Q: As a guy who quit his job to develop games, congrats on the Kickstarter! I have a few questions:
1)Since both of you are programmers, who is doing the art for you guys? Is it a person you knew from before or did you hire the person on a contract?
2)Did you ever feel frustrated and thought of going back to your old jobs?
3)Are you going to release this on Steam?
4)You say you got your asses kicked for 18 months (I will reach 18 months getting ass kicked next month), so did you have other game ideas that didn’t work out or was this the game you were working from from the start and just kept tweaking to get it right?
5)How long did it take to write your own engine/editor?
A: Ooooo, lightning round!
1)I’m doing the art. I produced about a year’s worth of very bad art before finally settling on Stonehearth’s style.
2)I get frustrated all the time, but this is the thing that I want to do, so I’m sticking to it!
3)We will probably release on Steam. You can vote for us on Greenlight here!
4)We’ve actually been working on Stonehearth for 18 months. We had a few false starts technically, getting the core engine and modding APIs right, but we have always been focused on this game idea.
5)18 months and counting. =) The engine is solid and mostly there. We need to spend more time on tools.
Q: I just want to say that I’ve seen your kickstarter and watched you do your thing on twitch and I’m really impressed with how professionally you speak to your audience. (Both of “you”… I didn’t pay enough attention to discern which brother was speaking when.)
That kind of approach seems to be lacking in your industry lately. I feel like being “edgy” or arrogant as an “alpha male” move is too common. Asking for millions of dollars from complete strangers should be an exercise in humility, not a middle finger in the face of “haters” who said you’d never make it. Not only have you put out a great looking product at the kickstarter level, you also have found a way to connect with people and bring them into your process.
I can’t wait for this game. It looks really fun to play and I like you guys as people and would be happy to support your work.
A: Thanks for the compliment. I chalk this up to our kinda-stuffy business software backgrounds. For us software is serious business, even when it’s fun software like games!
Q: What programming language are you using for the engine?
A: C++11 and Open GL
Q: This is a pretty broad question, but since the KS video states the core focus of the game is crafting and building. What kind of things do you see in the crafting aspect of the game? Will there be a supply and demand type deal, like after so many items the blacksmith will require new tools / soldiers new weapons and armor?
A: Crafting is going to all about managing your resources. For example, let’s look at the Carpenter:
Right from the get-go, the Carpenter can craft furniture, wooden swords that let you upgrade people into soldiers, and wooden irrigation pipes that will up the productivity of your farms. So there’s lots of stuff you COULD craft, but you’re limited by the amount of wood you can chop down and more importantly your Carpenter’s time.
So you have to choose, what’s most important? Shelter, army, or food? The answer will depend on what’s going on in your game at the moment and what your long term goals are.
And we will have interdependence between the crafters. The blacksmith will need help from the mason to craft his forge, etc.
Q: Hi, I was just wondering about the sight on the map that you’re playing on. Will you be able to see the whole of the map at once and everything that happens on it or will you be forced to like send villagers/soldiers to investigate certain parts of the map (fog of war). Keep up the good work. This game is going to be epic.
A: We are planning on fog of war.
Q: Hey guys! I backed you already and am quite excited for the release of the game. My question was, what got you started into game development and what were some amusing success/failures early on that helped shape where you are now? Best of luck in the future!
A: Thanks for backing us!
We both really like video games and we like building things (which is why we both chose software for careers), so building a game is just a dream come true.
A lot of our early failures come from being too ambitious. For instance, we originally imagined the game as a full 3D (not voxel) game that looked more like Warcraft 3 or something. Moving to a voxel-type game immediately limited a lot of what was possible, but those limitations allowed us to focus on exactly what we were most excited about (building, crafting, and modding), and just cut off a lot of things that ended up being distractions.
Q: How did you guys get started in the gaming industry? And when did you know that being apart of it was something you wanted to do?
A: We’ve been hovering around the game industry for a while, mostly involved with fighting games. 15 years ago I started a big fighting game website http://shoryuken.com, and started Evo a fighting game tournament which has grown into this mammoth thing. Tony has worked on some game tech like GGPO, network middleware for high-action games like fighting games.
We’re just life long gamers and have always been around games.
Q: Can you replant trees? Is mining/geomancer terrain changing permanent?
A: You can probably replant trees eventually. Seems like a good feature.
