2.5 years ago we had no idea how to make a game. Yesterday we launched Fictorum, a game we had a successful Kickstarter and was on the top sellers list of Steam. We are Scraping Bottom Games AUA!

Wow, I thought I proofread it, but as soon as I read the title "a game we had a successful Kickstarter" looks like I missed a word.

Should've given it to a QA team first.

u/ElChipacabra is my writing QA, and he uhh woke up a bit late this morning, so can I blame him?

Just curious, would you have changed it to:

"a game we a had a successful Kickstarter for"

or

"a game for which we had a successful Kickstarter"

?

I would have said "a game where we had.." but I'm not a great English wordsmith

I just checked out Fictorum on Steam and saw that it has mixed reviews. Is there any specific criticism that you'd like to take the time to address?

A lot of it is fair. We lack a lot of variation in the game: in levels, enemy types, and written events and those are areas that we seek to improve the game to add longevity to it and hopefully make it a better game.

Have you considered going back into Early Access? As a fan of FTL I'm quiet satisfied with the game's mechanics, but the execution is... well, let's say, there is a lot of room for improvements.

Fonts. UI. Optimisation. General game design - some consistent art style would certainly help. The inventory is everything I ever hated about inventories.

Also:Some additional character/building models would go a long way. And you certainly need more maps for the random missions. And don't let enemies stand around useless until you get near them, line of sight be damned.

In it's current state it was an instant refund after I got the same map three times in a row.

In it's current state it was an instant refund after I got the same map three times in a row.

Wow, these are the edge cases I should have programmed for more. We definitely have enough maps that you shouldn't need to experience the same one 3 times in a row.

How did you find not going full time on the project? It's generally frowned upon in the start up world to keep your day job but you guys managed and succeeded.

How did you find not going full time on the project? It's generally frowned upon in the start up world to keep your day job but you guys managed and succeeded.

It's been really rough, I've been doing more work than I really should and sacrificing time away from my family. My wife cried a bit last night because she was still scared that "She wasn't going to get me back"

Does the success of this launch convince you at all to quit said day job and focus more on game dev?

Does the success of this launch convince you at all to quit said day job and focus more on game dev?

While successful, we're just getting to the point where I'll see all the money back that I've put in, if we didn't spend any more on Fictorum, which we will.

I'm not sure how sales will continue, but I'd love to be able to quit my job

Frowned upon? I know investors who refuse to invest if the founders are paying themselves with financing.

Unless you're well off you need to literally work it as a side job until you're big enough.

Or be single with no responsibilities and willing to live off rice

Which is achievable because typically programming types get 70k$ salaries. Work for 2-3 years and save, then you can afford to work on a game for 2-3 years.

It's amazing this guy did it with a family and a job. That's downright surreal to me. I'd be so tired and irritated.

That's my secret, I'm always tired.

Congratulations! Followed from the start and still am. The game is unique and I am loving it.

How are you experiencing the whole launch and how players are reacting on it?

Will you add more elements to the game?

Will the lore and story in game expand?

Thanks for doing this AUA and for making the game!

Edit: Had another question.

Congratulations! Followed from the start and still am. The game is unique and I am loving it.

Thanks!

How are you experiencing the whole launch and how players are reacting on it?

At some level it doesn't feel real. The games reviews on Steam are "mixed" (they've been hovering around 60%) since we've launched, and I wish they were a bit better and/or maybe wish we had done a bit better job at the game. We'll work on improving it.

Will you add more elements to the game?

Our first goals are to get mac and linux support into the game and then modding, we'll be fixing bugs as we come across them as well, it's amazing how many more bugs you find once a lot of people start playing your game

Will the lore and story in game expand?

Not soonTM, but I'd love to rework how events are done a bit so we can overall tell the story of the land as you rampage across it a bit better, and also make the new player experience a bit better as well.

Do you think the mixed reviews are because of the hype that was created with your posts on Reddit and Imgur? People might have expected more from it?

