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General discussionCrypt of the NecroDancer: Developer Q&A(87 posts)(87 posts)
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Posted August 17, 2015
Got some Q’s you’d like the devs behind the game to A? Join the team behind Crypt of the Necrodancer for a special forum Q&A session!

A gamedev duet from Brace Yourself Games, Ryan and Heather, are here to answer all your pressing questions about the game, the life behind game development, or their favorite cat video of all time, from from 8pm GMT to 10pm GMT (click the times to check when that is in your time zone).

Here’s a short bio of our guests to give you something to start off with:

Ryan (Creator/Designer, BraceYourselfGames)
-- Has been creating independent games professionally since 2004, including games like IncrediBots
-- Started programming games as a hobby when he was 6
-- Designed Crypt of the NecroDancer by accident, with help from Michael Jackson

Heather (Community Manager/Producer, BraceYourselfGames)
-- Been working in video games for over 10 years.
-- Designed her first board game in middle school, but gave up that lucrative career due to homework demands.
-- Office mates include 1 dog, and 2 cats.


Now that our Crypt of the Necrodancer guests have been introduced, we’d like to remind you our Q&A rules for this Q&A to work as smoothly as possible:

Not all questions might get answered during the Q&A. This means your specific question might go unnoticed or unanswered, but feel free to read along anyway and hang out with us - it’s gonna be fun anyway!
Be nice. This means no abuse, harassment, name-calling and the like.
Don’t spam or take over the thread to go off-topic. This will help us all keep track of incoming questions and help you get the most out of this event - and keep our guests involved!
Try to look through some recent questions before asking a new one. If the Q&A has been going on for a while, it’s likely your question has already been addressed.
Try to keep it about Rampart. Just kidding, we’re sure the devs have lots of subjects aside from Crypt of the Necrodancer that they’d love to have a chat about with you guys!

Let’s get this show on the road!
Posted August 17, 2015
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andreiv72: silly question 101.

I have pernament tinnitus in one ear plus wife toddler & new baby. Can you confirm this crazy game
will block out all sound with my death by base headphones.

Sleep deprived Andrei
Well, it will certainly distract you! :D
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CarrionCrow: Just wanted to take a minute and say thank you for making something enjoyable enough that I've bought it twice, despite having next to no natural rhythm. Looking forward to your next game. =)
Thanks CarrionCrow!
Post edited August 17, 2015 by NecroHeather
Posted August 17, 2015
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Barry_Woodward: What were some of your favorite games growing up?
Well, my fav game of all time is Dwarf Fortress, but I was already grown up by then :) Growing up I liked Megaman 2, Zelda 2, Mario Bros 2... all the weird sequels, hehe. Well I guess Megaman 2 was not so weird. But it was superior, IMO, to 1 and 3.

I also played the heck out of Rogue.
Post edited August 17, 2015 by BraceYourselfGames
Posted August 17, 2015
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Pseudoman: What's the most difficult part of developing a game like Crypt of the Necrodancer: the code development, gameplay elements, project management, or something else?
Just curious to read what a development team thinks about it :)
From my perspective (as a producer) it's coordinating interdependencies so that people who need work from someone else to move forward have it while not putting undue pressure on those who are doing more of the heavier lifting. And from the outside I think that coding might be the most complicated and hardest part of game dev in general.
Posted August 17, 2015
Have you ever seen Geek and Sundry's TableTop?

https://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry/search?query=tabletop

What obscure board games would you recommend?
Post edited August 17, 2015 by Barry_Woodward
Posted August 17, 2015
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undeadcow: What are your best tips for playing Necrodancer?
If you don't have rhythm, play with Bard first. That will help you learn all the enemy patterns so you know what to expect when you start playing Cadence and add the complication of keeping to the beat.
Posted August 17, 2015
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Pseudoman: What's the most difficult part of developing a game like Crypt of the Necrodancer: the code development, gameplay elements, project management, or something else?
Just curious to read what a development team thinks about it :)
I find the most difficult part of development to be the concept phase. If you have the wrong game concept, it likely won't be successful no matter how great you are at the rest of the development process. Coming up with concepts and having the patience and judgment needed to choose the right ones seems to be the hardest thing, for me.

