what the future holds...-ian

What are some of the pros and cons of indie development?

Pit People isn't planned to come to the PS4 since there doesn't seem be enough time or resources for you guys, and putting PP out on Early Access suggests that a bit of support is needed to fully finish the game. Does this feel worth it since you can all make the game you really passionately want to create without interference?

Can't wait to play Pit People tomorrow! You guys are awesome

Pros: You get to make whatever you want. Cons: You have to make a game, company, engine/tools, team all by yourselves at the same time and that can be very difficult. It's also very risky.

Pit People is out on Early Access simply because we feel it's a lot of fun in its current state. We're not doing it for financial reasons. The base gameplay of adventuring, challenging yourself, exploring, trading and playing against other players is all there and not going to change much which is why we're so confident about it. It just feels awkward holding onto the game in its current state and we have the option to get it out there now, so I guess that's why we're doing it. We've never done Early Access before, and we realize the negative connotations that people sometimes apply to it, so that's a little scary but we have faith that people will understand our angle.

We mainly just have to fill out the story, and in the meantime people can build up their unlocks and teams.

See you on the hexagonal hills!!!

-Dan

Hello! Have you thought of making a Cyberpunk meets Castle Crashers game?

...I have now! But next, a question for you: how many punks could a cyberpunk punk if a cyberpunk could punk punks? - Erin Jungjohann

It would probably be a count of 0.

Are you suggesting a cyberpunk couldn't punk punks? Because I'll have you know that there's an implant for that :) - Erin Jungjohann

Are there any plans for a Castle Crashers 2? I played the hell out of it on Xbox 360 and I'd play a sequel for sure. Thanks!

The older one of our games gets the more I know what I'd do to spruce it up if we were to make another version. I have a laundry list of things I'd fundamentally change about Alien Hominid, a good number of things I'd do if we redid Castle Crashers, and a small list of things I'd change about BattleBlock Theater. We've always said we wouldn't make a sequel unless it guaranteed going beyond just fulfilling "more of the same" (which would ultimately end in sadness for all of us). Every year becomes more likely for a remake/spinoff/sequel from us, but I hesitate to even say any of this as I don't want to get anyone's hopes up in the off-chance that we just always have a more exciting idea on hand. -Dan

QAHPQ-WD7RG-35AIB !!!! -Dan

What do levels do in pit people ?

Levels give you a bit more health, defense and damage output, not to mention heal your pit person to full health immediately!

Also bragging rights; higher numbers are better than lower numbers... that's just science - Erin Jungjohann

I loved battleblock theater, but what was the inspiration?

An inspired BBT steam code:

RZL2M-XV6E5-FX7RE

for the taking! -ian

Awesome, I'm glad! Also, I shall kindly direct you to Alien Hominid, and the "PDA Games"; one of those will look pretty familiar if you're a fan of BBT :)

As to the cats and trapping people in a theater, man, what WON'T cats do? - Erin Jungjohann

I feel like after a few games Stamper will become a bit boring, would you consider working with Justin Roiland? The Behemoth style of humour crosses over with that of Rick & Morty, and he is a big gamer himself.

A few = 3, right? Well, we're at 2 and I am still brought to tears. I was actually looking back on some BBT stuff and actually noticed how different the 2 narrators are. There have been different levels of collaboration with the 2 games with regard to when Stamper got involved with the project. One is toward the end, the other from the start. So I think that plays into this a bit with how drastically it affected and help mold things. We like to tackle things organically, with friends or people we've been working with. So to go outside our collective is odd, but not impossible. One thing to note about Stamper is that he writes all his dialogue. He's a hybrid, a humorist, a visionary. I don't know Justin personally, but I'm a fan and know that he too is a hybrid with what he brings. I think I'm rambling now. What was the question? that would be awesome and there are a lot of fans here. -i

Will Alien Hominid ever come to PC?

That would be great. For us it's always a matter of bandwidth. Right now we are focused, as a whole, on Pit People. We've done all our ports in house to date as we like to keep things... well, close. I think, without getting in trouble, I can say that it will find its way there some day. We just need to solve time dilation and/or cloning first. But seriously, it will be when it makes sense and in a way that does not affect other projects. -ian

I think it's quite likely! However, we are not currently doing that. -Dan

I've been a big fan of BattleBlock Theater since I got it on steam, and have been following the storylines of BBT as well as Pit People since the first trailer and played part of the steam closed beta.