Personally, I think its good for such a small dev team and experience.

Do you think the mixed reviews are because of the hype that was created with your posts on Reddit and Imgur? People might have expected more from it?

Yea, we had insane reach right before our game released. I tried to be open with what the game was about. I think the negative reviews below the 1 hour mark hurt me the most, I don't want to force people to play a game, and if you're not enjoying the game I'm not saying you should have to keep playing it, but I'm not sure less than 1 hour with Fictorum is enough time to fairly evaluate it.

Personally, I think its good for such a small dev team and experience.

Thanks!

What kind, if any, of experience did you guys have in game development when you started?

What kind, if any, of experience did you guys have in game development when you started?

Effectively none. I took some c++ classes in college (a good 10 years ago now), and have tinkered here or there, but Fictorum was our first effort at a game.

So the game is written in C++ (with Unreal by the looks of it)? If so that is pretty cool as a lot of indie games these days are Unity/C#. How did you find working with Unreal? What other libraries, tools, etc. did you use?

You mention some C++ classes in college but how did you get your knowledge of C++ to the level where you could comfortably work with the Unreal Engine? Books, web resources?

Easier answer, I didn't. Blueprints were enough to carry our project to completion. We were really surprised how well blueprints worked and how far we got with them.

It's this sort of honesty that gets me to purchase a developer's game. You seem like a good guy with a dream and you went and realized it.

Yea, I don't want people to misunderstand (again) what blueprints are. It's not preformed code we took and modified. Epic just did an amazing job at making a visual scripting language for their C++.

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Blueprints/

HAH! You fucking hack. So you basically admit that your "game" is nothing more then a bunch of pre-made project files that you downloaded from the UE Store and hacked together?

How many ACTUAL lines of code did you write? I'm gonna guess it's close to 0, right? You just twiddled with project settings until you had something that would go viral on reddit.

You are fucking greedy and disgusting. Most indie devs deserve success, but greedy and deceptive, talentless assholes like you do not.

I think you don't understand what "Blueprints" mean in the context of UE4.

• How did you separate the tasks/manage the project code?

• Did you plan everything beforehand or was it more like a wing-it type situation where you refined the idea on the go?

• What was the hardest thing you had to work on?

Also, thank you and good luck

How did you separate the tasks/manage the project code?

As far as dividing tasks goes, it actually wasn't that hard and we both gravitated towards things that we liked. Fortunately, we like working on vastly different things and it just worked out. We used Perforce for source control and it has been amazing.

Did you plan everything beforehand or was it more like a wing-it type situation where you refined the idea on the go?

Since this project has been two other, rather different, projects over its lifetime, there was a fair amount of winging it from the beginning. As we drew closer to release, we became a lot more organized as a team. We started using Trello to track our issues, discussed major changes together prior to making them.

What was the hardest thing you had to work on?

Two things, APEX cloth and building destruction. Trying to get those right requires a lot of patience (which is not my strong suit).

Also, thank you and good luck

My pleasure—Thank you for being interested enough to comment!

Why perforce over git?

because I found this: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Basics/SourceControl/Perforce/ first

Not sure from watching the trailer but is there a linear storyline or is this a sandbox destroy everything at will type of game?

Will modding be supported or possibly at a later date?

Not sure from watching the trailer but is there a linear storyline or is this a sandbox destroy everything at will type of game?

If you've ever played FTL (if not go buy it), the game plays like that, only instead of a ship your a mage, and instead of a ship battle your blowing up towns and people.

Will modding be supported or possibly at a later date?

We're doing our best to get modding in soonTM, working on Mac and Linux support first.

I've played a few hours of Fictorum so far, bought it as quickly as I could. I wrote up a post here describing my initial concerns for the game. So far it's pretty fun but it does appear to be lacking a significant amount of polish. I really don't want to be super critical because I know you're a small team but I wanted to ask: How do you personally feel about the state of the game right now in regards to level of "completeness"?

