Telepath RPG: Servants of God Interview

True PC Gaming has kicked up an interview with Sinister Design’s Craig Stern about Telepath RPG: Servants of God, his development experience, his thoughts on digital distribution methods, DRM and piracy, and the challenges of indie game development. A lengthy and interesting read:

What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Telepath RPG: Servants of God?

I’ve learned a lot in terms of design and technique. I basically had to teach myself intermediate-level AI programming to make this game. This was difficult, but I think it was ultimately worth the time investment. The enemies in Telepath RPG: Servants of God are good at seizing on small mistakes in the positioning of your characters, so tactical planning is important. I’m very proud of that.

I feel good about the game’s writing as well. I’m proud of what’s there, in particular the sheer number of points I’ve managed to work in where the dialog changes based on who’s alive and what you’ve said and done in-game. (One of the game’s side quests features no fewer than 12 endings based purely on your dialog choices among three different characters.) I’m also proud of all the optional dialog with members of your team. I’d love to take the time to make those dialog trees even more in-depth, but after more than four years of development, enough is enough.

The only failures I can think from development of this game were technical in nature. Let’s just say that I’ve learned the importance of modularity, and of designing good development tools before I start working on game content. My biggest lesson has been to use tiles for designing a game’s environments. Hand-crafting game environments scene by scene has been a huge drain on my time and energy. If I could go back in time and tell Past Me to do one thing differently when designing Telepath RPG: Servants of God, it would be to use tiles and arrays for generating every part of the game world (not just the battles).

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What are your thoughts on how the PC gaming industry as a whole are dealing with the problem of intrusive DRM and piracy?

There are many different approaches being used, so I don’t think it’s possible to talk about the industry as a monolothic thing. DRM-free is a legitimate strategy, and I respect companies like 2D Boy and CD Projekt that choose to go that route. Every game has essentially become its own metagame, a multiplayer affair with developers on one side and pirates on the other. The easiest approach for a developer to take is simply not to play.

On the other hand, some of the bigger publishers have really gone overboard in the other direction over the last few years. Limiting the number of times a user can install a game just feels wrong to me: once you buy a game, you should have the right to reinstall that thing forever. Requiring a constant internet connection to play is even worse. It’s hard to imagine something more inconvenient and invasive and of course, once a crack comes out, it becomes something that only inconveniences the people who didn’t pirate the game.

Personally, I am a fan of the old one-time activation method. It’s easy, it’s non-intrusive, it doesn’t require an internet connection, and it presents just enough of a barrier that people won’t pirate your game unless they’re motivated to go looking around for a torrent of a cracked version. I think it strikes the right balance.