What valuable lessons have you learned from making DD that you will carry forward into future games?

Don't ;)

In reality, plan early for save systems, steam integration and other non-gameplay specific systems. Games take longer to make than you'll think and make less money. Make a game that survives streaming.

What do you mean "survives streaming"?

By surviving streaming we mean that a linear narrative / puzzle game like The Darkside Detective can be consumed by looking at a YouTuber playing the game, resulting in the viewer not needing to (and not wanting to) purchase the game for themselves. So future games we design will have to have a possibility space left for players to want to pick it up and explore the game for themselves.

That's really grim for those of us who, not only would like to make adventure or otherwise narrative games, but happen to enjoy playing them a great deal. I really hope you folks don't abandon ship on the genre; you're quite good at it, IMO. :)

Thanks for saying such nice things. I don't think we're done just yet :)

What’s next for you guys?

Any thoughts of adding extra cases to the game as DLC? I’d love more to go through?

We're meeting later this week to discuss that. We'll discuss DLC and game#2, but can't promise anything. What would you like to see?

An X-Files type UFO/Alien hunt could be really good.

The Dooley Files? The D-Files, maybe?

Something based in Ireland!

An investigation into how the lack of respect paid to fairy forts is causing infrastructure damage.

Haha, that's what we said!

More funny pixel games!

A game about funny pixels?

Yes. If that isn't vague enough, then I don't know what to do

A pixel, being vaguely funny. Like a low-res stand-up show.

"I just flew in from MS Paint and boy are my vertices tired"

You can have that one on the house.

That's 1/4 of my work done. Thank you.

A portal to a parallel world on an island where you meet this guy who wants to become a pirate and... this sounds strangely familiar...

But serious, I would love some dlc cases for DD as well as an longer DD2.

Us too!

Elder Scrolls 6!

Half Life 3, amirite?

Twin Peaks and X-Files are clear influences, but was anything else? There are little references to things, but anything generally?

Blackadder, An unhealthy interest in the occult, Twilight Zone, Tales From The Crypt, growing up in a haunted house, American Gothic, the 80s and 90s, The Outer Limits, the X-Files episode where they take not-Frankenstein to see not-Cher.

growing up in a haunted house

Got any good ghost stories?

Plenty. The Miscellaneous Men, the Time Twins, The Princess, The Garden Man, the things that scratched future dates on walls, Bloodhook Joe, the Other Folk from out back, Rosie, the Headless Truckman, the Insider, and the Stone Dog to name but a few.

I've been following the game for a while now, and I never knew it was being developed while travelling the world. Can you tell us more about that?

Ireland was really expensive at the time and still is. It was near impossible to try and make indie games without working a full-time job so Tracey & Dave having wanted to go travelling for a while looked up the cheapest place they could go with a beach and a decent internet connection and ended up in Indonesia. They moved around for two years while the game was being developed and came back to Ireland for the last few months of development. Disorient Express was built over some sleepless nights in a windowless room in China Town in Kuala Lumper, Tome Alone was built in a converted tin barn in Chiang Mai, Don Of the Dead was designed in a medieval Tavern in Tomar, Police Farce was built between chugging German beer and eating Doner Kebabs in Hamburg.

Without actually seeing or knowing anything else about the game, this makes me want to play it. I just wander how all of these different environments might have had an influence on the game itself. And I am sure they have.

You'll see it bleeding into the work here and there. We (Dave and Tracey) also worked on http://www.onelastsunsetgame.com/ while travelling which was far more influenced by the places and people we saw. We put that game on hold for Darkside, so maybe we'll get back to it some day :)

Did you pull inspiration from any of the classic 80s/90s point and click adventure games? Do you feel like you have advanced the genre? (Haven't played yet, but it's on my list.)

More 80s/90s TV and film than adventure games, really. We tried to keep the charm of the earlier games, but how you remember them rather than how they were.