Wow, that's an amazing amount of feedback, thank you so much for that. We were missing a lot of that in development.

How do you personally feel about the state of the game right now in regards to level of "completeness"?

While I think the game is "complete", obviously there are parts that could use more love. We don't plan on stopping support for the game anytime soon, so we'll continue to improve on it and fix bugs for the forseeable future.

I purchased the game this morning, can't wait to get home from work so that I can try it out! Looks fun.

However, right now it does just seem to be a destruction simulator. What do you plan on adding to the game and when?

I personally would love to see more story, quests and other RPG elements in it.

(However, as of right now I haven't played it so the quests could be more in depth than I think from what I've read today!)

Thanks for producing a game that looks very fun. Hopefully it is as fun as it looks!

However, right now it does just seem to be a destruction simulator. What do you plan on adding to the game and when?

Mac, Linux support and then Mod support are our main priorities along with fixing bugs. And we'll see where we can go from there!

I personally would love to see more story, quests and other RPG elements in it.

I would to. One of my goals with modding is to make it easy for people to take the maps we've made, and arrange/modify them in a way that they'd be able to tell their own stories in Fictorum.

Thanks for producing a game that looks very fun. Hopefully it is as fun as it looks!

I hope you have fun!

How'd you come up with your company name?

How'd you come up with your company name?

We were trying to come up with a clever name, but we couldn't think of one that wasn't taken, and our ideas kept getting worse and worse.

One of us finally said "We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here"

And that's where we found our name.

I have a bit of self-deprecating humor, and I know I wouldn't be able to use it much when talking about our game, so I'm glad we got to use it for our company name.

If I wanted to get into game developing myself, what are some resources you would recommend?

If I wanted to get into game developing myself, what are some resources you would recommend?

I started with downloading UE4 and following some of the tutorials they had. I think that's a great place to start :-)

Where should someone who wants to get into game development start?

Where should someone who wants to get into game development start?

Fictorum started by Chip and myself downloading UE4 and just playing around in it.

So, no one of you had any coding experience? Like none?

You mentioned before in an other question that you basically used blueprints here, but you didn't answer if one of you does have coding experience, just not using a pertaining language i.e. c++, c#.

u/Elchipacabra works with databases for his day job

I took some c++ classes in college.

But yea, that's about i t.

And did you start with Fictorum directly after downloading UE4 or did you do other smaller games to get used to UE4?

Started on what would eventually become Fictorum, originally it was going to be a game where the Mage stood on a tower and blew up incoming enemies.

We prototyped that up real quick and then decided to expand it greatly into this behemoth of a game that would have made AAA studios cry, and then we shrunk our scope into what Fictorum is today.

Greg: If for your kickstarter you had to kiss Chip on the lips for all the funding provided for your game would you do it?

Chip: If Greg decided to do it would you keep your eyes open or closed?

Easy money.

I've actually been thinking recently about how I wish you could have magic in a game that was a bit more customizable, and then the game pops up on my front page the other day. As for an actual question, what do you think was the biggest challenge for you guys during development?

As for an actual question, what do you think was the biggest challenge for you guys during development?

In hindsight getting good constructive feedback was probably our biggest challenge.

What are Scraping Bottom Games' plans for the future? You're game looks great! I certainly will give it a try

What are Scraping Bottom Games' plans for the future? You're game looks great! I certainly will give it a try

Continued support of Fictorum for now! And thanks for the ncie words.

We need to get our game working on Mac and Linux, and then we'd love to add Mod support for the game. Which might require some substantial work.

What are some of the bigger hurdles you ran into when making the game?

Everything? I mean we started from scratch. Most of our systems were built ~1.5 years ago before we launched Kickstarter and it's hard for me to remember what the biggest hurdle was. Also, sometimes once you to figure out the answer, it seems really obvious in hindsight.