There's a few people I know(including myself) who wants to know for certain.
Would Hatty Hattington play a part of the Pit People storyline at any point other than killing Honey Hug at the intro cutscene of the game, and not just being a decoration hat?

PS - XWGGX-Q6MQK-00PTF

Neither confirming or denying... but wouldn't that be a bit spoilery? Don't get me wrong. These are like may fave topics. -ian

Love your games and can't wait to continue playing Pit People tomorrow!

Question for you - were the Trolls and their attributes (pitch black hairy, prominent teeth/eyes, healing abilities, big number, uncivilized) both in Castle Crashers and Pit People inspired at all by the Fuzzies from the Mario universe?

No. I was a bit tired of the sheer number of borrows from Tolkien's universe and wanted to mix it up a little. When I sat there thinking what a troll might be instead of the regular assumption, the trolls in the movie Willow sprang to mind. They were black-haired gross things that crawled around on abandoned castle walls and I felt like re-envisioning them into something a little more cute. Thinking of the trolls as pure hair with teeth and eyes was a spin I really liked putting on it, and it allowed me to kind of accept them any size imaginable. -Dan

Will you guys be doing any more Castle Crashers games? I have followed you since ye olde newgrounds days (I actually have one of the oldest active accounts still on there) and I have to say, CC was and still is my goto drunk party game.

It'd be a shame if we never revisit that world. I hope we do!!! -Dan

Are there summons in Pit People? Pretty sure Hatty would make a great one.

In Pit People we can't rename our units, is it to make sure no one puts an obscene name?

Will we see more customization items and units throughout early access or is everything pretty much there?

You don't "summon" specific dudes in the middle of a fight, but both the Gorgon and the Troll Mom like to pop out little helpers throughout a battle. That said, if you were hoping to see specific characters, don't be surprised if you see some familiar weapons and helmets here and there. And yes, we'll probably add a few more as we go :)

Oh, names! Yeah, that was part of it, but also, names become just one more fun thing to get excited about when you're thinking about who to recruit. It's a lot more fun to recruit a pixie with that hat you really like if he's also named "Infinifart". - Erin Jungjohann

How long do you guys work for everyday? I've been considering picking up programming as a job but I don't know the environment very well. So what is the environment like?

Our environment is fairly unique. We ask of no overtime and hours are flexible so long as people are doing 40/week. We encourage people to tackle whatever they are most inspired by as long as nothing else is high priority in front of that -- None of which is something I'd say you should expect anywhere else. Sometimes I'll work weekends and long nights for months, other times I take every weekend for months and work some shorter days, catching up on one of them. -Dan

Hi guys, big fan and very excited for Early Access tomorrow.

My question is, do you plan on encouraging PvP to any extent? That is, maybe adding new units (or any form of DLC) or providing some incentive?

I know Pit People was in Beta but Online was mostly empty and very laggy.

I have high hopes, and I know you guys won't let me down!

First of all, sorry it was lagging. Second, I don't know what you mean when you say Online was laggy. I'm unaware of any beta feedback which mirrors yours so I'd love to hear in more detail what lagged, whether it was PC or XB1, and whether it was visual lag or network lag or ?

I believe after players go through the story (it's incomplete in early access) they'll do some quests and then start to dabble in the more challenging bits of the game like the Unfair Challenge and Versus. In the betas we had a fairly healthy versus community which was my own personal favorite to go to.

It serves as a great place for anyone looking to stretch the game or challenge themselves, especially in 2v2. Keeps things fresh, and I only hope to look at versus and see if there's anything I can do to keep it fresher.

-Dan

Oh boy! I'm so Excited about this AMA but even more excited about Pit People coming to Early access tomorrow. You guys are by far my favorite development team in the whole world. You have even inspired me to pursue a career in the gaming industry and my dream is to one day work on the games you guys create and I cherish. What has been the hardest part of breaking into the world of development for all of you? I'm guessing you love making the games you do but what is your favorite part of the game making experience for you guys? I hope you have an awesome day and also an amazing early access launch!

Dude, that's awesome... thanks! I suppose the hardest part for me was just finding a team of people like The Behemoth, who were excited by and laughed at the same stuff I did. My favorite part of the process is really hard to nail down, especially for Pit People; I've laughed myself to tears A LOT while making this game, but I also really love watching people play our stuff for the first time at shows, so... I just can't pick!

