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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 18, 2015
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Barry_Woodward: 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?
Oh I remember all of my earlier games! Most are not preserved, unfortunately. And most were pretty terrible ideas that I would never revisit today. My design sensibilities are significantly different now from even just 10 years ago when I started making games professionally. Kind of sad, in a way! But it also means that I always get to work on totally new stuff, which is fun.
Posted August 18, 2015
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HauntedGeode: Was there any memorable moments while developing the game that you would like to tell us about?
I came in late in the process, but one of mine was helping to come up with a way for players to choose who their default character is on load. I love Choral (the player 2 version of Cadence) and I really wanted a way to play her in game. So I talked to Ryan about it and he let me help figure out where putting that option would be best. Also getting to test Coda before the rest of the world had seen her. :D
Posted August 18, 2015
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HauntedGeode: Was there any memorable moments while developing the game that you would like to tell us about?
We traveled a ton, demoing the show all around the world. It was awesome to get to bond with everyone on the team like that, since we all work remotely!

My favorite single moment was probably when Danny came up with the singing shopkeeper idea. I was actually visiting him in Seattle, and we were working together in his studio. I was coding something else and he said, "What if I made the shopkeeper sing along?" He faked it up quickly and it just seemed so ridiculous to us... neither of us though we'd seriously go with the idea, but since I was there I coded it quickly and we tried it out.

Once we saw it in the game we couldn't stop laughing! So we decided, what the heck, let's keep it. We hoped everyone else would laugh too, rather than thinking it's ridiculous :)
Posted August 18, 2015
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NecroHeather: getting to test Coda before the rest of the world had seen her. :D
I have yet to unlock that character myself as I am still trying to work with Aria and the Monk (must not grab gold!!!) but I can't imagine playing as Coda, based on some youtube videos I've seen. How difficult was the testing process for Coda for you? :)
Posted August 18, 2015
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HauntedGeode: Was there any memorable moments while developing the game that you would like to tell us about?
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BraceYourselfGames: We traveled a ton, demoing the show all around the world. It was awesome to get to bond with everyone on the team like that, since we all work remotely!

My favorite single moment was probably when Danny came up with the singing shopkeeper idea. I was actually visiting him in Seattle, and we were working together in his studio. I was coding something else and he said, "What if I made the shopkeeper sing along?" He faked it up quickly and it just seemed so ridiculous to us... neither of us though we'd seriously go with the idea, but since I was there I coded it quickly and we tried it out.

Once we saw it in the game we couldn't stop laughing! So we decided, what the heck, let's keep it. We hoped everyone else would laugh too, rather than thinking it's ridiculous :)
And everyone did! We get tons of Shopkeeper love.
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NecroHeather: getting to test Coda before the rest of the world had seen her. :D
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JudasIscariot: I have yet to unlock that character myself as I am still trying to work with Aria and the Monk (must not grab gold!!!) but I can't imagine playing as Coda, based on some youtube videos I've seen. How difficult was the testing process for Coda for you? :)
:D I never made it past 1-1. Still haven't! Thankfully we had much more proficient players than me give her a try and that helped a lot.
Post edited August 18, 2015 by NecroHeather
Posted August 18, 2015
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JudasIscariot: Did any of the classic roguelikes (Angband, Nethack, Moria, etc) have an influence on Crypt of the NecroDancer? :)
I put the most hours into the original Rogue, and I played a fair amount of Nethack. But the original Rogue was definitely the biggest influence. I hated the fact that you'd often die for lack of food (meaning you needed to have descended more quickly) while ALSO often dying because you'd run into a troll or centaur that you just weren't ready for (perhaps because you descended too quickly). It felt frustrating. Some of the seeds just seemed unwinnable. I wanted to make a game that was similar, but always felt fair.

