I don’t think there are many gamers in South Africa that don’t know who QCF Design is. But I also don’t think assumptions are safe. So, for those that don’t know, QCF Design is a local indie game company who in 2011 won the IGF Award for ‘Best in Design’ – an award that has also been won by other indie games like Spelunky, FTL: Faster than Light and Braid.
So we at ZombieGamer thought it was about time we gave them some love. I mean, it is only two years later and we don’t want anyone to beat us on this scoop. So without further delay. QCF Design!
- How did QCF Design start?
Danny: At the end of 2007 the game design consulting I’d been doing turned from working as part of larger teams/organisations into needing a team of my own for a specific contract. I started a company so I could hire people, it was originally called Squirrel Cube because the government didn’t like my first name idea and I’m sarcastic. I renamed in pretty soon after that. Marc joined in 2008 and Rodain came on board with Desktop Dungeons in 2010.
- What games have you created up until now?
Danny: There have been mobile advergames, boardgames for magazines and lots of things as part of game jams. You can find most of those on our site (www.QCFdesign.com). Probably the most interesting projects have been: A mobile game to teach maths to rural schoolgirls in Mpumalanga – which worked really well; A hack and slash/SHMUP hybrid for 360 called Spacehack that came in the top 10 in Microsoft’s 2008 DreamBuildPlay competition; And an alternate reality game (ARG) for the World Bank Institute that we got to work with Jane McGonigal on.
Probably the biggest thing we’re known for is Desktop Dungeons (www.DesktopDungeons.net). It won us an award for Excellence in Design at the Independent Games Festival in San Francisco in 2011 before it was even done. It’ll be our first game to come out on Steam and it’s really, really fun to work on.
- Where did the idea for Desktop Dungeons come from?
Rodain: It was inspired by trying to distill the experience of in-depth roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl into short play-sessions to essentially see if they could be made into coffee break games.
Danny: There was also all the talking we were doing about games like Oasis and your Minesweeper prototypes. It feels like it was brewing in your head for a while.
Rodain: Yeah.
- Walk us through the Development process of Desktop Dungeons?
Rodain: The first release of DD was after about 2 or 3 days of pretty rapid development, after that there was a lot of community involvement and loads of feedback from the community it was released into. We ended up pushing that version as far as we could, improving it, until we eventually started working on the game in Unity as a thing to sell.
Marc: We’d been working on the Unity version for a while, about a year, burning the money we had saved up, and we realised we were going to run out of money before we could finish the game. So we decided to put the game up for pre-order so that people could pay for the game if they wanted to support it.
Danny: We actually had an investor lined up but decided to try the pre-orders anyway because it would have been a better way for us to work on the game. They ended working really well and gave us a ton of community feedback and just awesome players.
Rodain: Don’t forget to mention the incremental updates every week.
Marc: Yeah, soon after the pre-orders started, we put the beta up for people to play and every Friday there’s a new version responding to feedback from the previous week.
- The game has been on Pre-Order for a few years and it would seem that there are people who expected it to be completed by now. Do you guys feel like it has been in the development phase too long?
Danny: Yup. It would have been awesome to be finished with the game already, but we’re not. Only thing to do is keep working, right?
Rodain: We’re really looking forward to it being done.
Marc: We could have probably been finished with the game earlier, but then we wouldn’t have been taking any feedback into account and the game would be a lot worse than it is now.
Rodain: Also, when the game does come out, I don’t think this will matter to people anyway. It’ll just be out and awesome.
Marc: It’s not like it’s an AAA game that relies on graphics or technology and it’ll age and be crap in a year.
- Why do you feel like you can’t release the game now and just move on?
Marc: Well it’s not done… So…
Danny: We do release it. Every Friday. One day it’ll be done and then we can stop updating it every week. Some of our big draw elements, like our music (which is by Super Meat Boy superstar Danny Baranowsky and game music legend Grant Kirkhope) aren’t fully in the game yet. Why release early with no music when it’s going to add so much to the game to have it in?
- Some concerns were raised this past week about how QCF handles communication? Were you guys aware of any issues like this? Also, how will you address these issues?