Hope you have enjoy Pit People, and thanks for joining us for Early Access! - Erin Jungjohann

Do you plan on Linux support for Pit People?

Nothing to announce at this time on that front. Right now we are focused on Xbox One and Windows. We would love to be on all platforms, but as always, it comes down to bandwidth.

PS- bbt steam code: RVWN0-2QDAT-2KF4A

Ever plan on making a sequel to Castle Crashers or a similar game to it?

I hope we do one day. -Dan

Will you make castle crashers 2?

I hope we do one day. -Dan

Are you hiring? i´m a programer from Paraguay, with experience in openfl/haxe skills in really simple game develop

Send any and all inquiries to games [at] the behemoth [dot] com with your resume or portfolio and we'll check it out. We're always keeping our eye out! -Dan

what was your favorite part of developing this game or any game in general? And how do these ideas for these games form (e.g. from other games, dreams, etc.)?

It was very fun trying to figure out the base mechanics and rules, as well as figuring out what kinds of fighter types would be available. Since the fundamental gameplay was unique, there were all kinds of weird challenges and things associated with it that I loved figuring out. As for the rest, I've answered our "idea process" to Tyranazord on this page if you wanna check it out! -Dan

Played everything you've made since playing through Alien Homonid countless times on Newgrounds. Played the Pit People beta and it's amazing, to say the least. You guys can do no wrong. You've hit so many styles and gameplay. Can't wait for the next Pit People beta tomorrow and future games! :D

Dan: I'm the hat guy from all of those SDCC, but I've missed you the past two years. Any chance I could send it to you for an update? :)

Thanks! It's a lot of fun to do a different thing every time, and it's exciting because I never know what I'm doing and I have to figure it out. Oh, I was wondering where you'd gone! Send it our way, we'll do it up and I'll send it back! -Dan

What in particular influenced the team's decision to pick a suicidal, fabulous, scrumptious cupcake as the healer class?

Also, roughly, how many of the 'hidden' classes, such as the Gorgon, are there going to be in the full release? Gotta catch 'em all, y'know.

Everyone's favorite fighting pastry was actually first drawn as a traditional "dude in a robe". Part of the reason to switch over to the cupcake concept came with the idea that the healer sacrificed health in order to heal, and what more delicious way to show that mechanic than edible, shareable frosting? - Erin Jungjohann

I love you and your games....do you love me though?

Things are progressing nicely, but it's just too soon to drop the L word. You haven't even met our parents yet. Let's see how things go

Hey Behemoth folks, a serious question and a non-serious question:

I know it's a long shot but are we ever going to see Alien Hominid on Steam?

and...

I just found out your downtown office is like two blocks from my downtown office, can we be best friends?

Insert obligatory "omg I can't wait for Pit People to launch tomorrow"

That would be great. For us it's always a matter of bandwidth. Right now we are focused, as a whole, on Pit People. We've done all our ports in house to date as we like to keep things... well, close. I think, without getting in trouble, I can say that it will find its way there some day. We just need to solve time dilation and/or cloning first. But seriously, it will be when it makes sense and in a way that does not affect other projects. -ian

How much profit are you expecting this AMA to net you since that's the only reason you're doing it?

My personal dream has always been to make people happy (as many as I can) and to make cool and interesting things. I made sure that anyone I made the company with or employed shared that mindset. Money has never been a focus of The Behemoth's and while it is necessary to continue on we've never compromised our beliefs or underlying motivations. We all come from jobs where we wished we could just control where things go and love putting a smile on people's faces. In order to keep doing that we have to reach as many people as possible, to spread the good word and give insight which is why we do AMAs, so in a nutshell it is an incorrect assessment you're making. It's amazing to have been able to reach millions of people so far and I can't think of a better way to do it. Have an internet hug from myself, please!!! -Dan

Will female game creators ever get a fair standing in the gaming community?

Hmm? What does that mean? So vague for such a broad subject. "Gaming community" literally encompasses the entire planet and most populations on it. There's plenty of well-received games with female game creators behind them. In fact, I'd say if someone likes 2 or 3 games, chances are high that females worked on at least one of those games, if not all. -Dan