Terrain changes are permanent. If you dig a hole, you can always fill it in later, but the hole is a real hole and will stay there.
Q: “But we also feel a lot of responsibility now to not let everyone down. This is a good thing! The pressure keeps us motivated to deliver the best game we can.”
Beyond having the freedom to create the exact vision you want in a game, how is the above sentiment any different from a day job… Pressure to deliver and a lot of responsibility to not let your company down so that you still have a job.
A: Well, first the work is just a lot more fun. It’s way more fun to think about epic monsters and magic than IT business software. Second, we’re working for ourselves now, so the rewards are potentially much bigger. Not just financially, but the satisfaction of having built your vision and other people enjoying the thing that you built.
But your point is correct. It’s still a job.
Q: I can’t wait for the game and especially if we get COOP. I have a couple of questions.
1) Will there be automatic trade between cities? So can i have a friend who is focused on food output and another on raw materials while i focus on producing elite men? And we see real trade between these cities?
2) Will everything be represented with viewable motions. For example if my crops are harvested, will they drop on the floor till someone picks them up and carries them to the store house and then will then be picked up by whoever wants it next. Instead of automatically being used when needed?
My questions are very realism focus i guess, i just love the sense of a real city with real systems that move and interact with eachother.
A:
- Not right away. To do this we would have to have some kind of communication between the game you’re playing and your friends’ games. It’s a good idea and we’ve thought about it, but it’s not at the top of our list.
- Yes. You can see this sort of stuff in the kickstarter video, where the workers physically lift up blocks of wood from the harvested tree and carry them to be stored.
Q: First off, I’m really excited about this game! It looks adorable and awesome at the same time. And a tinfoil hat? YESSSS.
1)Are you playing as one of these settlers as well? Or are you some sort of all-powerful omniscient god figure who tells the characters where to go, what to do, etc.
2)Do these items you create, armor for example, go to your settlers?
3)In one point of the kickstarter video, you guys show a little castle like building with beds, chests?, weapon racks, flag, and shield. Will these items have functions beyond decorative use? And could you customize the flag/coat of arms/shield to your liking?
4)The video says that farming will have a mini-game, but the FAQ at the bottom of the page says you won’t have to micro food and that your farmers will take care of it. So is the mini-game optional?
5)I’d like to pledge $45 and get one beta with a cat, and one with a dog (For myself and my sister). How can I tell which game would have which pet?
6)Will the game be locked to a computer or an account?
A: 1)You don’t play as a settler. You float above the action and give orders, then your settlers obey.
2)Yup
3)Yes, most items will have a purpose. For instance, a settler will work faster the next day if he spent the last night sleeping in a bed and not on the ground.
4)Yeah, the “mini-game” language was confusing. Basically farming will be deep and complicated enough that you could consider it a sub-game. You’ll have choices for when crops you plant, and making the right choice will get you a better yield.
5)The KS rewards will be tied to some kind of authentication. So when you install the game you tell us “I’m me” through your email address or something and we install the right pet.
6)Nope!
Q: Are you planning to eventually bring ships into the game so that you’d be able to fish and have naval combat and so on?
A: Not for a while. There are many things we would like to get done before moving to naval.
The great thing about our modding framework is, if people really want to see something like this a modder may get to it first.
Q:
1)This game looks really awesome, so I’m going to try to stick some ideas in your head if they aren’t already there:
2)Will your game have buildable structures to defend against monsters and such? Things like turrets, near-indestructible walls, etc?
3)I feel like having domesticated dogs to protect people or attack things would be awesome. Thoughts?
4)Presumably, over time one will be able to have multiple cities located far away from each other. Will there be any kind of long-range transportation mechanics? Perhaps a steam train or something like that.
5)If you start the game with monsters/aggression turned off, will you be able to turn it back on later? Say, to build an awesome city in peace then be able to test it later on.
6)I’m not sure how you’re going to handle structure damage, but please make it so structures can be repaired automatically, perhaps by having a unit that will run and start working on anything that’s damaged or something. That sounds neat.
A: 1)You’ll be able to build walls and towers to defend yourself.
2)Yes! The Animal Trainer class will let you do this.
3)So far we have been thinking of the game as you managing one city or one city with a few tiny outposts.
4)Hm, interesting idea. I hadn’t thought of that, so…maybe!
5)Definitely.
