[Verious]

How did the Drama Stars pan-out in the current iteration of Frayed Knights? Are they still a core game mechanic?

[RampantCoyote]

Yes. They are actually a lot better with the latest beta than they have been - a lot more visible and a bit more necessary. They seem to mostly be used to cure exhaustion and to bring back incapacitated characters. I also cleaned up how they get used so it makes more sense. And if you exit the game normally, you can continue the game with drama stars intact (but you still lose them on normal reloads).

In that screenshot I could have brought Ben back, but everybody was so exhausted and low on endurance and hit points that it just made more sense to bring them back to the inn and save the drama points. I usually prefer to use them in combat.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Verious]

That revisions sound good. I look forward to playing the finished game.

[Jinroh]

Man, I go away from the forums for a little bit and this project becomes 120% more awesome. ^^ It's really looking quite awesome Rampant, definitely #1 on my radar as far as Indie RPGs go.
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Mao Mao Games
The wolf and his mate howl, taking solace in the silver moon. Pressing ever foreward to see what the future holds.

[RampantCoyote]

Thanks! :) I hope it'll be worth your while in the end. I'm pretty dang excited about it's release at this point - it has been a very, very long time.

The next beta won't have too many changes - I'm focusing on improving a few special effects and some usability issues, mainly, and then sending it out to some editors for previews. Crossing my fingers here!

I sincerely hope that the next two games in the series will take a lot less time to create. Since we'll mainly be focusing on new content and not so much a new engine, I think it's possible.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Verious]

RampantCoyote, you should consider contacting the people behind The Humble Indie Bundle to see if Frayed Knights could be included next time. It could be a great way to generate interest and revenue.

[RampantCoyote]

We've talked about maybe doing an RPG bundle in the future. I'd like the game to sell on its own for a bit first before doing it, but then I'd be totally game.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Verious]

An RPG bundle would be awesome!

[RampantCoyote]

I'd love to see a bundle with Frayed Knights, Eschalon: Book 1, Depths of Peril, maybe Darklight Dungeon, and someone's jRPG-style game. That would be quite some variety of RPG styles!
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[RampantCoyote]

Another tester has won the game legitimately (no cheats, and only a few hints from me which I have since incorporated into the game). There's still a lot of rough edges to smooth out, but I'm pretty dang excited. Currently, it's taking players a little over 30 hours to play through from start to finish --- which is actually about twice as long as I originally expected before I split the other two acts into separate games.

I'm getting some weird hardware issues on a couple of machines, but they aren't the same issues.

Unfortunately, as much time as I should spend fixing & polishing the game, and finishing the manual and strategy guide, I have to devote a lot of time right now on the marketing and biz side. Not my favorite tasks, but they must be done.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[RampantCoyote]

Here's a dumb little thing I did with all of the auto-maps from the game, plus a few thumbnail-sized screenshots:

Frayed Knights Update: A Whole Lotta Maps

Smaller version here:


The interior maps have an old-school, hand-drawn-map feel. The outdoor maps not so much. It was way easier to do them this way.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Jinroh]

Wow! I really like those automaps. ^^ Now hopefully I won't get lost so much when I play the actual game. XD
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Mao Mao Games
The wolf and his mate howl, taking solace in the silver moon. Pressing ever foreward to see what the future holds.

[RampantCoyote]

There are a couple (particularly the minotaur maze) that is deliberately vague in one section. Players have figured their way through it without any map for a while now, so it's not a particularly confusing maze. The map really does help, but it doesn't trivialize the exploration.

There are some maps that just don't map in 2 dimensions really well (including the maze) in the first place. And three of the dungeons ended up being side-view maps just because they were so vertical in orientation.

At this point, there are something like 5 critical issues (which include things like, "Create the Demo version" and "Write the Manual," which are in-progress), and a few dozen "serious" ones that we need to address. Aside from that, we're just tackling the top suggestions / complaints as they come.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[RampantCoyote]

RPG Watch has a big Frayed Knights interview:

Frayed Knights Interview at RPGWatch

The particular editor who interviewed me has actually played through the beta to completion, so he put 35+ hours into preparation for this interview. I'd say that's going above the call of duty.

Although that may also explain why he has fewer questions about the game, and more about the development and approach. Here's an excerpt (and it's really weird pulling an excerpt from my own interview...)

[Verious]

Interesting interview... sounds like things are coming together nicely.