By the time I'd arrived on the QB/FB scene, Lachie Dazdarian was already a prolific game developer with several projects under his belt. In the intervening years, he has continued to output a large number of games and demos, his name becoming synonymous, at least in my mind, with extremely hard work and, often, merciless self-criticism.
Through the FreeBASIC Games Directory, he has risen to prominence in the FB game scene as a supportive and encouraging force in the community.
Barren is a game with almost legendary status due to it's long (no pun intended) on and off development time. When this story arc of Lachie's life as a game developer so far came to a close, I wondered where it fitted, in the creator's mind, in the larger context of his work, and, with this behind him, where the future might lead....
Interviewer: When did you start the project?
Lachie: Well, it was sometime during 2002 when I got online for the first time and discovered that QBasic could load GIF and BMP images. Till then I played with LINEs and CIRCLEs. I even didn't know how to use subroutines. Anyway, I just wanted to make something interactive using GIF images.. Humble starts.
I: Do you feel a little sad that an era so long has come to an end?
L: Not really. I'm glad I got this monster off my back.
I: How much of that time were you working on the project?
L: It's really hard to say, because the development was interrupted so many times. I would say some 6 months of development time, but that's a wild guess. It could be more.
I: How do you think it compares to your previous projects, and how do you think it will impact your future ones?
L: I find it difficult to compare Barren to my previous projects, because Barren is quite different from my other works, in all aspects. From the genre to long development process. Perhaps it's the first game of mine that features a really involving and cool atmosphere (not bragging, but this is like a unanimous judgement). The positive comments regarding that are quite motivating for me on a certain level. Glad to know I can deliver this aspect in games. How will it affect my future projects? I really can't tell. I doubt it will affect them much as Barren was a residue of my game design past and roots. Working on Barren was an ordeal in a way for the most part, and it ended up being nothing more but a small adventure game. So I don't see myself working on a longer adventure game soon and without becoming very skilled in pixel art first (or finding a skilled artist willing to work on my ideas - fat chance).
I: What were the biggest challenges you faced?
L: Graphics, mostly.. I think 2D adventure games are the most challenging games to develop in the graphics department. You really can't recycle much graphics in adventure games. Each new scene is a new challenge and must be drawn from scratch. I am quite happy with how I managed to execute certain segments of the game, but without the help of Na_th_an and especially
Josiah quite few parts of the game would appear very weak.
I: Do you think it has been a worthwhile experience?
L: Again, difficult to say. Perhaps too much effort was invested for the end result, but as the game moved toward the end and with the quality graphics and music I started to receive from Josiah, it became a pleasant experience completing the game. The way Barren was developed probably represents the complete opposite from the ideal game development process. So any dissatisfaction I might have does not result from the end product, but from the delayed and poorly planned development process.
I: What was your inspiration for making Barren?
L: It was a Paintbrush image I did probably before 2000 showing the 4 main game scenes with an ominous faceless figure in front of all that.. The way that image turned out always excited me and made me contemplate about how making a game out of it would be cool, although I had no idea what kind of game I wanted to make. This resulted in Barren being such an unfocused and random game. BTW, I think I have that image online somewhere. Oh yes, here:
Funny that site still being online.
I: How does the end result differ from your original vision?
L: Actually, not much. Josiah helped a lot bringing this project to the point I sketched out long before in 2003. There were few things I pondered about during the dev process, but I never found the motivation to create and put them in the game. One involves a room with a TV and a person from it talking to the player obscene stuff (mostly inspired by my own dark thoughts), but I thought that sort of character would reveal too much of my own daemons. The second idea involved another scene. It should have been placed on the roof of one of the buildings, featuring a nice panoramic overview of the valley..
I: What made you stop the project, and why did you start again?
L: It was various things, mostly being distracted by other projects, college or work, and in the same time feeling quite discouraged with not being able to execute certain segments of the game. In most cases the project picked up when someone offered to help or when I tricked someone to work on it (:P). And at one point the constant motivator to continue developing the game became the fact that so many work hours were invested in the development already.
I: Why did you change the project's name?
L: Heh, it was mostly the result of"Noname"being grammatically incorrect and "No Name"looking fugly in the title. Also, I was not able to decide if "The" should go in front of "Legacy of Noname General" or maybe one more "the" should be in front of "General". Funny thing is, for some time I wanted for the new title to be"Barren - The Legacy of No Name General". Don't know what happened to that idea. :P
It was Zamaster who suggested Barren for the title.
