JTheDoc

I just wanted to know the ratio of the level of attention you put into your UI/Performance/Battery life, and whether you do recommend any roms aimed at specifically each category?

-Thanks for the excellent work, really appreciate the effort and work you put into making people better enjoy their mobile experiences! Avid user of custom/modified roms since windows mobile 2003!

Surprised to see no mention of Total Annihilation: Kingdoms... This was a fantastic game. I actually remember playing this on my first PC aged 7! Totally blew my mind how visually appealing and gripping it was.

My question... Will you ever consider working on the Kingdoms games again? They had a really detailed lore that for a kid didn't actually bore me. The styled artwork and music really lives deep in my memory! I remember my disc specifically being scratched at one point and made most of my games take forever to load. It was still worth the wait!

The levelling up with gold armour is something you rarely see anymore? Why does unit experience get left out in so many games? Having an OP mage archer destroy enemies from such a range, and freezing them with various different spells, whilst also being easily destroyed and squishy itself just like the other units gave the game a complete unique challenge that you don't see in a lot of point click rts games... I mostly had a special forces unit that was super experienced. I remember even just lucky goblins getting pretty menacing!

Maybe make the child in me go crazy and give me some secrets, history or info about the game? I recall the credits showing everyone working on this game whilst running the soundtrack. I bet if you looked now you'd see some old faces, whilst also feeling rather old yourself! Do you remember them adding such things to the game? Giving me a new insight to how that game was made, or memorable moments or achievements would really make my day after so long of it being an old fond memory... If you had some old memorabilia you could send a picture/screenshot of or something also? :) It had a beautiful style and art, and used mana so perfectly! All the objects in the game, the buildings, the scenery!

My favourite strategy was converting other build mages to your team and getting the enemy tech! So I always got to have my favourite mage archer and trebuchets. They were admittedly the most over powered units. Just aim for the king/queen with a gold level trebuchet and game over.

When I was a child, it opened me up to the computing world I've spent my whole life involved with since! 1999 was when I was born into computing. All because I saw the making of this game ever so briefly and knew from that point on, PC gaming was the real master race. I even remember playing that game at 1024x768 resolution after building my first pc around 8 as an upgrade! Looked amazing still!

Even if you don't answer, which would break my heart, I hope you really take with you how much that game meant to me as a kid.

I still never got to play it online though... I just made maps and tried to destroy myself with never ending swarms of enemies whilst building this huge siege castle.

Thank you and to those responsible for such a memorable game!!! Much love :) I'm aware you didn't work on the game, but in some way you must have some connection to it I hope! Sorry I'm asking so much, it's a huge nostalgia overload, and I never usually take the chance to ask questions in AMAs as comments get so buried, so I wanted this to be worth it!

Cheers! -The young child in me.

Absolutely! That's rather the convenient coincidence, I would be very thankful, Chris! You must still have a quick game of something when you get the chance I hope right? Or has working in the industry killed the time and interest for such things anymore?

Was this game something in the works at the time of leaving? You still thankfully got to work with some talented people! Jeremy Soule and Clayton! Amongst others. This is really appreciated. I'm glad he'll enjoy hearing it! Recalling it from that age, it is all almost a dream. I'll have to find time to play a round, set up hamachi and get some old friends I remember who said they'd played it.

It had been sold as some "classics" collection games in the UK at Woolworths where I obtained a non scratched disc and gave a friend my old disc. Didn't have the art on it though. Can't find it either. :( It was popular here, at least from what I remember. Boneyards for online play? I used 1p a minute dial up service without my mum's permission to try and play it online, but I think it would understandably knock me off for too high a ping. Surprised I was doing such foolery at that age. My mother was not happy when she saw the bill! Kept it under 60 minutes to show in the "other" calls section. Didn't work. :/ Once I got broadband, Boneyards did not function anymore. :(

Shame I had not invested a little time since to find out more about the game and its creators. I only just got reminded of that time seeing your AMA scrolling on Reddit. You guys totally rock, what a career you've both had! I'm feeling I've under utilised what I could have been doing by now! Congrats on your work with the TA games prior, and Supreme Commander. Playing SC on my severely under powered laptop with GMA950 integrated graphics was the best use of my time whilst travelling around as a younger teen. My friend still laughs about how much time we put into strategy when we'd meet up to play online. We called it "The slowest way to lose online" stratagies. :) I've still got two copies for when people would visit my house and we'd Lan it up or use a crossover cable. Oddly enough my GF of almost 5 years drew the artwork when we knew each other years before when we were friends for practice, it was something I grabbed and said "here, draw this?". I'll upload it and post it when she gets back from work, she knows where it is in our house. :) (Hides everything!!)

Scrolling now through your AMA, you're really putting in the time into your AMA. Nice work!

Getting back from school, and eagerly looking forward to playing that was bliss.

That and some other games. Simcity 2000, Simcity 3000 (awesome soundtrack), Messiah, Warzone 2100, Populous, Age of Empires, Midtown Madness, Divine Divinity, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Doom, Lemmings, Worms, Fallout, Resident Evil, Theme Park, Monkey Island, Half Life, Tomb Raider, The Sims (Soundtrack was awesome, again). I spent a lot of my Christmases opening PC games and spending my pocket money buying these games! Starting to think "I really wanted to make games"... It's never too late. :)

Hope you played some of those though!