UPDATED: Thanks for the awesome questions :) We had a great time! We're heading out for now (still have to get dinner), so we're going to stop answering questions for now. If you have any lingering questions, we'll try to get back to you later this week... or feel free to join us on the Awesomenauts sub-reddit. /r/Awesomenauts is a great place :)

Thanks again for hanging out, asking questions, and most importantly: playing Awesomenauts. You all rock!

We're Ronimo Games, a Dutch independent game development studio. We launched Awesomenauts on Steam back in 2012 and have been supporting the game ever since. Five years of post-launch support later, we're relaunching the game as free-to-play on Steam on May 24th!

We'll start answering questions at 17:00 EU time, which is about 20 minutes after this post goes live!

Proof: https://twitter.com/RonimoGames/status/865215111191023616

We're here to talk about all things Awesomenauts, life as a game developer, and any crazy stuff you guys might want to ask. Ask. Us. Anything.

There are a couple of people from our team here, so feel free to ask your questions directly to:

/u/Daveyx0 - Game Designer

/u/nog1potje - Game Designer and co-founder

/u/JoostDev - Lead Programmer and co-founder

/u/Ronimo_alex - Programmer

/u/Ronimo_robin - Producer

/u/Ronimo_daniel and /u/ronimo_yiyuan - communication/marketing interns at Ronimo

/u/That_one_robot - Artist, potentially lurking about somewhere!

If you're interested in trying out Awesomenauts before it goes Free to Play on May 24th, sign up for a beta key here: https://www.awesomenauts.com/sign-up-for-beta-access/. We'll send everyone who registers during the AMA a key soon!

Comments: 411 • Responses: 29  • Date: 

yolvenzind17 karma

Have you considered adding more skroggle characters like Gnaw? It said that skroggles are infected other races (like the skrogchu pikachu version). Would be sick to see another character in the game who is a skroggle from the other races or maybe from a new race

daveyx011 karma

Hah, honestly I don't think we've considered it, but I LOVE that idea!

ronimo_robin9 karma

That WOULD be pretty awesome, yeah!

Noohm17 karma

Who is/are your favourite characters(s)?

ronimo_robin18 karma

For me it's Ted McPain - he's probably the most over the top character that we have in the game, and I just love that! And let's face it... you can't beat that theme!

What's yours?

this_chucklehead11 karma

What skins are your fav? Can you hint at any you have in development?

ronimo_robin7 karma

My favorite is probably Party Boy McPain, I think it's one of the most majestic skins we've ever done.

And yes, I could hint at any we have in development. Why'd you ask?

Volyanauts10 karma

Hello guys ! Volya here. I'm back into nauts after a huge break from the game :)

I love the 4.0 update and the awesomepoints system but i feel there's not enough stuff to unlock for someone like me that got the "all naut pack".

Are you planning new types of items to buy using theses points ? Like for example, special visual effect on some skills or awesomepoints-unlockable skins ?

ronimo_robin9 karma

Welcome back Volya! Nice to see you here. Any new Volyanauts videos coming up? ;)

We'll be adding more content to unlock in the future, but it could be a while before it's up to the level where our most dedicated players still have stuff to purchase. After all, all new F2P players would need quite a bit of time to unlock what's already there! We're not forgetting about our veterans though, just saying it could be a while.

No new types of unlocks planned right now, but there are some cool ideas floating around in the community. That's all stuff we'll start thinking about AFTER the F2P transition!

BanditPig9 karma

I haven't played in ages except the other day, game looks amazing now but..

Where did my prestige icon pin that shows on the tab leaderboard go?!

ronimo_robin8 karma

Welcome back to the community! The prestige icon should be selectable as a medal when you hit account level 6!

Wakkabanana8 karma

Which number would win in a fight?

ronimo_robin6 karma

-1 because it'd turn everyone to its side!

Blatoy2 karma

but it would turn his friends as well

ronimo_robin7 karma

It keeps everyone guessing!

Sryder137 karma

What is your favourite game that you haven't made?

Do you get any inspiration from these games?

ronimo_robin5 karma

For me my favorite is probably Halo: Reach, but I don't think we take too much inspiration from that. MOST of our inspiration on Awesomenauts comes from cartoons.

However, I'd love to do a game one day that hits the same vibe as Reach in a campaign / story.

eddster275 karma

What is your favourite number of Euros between 7 and 9?

PrestusHood5 karma

Hello Ronimo Games, i speak from Brazil.

Our community is growing higher and after the F2P lauch i expect to have a boom of new players. Since Brazil is getting better on most of major E-Sports games, can we have some kind of tournament here? We already won one of Alienware Awesomenauts Cup (Team Boom) and we have some players on League 1. And in the future, if you guys sponor a league, can we have seedings for south america and give a chance to our "hermanos" fight for a spot with us?

Im very hyped with the F2P lauch and hope awesomenauts became great again =D

ronimo_robin5 karma

Hey PrestusHood! The community in Brazil has actually been really strong over the years, and has had its own tournaments. These have been organized by the LBA (Liga Brasiliera Awesomenauts or something) and I could imagine they do some more events in the future. Some players might be able to point you to their Facebook group, which is pretty active!