As for Nethack, I loved the fact that high level players can beat it a very high percentage of the time. This means that, in some way, Nethack is quite "fair". However, to get to that level you have to study the game for years and learn all kinds of obscure lore. I wanted NecroDancer to be "fair" in a much more obvious way. As a result, when you die we show you a replay of that death, so that you can see the enemy movement pattern that killed you, and hopefully immediately learn how to avoid that kind of death in the future. No need to study the game for years on end :)
Posted August 18, 2015
Heather: What are your thoughts on bringing board games into the digital realm? Are there any past examples you thought were particularly successful? Would you ever want to design a digital board game yourself?
Post edited August 18, 2015 by Barry_Woodward
Posted August 18, 2015
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JudasIscariot: Did any of the classic roguelikes (Angband, Nethack, Moria, etc) have an influence on Crypt of the NecroDancer? :)
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BraceYourselfGames: I put the most hours into the original Rogue, and I played a fair amount of Nethack. But the original Rogue was definitely the biggest influence. I hated the fact that you'd often die for lack of food (meaning you needed to have descended more quickly) while ALSO often dying because you'd run into a troll or centaur that you just weren't ready for (perhaps because you descended too quickly). It felt frustrating. Some of the seeds just seemed unwinnable. I wanted to make a game that was similar, but always felt fair.

As for Nethack, I loved the fact that high level players can beat it a very high percentage of the time. This means that, in some way, Nethack is quite "fair". However, to get to that level you have to study the game for years and learn all kinds of obscure lore. I wanted NecroDancer to be "fair" in a much more obvious way. As a result, when you die we show you a replay of that death, so that you can see the enemy movement pattern that killed you, and hopefully immediately learn how to avoid that kind of death in the future. No need to study the game for years on end :)
Ahhh yes, the blasted food mechanic :D Can't believe how many times I died due to starvation :D

Forgive me for veering slightly off-topic but if you are ever in the mood for a roguelike that eases the pain of the food mechanic I can easily recommend PosChengband , food everywhere :D Also, gotta give you major props for playing the original Rogue :)

(I am a big RL fan...in case you haven't noticed :) )
Posted August 18, 2015
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Barry_Woodward: Heather: What are your thoughts on bringing board games into the digital realm? Are there any past examples you've thought were particularly successful? Would ever ever want to design a digital board game yourself?
Depending on the game I think it's fantastic. Carcassone and Small World are great examples of successful crossovers. I think that it works best with games like Small World where each turn requires a significant amount of math. Having that part done for you speeds up game play and is great when you don't have time to lay out a board with a million pieces. I am less interested when a game tries to be a video game instead of a digital version of itself.

Yes, I would be very interested in designing a digital board game. I'm interested in cross-medium challenges. I'd also love to work on board game version of NecroDancer.
Posted August 18, 2015
Which character is your favorite to play as?
Posted August 18, 2015
regarding the usb dance matt did you have one of the team to be the test subject.
If so did you all start laughing.

Im tempted just to get the matt to see how well my over excitable 2 year old does in the game
Posted August 18, 2015
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HauntedGeode: Which character is your favorite to play as?
Mine is Choral (the player 2 skin of Cadence), and I also really like the challenge of Monk.
Posted August 18, 2015
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HauntedGeode: Which character is your favorite to play as?
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NecroHeather: Mine is Choral (the player 2 skin of Cadence), and I also really like the challenge of Monk.
How do you get over the habit-forming gold, though? :P All of my deaths were due to grabbing gold out of habit :D
Posted August 18, 2015
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JudasIscariot: Ahhh yes, the blasted food mechanic :D Can't believe how many times I died due to starvation :D

Forgive me for veering slightly off-topic but if you are ever in the mood for a roguelike that eases the pain of the food mechanic I can easily recommend PosChengband , food everywhere :D Also, gotta give you major props for playing the original Rogue :)

(I am a big RL fan...in case you haven't noticed :) )
Thanks for the recommendation! I will check that out.

My favorite modern roguelike is Brogue. Not nearly as frustrating as Rogue, nor as complex as Nethack. Nice and light, which is great for me now since I don't have a lot of free time. (Have wife and 2 kids and a small buesiness...) I played it a lot during the midpoint of NecroDancer development. I was sad to see that I wasn't the first to come up with the rapier lunge mechanic, once I saw it in Brogue, though! Oh well :)
Posted August 18, 2015
How did you manage to get such an amazing person as Danny B to create the music?
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General discussionCrypt of the NecroDancer: Developer Q&A(87 posts)(87 posts)
(87 posts)