We like to think that the streamlined gameplay (removing the time-padding walk animations and obtuse puzzles, for example) makes the genre more accessible for a time-poor audience (like us).

Have you made any other games prior to Darkside Detective?

We've all worked on other games, but The Darkside Detective is the first game we've made together.

"Normal" point and click adventures have a bit more options (since they're in "3D") for puzzles, etc. - Did you experience lots of difficulties coming up with good puzzles for a 2D environment?

Because it's very 2D, we sometimes had issues making the environments feel laid out properly. We did a lot of work to try to avoid too much back and forth in cases, especially later in the game.

We don't feel it affected the puzzles, however, but it does give the player fewer areas to search for items.

After you had made the gamejam version of the game, what made you think it would be worth turning into a big, for-sale game?

After the game jam we uploaded it to GameJolt as we were quite happy with what we'd achieved in such a short timeframe. Then we spent a few days trying to get our head around 12,000 people playing it and all the media coverage. from there the decision sort of made itself.

Paul Conway: what are some games with your favourite artwork?

Ben Prunty: what are some games with your favourite soundtracks?

Everyone: is "Spooky Doorway" a reference to "The Scary Door" from Futurama?

Paul: Games which really stand out for me artistically are the classic Another World and Flash Back. I've always loved how they look and I think they are as strong today as they were then. I love how the style was discovered within the limitation.

Most of Nintendo's and Capcom's 16bit games are great and were really influential for me, especially A Link To The Past, which is the first game that I played were I began to see the art as actual pieces of graphics I could possibly make myself.

I love modern games too which push pixel art into interesting styles, like Sword and Sorcery, Hyper Light Drifter and Super Time Force.

Ben: Some of my favorite game soundtracks are EarthBound, Diablo 2, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and Resident Evil 4. EarthBound in particular has always been a huge inspiration for me.

Everyone Else: sort of, maybe, no? Who knows?

Hi guys! Love your game, I laughed out loud way more than I expected to! What was the writing process like when dealing with such a high density of jokes? Also, do you have any other funny game recommendations?

We'd do a first pass on the conversations that were needed to complete a case, then iterate on those. Once the story worked, Dave would go back through the case and add in the other conversations. Again, those would be iterated on until we were happy with them. Then we'd playtest with the public, and edit over time. Essentially, he'd write something not funny, then rewrite it over and over until it was.

As for games, Tracey says Book of Unwritten Tales. Paul says Super Time Force. Ben suggests Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist. Chris suggests Avairy Atourney.

Would you do it again?

Not without a budget. Two and a half years of spare time work was too tough to do again. We have families, friends, jobs, etc, and losing evenings and weekends was too high a cost.

A number of lessons learnt, I guess?

So many. Almost hard to recall them all, but here's a summary: plan early for save systems, steam integration and other non-gameplay specific systems. Games take longer to make than you'll think and make less money. Make a game that survives streaming. Etc, etc...

Any plans to make the Darkside Detective an ios/android game?

We hope to port to mobile in time.

Just finished the game yesterday, it was so good! It really brought me back to my childhood of playing classic point and click adventure games.

As for my question, I'm always curious to know, what game engine (if any) did you use?

We used Unity 3D, which was possibly overkill.

We're glad you liked the game!

What do you think about people who make money on YouTube with your game?

Streamers / YouTubers are a part of modern gaming, it's how lots of people find out about games now, so they can be a way to advertise your game. If the YouTuber makes some money from your game in that regard, that's ok. We can't really complain.

But for a linear narrative, like The Darkside Detective, it can be the way some people consume the game, by literally watching someone else play it. We'd never know if those viewers would have ever been customers or not, but they get to enjoy the game for free in a way, and someone else profits.

I suppose you could say it's a double edged sword.

Why won't Tracy comply with the beards-only workplace policy? Is Chris even trying?

Tracey is Dave's beard.

Chris says he shaved it off. But we all know better.

