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General discussionRebel Galaxy: Developer Q&A(105 posts)(105 posts)
(105 posts)
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Posted October 27, 2015
Have questions that only the devs can answer? Join the team behind Rebel Galaxy for a special Q&A session!

The team from Double Damage Games, is here here to answer all your pressing questions about the game, the life behind game development, and their pretty extensive experience in the industry.

Double Damage Games is a two-man indie studio created by the guys who came up with and created the Torchlight series:

Travis Baldree:
Hi! I'm Travis Baldree. I've been a professional game developer for nearly 20 years, and it's been my hobby since I was a kid on my C64. I'm best known for Fate and the Torchlight series. I'm the only person I know who has more CRTs than flatscreens in their office. I stay warm in the nostalgic glow of my A500, IIgs, and C64.
---Rebel Galaxy Responsibilities:
As the only engineer on Rebel Galaxy, Travis did almost everything to make the game work. He was also responsible for the art direction, the sound design, the story and more.
---Notable Previous Titles:
Fate, Mythos, Torchlight, Torchlight 2 (all as Team Lead and Lead Engineer)
--Favorite Games:
Wasteland, Darklands, Ocarina of Time, X-Com, and Just Cause 2
---Weird anecdote from development of Rebel Galaxy:
Most of the character gesture and idle animations were done on the cheap by using a Kinect for motion capture.






Erich Schaefer:
Hi, I'm Erich Schaefer. I've been in game development since about 1990, always starting my own company because I don't deal well with authority. Double Damage Games is my fourth company, and by far the smallest. It's also my favorite!
---Rebel Galaxy Responsibilities:
Erich was the designer and tester. He worked on combat balance, economy, random missions and fed millions of good ideas (and millions of bad ones) to Travis.
---Notable Previous Titles:
Diablo, Diablo II, Hellgate: London, Torchlight and Torchlight 2 (all as Team Lead and/or Designer)
---Favorite Games:
Civ 5, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, Minecraft and X-Com
---Weird anecdote from development of Rebel Galaxy:
I've been trying to make a space game since pre-Diablo times. I've started and failed at least 3 times significantly. Finally this one took hold!






Now that we’ve gotten introduced to the Rebel Galaxy side, here are some ground 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 that they’d love to have a chat about with you guys!



Let’s get this show on the road!
Posted October 27, 2015
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mediumheadboy: And hire the most expensive mercenary you can get!
Fixed that for you! ;D
Posted October 27, 2015
Haven't played yet because my computer is ancient (I keep hitting refresh on your news page waiting for that PS4 announcement. Any teaser if that's days/weeks/months away?) but one thing that I've read that makes me curious is the ability to sell upgrades/ships/etc back for a full refund. I understand it allows experimentation without punishing the player, but it also kind of makes choices not matter all that much. (For close-to-home examples of the two extremes, see the talents/abilities in Diablo 2 vs Diablo 3.) While getting nothing back for your stuff wouldn't make sense and would definitely be no fun, how much did you consider the current model versus some sort of "happy medium" between all-or-nothing (my game-design preference, if you can't tell)?
Posted October 27, 2015
Speaking of mercenary sidekicks, any chance we can get an "endgame" version of each of them? I know that there is one for the cheapest merc (Garris?) but I would like the others to get the same treatment as they become useless once you get past a certain net worth.
Posted October 28, 2015
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Penguinito: Haven't played yet because my computer is ancient (I keep hitting refresh on your news page waiting for that PS4 announcement. Any teaser if that's days/weeks/months away?) but one thing that I've read that makes me curious is the ability to sell upgrades/ships/etc back for a full refund. I understand it allows experimentation without punishing the player, but it also kind of makes choices not matter all that much. (For close-to-home examples of the two extremes, see the talents/abilities in Diablo 2 vs Diablo 3.) While getting nothing back for your stuff wouldn't make sense and would definitely be no fun, how much did you consider the current model versus some sort of "happy medium" between all-or-nothing (my game-design preference, if you can't tell)?
Its funny, we sort of always intended to add some buy/sell penalty to the Equipment Bay trades, but then when the time came we both just felt it wasn't really needed. The game just didn't feel broken with no penalty. And it didn't hurt that that decision came with the bonus that we didn't need new interfaces for confirming purchases in the case of mis-clicks or figuring ways to "preview" weapons for players who didn't know what they were getting.

So simplicity ruled the day, as it did often in this project.
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srlapo: Speaking of mercenary sidekicks, any chance we can get an "endgame" version of each of them? I know that there is one for the cheapest merc (Garris?) but I would like the others to get the same treatment as they become useless once you get past a certain net worth.
There are endgame Splitter and Skivas too. No end-game Sparrow just because I didn't like her.
Post edited October 28, 2015 by mediumheadboy
Posted October 28, 2015
So... the soundtrack.

It's obviously, ridiculously, incredibly bad-ass and one of the most defining parts of the game for me - the mix of bluesy twang and hyperspace is absolutely memorable.

So my question is, how did you decide on that particular sound? Was Rebel Galaxy always intended to have that blues rock feel to it, or did you end up sticking with it later on down the road?
Posted October 28, 2015
Hey guys! First of all props for an awesome game.

I was wondering. Have you at any time considered going the 'action rgp' route with the loot/equipment system? I for one would love to see some more rarity-tiers in the items with the corresponding stat increases.

Can you say Legendary Neutron Beam? :P
Posted October 28, 2015
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Konrad: So... the soundtrack.

It's obviously, ridiculously, incredibly bad-ass and one of the most defining parts of the game for me - the mix of bluesy twang and hyperspace is absolutely memorable.

