RPGWatch Feature: Jay Barnson Interview

Corwin caught up with Jay 'Rampant Coyote' Barnson as the release of Frayed Knights gets close to discuss the game and its development. Here's an excerpt:

RPGWatch: Could you give us some background on what you hoped to achieve when you first began FK?
JB: While I can't even pretend that Frayed Knights is going to make much of a dent in the world of CRPGs, I guess in many ways it's part of my damn-fool idealistic crusade to prove a point. There's a lot of talk about how RPGs have evolved into their current incarnation —- which I feel is more like action gaming with lots of story and the trappings of character progression. I don't believe that's "evolution" so much as an attempt to find a unique selling point in the much larger action game market. I don't really want to turn the clock back to 1993 or anything, but I think the ideas and conventions of the genre from earlier eras are ripe for mining by modern, low-budget indie games. They may not be able to sell a million copies anymore, but they don't need to!
So besides the humor aspect, what I was really trying to capture was the feel and flavor of not only the old-school CRPGs, but also the thrill of playing dice-and-paper RPGs back in the early 80's. I don't know if it's possible to bottle that - or if it is, if I have one iota of the talent necessarily to make it happen - but that's what I've been going for. And I wanted it to be a game that would still be a fun RPG even if the humor didn't work at all. I've also tried to address some of the deficiencies of the genre. For example, I've tried to make picking locks and disarming traps an interesting mini-game of its own, and then I introduced the drama star system to encourage an alternative to save-scumming.

Read it all here.
More information.

I played some early alphas which was in a different area that what will be released in part 1. I liked the game style and character interaction. It is a definite buy for me.

Great read. After reading this it's a must buy for me. I hadn't really been paying attention to it up until now but it sounds great.

Great interview and great game. I'm playing the latest beta and I'm amazed at the little details that he has included that has made a huge difference between the first beta I played and the one now.

This game is on my "have to buy it"-list.

Will definitely check this out. Din's Curse is one of the strongest indie games out there, even if it still lacks a certain something in terms of story and presentation.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Will definitely check this out. Din's Curse is one of the strongest indie games out there, even if it still lacks a certain something in terms of story and presentation.

This game has nothing to do with Din's curse, D'Artagnan, that's by Soldak. But you should still check it out

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
This game has nothing to do with Din's curse, D'Artagnan, that's by Soldak. But you should still check it out

Oops, wrong thread

Must be getting old…

I'm a fan of Soldak's stuff, so I'm not offended. Maybe Steven Peeler is…

Originally Posted by RampantCoyote
I'm a fan of Soldak's stuff, so I'm not offended. Maybe Steven Peeler is…

Ooooooh will you stop that already

You made an MMVI clone all by yourself while keeping a day job and writing 3200 blog posts. Steven Peeler 'd better feel super honored! Or else!

Originally Posted by RampantCoyote
They may not be able to sell a million copies anymore, but they don't need to!

To be fair, I don't think they ever sold, or needed to sell anywhere close to a million copies. I'm sure there have been exceptions that sold a lot more than expected, but only "AAA" games 'need' to sell a million copies and few RPGs were "AAA" until Oblivion/Mass Effect came along.

Originally Posted by RampantCoyote
I'm a fan of Soldak's stuff, so I'm not offended. Maybe Steven Peeler is…

I'm glad

Nah, I think the amount of effort it takes to pull off an indie title warrants enough respect to overshadow any potential offense.

Originally Posted by Rampant Jay Coyote
In a handful of cases, the solution to a quest or obstacle is more of an adventure-game style puzzle - though generally pretty lightweight fare as far as that is concerned.

Ooh, this sounds really good! I've been waiting for a cRPG to have something like this. Even if it is pretty lightweight, like combining items or using a certain inventory item with some scenery/world object to solve the puzzle, it's definitely the correct direction to go, bringing depth and thought into quest solving. Two thumbs up!

P.S. Hopefully these are not word puzzles or riddles, though.

P.S. Hopefully these are not word puzzles or riddles, though.

The closest thing to a word puzzle or riddle is 100% optional and can be defeated by brute force without too many tries (but a few healing spells). But there's nothing like a "fill in the blank" riddle or anything like that. If you are given a password or riddle answer at some point in the game, then your characters automatically provide it when asked.

And sometimes the more amusing dialog happens when they haven't yet discovered the answer.

I'm sold. Finish the game and I'll send you money.

oo, how about the walking/running speed?

You move slightly faster outdoors than indoors, and both are much faster than in the pilot.

Plus, you'll often want to pause and search for hidden items both inside and outside, so you don't want to move too quickly, or you could miss stuff.

sounds great

Must admit I really look forward to this game. The most interesting games on my radar are either idie developers or very small studios.