Will Officer Kal have his own spin off case?

The Barkside Detective.

FOR REAL THOUGH I WOULD PLAY THAT IMMEDIATELY

Consider it made.

Do you have an estimate of how many litres of Irn-Bru were consumed during development?

Chris went thru pioneering surgery to have all his blood replaced by Irn Bru, the side effect of this is that he has to constantly top it up every week... but to estimate roughly... the average human body contains 5.5 litres of blood/irn bru... replaced on a weekly basis is 5.5 x 52 = 286 litres x 2 = 572

The rest of us wouldn't touch that muck.

Chris is actually drinking Irn Bru right now.

I haven't heard of this game before but damn Prunty, the soundtrack for FTL absolutely blew me away. I have over 300 hours in it and the music is one of my favorite parts.

Do you listen to the same music when composing a game like FTL as you did when composing the music for this one? If not, what're the differences? If so, what do you regularly listen to?

Thank you! I tend to just listen to whatever I feel like in my own time. For Darkside I was asked to use John Carpenter and 80's horror films as inspiration. I also drew from my love of Danny Elfman and the current popularity of synthwave for this soundtrack.

Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for the question!

I have to admit, the graphics of Darkness Detective feel quite minimal in some regards. Was this a conscious decision or was this due to any platform constraints?

The minimal style came from the game jam. Paul used a lower resolution to make the art quickly in the time available, and added the HD lighting to give it a bit of a modern touch. We considered doing something more high definition and even did a few tests, but the low-rez style had a certain charm we liked. It got a lot of complements when we launched the demo, too, so decided to keep the minimal style. It was also quite handy for quickly creating art for having fun on social media.

Could you be any painfully more millennial with your game jams and travelling and quirky company name and beards and macs and zelda figurines and casual gameboys "accidentally" left in shot with clearly adult man?

yes

I enjoyed playing The Darkside Detective! It was short, fun and the music was really really good!

My question is, do you guys have any plans to make a detective game with a more serious tone? Something like Gabriel Knight or Cognition?

Right now we're not planning any serious detective games. We do have some serious game ideas, but in different genres.

Really liked DD. Which engine did you use? Unity, GM, etc.?

Unity

Barry's or Lyons?

Viscount or Toffeepops?

King or Tayto?

Barrys 0-3 Lyons (1 abstain) Viscount 1-3 Toffeepops King 1-3 Tatyo

Ben was too American for this poll.

3/3 top tier.

top tea-er?

I see the game is on Steam and GOG. How long before I see it on the Switch? or even just a very big iPad?

We're investigating The Switch at the moment. Mobile ports planned too, but timeline unsure right now.

how did you decide on the name of the game?

The game was originally called 'Darkside', but that wasn't catchy. Then we realised that he was a detective and added that to the end.

Clocked off work early that day.

You're all smiling in the photos except for Chris. Is he able to smile, or have the years spent teaching left him completely incapable of feeling joy?

For Dave - How do you iterate on comedic writing for a project like this? Is there a lot of throwing out jokes to find what ones stick with testers?

Chris generally just hates having his photo taken... but yes... also the teaching thing.

RE writing. Sort of. Some of it is what worked for the team, some is what worked for testers. Most of it, however, are the jokes that worked for me after seeing them a thousand times and still made me laugh. Those that didn't, got reworked.

Did any influences or experiences of your travels make their way into the game?

Not directly as the game was set in 80s/90s USA and we didn't visit the past. But some of the people we met influenced characters in the game, on a subconscious level at least.

What's the best part of working in Ireland?

Ah, loads of things. Great food, great drink, great company. A bit expensive, but what can you do?

@ Dave: Would you like to see The Dark Detective in other languages? Are you worried that translators might "betray" your literary work, with all those jokes and puns?

For sure, we'd love to do it. But if you do fan translations you have the concern of a quality issue and if you do professional translations, you have a cost versus copies sold conundrum. We're investigating it at the moment and hope to find a good solution soon.

