pbrand

and I run a small game studio in San Francisco.

Why would indie devs set up in a city with such a high cost of living? It seems to me that you could save a lot of money by virtually collaborating with your missing elements (art, music, etc.) and live in a much cheaper area. It confuses me to see companies like Doublefine burn through so much Kickstarter money simply due to their geographic location. Aren't indies supposed to be more agile?

In 2012 you said that "ultraviolence has to stop" in the games industry. Games in general have long used violence as context for mechanics, even going back thousands of years for Go and Chess in terms of piece removal from the gamestate.

Why do you think game designers have largely failed to popularize alternative systems? What can the game industry do to systematize/gameify non-violent actions?

Did you ever consider using battlefields with height levels on them (like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre) instead of doing flat battlefields?

What's the benefit of doing a tactical RPG with movement tiles if there aren't enough obstacles on the field to justify doing it over a standard line-em-up RPG (like Dragon Quest)?

If your studio were to expand in the future, what roles (programming, art, whatever) would you be hiring first?

Hi Mr. Pince,

Considering you've got experience with online networked games (and presumably have hired people responsible for that), would you say that a games programmer should spend time learning networking? I hear it's a complex mess. Would it bump up a paygrade or increase job desirability?

Thanks for the response!

I think our next role to hire would be programming.

I'll have to keep an eye out for your postings then :)