So my question is, how did you decide on that particular sound? Was Rebel Galaxy always intended to have that blues rock feel to it, or did you end up sticking with it later on down the road?
It wasn't initially intended - we had normal space-epic music for a while.

I was listening to the Black Keys will playing one day and thought "this would be way better", started hunting for tracks, and here we are!
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Tormbo: Hey guys! First of all props for an awesome game.

I was wondering. Have you at any time considered going the 'action rgp' route with the loot/equipment system? I for one would love to see some more rarity-tiers in the items with the corresponding stat increases.

Can you say Legendary Neutron Beam? :P
I can't speak for Erich, but I specifically didn't want to do an ARPG equipment system. I wanted to make a game that had economic advancement vs loot drop/grind advancement, in keeping with classic space-trading games.
Post edited October 28, 2015 by tbaldree
Posted October 28, 2015
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Tormbo: Hey guys! First of all props for an awesome game.

I was wondering. Have you at any time considered going the 'action rgp' route with the loot/equipment system? I for one would love to see some more rarity-tiers in the items with the corresponding stat increases.

Can you say Legendary Neutron Beam? :P
Yes we considered that, in the early planning. But that's what I've been doing my whole career and I liked the challenge of making the game about economic progression and very little about loot finding.
Posted October 28, 2015
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Tormbo: Hey guys! First of all props for an awesome game.

I was wondering. Have you at any time considered going the 'action rgp' route with the loot/equipment system? I for one would love to see some more rarity-tiers in the items with the corresponding stat increases.

Can you say Legendary Neutron Beam? :P
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mediumheadboy: Yes we considered that, in the early planning. But that's what I've been doing my whole career and I liked the challenge of making the game about economic progression and very little about loot finding.
Understood, so no new Schaeffer's Hammer ;)
Posted October 28, 2015
I just wanted to say while your attention is here that Torchlight was one of my favourite games of all time and really recaptured that Diablo II feel. I think I actually prefer it to Diablo and had a ton of fun. It's pretty much the perfect "indie" (I always thought it transcended indie a bit. more mid level. which is what games could use more of these days) game. It's polished, professional, and doesn't do things that it doesn't have resources to do well enough to pull off. Everything it did, it did well, and Torchlight II was only an improvement. Nice job and thank you.


Chris Roberts' space game and similar is pretty much my favourite type of game. I haven't looked into Rebel Galaxy just yet, but I hear good things, and from what I've seen it seems like it's like Freelancer, which is one of my favourite games of all time, with a little Borderlands and SFC thrown in. This is all good. I hope people get on board with the game and I hope it does as well as it should for you guys.

Keep doing great stuff thanks for Torchlight.
Posted October 28, 2015
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mediumheadboy: Yes we considered that, in the early planning. But that's what I've been doing my whole career and I liked the challenge of making the game about economic progression and very little about loot finding.
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Tormbo: Understood, so no new Schaeffer's Hammer ;)
Well, you CAN rename ships in the game so why not do that instead? :P
Posted October 28, 2015
Thanks for a great game! It reminds me of Sub Culture, one of my favorite games.

Some players (me included) have had some difficulty with mouse / keyboard control, especially on Mac. Is it true you might be working on better support for mouse / keyboard control?
Posted October 28, 2015
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johnnygoging: I just wanted to say while your attention is here that Torchlight was one of my favourite games of all time and really recaptured that Diablo II feel. I think I actually prefer it to Diablo and had a ton of fun. It's pretty much the perfect "indie" (I always thought it transcended indie a bit. more mid level. which is what games could use more of these days) game. It's polished, professional, and doesn't do things that it doesn't have resources to do well enough to pull off. Everything it did, it did well, and Torchlight II was only an improvement. Nice job and thank you.

Chris Roberts' space game and similar is pretty much my favourite type of game. I haven't looked into Rebel Galaxy just yet, but I hear good things, and from what I've seen it seems like it's like Freelancer, which is one of my favourite games of all time, with a little Borderlands and SFC thrown in. This is all good. I hope people get on board with the game and I hope it does as well as it should for you guys.

Keep doing great stuff thanks for Torchlight.
Thanks for the kind words! Here we were definitely aiming at the Privateer/Freelancer feel - great games!
Posted October 28, 2015
Oh, actually I do have one question - and its about something that really impacted my enjoyment of the game negatively.

I noted (on steam at least) some people applauding the voice acting. On the whole I'm quite happy with it (and I say that a a long term audiodrama fan and someone who has worked in sound and in the music industry), but who is it that decided those weird sounding "British" accents were a good idea?! - and will you please do something about them as they're actually a little offensive?!
Posted October 28, 2015
Hey, guys! I alluded to this on Twitter, but I can explain more here.

I'm a HUGE fan of the idea of this game. I was around for Privateer back in the day, and would love to sink my teeth into something similar. My stepson actually purchased this before I could talk to him about it, and I've been watching over his shoulder.

My big question comes on platform. As much as I love the game, I don't need it on multiple devices. :) He does well enough with mouse and keyboard, but he's got a gaming-class tower, and I run a Surface Pro 3. So, I figure I have three choices:
* Buy for Windows on the SP3 and do my best;
* Buy for Windows on the SP3 and keep an Xbox controller handy (I'm right that this has controller support, yes?)
* Wait and buy for Xbox (this is coming to Xbox One, right?)

I love the hell out of GOG for bringing back the games of my past (although sadly, just like me, many of them are showing their age...) and for giving new developers a platform, but there's the decision I face.

So, from the devs - or anybody with hands-on time - what say you?
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Community
General discussionRebel Galaxy: Developer Q&A(105 posts)(105 posts)
(105 posts)