I: Who joined the project, and what part did they play?
L: Oh, boy. This is a long story. The first person showing interest in LONG, as it was called back then, was Na_th_an somewhere in 2003. He got intrigued by a demo that I made available, featuring the main 4 scenes and one extra scene with few click boxes. He motivated me to rewrite the code which was a nightmare of unimaginable proportions and write down the game plot line. I remember relsoft, who helped me a lot in programming back then, calling the first LONG code "sophisticated" out of courtesy. Oh, the good old days. Anyway, back then Na_th_an did a lot of work, mostly related to three game scenes. Two ended up only being retouched in Paint Shop Pro, while the other (which was one of the later game characters) was somewhat redone by me. His biggest contribution was the fake OS appearing in the game (I just have to make this minor spoiler), which really adds a lot to the quality of this product. Because of some artistical differences we split, and not until late 2007 nobody joined the project. First it was Zamaster (Christopher Brown) offering me a joint project. Before that I persuaded him to make few music tracks for Barren, after which he disappeared completely, abandoning me on our joint project too. Later I got an email from him saying he got burned out or something, and feeling bad on leaving me. Oh, well. The next person to join the project was Vincent DeCampo, again on the same manner. First by wanting to work with me on a different (any) game project. He ended up doing two cool scenes for the game, and the main game banner (on the main menu). He also disappeared shortly after that. Maybe I'm a difficult person to work with. :P
The last person who joined the project was Josiah Tobin, and he practically saved it with several music tracks and a huge amount of sound effects. Also, his graphics contributions, mostly appearing at the end of the game, are just awesome. It was a huge pleasure to work with him on this project and he's a team member you can only wish for. Skilled, ready for his work to be altered, and always available.
I: Are you satisfied with how Barren turned out?
L: I answered to this question partially when talking about the project being a worthwhile experience. Anyway, I would say more or less. The fact is that this project was started rather clumsy, without a clear goal, and was continued to be developed despite that. The biggest flaws of the game are my poor pixel art skill, graphics style incoherence (because several people worked on the project), and unplanned gameplay and script. Which is a lot, I know. Anyway, a great deal of development went into patching these weak aspects of the game, and on the end I must say I'm quite satisfied how they ended up being patched. ;)
I: How has the reception been in the community and elsewhere?
L: I would say fair. Very nice and positive in the community (more that I expected and could wish for). I would only like to see the game reviewed by someone. That would be nice. Outside the community? Well, not so great. It's difficult to find a place to show off your retro 2D game nowadays (unless it's outstanding, then other people will promote it for you). I got several positive comments in the www.create-games.com community and a review (although the game got mutilated in their "game of the week" poll), but without that site and our community it would come down to a handful of comments (not counting "Wee, this looks like a nice game!" posts which only annoy). I wish there was a freeware community full of avid freeware game players willing to comment and dissect your game. Maybe such community exists, but I haven't found it yet. Anyway, happy with the feedback I got, not by its volume. I guess I never am. :P
But this kind of situation makes me want to reconsider my motivation for making games. Maybe I should put more value in just being happy with releasing something quality. The volume of feedback you might get is always a gamble.
I: You have said that you plan to take a break from game programming for a while, what are your motivations for this?
L: Well, Barren was a project I dragged since ever, so it's quite naturally I feel a need to make a small break after completing something like that. Anyway, lately I'm quite busy with my new job so I have little of free time available. No need to kill my free time with another project so sudden. Beside that, I should concentrate on administrating FBGD for a while now. I also hope some plans regarding its better future will realize. ;)
I: Do you have anything planned for your next project, or a vague idea?
L: Of course I do. ;)
I really want to make a gameplay driven platform game, something like Giana Sisters. Some of you remember me trying to compile a platform engine a while back and that will probably be the first thing I'll attempt when I get back to programming. I will try to finish the darn engine and compile some level editing tools. I still see my pixel art skill as an obstacle, but now I'm ready to spend months only on getting better in that aspect. I really don't feel a need to rush another release at this point of my game dev life which is really good.
As of other projects, I have enough of them to fill 3 lives. One includes a game with the Star Cage engine, but I'm not so motivated to use it as the feedback I got on that engine wasn't that good. Another one includes a story combining fantasy, humour and SF, made in a screen by screen scrolling engine.
All in all, you can expect new stuff from me. Eventually.
;)
I: Thanks for your time
L: Cheers!
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