Raptisoft, creator of Solomon's Keep and Hoggy-Interview!

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by TheProxy, May 3, 2010.

  1. TheProxy

    TheProxy Well-Known Member

    Nov 29, 2009
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    Chandler, AZ
    I haven't been all that tuned in to TA lately, but I think I owe it to John to post an awesome interview I had with him a while ago here. He's a really funny and awesome guy, so if you loved Solomon's Keep (which I know you do), you might want some fun facts about the dev:

    Me: So, to start off, could you tell me your role in Raptisoft?

    John: Raptisoft is more or less a one man show. I usually contract the music, and I occasionally contract some work on the side, but really, it's more or less one guy, making games.

    Me: How did Raptisoft come to form?

    John: This is sort of a silly story... back in the 1990's I was dating a girl (now my wife), and she enjoyed playing this bubble popping game at the local arcade in Ann Arbor. Since I hate leaving the house, I tried to find a PC version of it for her-- with no success! So I cracked my knuckles and said "pshaw, I could write something like this for you in a week!" And I did. That was 1997. My level of business acumen was so low that I then... did nothing with it.

    Then in the year 2001, a horrible thing happened: I got a mortgage. Thrashing helplessly in this net, I dusted off my old game, quickly re-wrote it, and put it up for sale online. I called it "Eggsucker." What? It's a good name. Anyway, I felt so guilty over writing a game that wasn't entirely original that I priced it at $5.49 (the lowest the e-commerce provider would allow) and I went merrily on my way hoping to make $50-$100/month off it, just to sand the sharp edges off our living expenses.

    What followed was shocking... the game sold slowly its first month, but by the second month, it was doubling my income from my day job. I immediately started work on a second game ("Solomon's Keep," believe it or not) but then Popcap Games contacted me about publishing Eggsucker. Unreasonably, they wanted to change the name, and I threw a couple of duds at them ("Fossilized," "Dyno-Pop") before coming up with "Dynomite."

    Me: How would you describe a typical day of development in Raptisoft?

    John: 4:30 am, wake up
    4:31 am, weigh self
    4:31:05 am, day is ruined, hit the computer

    I don't really have typical development days. From what I've heard talking to other lone-wolf developers, we're all manic-depressive. So some days, it's leap to the computer and do twelve hour's work in the first hour, and sit on the edge of the seat, creating furiously, all day. Then, the weather changes, and it's slump at the computer, browsing the web between each compile, arguing with people who are /clearly wrong/ on message boards, and dreading how much work it's going to be to add in a skeletal dragon that pukes realistic maggots. There's a little Solomon's Keep preview for you there too, if you can find it.

    But if you really want some idea of what my day is like, read the chapter in "The Princess Bride" where Inigo Montoya's father is forging the sword for the six-fingered man. There is no better look into the mind of an artist.

    [​IMG]

    Me: What was/were your inspiration(s) for developing Hoggy?


    John: Why, Mario Bros, of course! But:

    I was chatting with an online friend one day (Steve Verreault at Twilight Games). I'd been doing casual games for too long (and had recently finished the ill-fated and creatively destructive "Boonka") and I was mentioning to him that I wished I had a nice simple arcade game concept. He said he had an idea that he always wanted to do, but probably wouldn't get around to it, so I was free to use it. He literally said "You control a little Mario-like guy, except instead of jumping, when you press the button it reverses his gravity."

    Well, this idea exploded in my head in an instant, and I had a prototype the next day, with a little pink slime mold as the main character. As the first week went on, though, the "arcade play" felt a little shallow, so the game did turn out a lot more puzzle driven than it was meant to be. As it started to move away from action and more to puzzle, Steve casually dropped a bomb on me, saying "Hey, you should check out this game "Bound Around," it's a little like Hoggy." So, panicked, I tried it, and no, it's not *that* much like Hoggy, but it was an idea in the same vein. After playing it, I contacted the guy who wrote it, and we ended up chatting a bit, and lo and behold, he was willing to do some puzzle design for Hoggy. So the Hoggy levels are half mine, half his.

    Me: What would you say is the hardest part of developing a game and why?* Favorite part?

    John: Oh, that's easy... the best part of writing a game is the first 2-3 weeks, when you are flush with a new idea and electricity is running through your veins instead of blood. The hardest part is... everything else.

    Literally... the core part of every game is a blast. This is the part kids are thinking of when they say they want to be game developers.

    But then after that's done-- and that part usually flows so well that it's literally 2-3 weeks to write the "game" part of a game... then you have to start doing the stuff that's less fun. Player profiles. Saving the game state. Every little menu interface. Then you show it to friends and they don't realize that your artistically designed menu button is a menu button. So you redesign that. Some of your friends think the game is too easy. Others think it's too hard. So for 90% of your game development time, you're juggling all these plates in pursuit of perfection. And while there's fun parts in that, it's also a tremendous creative drain.
    So making a game is a lot of fun, and there's nothing else in life I'd rather be doing. But the surprise is, making a game is work, too. :)

    [​IMG]

    Me: We've noticed that your company has games in many different categories, are you guys trying to fill a niche in the AppStore, or are you trying to cover a variety of genres?

    John: No thought goes into this whatsoever. It's simply... I feel like writing [fill in the blank] for the next game. I think this has cost me somewhat... people often come away wanting more of the same, and I don't have anything to offer them. I'm adapting, though... soon I'll be putting out an iPhone game called Hoggy's Lost Levels, which will include all the levels that didn't get put into Hoggy because they seemed too hard. Also, if Solomon's Keep performs well, I'll expand that as well.

    I'm also at work porting both Hoggy and Solomon's Keep to Windows/Mac/iPad and give them good features that aren't possible or are too cramped on the iPhone. For instance, Hoggy for PC/Mac will give users the ability to make their own levels, and share them. And with luck, people will even be able to make and share iPhone levels.

    Me: What is your opinion on the Apple IPad? Do you see it as a potential home for your future games?

    John:Well, my business handicap makes anything I predict completely worthless. I have one on order, and I plan to port to it, so we'll see. I've killed other devices before by planning to port to them.

    Me: If you had to list your top five all-time favorite apps (besides your own), what would they be?

    John: On iPhone I tend to lean toward little "time waster" apps. I like Tower Bloxx, Sword of Fargoal, Catcha Mouse 2, Plants vs. Zombies (of course!) and this crazy app called Mazefinger. Anything I can sit down, play a bit, quit, and resume exactly where I left off. I try to make my own iPhone apps capable of that-- so that you can shut them down and come back exactly where you were with no fuss. That's the point of portable, right? At yet a lot of apps don't seem to want to do that.

    For AAA games, I haven't played too many of late because they seem to be played one, played them all. I still fire up Titan Quest now and again, but the really unusual find I've been playing lately is this old game called Dr. Lunatic. From the screenshots, you'd pass this game up... but if you DO download it, I guarantee you'll be playing it far longer than you ever imagined you would.
     
  2. songbird

    songbird Well-Known Member

    Dec 4, 2009
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    Awesome interview, thanks for sharing! :)
     
  3. BazookaTime

    BazookaTime Well-Known Member

    Great interview.

    I own all of the iPhone games by him and they are all fantastic. This is one of those companies (like Donut Games) that I will buy anything they put out because I know it is going to be fun.
     

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