Recently, I'd pick getting debris to deal damage to enemies/yourself in a (mostly) reasonable way. There's still occasionally the "feature" that the debris will do a bunch of damage to you if you run into it while it's laying on the ground.

This game looks great - however I tend to only play games with PvP. It looks like this could be an awesome pvp game - any thoughts around implementing a PVP mode?

I think we have a lot of polish and fixing to do before we get to adding more modes for our game.

What's your favourite animal, your favourite game (not ones you made), your favourite movie, and your favourite book?

What advice would you give to yourself five years ago?

What's your favourite animal,

Sea Otter

your favourite game (not ones you made),

Probably Myth 2

your favourite movie, and your favourite book?

I really like the Fifth Element and Name of the Wind is a fantastic book

What advice would you give to yourself five years ago?

5 years ago was before I had kids, I can barely imagine life before then. Maybe stick with streaming a bit more? I used to cast Stacraft 2 and enjoyed it, and kind of fell out of it.

oh and Buy bitcoin 5 years ago, that'd be pretty great.

Myth 2, as in the sequel to Myth the fallen lords?

Correct! Loved that game a bunch.

Were you inspired by a different game you enjoyed to create your own? If so, which?

Were you inspired by a different game you enjoyed to create your own? If so, which?

The biggest inspiration came from the fact that I just wanted to make a game where you played as a badass mage and blew shit up. I couldn't find one that was super satisfying released recently, so I started to work on my own.

It was originally envisioned as a tower defense type game, that idea quickly got scrapped.

Congratulations on your launch! It's been awesome getting to play and follow this game!

You advised me that there was a secret candy cane spell in the game during a livestream. I really enjoyed getting to find a little easter egg like that.

What other secrets or hidden things can we look for in Fictorum? Can you give us any hints?

There's a Christmas Tree spell at the top of one of the mountains.

There's 2 maps that have a "hidden" area "behind" the large peak. One has a few treasure chests and the other has a snowman spell that drops like meteor.

Also thanks for all the great content you've made for the game so far.

Are you working on making it possible to make boobs with earth bending?

Uhhhh no.

I mean we do have glacier, and if you're creative enough...

1) What programming experience did you have before making this game?

2) What sort of day job(s) do you currently have?

3) I saw an answer mentioning a wife. Do any of you have any kids? How did you manage your work/life balance during this time?

Thanks!

1) What programming experience did you have before making this game?

Effectively none

2) What sort of day job(s) do you currently have?

I work from home for the Federal Gov't

3) I saw an answer mentioning a wife. Do any of you have any kids? How did you manage your work/life balance during this time?

I have 2 kids, an almost 4 year old and almost 2 year old. My balance has been terrible, I've barely interacted with my wife over the last 1.5 years especially. I'm looking forward to stepping back a little bit and restoring some balance. On average I try my best to spend 40 hours a week on development, and I have to spend 40 hours a week on my day job. I've not gotten nearly enough sleep.

Please make things right with your wife so you can get back to making games soon. :)

In fact, since I'm buying your game tonight, I request that you take your portion of my payment and buy her an ice cream. Because Reddit cares, or something.

I'll be sure to do that. It's swim class night for my kids, so we'll stop by somewhere and get ice cream for her. Not the kids though.

Wow, that's insane! I also have a wife and two young kids. I'm pretty sure my wife would eviscerate me if I spent that much time away from family doing something like this lol. Was it worth it?

Wow, that's insane! I also have a wife and two young kids. I'm pretty sure my wife would eviscerate me if I spent that much time away from family doing something like this lol. Was it worth it?

Overall, the experience is, it's my chance to share something with the world.

Linux support?

Working on it!

How do you go about hiring composers for music?

When we first started working on the game, a composer that works for Rainfall contacted us and we kind of hit it off. Originally Chip's brother Reese was going to be our composer, but he didn't have the time to dedicate to the project.

What are your most favorite interactions in Fictorum?(Any particular unintended interactions you feel were the best?)

