We had the pleasure of chatting with the team of the upcoming game with the base name of Flagstone! Here you will learn more about the game, inspirations, and how you can give them your support! Perhaps you will find some inspiration to continue your craft!
ABOUT THE GAME
Flagstone : Dreams of God is TTRPG anime-themed Giving players more freedom to explore their imagination and create what they want to play. Journey to Duende , a magical world born from dying stars. It’s a world, not a game
“Flagstone: Getae Legacy”🎮🐲🖥 is a next-gen RPG roguelike, sandbox based on the history, mythology, and culture of the Getae.
With historical and fantasy backgrounds. TBA
Unlike other RPGs, the game world is ever-changing, with machine-learning algorithms generating infinite stories, items, quests, and creatures. The world doesn’t wait for you.
If you don’t act, NPCs will step in and shape the game’s outcome.
Those games are under the “Flagstone” franchise developed by Gacriva Studio. Have the same rule system.
On the website HERE you will find FREE RULES for the game.
Now get ready to dive into this exclusive interview~
What initially inspired you to become a creator, and how has that inspiration evolved throughout your creative journey?
I have always loved games, particularly RPGs and TTRPGs. I was working in oil and gas exploration, and looking to go back to college for a degree. Since I already had a good career at the time, I was looking to study something enjoyed. I got a lot of odd looks for selecting game design as a study program, but looking back it was an amazing choice for me. After I graduated, my main inspiration was, and is, my kids. I really loved playing Pathfinder and other games with them and we were constantly homebrewing rules and new ideas.
Can you share a specific moment or experience that fueled your passion for your current creative project?
So we had been playing a lot of Pathfinder, and I think at the time 5E D&D had been out for a while, and the landscape for TTRPGs just really wasn’t what my table was looking for. Everyone was pretty tired of being pigeon holed into the games concept of who and what your character was. If you tried to modify things, it ended up breaking a bunch of other things. I guess you could say that Flagstone was born out of frustration with several elements of modern TTRPGs, including the trend towards extremely rules light games.
What challenges have you encountered as an indie creator, and how have they shaped your approach to your work?
The indie space is tough. Most people do not have the complete skillset needed to take a product from ideation to sales or the capital to hire people that do, myself included. But if you can’t people in money, you have to find some other way to cooperate. This is a really two-edged sword. On one hand, there are just gobs of unreliable uncommitted ‘developers’ out there that will have flash in the pan energy. They tend to jump into a project with a lot of energy and then disappear which is really, really frustrating. On the other hand, you have developers that are doing it because they either love the process or the product, and they bring energy and value that no amount of money can buy. It has really forced me to double down on looking for solutions to problems where ‘the whole ship rises together’. We have found some truly amazing people along the way.
Are there any particular creators who have significantly influenced your style or approach? How do you incorporate those influences into your own unique voice?
A few. I would love to give a special recognition to Richard Bartle. He was quite amazing for taking a green game dev and giving generously of his time and experience. It was instrumental in helping me solidify some of the more complex mechanics in Flagstone. Brad McQuaid, the creator of Everquest was probably one of the more influential developers. Everquest was perhaps on of the most influential games, I think. I love MMORPGs and spent years dissecting the choices they made, good, bad, and otherwise. There are also some incredible devs that took the time to teach or produce amazing books, like Sid Meyer, Will Wright, Jesse Schnell, Ernest Adams, Jeanie Novak, Joris Dormans. Jesse Schnell’s ‘The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses’ should be required reading IMHO. I reference that book all of the time.
How do you navigate the balance between staying true to your artistic vision and adapting to feedback from your audience or collaborators?
I think that the idea of ‘staying true to your artistic vision’ is just another way of saying stubborn and willful blindness. Refinement is an inherently destructive process, and in the realm of game development, what gets destroyed are our bad ideas, hopefully. A game’s entire purpose is to be played, and the designer is not the player, or at least, not the only player. Generally, there a few core ideas that underpin your game, and if something does not support those, it needs to go. They become the filter, the standard by which all additions or removal from the game are measured.
Can you recall a memorable success story or milestone in your indie creator journey that stands out as a turning point for you?
In 2021 I was working on a 4x strategy game for a UK based indie studio and met this scrappy Romanian programmer with a wicked sense of humor that I hit it off with. Six months later we were working on a game together, within a year, we were partnered under Gacriva Studios. So, yeah. Meeting Cristian was definitely a major turning point there.
What role do setbacks or failures play in your creative process, and how do you overcome them to keep moving forward?
Failures are just lessons on what not to do. To move forward, you just don’t do the same things again. Learn from the mistakes and try not to keep making them. We are human. For those familiar with FAFO, it is simply human nature. The finding out is part of the process.
How do you manage your time and energy to sustain a consistent creative output while juggling other aspects of life?
Poorly. Part of the indie lifestyle is often working a full time job while you’re working on your game. Stack a family on top of it and you have three full time jobs. Fortunately, my wife is quite good at telling me when I need to stop for a bit. I think it might be a little easier for a single person, just because of the lack of time demands, but when it comes to sources of inspiration and motivation, my family’s influence can’t be overstated.
Have you found any unexpected joys or rewards in the indie creator community, and how has it contributed to your overall experience?
I have made wonderful friends over the last few years, and have learned a lot from each of them. I think one of the most unexpected sources of joy has been being able to help mentor younger devs. I am typically the old man in the group, and that seems to suit me quite well. There are a lot of young people right now that are struggling for lack of encouragement and guidance. Getting to teach and introduce them to other people they can learn from has been pretty amazing overall.
What are your thoughts on All Ages of Geek? What are some things we should change/do? What are something you enjoy about our website?
I think you all have found a great niche. When I was growing up, geek culture was pretty much guaranteed to get you stuffed in a locker, so it makes me chuckle that now all the ‘cool kids’ want to be geeks 😛 As for what you might change or do? Who am I to criticize success? 🙂 Keep reaching out to people who are trying to do something hard and giving them a voice.
Goals for 2024?
To finish and publish the Flagstone Core Rulebook. We have some other things cooking for our TTRPG products while we are working on the digital platform, but at the moment, I am pretty much locked in on polishing the core rules of the game. We have had some great feedback from our playtesters, and are always looking for more.
SUPPORT THE GAME
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