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andreiv72: silly question 101.

I have pernament tinnitus in one ear plus wife toddler & new baby. Can you confirm this crazy game
will block out all sound with my death by base headphones.

Sleep deprived Andrei
Andrei, you can play this game with one hand! So you can bounce the baby in one arm while playing with the other :)

Best of luck with your young family! My two kids were about the same age as yours while I was developing NecroDancer!
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undeadcow: What are your best tips for playing Necrodancer?
When you're new to the game, the safest way to play is with some range. So you'll want to try to get a spear, longsword, or bow. Be patient and back off if you need to. You can always retreat and let the enemies come to you. Don't rush around and aggro a lot of enemies! Deal with a few at a time.
Post edited August 17, 2015 by BraceYourselfGames
Posted August 17, 2015
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Barry_Woodward: Have you ever seen Geek and Sundry's TableTop?

https://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry/search?query=tabletop

What obscure board games would you recommend?
Heck yes! I love that show.

Right now my favorite board games are Mice & Mystics and Super Dungeon Explore. Neither of those are particularly obscure. Hmmm there's an old version of Labyrinth that I like a lot. It came with tiny wooden wands and the art is great.

Also it's not a board game, but I am super into Hanabi lately. It's got a really neat mechanic that I don't see in a lot of games.
Post edited August 17, 2015 by NecroHeather
Posted August 17, 2015
What made you set out to design such a very, very niche game like Necrodancer?
Posted August 17, 2015
What can you share with us about your "office mates"?
Post edited August 18, 2015 by Barry_Woodward
Posted August 18, 2015
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Barry_Woodward: What can your share with us about your "office mates"?
They don't work very hard!
Posted August 18, 2015
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mqstout: What made you set out to design such a very, very niche game like Necrodancer?
It was an accident! If you go to page one of this thread you'll see my reply to justMaku explains it. Let me know if you'd like to know anything further!
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Barry_Woodward: What can your share with us about your "office mates"?
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NecroHeather: They don't work very hard!
Haha, for a second I thought he was referring to your "virtual office mates" like me and Oliver, but now I see he was talking about your pets, hehe.
Post edited August 18, 2015 by BraceYourselfGames
Posted August 18, 2015
Ryan: Are there any ideas you had as youngster programming games that you've revisited or would consider revisiting in the future? How much of your early work have you preserved / do you remember?
Post edited August 18, 2015 by Barry_Woodward
Posted August 18, 2015
Was there any memorable moments that happened while developing the game that you would like to tell us about?
Post edited August 18, 2015 by HauntedGeode
Posted August 18, 2015
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mqstout: What made you set out to design such a very, very niche game like Necrodancer?
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BraceYourselfGames: It was an accident! If you go to page one of this thread you'll see my reply to justMaku explains it. Let me know if you'd like to know anything further!
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NecroHeather: They don't work very hard!
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BraceYourselfGames: Haha, for a second I thought he was referring to your "virtual office mates" like me and Oliver, but now I see he was talking about your pets, hehe.
:D You guys do work hard. Much harder than the cats and T!
Posted August 18, 2015
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justMaku: Ryan, how exactly does one design a game by accident - and why should I believe you guys when you say that an accidental game is any good?
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BraceYourselfGames: I didn't intend for it to be a rhythm game, at the start :)

I was inspired by Spelunky. I enjoy the fact that when you die in Spelunky, it's always your own fault. There is always something you could've done to have avoided that death. Spelunky feels fair in a way that most true roguelikes don't. I wanted to make a more "true" roguelike (top down turn based dungeon crawler with permadeath) that also felt fair like that. But one reason that Spelunky feels fair is that there is a lot of real time skill involved.

I didn't want to get rid of the turn based nature of my "true" roguelike, so I tried a hybrid: Keep the turns, but force the player to move quickly. When I tried this it worked well, but it also felt like I was moving to the beat of something! So I tried playing it to the rhythm of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the rest is history :)
Did any of the classic roguelikes (Angband, Nethack, Moria, etc) have an influence on Crypt of the NecroDancer? :)
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Community
General discussionCrypt of the NecroDancer: Developer Q&A(87 posts)(87 posts)
(87 posts)