What are your most favorite interactions in Fictorum?(Any particular unintended interactions you feel were the best?)

We have a seek rune that tracks down targets. And Plasma ball is a slow moving, very powerful fire attack.

I really like watching Plasma ball chase down enemies.

Also if you kill enough enemies next to each other, eventually an enemy will get scared, drop his shit, and run like crazy, and I always enjoy watching that happen.

Do you think you'll continue making games in the future?

How do you feel about the procedurally generated worlds as a programming time saver vs. creating a larger world with a more sustained story line?

Do you think you'll continue making games in the future?

I hope we get a chance to make another game, the success of Fictorum will determine that. Right now it looks like we'll just be able to support Fictorum for a while, and we plan to do that.

How do you feel about the procedurally generated worlds as a programming time saver vs. creating a larger world with a more sustained story line?

You have to make trade offs as an indie developer. Trying to make the procedural world feel like a larger world, or feel like it's not just thrown together is a huge challenge.

Games like Diablo and Diablo 2 nailed that feeling, and FTL as a recent indie example does a great job with it.

Well, since Fictorum was on the top sellers list on Steam, I'm guessing it's safe to congratulate you on a successful launch :)

I've been following your updates for a while now and my impression is that you did a very good job of promoting your game.

Would you care to share from your experience with marketing an indie game in 2017 :) ? Is there anything in particular that you feel helped out the most in getting the word out ?

Would you care to share from your experience with marketing an indie game in 2017 :) ? Is there anything in particular that you feel helped out the most in getting the word out ?

Imgur is very friendly (in general) to indie developers and their game. Technically when you post anything about your game it's "Advertising" so always make sure to bring your personality with it.

Reddit still has a 90/10 rule and it mainly has to do with submissions, so make sure you share other work you find on the internet, or other things you like. You have to participate in the reddit community. I've been on reddit for a while and love it, and glad that they've liked what I've been showing them for the most part.

Congrats on the launch. I bought it. Played it for about 45 minutes. Hated it, and got a refund. Hoping you can clear up a few of the reasons why.

• Are there plans to allow you to shift which shoulder you look over, or did I miss a bind somewhere? (I greatly prefer looking over the right shoulder, and being forced to look over the left is awkward)
• Is the option to disable mouse acceleration there or in the works? Again, I could've been missing a setting somewhere.
• Are there plans to include a colorblind mode to adjust the UI colors to more friendly bits?

With all of the actual gameplay issues aside, these are what bugged me the most. I genuinely hope some of the issues I ran into get looked at because I'd gladly get back into the game if they were addressed.

Are there plans to allow you to shift which shoulder you look over, or did I miss a bind somewhere? (I greatly prefer looking over the right shoulder, and being forced to look over the left is awkward)

We had trouble with right shoulder, the spell effects being held in the right hand and targeting being an arc made it very hard to see/play the game from that perspective. You can zoom into the first person mode as well.

Is the option to disable mouse acceleration there or in the works? Again, I could've been missing a setting somewhere.

We don't have an option for that, we'll need to add one.

Are there plans to include a colorblind mode to adjust the UI colors to more friendly bits?

Could you make recommendations on what needs to change in the UI to help?

How was the Kickstarter funding experience? Any tips for a fellow indie dev trying to raise money through crowdfunding? Thanks!

You need an audience before going on Kickstarter. You will not find an audience on Kickstarter, you need to bring your audience to Kickstarter.

You also will not get press coverage. You need to rely on social media.

Where did you get started? Like first 3 steps. Besides the idea. Like drawing? Programming? Script?

1) Download ue4

2) "I've always wanted to play as a powerful wizard"

3) "Can I program a guy to shoot fireballs?"

4)????

5) Profit

I can't get the game until the 24th and I'm avoiding all spoilers. Thank you for making this game.

My question is what was the most frustrating part of making it?