Danny: We knew we didn’t have a newsletter and that was a potential problem, but we couldn’t have one because of how we ran the pre-orders initially. We’d do it differently for the next game, but yeah.
Marc: In all other respects, we’re actually pretty available and reachable. We have two websites that we keep up to date twice a week, we’re putting out a version of the game every week and we’re super active on twitter. It’s not hard to get hold of us.
Rodain: It’s ironic that this was raised via twitter, actually.
Danny: Yeah, I responded to a mention of DD in my twitter alerts and that’s why you’re interviewing us now via a long chain of, well, communication.
- So, when is the release date for DD?
Marc: Before the end of the year.
Danny: Well handled. I was just going to say “…” and leave it at that.
- How would people who have already pre-ordered get access to the game once it has been released?
Marc: They’ll receive an email to their registered address that will tell them how to get their Steam key.
Rodain: And non-Steam users will still be able to play the game via the website.
Danny: And you’ll be able to link your website and Steam accounts to share the same save game. Plus the site will have areas to help you get Steam keys if you don’t have them already, etc.
- Any future games planned?
Rodain: Many.
Marc: Desktop Dungeons 2, the 3D remake.
Rodain: Dungeon Harder… Vapourware manager pro HD.
Marc: Desktop Dungeons 3: Desktop Dungeons ONE.
Danny: Desktop Dungeons Default On Kickstarter Edition, THUD.
Dorianne: The 480 other games we wanted to make in the time this was taking!
…
Marc: Then Spacehack.
Danny: Maybe.
Rodain: One of these days we should just respond to that question with “We never intend to make games ever again.”
- What have you learned from the DD process that you will use on future projects?
Danny: So much… Uh, loads about PR and business and Unity and Steam and events and working with international teams.
Rodain: And just general development stuff…
Marc: Community management, travel, project co-ordination, liaising with press. And the experience of y’know, actually building an entire game.
Well, serious stuff isn’t really my strong point. We basically have it all there except for a release date. So I thought time to have some fun, ZombieGamer style.
- So I think when you work for yourself from home, you probably never wear pants right?
Marc: I always wear pants. I have never taken these pants off.
Danny: It’s true.
- The zombie apocalypse has happened. You’re facing down a ravenous zombie horde (which may or may not include members of ZG in bikinis). What weapon do you grab?
Rodain: … Uh…. *Hesitates, dies*
Marc: The sword above my bed.
Danny: The sword in my closet.
- In the aforementioned zombie apocalypse you humans are all toast. Become a turncoat and assist the superior zombies or stay with the soon to be wiped out human resistance?
Marc: Stay in the resistance.
Danny: Die zombies!
Rodain: I wanna get in on the bikini action!
Marc: He hesitated already, surely he’s a zombie now anyway, right?
- You’re stranded on a desert island and a genie grants you five items. Name them:
- A game:
Danny: Spelunky. Probably. Diabo 2?
Marc: GW2, because desert islands have internet.
Rodain: Still dead, see above.
- A CD:
Danny: What the fuck are those?
Marc: Death Magnetic.
Rodain: Is this the 90s?
- A movie or TV series:
Danny: Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Marc: Adventure Time.
Rodain: Newsroom.
- An organic life form:
Danny: Cow. Pragmatic. Wait, dolphin.
Marc: A stupid chicken. Cow maybe.
Rodain: Still dead.
- Something edible or drinkable:
Marc: A lifetime supply of pizza.
Rodain: A resurrection potion.
Danny: I think a lifetime supply of anything is cheating, isn’t it?
Marc: Is a lifetime supply of pizza edible? Yes? Shut up.
Rodain: A chicken that lays pizza.
Well, we had a long debate here at Zombie HQ and we think that Marc gets one pizza. Since he will die of starvation afterwards that pizza would technically be a life time supply. We have a budget you know.
Thanks for chat (wink wink nudge nudge) guys. Good luck with the game and all of the best. If you are interested to learn more about QCF Design (www.QCFdesign.com) or the Desktop Dungeons (www.DesktopDungeons.net) just go check out the websites. Maybe show some support… no, definitely go show your support.