Hi guys, recently got the game and played the two first chapters, loving it so far. I was wondering what made you split up the game in case files?

and this is mostly to Dave, I guess: How was your experience of writing while travelling?

Thanks!

Question 1: The first demo was short and people liked that, so we just ran with it. It worked for the TV vibe we were going for and the bite-sized experience we wanted to deliver.

Question 2: warmer, with cheaper booze.

Love this game! Two years is a long time to be doing anything in your spare time. What stopped you from just going "ah fuck it" and throwing the towel in?

Inertia.

If you were given an unlimited budget and time to make game 2, what would you make? Would you stick with point and click adventure or do a AAA game/big open world type thing, or something else? And would it be in the same world or something new?

We certainly want to expand the world of Darkside, so maybe something else there. We don't know if it would remain as a point and click, though.

That said, we have a load of ideas not set in the Darkside world. We're building a thunderdome so we can battle over the next project soon.

What engine/framework/whatever did you use?

Did the development process have any effect on your emotional or physical health?

How are you doing? :)

We used Unity. It was tough working so intensely in our 'free' time, but we're feeling better now, thanks for asking.

How are you?

I remember seeing this on gamejolt and playing the demo, awesome to see the finished product! What would you guys say is next for your team?

We don't know yet. We're meeting this weekend to discuss plans. Some porting, for sure, maybe localisation and some DLC. Follow us on twitter for more as we figure it out :)

Awesome game!

What is your favourite aspect of the game?

I'm starting to sound like a broken record now but will you be reopening work on Randall and Eimear?

We all love different things about the game, but I think our combined favourite part is seeing the reaction to it. It's been very rewarding to see so many people enjoy it.

R&E doesn't belong to us. It's with Benjy Bates to do with as he pleases. We'd love to see it come out, though :)

Has the dark side detective ever been in love? Would he date a ghost? Would you date a ghost? If so, what's the most attractive kind of ghost?

Both Dooley and McQueen have been in love. One of them currently is. They have never dated ghosts, but they've lots of time to try. Maybe they'll get the chance some day.

I would date a ghost. Ghost attractiveness is subjective.

I've never heard of you guys but that's a good thing!

What makes your game stand out? I'm sure you're very proud of it, but should I buy it?

We don't know. We can't make all your life choices for you. What to wear, what to eat, which patch of darkness to stare into contemplating your existence. It'd be exhausting.

We're too biased to answer you honestly, but the game has 96% on steam from 156 reviews and 4.5 on gog. It's reviewed well. Don't trust us, trust the others.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/368390/The_Darkside_Detective/

That's a fantastic review guys, well done!
I'll definitely grab it, although I admit, I am a little disappointed I'm not getting fashion advice today.

Avoid orange, match your socks, accessorize.

What engine did you use to make this game? What are your thoughts on going into production on a point and click game using a framework like the Adventure Creator asset for unity?

We used Unity to make the game. Tracey here: my thoughts on using stuff like Adventure Creator are to make sure you separate your code from their code so that you can update the plugin with the Unity release. I didn't do this and am paying the price. I presumed only minor modifications would be required but there was so much more than anticipated and it's now tightly coupled to AC which is a nightmare. Essentially don't do what I did. Presume your project will grow and have a plan to deal with it when it does. I am facing a lot of refactoring right now...

Thanks very much. I'm not sure how to instigate this separation but I'm going to google this and hopefully learn how to build a future-proof project. Thanks for the heads up.

Subclass rather than modify. Keep your actions separate. Try to keep dependencies to a minimum. Also, email me at tracey {at} spookydoorway {dot} com if you want to chat about this. I'm totally up for codemonkey talk.

While traveling, where was your favorite stop and also what was your favorite thing to eat during your travels?

When in life did you know you wanted to get into making games?

Winston made some great burgers in Vietnam. But Cambodia is a place we nearly settled in. Great place, great people. Not enough sea where we were, though, so moved on.

