Mugsters Developer Q&A

[DKShadow_Team17]

To celebrate the announcement of Mugsters and the launch of the Mugsters community hub, we have a special treat for all of you. Between now and Thursday you'll be able to pose questions directly to Riku Tamminen, who makes up 100% of the Reinkout Games development studio. That's right, Mugsters is made by just one person!

Whether you’ve got questions about Mugsters specifically, want to know what game development is like, are curious about the life of a one-man dev studio, want to know how cold Finland is, or anything else you find interesting, post your question(s) below and Riku will answer as many as he can on Thursday September 28th at 11AM BST!

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The initial Q&A has now ended, but that doesn't mean the conversation is over! Continue to ask us or Riku questions about the game, or its development, and we'll do our best to keep answering them.

[FreakOrama]

Hey Riku, to those who managed to sign up for the alpha/beta, any ETA on when will they be able to alpha/beta test? (Registration opened on the 18th of December 2016, closed sometime after)

[Axel-Bit]

I've read that some inspiration was taken from GTA 2 for this game, can you talk more about what other games inspired your creating of this game?

[Stashkin]

I'm wondering what is the greatest challenge in making a game all by yourself? How did You team (17) up with Team17? ;) Cheers!

[FrostedDoughnuts]

Hey Riku! The game looks great!

As someone else asked, how did you start working with Team17 and how has it been?

[OGZxFTW]

When be beta test ? Or giveaway this game?

[OGZxFTW]

maybe there will be a channel on descord to be aware of the events in the game and distribute the beta test

[12 year old og profile]

hey game looks really cool im more so interested on how you started up your on man dev team and if so how would a complete newbie like myself go about designing sweet indie games also i was wondering when the beta would come out as soon as i saw this on steam was mad i cant download it right away anywho keep up the good work man

[square ⬛]

Will the controls be confusing like The Escapists 2 at first?

[BassPwr]

Why is it called and who are the Mugsters?
Are you a fan of Mars Attacks and/or Dastardly and Muttley?
Will there be a storyline in any form such as static or animated scenes with voice acting?
Are there any plans for online co-op?
Do you have more ideas to expand or add to the game world?
Do you have enough time to use a sauna regularly?
When you were a child, did you imagine making your own game when you are older?

[tammiriku]

Originally posted by Axel-Bit:

I've read that some inspiration was taken from GTA 2 for this game, can you talk more about what other games inspired your creating of this game?

That’s surely the biggest, i could just drive around endlessly in the city doing nothing, some of the cars just had spot on feel in them.
Of course each has a special place for me (5 is just spot on), but 2 is my biggest influence here.

There’s two MS-DOS games that has definitely influenced the driving side of Mugsters, firstly Death Rally by Remedy which had such an awesome set of cars and inspiring sorta sinister yet cartoony look on it.
Also Rally-Sport by Jukka Jäkälä, this still has an unique look for a game from 1996 and how the car controls have been made, is still admirable.

I really enjoy games where it doesn’t hurt that you get completely side tracked and can just go crazy, so i’m trying to hold on to the fact that there’s no wrong way to play Mugsters.

[tammiriku]

Originally posted by Stashkin:

I'm wondering what is the greatest challenge in making a game all by yourself? How did You team (17) up with Team17? ;) Cheers!

Probably the fact that you get easily obsessive about everything you put in the game,
yet fresh eyes could always help when figuring out something.
So the hardest part for me, is when there's no one to brainstorm with.

Twitter and things like #screenshotsaturday was fantastic for getting noticed, i feel it kinda
grows into some type of pitch itself, when posting enough stuff about the game.
Had the feeling that the fine folks at Team17 really believed in me and Mugsters,
even while i was still quite insecure about the game.
Now things are going great and Teaming up was a huge confidence boost.

[tammiriku]

Originally posted by FriskyDoughnuts:

Hey Riku! The game looks great!

As someone else asked, how did you start working with Team17 and how has it been?

Thanks!
I was happy to be spotted by them, we started talking and things just worked out.
There was insecurities by me, because of a new born in the house and the fact that games have been solely an evening hobby, so i constantly thought that i'm not qualified to be a full time developer.
I'm happy that Team17 has already proven my personal doubts wrong and this feels
exactly the right place for me to be and work on games.

[tammiriku]

Originally posted by 12 year old og profile:

hey game looks really cool im more so interested on how you started up your on man dev team and if so how would a complete newbie like myself go about designing sweet indie games also i was wondering when the beta would come out as soon as i saw this on steam was mad i cant download it right away anywho keep up the good work man

Nice to hear!
It was completely out of curiosity, the pleasure of making something out of nothing is fantastic.
I remember the first tries on getting a cube jumping on platforms and when it worked the first time, the rush it gave was super weirdly pleasing.

My advice is to pick up one of the popular game engines and start doing a super small project, nothing huge so you'll maintain the momentum on learning.
I've found out that making many small games from different genres is fantastic, you'll always learn something new and different and when you're confident enough, all this knowhow from the past smaller projects can basically scale up to a bigger project.

[tammiriku]

Originally posted by YoshiMan:

Will the controls be confusing like The Escapists 2 at first?

Been trying to keep the controls as basic and simple as can be, by this i'm hoping to achieve that just after playing a moment, you'll be intuitively used to the controls.

[tammiriku]

Originally posted by BassPwr:

Why is it called and who are the Mugsters?
Are you a fan of Mars Attacks and/or Dastardly and Muttley?
Will there be a storyline in any form such as static or animated scenes with voice acting?
Are there any plans for online co-op?
Do you have more ideas to expand or add to the game world?
Do you have enough time to use a sauna regularly?
When you were a child, did you imagine making your own game when you are older?

The name feels good for some reason and i like how it gives a bit of mystery to the game.
That being said, i'm finding it fun to let the player decide what is Mugsters, is it the aliens inside the game world, or is it the players themselves.
Hoping to tell the story during gameplay, without big cutscenes or voice acting, something
where i have my own version of it in my head, but would love to hear players thoughts on their
version of whats going on.

Only local plans for the co-op currently.
I have some ideas for the game world, but nothing major or game changing. :)

Sauna is the place where all the peaceful thinking happens, so i'm trying to get in once a week.
Easily one of my favourite places to be.

There was this software called Klik & Play, which was something that introduced me and my brother to making own games.
Of course the visions and scopes were "a bit" too grand at that time so it wasn't so easy to get started. I'm glad i found Unity years after!