In hindsight, the hardest part was getting good constructive feedback. I should have been more willing to search it out, and should have been more willing to give more people early access to the game.

It seems your game has been met with mixed reviews so far. What are your thoughts on the negative feedback? Do you feel like people didn't understand the game or that you missed the mark somehow? Are you proud of how the game turned out? What would you do differently if you could?

Sorry for all the questions and if they appear trolly, I'm just genuinely curious how devs deal with negative feedback, it says a lot about the company.

It seems your game has been met with mixed reviews so far. What are your thoughts on the negative feedback? Do you feel like people didn't understand the game or that you missed the mark somehow?

I think some of the negative criticism is fair, and some of it isn't. We read the feedback seeing the things we can improve. We'll try to improve Fictorum as much as we can.

Are you proud of how the game turned out? What would you do differently if you could?

I don't want to focus too much on hindsight, we did the best we could with our abilities at the time.

Whats your favourite ice cream?

I always like trying different flavors, but cookie dough has to be a standard one for me.

If you knew what you do now, how would you change the path you took to make the game?

The biggest thing is I probably would have tried a little bit harder for outside funding, and used that money to build up the game a bit more, so we could have launched a better Kickstarter.

On a programming note, there's almost nothing I wouldn't change from the early days, we've learned a lot and our code has improved a ton.

Currently a college student studying CS, considering to go into game dev industry. What skills to have or classes to take would you recommend that would help enter that industry, or at least check if thats what I want to do in life?

Start making games now.

Download Unity or UE4 or start working on games now.

I've followed this game for a while and it's been on my wishlist for many months because it looks very unique and fun. Gonna buy it next Friday, just wanted to say congrats on your success and I hope it does very well!

Being an all powerful wizard definitely sounds like a fun time on paper in the idea stage. What kind of other ideas did you guys throw around?

It's always been "all powerful wizard"

The first was a game where you'd stand on a tower and fight back enemies.

The 2nd was a game where you were going to start as the first person to discover magic for humans and go on an epic quest leading armies against the undead (then we realized we didn't have a spare hundred million to make this idea come to fruition)

Finally we started on what Fictorum is now.

I haven't gotten the chance to play your game yet, but it looks amazing! What inspired you to get started in the gaming industry (leave your jobs, etc) and what are your ideas for expansion (be they company or game related?

I haven't gotten the chance to play your game yet, but it looks amazing! What inspired you to get started in the gaming industry (leave your jobs, etc) and what are your ideas for expansion (be they company or game related?

Well we didn't leave our jobs, we've maintained day jobs throughout development and continue to hold them. That's what has funded Fictorum up until this point.

How is your story any different than the other developers who game Reddit and /r/IAmA for free advertising? Don't all developers have "no idea how to make a game" until they learn how to make a game?

We're all unique people, we all have our own perspectives/trials and tribulations.

How embarrassed are you that it only has 3 stars on Steam?

Not embarrassed, disappointed a little bit, but not embarrassed.

Was 'Name of the Wind' a big inspiration for the general concept of Fictorum?

Yea, along with other books, but especially about reading about people in the book like Taborlin the Great, I wanted a game where you got to play as that amazing Wizard, not just read/hear about him

Having seen your game on Many A True Nerds channel, I am very interested in it. Are you planning on adding different mages with unique abilities or different starting equipment?

So there are a few different starting titles to unlock that change your starting load out. Will definitely add more at some point in the future.

Ok, I have to ask one of the hard-hitting questions now. What's your preferred pizza topping/type?

I really like pineapple, chicken, onion and green peppers.

Why so you feel the need to misuse Reddit AMA as a cheap way of advertising your product?

I thought people might be interested in our story/experiences, I've included no links to any of our stuff.

Feel free to downvote and move on.

Do you think people with dissociative identify disorder is just multiple souls trapped in one body?

Do you think people with dissociative identify disorder is just multiple souls trapped in one body?

We're probably living in a simulation and some programmer screwed up the AI.