Dave knew he wanted to make games from about 15, after playing FFVII. Tracey was in college when she realised. Paul wanted to make games from 12/13 when he realised it was a job you could have.

Food update from Tracey:

*Banh Mi in Vietnam

*Nasi Goreng in Indonesia

*Every piece of street food in Thailand

*Hokkien Mee in Malaysia

*Kottu roti in Sri Lanka

*Pasteis de nata in Portugal

*Fried Artichoke in Rome

*Satay in Singapore

*Doner Kebabs in Germany

*Super Duper burger in the US

I saw some great fanart of the game on twitter. What's your favourite piece?

So much to choose from, but here are a few:

• https://twitter.com/kamidog/status/891092875324399617
• https://twitter.com/sayomgwtf/status/891391136555814912
• https://twitter.com/SchipTimmer/status/891162332738486272

Were there any shows/movies/games that came out while you were in production that made you think you were on to a winner with the occult theme?

(The popularity of Stranger Things springs to mind)

When Twin Peaks, X-Files and Ghostbusters came back we knew we were onto something. Stranger Things and Thimbleweed Park's appearance were good for letting us know a new IP would work in that vein.

To all of you: If you were a spooky monster, what spooky monster would you be?

Tracey wants to be zombie Tina Belcher.

Chris wants to be the not-Frankenstein who gets to visit not-Cher

Paul wants to be The Wire (the face-stealing Doctor Who monster)

Dave would like to be something that can swim and see underwater. Some kind of big shark?

Charlie wants to be a reverse vampire

Ben says he wants to be a yeti. Don't we all, Ben.

Can you Tell us about all the chicks you hooked up with around the world ?

I hooked up with Tracey in Indonesia and then Tracey in Malaysia. Then there was this girl called Tracey in Vietnam and, well, you get the picture...

Update: just hooked up with Tracey in Dublin, too.

This guys got a thing for chicks named Tracy... WHAT A PLAYER!!! Good job bro!!!

Bro. For real, Bro. Thanks, Bro. Bro.

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Physical releases cost a lot upfront to make, so it's hard for an indie like myself to make it happen. Not ruling out doing a small kickstarter for a Color Sky vinyl though!

What type of computers / OS did you use for development? Are there any particular dev tools or software you found super helpful during your travels?

We worked on a range of laptops and desktops, a seperate Mac and a bashed up old laptop running various versions of Linux. The most helpful dev tools to the project overall were Trello and Slack as they helped us manage the workload and communicate despite not all being on location.

I have a book on my shelf that I got in a box of free books outside my apartment called Darkworld Detective. I assume there is no relation, but the title similarity drew me into the AMA. So do you think I should read this book?

Also, your game sounds cool, I'll check it out! Apparently I have a thing for dark____ detectives

There is no relationship, bar the universe telling you to buy the game. Then you should find a dark_____ detective dating site.

The business side of this stuff fascinates me most, so

What was the development budget for the game?

How was it funded?
How long did it take?
What are your sales goal?

The development budget was a few refundable bottles we found in a cupboard and some pocket lint. We developed over a two and a half year period, from the original Jam to release, mostly on a part time and funded ourselves while working other full-time jobs. Overall we'd like to complete sales wise with other similar titles.

Are you willing to get specific with numbers?

Sure.

We had zero budget to start with. We got €12,000 from Enterprise Ireland near the end of development, which paid some of our debts from GDC, accountants, and marketing.

The game took about 2.5 years, though it was in our spare time and had gaps as we needed to see family and so on.

Sales goals are a little murky as data is hard to find, but we started with the hope to sell 32,000 copies (being Steam's average), but soon realised that that figure was often bulked out from sales, so aiming for that goal was essentially meaningless as it doesn't give us projections for sustainability. Since then, our goals have become (a) sell enough copies to cover ports and localisation, (b) be able to pay ourselves to produce some DLC cases and (c) enable us to develop a prototype for a second game to either bring to funding bodies or crowd funding. As an aside from sales figures, we wanted to deliver a game people liked and to develop a community, as that helps us work on either a sequel a new IP.