Q: As clear proponents and beneficiaries of the current trend in crowdsourcing, how far do you think this is going to go? Personally I am beyond excited for any opportunity to cut out publishers and the population at large for a better chance at the type of games I truly love.
Do you think this model of funding is going to revolutionize how (and what kind of) video games are created, or are we going to look back in 10 years with the same level of disgust (and/or disappointment) that we now have for pogs?
P.S., keep it up! Backing at the $30 level.
A: I do think crowdfunding will revolutionize how new projects get started. It’s just amazing that you can go directly to potential customers with your idea instead of having to get a loan from a bank or approach VCs.
Q: Hey guys, the game looks great, and I will be backing your project when I get home from work later today. I read the info you had on the kickstarter page but haven’t had a chance to go through the videos or any extra material yet.
So my question is will there be a king/ruler character in play at all? like a hero class character that each town has only one of?
A: Lots of people have asked for something like that, so we’re taking a closer look
Q: Knowing about you two from SRK, and knowing how much you guys have done for the FGC you guys are an inspiration in more ways than one. I heard about this project through Ultrachen, and thought it was a great idea!
As an aspiring game designer I would like to ask, what did you begin working on first, did you work on a straight concept or just built an engine first, and then built your idea around that (I hope that made sense)?
Also what are your inspirations behind the game?
Thanks.
A: We started from day 1 with the concept in mind: a game that let you build creatively and share your creations with other people. We decided to build our own engine only after determining that we couldn’t really build the top-to-bottom moddability that we wanted with an off the shelf engine.
Q: Hey guys Congratulations on the success of the kickstarter. I am looking forward to hearing about the progress on the game and I am extremely excited that this game is being ported to Macs. Is there any chance you guys will be using Evo or FGC events as a way to market your game? or are you keeping it separate?
A: I think we’re going to keep them separate. Evo is all about full-on competition, whereas Stonehearth is a game about expressing your creativity.
Q: This is going to be the first time I pledge for a game on kickstarter, even though I’ve seen so many amazing games on there, this one in itself looks absolutely perfect, exactly like what I have been looking for. For so long.
Few questions, unsure which got answered and which didn’t skip whichever was asked before, if you answer this at all!
1)How big are the worlds going to be? Are we talking minecraft GINORMOUS size? Or are we talking Sim City 2012 “I can’t fit a damn thing in here now that I am succesfull”-size?
2)What is the main focus area of the game, early, mid or late-game? I ask this because I often restart a game to change a tiny detail, if early game is very difficult or long this might discourage or even encourage that!
3)When can we expect to see actual gameplay footage of you guys playing? How will you plan to keep is up to date of current progress? This is important to me personally because I am investing money into something and it would be a shame if the game comes out and I can’t even remember why I got so excited in the first place!
4)The races in the game: Is your focus on just one playable race at first to be expanded by modders? Or will the game release with several playable races?
5)How can I get you guys to release this faster? 
The game looks absolutely tremendously epicly awesome of godlike proportions. I’ve been dying for a while to replay something along the lines of the settlers, minecraft, dungeon keeper and sim city combined and it looks like this is it. So much props to you guys, you are living the dream!
Thank you.
A: Wow, thanks for your support!
1)Game worlds will be big enough so you won’t hit the edges. We’re still tuning things, but we don’t want you building in a box.
2)We want the focus of the early game to be about survival, then in the mid game transition to more of an optimization, min-max sort of game. The end game will shift back towards survival and staving off epic monsters and disasters.
3)We want to keep you guys updated as we develop the game. You can see some of our live broadcasts at Twitch
4)We’ll start out with just one playable race.
5)Buy us beer. Kidding! We’re working hard to get the game to you. We want to see it released just as much as you do!
Q: My brothers mod idea: An imp who walks around in the shadows and “breaks” things. Cutting a hole in a house wall, rerouting your irrigation, stealing a hammer, all these would be examples of breaking things. Would it be possible to mod such a character?
A: Absolutely!
Q: Is multiplayer going to be on peoples own server or will you control servers?
A: You can run your own server.
AND THAT ENDS THE IAMA ON REDDIT
ALL ANSWERS (A:) were given by inkblotSRK AND ALL QUESTIONS (Q:) were given by redditors/hearthlings.
Hope this provided an easy way for everyone to read the Q & A without all the extra stuff and having to sift through the comments, etc…