Soldak Entertainment - Lessons learned @ Gamasutra

Steven Peeler talks about his 13 years of RPG-making for Soldak Entertainment:

Q&A: Soldak's lessons learned in 13 years of making RPGs

Steven Peeler has been developing RPGs as Soldak Entertainment for 13 years now. From his first title Depths of Peril up to last year's Zombasite, you always know you're playing a Soldak game right away. He manages to cram a great deal of depth and innovation into a compact file size.

We talked to him about his design philosophy and the things that have changed for indie developers over the years.

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How hard has it been to get press coverage? I know you're still doing your own PR, and with the flood of press releases we get each day, I can imagine that this is increasingly difficult.

It has definitely gotten a lot harder to get press coverage the last few years for small indies. There are just so many games coming out, it's difficult to cut through the noise especially if you are like me and would much rather focus on actually making games instead of marketing.

I noticed that there have been quite a few Youtube channels that covered Zombasite. Is this the future of game coverage?

I'm not sure I would call YouTube channels the future of game coverage, but they are certainly becoming an important part. The most annoying part of this is that every time we release something, we get tons of emails from people pretending to be some big YouTuber, but they are just someone scamming developers for free keys. It's usually not hard, but it's a pain to wade through these for legitimate YouTubers...

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More information.

Not sure there is a whole lot of innovation left in this ARPG genre that really distinguishes new releases from old ones.

he most annoying part of this is that every time we release something, we get tons of emails from people pretending to be some big YouTuber, but they are just someone scamming developers for free keys.

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The game is not much streamed.

Devs, though, sent keys to streamers who dedicate time to their products. Streamers with 30 viewers are sent keys as long as they show committment to the product line.

Hard to see any soldak entertainment games be picked up by a major streamer. Smaller might be interested in making their channel specialized in them though.

I'm still waiting for Steve to make a CRPG. To me, if there is anything besides loot that is procedurally generated, it's not a crpg. This includes rogue-likes, so I think of Steve's games as rogue-likes, not crpgs.

The definition of RPG has been so watered down today that it is meaningless, so I stick to my own definition so I can find the games I like

crpgnut said:

To me, if there is anything besides loot that is procedurally generated, it's not a crpg.

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I'm not sure I understand this sentence. Are you looking for all random items, items that are always located in the same place, or something different?

Personally I define crpgs differently, but as you said everyone seems to have a different definition.

Oh yeah, there is a great market for your stuff, Steve. I just like non-random worlds and situations. I love starting over and over till I make the perfect build for my play through. If the world changes each time I start over, I can't ever get a good feel for what is going to be fun for me. It's a specific trait that is necessary for how I play. It's MY crpg criteria

I like, greatly, the fact that you've always had a presence here. I hope to play one of your games someday if you ever decide to make a persistent world instead of a procedural world/situations. This is totally not necessary for a good game since you have made several. It is only a personal preference/necessary criteria for this nut.

Your games are great for folks who like to try a bunch of different builds and scenarios. I'm more of a play it once and then put it on a shelf for several years. I'm almost always some type of mage and I'll replay the first several levels of a game several times till I get a feel for how I want my "finisher" to play the game

Roq said:

Not sure there is a whole lot of innovation left in this ARPG genre that really distinguishes new releases from old ones.

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Im' so sad of the failure that met his last game. Many players was waiting a sort of Din's Curse improved or even some AAA quality because common indie diablo like are easy to do at AAA quality, proof is Path of Exile.

And obviously dev gave up force players, most of them was the most faithful fans, and offered many options, allowing play the game more or less like a Din's Curse but then not really improved.

But Zombasite is no way a Din's Curse clone. The core of Zombasite is 4 aspects:
1 - Diablo like randomly generated with dynamic quests and partially dynamic world.
2 - The clan management and simulation.
3 - A light 4X gameplay with other clans.
4 - A Zombie mechanism

I quoted many players using options for just having point 1. And then for sure despite some addition as some crafting, restricted to this part of gameplay, no way it compares well to Din's Curse which has a gameplay with more tension and more dynamism in world.

For point 2 it is a lot abstract and the visuals apspects of simulation are more symbolic. And for many players it makes this sim aspect and clan management not working.

For point 3, it's objectively very light, and many players play the game as grinding Diablo like then chain enemies clans destruction making this gameplay aspects even more tiny.

For point 4, gameplay elements aren't much developed, it's more a series of elements adding some tension. Many advices will be to just disable this part of gameplay because at first it's a bit overwhelming.

At end most players can't enjoy much the game.

Why I played it about 300H then? Despite I have no care on grinding building some character. And it should have play quite more if I hadn't serious performance problems with big clans past level 50 or 70.

It's because I dig the clan aspects. And because I'm tolerant with gameplay not strictly tuned. Because despite it's a game I enjoyed a lot, I'll admit that many gameplay mechanisms work half well. There's plenty exploit holes, there's many balances too approximate, there's UI elements that are a bit heavy, more.

Ok now I'll read this article/interview.

EDIT: Read, and it looks like a Zombasite expansion is coming, it's very cool but Im' very surprised because firstly the game didn't sell well, secondly the feedback was overall more negative than for recent past games. Frankly I think Im' the only true fan of this game as a whole. Some could be more fan but I noticed they don't play the whole gameplay, typical is no clan or at least not experiment at all with the light 4X.

crpgnut said:

I love starting over and over till I make the perfect build for my play through. If the world changes each time I start over, I can't ever get a good feel for what is going to be fun for me.

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Ok, I understand now. Thanks for the explanation.

Dasale said:

Read, and it looks like a Zombasite expansion is coming, it's very cool but Im' very surprised because firstly the game didn't sell well, secondly the feedback was overall more negative than for recent past games.

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I'm probably just being stubborn. I have arranged it so there is a lot of overlap of the expansion and the next game so all of the work going into the expansion is improving the next game also.

No problem. I'm hopeful that one day you will decide to create a fully-realized world with a specific history and tons of loot and I will go there and kill everything with many great fireballs

Steven Peeler said:

I'm probably just being stubborn. I have arranged it so there is a lot of overlap of the expansion and the next game so all of the work going into the expansion is improving the next game also.

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Lol ok, I remind vaguely you had already evoke that overlapping. You already have one instant sell for the extension, better than nothing.

I'll take the opportunity of a performance request, an option to limit number of summons of summoners when the NPC isn't involved in expedition/adventuring/combat in town. For example they could have a limit computed on types, 5 for low level types, 3 for higher level types. They start summon more during listed contexts, and at end of context they are unsummoned until to reach the max.

If nothing is possible, like too much time to do it, ok but then I would suggest in future games to take care define rules that don't let player reach huge performances problems.

Some other players quoted me that Path of Exile was allowing a lot of summons too, but now I have played it, it's very far to reach numbers where Zombasite can lead. The point is PoE doesn't have NPC summoners, enemies summoners are little players in comparison, and in town there's just nothing, summons aren't allowed.

Otherwise I encourage you continue explore the path of simulation, it's totally in the logic of dynamic worlds. For me the clan is the big thing of Zombasite, totally unique and very fun to dig.