AnActualOwl5 karma

Do you think there is an upper limit to how many characters the game should have? Is there such a thing as too many?

ronimo_robin6 karma

I don't think there's a fixed number that would serve as an upper limit, but the most important thing for us to make sure all characters are unique. As long as we can find cool new ideas that really add something to the mix, the cast can continue to grow. We've done two ' Design-A-Naut' contests so far, and if that has shown us anything it's that there are hundreds of cool ideas still available ;)

Blackcattttt3 karma

Next 'Design-A-Naut' contest???? :D

ronimo_robin2 karma

Not planned right now, but we really enjoyed doing contests like that. We might do another one when the time is right, but it doesn't make much sense to do one now: all the new players that come in would probably need some more time to get a feel for what a character should be like!

xan30003 karma

I love Skree! Do you guys love Skree?

ronimo_robin3 karma

I actually do! He's not my favorite, but I guess he's one of my best picks!

not_a_profi3 karma

Team composition (hero role-wise) in Awesomenauts is not that important like in other hero-based team games (like Dota, OW).
Was that intentional or accidental? Do you have any plans on making the game more role based or the opposite - even less hero-role based that it is now?

P.S. I really like what we have now: most team compositions works and you are not forced to pick a naut you don't want to pick.

ronimo_robin4 karma

This was intentional, though it in part happens automatically when you have a somewhat smaller roster and faster matches. With only 20 minutes for a match, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to design characters that are especially strong in the early or late game, as it's just a matter of minutes anyway.

The character-specific upgrades also give characters a lot of flexibility in terms of building towards certain roles, and that's not something other games (with a single shop) are able to do quite as easily.

Tsupper3 karma

Do you plan to have any more company sponsored/setup competitive tournaments in the foreseeable future after the game goes free to play or is this something you're mainly leaving to the community?

ronimo_robin5 karma

Nothing lined up right now, but there are a whole bunch of cool community events coming up in the short term, like the Rookie Royale, the Rumble Gathers, and a whole lot more! It's going to be a great time for both veterans and new players looking to get into the competitive community!

How the competitive community evolves really depends on the community itself, but we'll continue to support it in any way we can. Sponsored events (like the Alienware Awesome Cup) could potentially be part of that, but it's not something that's on the table right now.

erabosu3 karma

What inspired you guys to start doing the Streamishos and who are you favorite streamers?

Also, would you guys be interested in becoming a twitch partner or joining the Twitch Affiliate Program to earn a little bit extra (as well as giving us emotes to spam in chat)?

ronimo_robin3 karma

Emotes would be cool, and we'd definitely be down for that! However, we're not looking at our Streamishos to be another source of revenue... so there's no ideal solution to that right now. Maybe it's something we can do with the new Twitch features that make it possible for developers to offer their game to players through the site directly.

vmar982 karma

Why are so many new options and settings like player status hud disabled by default? It really doesn't make sense since you're practically hiding these options this way.

ronimo_robin2 karma

Many of these would be overwhelming for new players, and when there's already so much to try and make sense of it doesn't really help to add MORE bars to it.

Skulptis2 karma

What are your plans for the future? Will you focus on Awesomenauts or can we excpect new games?

ronimo_robin4 karma

Transitioning Awesomenauts to a free to play title opens up an entirely new chapter for Awesomenauts, so we could very well be completely focused on Awesomenauts for a long time

At some point, you'll probably also see a new game from us... but it's not something we're working on in any way right now. Awesomenauts is the only thing we're working on these days!

yolvenzind2 karma

Is it Bovinian or Bovinion? As you seem to be using both names in backstories and items.

ronimo_robin2 karma

The planet is called Bovinia and the cowlike species are called Bovinions. That means that Bovinions live all across the galaxy (including Daisy V if I remember correctly), and there are non-Bovinions that live on Bovinia!

ThexCatmanx2 karma

Was there ever a time where the plug was almost pulled on Awesomenauts? If so, and you are able to say, why and what made you decide to keep moving forward?

ronimo_robin5 karma

We've been through some rocky times (especially when our publisher went bankrupt a few days before the game launched on PS3 / X360) and the game might not have turned into the game it is nowadays if the Kickstarter campaign had failed (as that was all about realizing a new vision we had for it), but I don't think there has been a moment where we almost, explicitly 'killed it'.

_eah2 karma

What happens if Free2Play does NOT have the effect you imagine and everything stays the same?

ronimo_robin2 karma

I can't imagine everything will stay the same, as the switch to free-to-play will fundamentally open up the game to a completely new audience!

_eah1 karma

What is your personally favourite Guide on steam right now?

ronimo_robin3 karma

He's not on Steam but my favorite guide is probably Virgil in the Divine Comedy. That's a pretty epic trip, and wouldn't be half as good without a decent guide.

Blackcattttt1 karma

What do you think of the balance of vinnie & spike? Easy (than any other assassin nauts) control with huge burst damage, is that you want? The blind effect is stupid, change it.

ronimo_robin2 karma

Vinnie & Spike has always been a bit tricky in terms of balance (he's been anywhere from UP to OP) but his burst damage and ease of play are by design. He's not the most complex 'Naut that we have, which is probably a good thing for new players!

For the blind effect, if you have any suggestions on how to improve it, please let us know: http://www.awesomenauts.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=18

_eah1 karma

Will you fix the Bug on Max, that, if Kraken bought (end damage on Scene Illumination) doesn't trigger sometimes (its back again)?

ronimo_robin1 karma

I'm not familiar with this issue myself, but could you post about it on our tech support forums? That would be a better place for us to help us investigate what's going on!

Our tech support forum is over here: http://www.awesomenauts.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

Blackcattttt1 karma

When will you address the connection issue in China?

ronimo_robin2 karma

We're aware of some of the issues that affect players in our Chinese community, and are working on addressing it. Not much we can say with regards to a time-frame on that though!