Matt Chatt - Brenda Romero Interview

Matt Barton interviews Brenda Romero about her early days at Sir-Tech, programming the C-64, her favorite arcade game, Tron, and how she ended up running the Wizardry hotline.



More information.

Meh, who needs a history lesson?

I want Shaker KS project rebooted ASAP!

Through personal experience and ex-co workers unlucky enough to be on a project with Brenda; my observation is that she is a very closed minded individual clinging to a few past team successes.
I would have great difficulty supporting a new project should she be in a mangement capacity.

joxer said:

Meh, who needs a history lesson?

I want Shaker KS project rebooted ASAP!

Click to expand...

I think that sums up the reason why I don't usually watch Matt Chat videos. I'm really not interested in what got a classic RPG developer interested in video games, what games they liked as a kid, or who they dated in high school.... I just want to know what they are going to work on next.

Anyway, the Shaker KS had a horrible pitch so it's no mystery why it failed. If she or any other old school RPG developer go to Kickstarter they need to have an actual concept, if not a working prototype, not just "Hey give me a million bucks and I'll make an RPG. It will have cloth maps and other cool stuff!"

daveyd said:

… "It will have cloth maps and other cool stuff!"

Click to expand...

Did you perhaps read the crapload of my posts?
Mandatory cloth map is the #1 thing I dislike in KS projects. Go towards funds for a digital release and then you won't need a billion for a game. Those fancy stuff can always be a stretch goal.
There are many projects that offer a t-shirt, a poster, a mug… But some put those not as the total sum needed for the development. Instead "collectibles" are offered as separate add-ons.

joxer said:

Meh, who needs a history lesson?

Click to expand...

I don't generally answer your nonsense; but here I'll bite. Who needs a history lesson? How about the people that are actually interested in the history of video games, or those that don't claim to know everything (or repeat themselves ad nauseam) or gee, I don't know, maybe people that actually are genuinely interested about the particular topics in cRPG history that Matt covers in his interviews?

Seriously, dude, think before you post sometimes.

Ahh, much love for the C64 advert "Are you keeping up with the Commodore, 'cos the Commodore's keeping up with you!" *whistles the jingle*.

joxer said:

Did you perhaps read the crapload of my posts?
Mandatory cloth map is the #1 thing I dislike in KS projects. Go towards funds for a digital release and then you won't need a billion for a game. Those fancy stuff can always be a stretch goal.
There are many projects that offer a t-shirt, a poster, a mug… But some put those not as the total sum needed for the development. Instead "collectibles" are offered as separate add-ons.

Click to expand...

I have to agree with this. I think a lot of designers get excited about offering fun stuff like t-shirts, cloth maps, posters, etc., without realizing that they will likely end up losing money on it. They're probably better off just sticking to in-game rewards, prominent mention in the credits, maybe signed postcards and the like.

This is why when NPR or PBS has a fund drive, you have to pledge $60 a month for a year just to get a coffee mug. These are "thank you" gifts. The kickstarter folks seem to think of them more like "value adds."

Pessimeister said:

Seriously, dude, think before you post sometimes.

Click to expand...

I do.

Can't stir the pot always though...

Pessimeister said:

I don't generally answer your nonsense; but here I'll bite. Who needs a history lesson? How about the people that are actually interested in the history of video games, or those that don't claim to know everything (or repeat themselves ad nauseam) or gee, I don't know, maybe people that actually are genuinely interested about the particular topics in cRPG history that Matt covers in his interviews?

Seriously, dude, think before you post sometimes.

Ahh, much love for the C64 advert "Are you keeping up with the Commodore, 'cos the Commodore's keeping up with you!" *whistles the jingle*.

Click to expand...

Ya this is the whole reason I watch Matt's stuff. If I want the usual interview stuff, there's a few hundred amateur websites that cover all that. The personal stuff, the journey stuff, the history, programming and mechanics, the really interesting hard to find stuff, is why he has a good following.

mattbarton.exe said:

I have to agree with this. I think a lot of designers get excited about offering fun stuff like t-shirts, cloth maps, posters, etc., without realizing that they will likely end up losing money on it. They're probably better off just sticking to in-game rewards, prominent mention in the credits, maybe signed postcards and the like.

Click to expand...

You can also go too far with this as well - just look at the in-game rubbish that they are putting out on the Shroud of the Idiot (sorry Avatar), to cater for the so called 'producers' of this massive failure.

Pessimeister said:

I don't generally answer your nonsense; but here I'll bite. Who needs a history lesson? How about the people that are actually interested in the history of video games, or those that don't claim to know everything (or repeat themselves ad nauseam) or gee, I don't know, maybe people that actually are genuinely interested about the particular topics in cRPG history that Matt covers in his interviews?

Seriously, dude, think before you post sometimes.

Ahh, much love for the C64 advert "Are you keeping up with the Commodore, 'cos the Commodore's keeping up with you!" *whistles the jingle*.

Click to expand...

Wanting to learn about the history of video games makes sense. The thing I question is whether this format "video interview of old school developers" is a good format for that. There are books (one by Matt Barton in fact) and websites on the subject.

But if you want to learn about how cRPGs have changed and evolved over the years, IMO the best route is to go out and play the classic cRPGs. If you can't find them on GoG, odds are you can download them from some abandonware site. Virtually everything is still playable if you use DOSBox / c64 emulator, etc. so it's not as if we're at a point where we need video game archaeologists to tell us what ancient video games were like.

Now if you want to learn about what goes on behind the scenes in the industry then I guess I can see how an interview could, in theory, be useful for that. Perhaps Matt Barton just wasn't asking the right questions. I'm not a big fan of Wizardry but I find Brenda interesting if for no other reason than she is AFAIK one of the few successful / well known female cRPG developers. I might be interested in hearing about challenges she faced working in such a male dominanted field. But I'm sorry, I just don't find her rambling about how she likes legos and D&D very illuminating.

daveyd said:

I think that sums up the reason why I don't usually watch Matt Chat videos. I'm really not interested in what got a classic RPG developer interested in video games, what games they liked as a kid, or who they dated in high school…. I just want to know what they are going to work on next.

Anyway, the Shaker KS had a horrible pitch so it's no mystery why it failed. If she or any other old school RPG developer go to Kickstarter they need to have an actual concept, if not a working prototype, not just "Hey give me a million bucks and I'll make an RPG. It will have cloth maps and other cool stuff!"

Click to expand...

I OTOH, love those interviews. I think it's cool when a knowledgeable PC gamer does PC game interviews. How many times on these forums do we get mad at console players that reviews PC games, with no knowledge of PC gaming. Maybe not all of Matts quests hold my interest, but I know where to go if I want to hear someone in the industry speak.

So many people so many views. Yes no maybe none all. Now I'm confused...

Wisdom said:

Through personal experience and ex-co workers unlucky enough to be on a project with Brenda; my observation is that she is a very closed minded individual clinging to a few past team successes.
I would have great difficulty supporting a new project should she be in a mangement capacity.

Click to expand...

Uh-oh. I know what you are talking about, unfortunately.

mattbarton.exe said:

I have to agree with this. I think a lot of designers get excited about offering fun stuff like t-shirts, cloth maps, posters, etc., without realizing that they will likely end up losing money on it.

Click to expand...

I recently had the thgought that Kickstarters are the new "Collector's Editions" of the digital age.

Because Kickstarted games usually contains stuff no-one else will ever be able to see. Like in Collector's Editions.