We hope that helps.

What is the best brain food for game-making?

Paul says sleep. Tracey and Dave say wine.

Were any of the team able to work full time on the game or did you all have to work on it as a side gig?

Not really, not paid, but Tracey didn't take any contracts for the two months leading up to launch so she could focus on dev'ing and testing the game.

Congratulations on the game release!!! what college did you guys study in? I'm heading into my final year of a Bachelors in Software Design(game dev) in A.I.T in September and to be honest I didn't really know there were many, if any, indie game companys like this in Ireland!!! Where is your office based? If you need a student slave let me know!!

P.S We use unity a LOT in our course, last year me and 3 others made a VR flying game using unity and fan support for extra immersion but yet I still feel incompetent at using the software, have any of you ever went through a similar issue with languages or using programmes??

Tracey studied engineering in Trinity college Dublin. Paul studied computer animation in Ballyfermot. Chris did games development in Glasgow. Dave studied Engineering too, but not in Trinity. Ben went to a two-year technical college to study Audio Engineering, which mostly amounted to recording local rock bands. It was great, but not exactly the most direct or efficient path to game music, so he dosen't necessarily recommend it to aspiring musicians.

We don't have an office, we work remotely. Currently Dublin and Galway with Ben in the US. Slavery is illegal in Ireland. And bad, I guess.

From Tracey : I feel incompetent every day and every time I write a line of code. The day you stop feeling incompetent is the day you stop learning and striving to be better so own it, work hard and make cool games! :)

Dave can't code (or do much of anything really), but Unity let him do some basic prototyping of cases.

Chris adds "make as many games as possible, the engine is a tool not the end product, don't get too hung up on the tech, focus on playability and enjoyment"

Apart from Twin Peaks and X-Files, what are your favourite TV shows?

Dirk Gently is a good watch. Glow is fun too. Would you play a game about women wrestlers?

What do you think about the potential for branching narratives in adventure games?

Lovely idea, but for a smaller team it's the choice between making a bigger game or a smaller game that many players won't see all of. Telltale did it with parts of The Walking Dead and The Wolff Among Us, but those sections were so small I (Dave) can't imagine many folk replayed to see what they missed out on. I have no data to back that up, however.

I played the demo for this a year ago! Fun stuff.

How on earth did you guys manage to create a game while travelling?

It's the same as working from home, really, but your days off are more exotic.

We avoided hostels, as they were too busy. We'd rent small places so we had internet and space and could work the hours we needed to. We used https://nomadlist.com/ to research places and ask around. Tracey took on short term coding contracts as needed and Dave works for Greenheart Games* a few days week remotely, so that helped cover costs. We cooked for ourselves and kept things as cheap as possible.

*check out http://tavernkeeper.com/ for more info

As an Irish teen interested in computers and video games, what advice would you give a potential future dev?

Try to meet some other developers, in person or online. The IrishGameDev Facebook group is a good place to start. It's nice to have other people to bounce off and ask advice from. Find a local community or events you can take part in. There are game jams on around the country.

Regarding game dev skills, just start learning now! Learn to do the parts of game development you think you'll like; art, code, design, whatever. Learn more than one, learn all of them. Whatever you like, but just start. You can start learning any skill you want right now on the internet. Start early! :)

Best of luck getting your game dev skills going!

I've done many gamejams before here in Aus and I'm just curious, all my teams games have been throw aways... what gave you the commitment and courage to carry this project on? Clearly you thought it was a great idea from the start?? Cheers :)

After the jam. we posted some screenshots online and the response was good, so we expanded what we had and posted it online. We got a lot of coverage and plays, so we felt like we were onto something good at that point.