Dead State Interview

In case you’re interested in reading a bit more on DoubleBear Production’s upcoming indie turn-based zombie-RPG Dead State, maybe because you’re considering its Kickstarter, you might be interested in reading this recent interview from RPG Codex with Annie and Brian Mitsoda, and Iron Tower’s lead artist Oscar. Here’s a generous excerpt:

You both designed RPG in the past. Brian did the writing for Troika’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, and Annie worked on Storm of Zehir and is now part of the Guild Wars 2 development team. What were the lessons you learned from the other titles you have been involved in, and how do they apply to Dead State?

Annie: Don’t be the only writer on a massive project that also requires your full-time skills as a designer? That was my takeaway from Storm of Zehir. Also have more than nine months to make the game! Ha! Ha… ugh.

Seriously, though, though I worked with some amazing folks on Storm of Zehir, there was a lot of time when we were working by the seat of our pants, and as a writer working on someone else’s module, I was worried that I was too disconnected from what was supposed to be going on design-wise. For Dead State, I’ll be in a lot closer communication with the designer responsible for an area (either by being the designer in question or being married to them), and not only will we know that it’s a good idea to make outlines and first drafts of writing, we’ll actually be able to polish them! All too often, polish passes are things that hardly get to happen – furtively if at all – and knowing how critical these are, and how beneficial it can be to have a writer you trust look over your work and give you feedback, have definitely helped with Dead State already.

Brian: I’ve worked on multiple RPGs, which is great for knowing how not to make one and how to schedule for tasks, plan dialogue, set up systems to mesh together, and how to lead a team. For Dead State, I’ve had to use all this plus adapt to the indie lifestyle, where if no one’s left to work on something, it’s time for the project lead to learn how to do it themselves.

…

Now, Dead State is going to be an RPG, which is a funny genre in that it is hard to get two people to agree on a definition of it. Why did you choose to make a role-playing game? What makes it exciting for you to work on one, and what characteristics of the game define it as an RPG for you?

Annie: I love lots of game genres, but RPGs are my favorite, and since we knew we’d be working with the Age of Decadence engine, it seemed the wisest choice as a initial project. So it was part practicality and part personal inclination.

You’re dead-on that RPGs are insanely tricky to define, but it’s the character development (both in the mechanics of building skills and in the actual personality of people) that I find the most enticing about the genre, both as a player and as a developer. Writing an average townsperson in a generic fantasy game is okay, but writing someone who’s under constant fear for their lives and who might have lost a family member to a zombie attack? A lot more interesting of a challenge right there!

Brian: Not the old (what is an RPG?) question already! Fair enough, we are calling it one. So, let’s see – stats and skill tweaking is a given, wooden stick to horn of alpha gorillas weapon progression sure, lots of items to sort and fuss over, yeah we have those. But I kind of feel ripped off if an RPG doesn’t have some actual choices in the story and the dialogue that has actual reactivity and payoff on character and story outcomes. That’s one of the things we have dedicated a lot of time to and where our years of development experience really pays off. And if we’ve done it right, each player will have a different story to tell.

How did you approach the design of Dead State’s character system? What are, in your opinion, its main strengths and (possibly) weaknesses?

Annie: I think the key strength of the system is that we didn’t try to mimic anything else: we knew what sort of combat structure we’d have, and built on that. For a while we didn’t even have stats, and tried to do everything via skills – everything that was introduced required a solid argument for its inclusion and a clear explanation for how it fit into everything else. We didn’t want anything to feel confusing or extraneous. I think that might feel like a weakness to some, since we’ve winnowed out more variable stats like Luck, and ones expected to influence personality like Intelligence and Charisma, but I think it frees up players to develop their character more fluidly, and spend less time fussing over base character creation and upgrade and more on learning all the other systems in the game!

Oscar: In my view, the strongest part of the character system is that it’s very tight. There are no skills or stats that feel useless, which make the decision of which ones to pick very interesting. Of course, some people who like expansive characters systems might find it a tad unsatisfactory (No charisma or intelligence? No way!).

Brian: Yeah, Annie and Oscar hit it on the head. No wasted skills, nothing in there just because they’re in every other game. Your skills will make a big difference on how you approach problems or combat in the game.