Discussing Rodina With Creator Brendan Anthony of Elliptic Games

How would you describe Rodina, will it offer anything that we haven't seen before in games?

"Yes! Rodina is a space exploration game that offers a level of seamless freedom that has *never been seen before* in video games. You can fly all throughout a full-scale solar system, walk around your ship, pilot your ship straight through a planet's atmosphere, and get out of your ship and walk around. All with complete freedom - no loading screens or warp doors. This creates a kind of immersive play experience that is very strong, even though the game is relatively early in development.

Over the long run, I hope to turn Rodina into "Daggerfall in Space"- a massive, procedurally generated RPG."

You worked on Oblivion which happened to be my last console killer(game that I play so much it eventually kills my console),should I pre-order a replacement console now, how much time could I spend playing the game?

"Haha, I'm sure the girls and boys at Bethesda would be proud to hear that!

You could spend eons playing Rodina- the planets are full scale and you can walk, or fly, absolutely everywhere. There are something like 45,000 asteroids in the game. The problem, of course, is that you would eventually run out of things to do! Rodina doesn't have enough STUFF populating the gameworld yet. There are plenty of enemy ships to fight, but the next steps are to add bases on the planets, and eventually NPCs and settlements. The more support Rodina receives, the more content I'll be able to add in."

Where can I play Rodina, are you looking to expand to home consoles or will it remain PC exclusive?

"Rodina is currently a Windows PC exclusive, but I'd be more than happy to attempt porting it to consoles or other operating systems. I'd love to see Rodina on the WiiU, for example. Unfortunately I can't imagine that I'll get the chance to work on ports anytime soon- making games is busy work!"

If someone were looking to break into the gaming industry but only had a loose familiarity with programming, where could they start? How difficult is it to start making games independently?

"It's easier than it's ever been to make games independently. There are programs like GameMaker and Unity which can help, and huge systems of support to help indie developers make games, release them, and promote them.

Ultimately, though, making games is a technical process. You need to be willing to learn new things to make a game, and having an expertise, or at least a familiarity, with programming is an indispensable skill. Fortunately, no matter what platform you use to make games, there are tons of resources out there to help you keep rolling."

What would you consider to be the toughest obstacles to overcome when trying to turn a video game idea into reality(fundraising, self-motivation, connections)?

"Wow, what a great, and very difficult to answer, question....

The thing is, everything about making games is really hard. Programming is difficult on it's own, but when you are programming something with the complexity of a video game, the difficulty goes up dramatically. There have been times when I've spent days trying to fix a stubborn bug, tearing my hair out and going to bed emotionally exhausted. On days like that, self-motivation becomes very hard as well. And once you do make the game, all of the business considerations- PR, contractors, community management, all add an entire other full-time job to the mix. I'm in a tough position now, because I'm still developing Rodina, while also working to make it successful. It makes me long for the days when I had great producers and a PR department to rely on!

But, all that being said, what stands out to me as an answer is self-motivation, because it's so insidious. Ultimately, every problem is surmountable, every bug is fixable, if you just keep working. But I find that many people who want to make games, or to pursue any dream for that matter, never bother to actually take the risk, get off their butts, and actually go for it! And even if we start, once the going gets hard it's just too easy to quit and go back to something easier.

The good news is- making games is also fun! Every bug fight comes with a moment of sweet victory. And every PR nightmare is balanced out when people tell you they love your game :) I get my motivation from those great moments, and in the end I'm incredibly lucky to have one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs in the world!"

Tomorrow I will post a review of my experiences playing Rodina. Thank You again to Brendan and here is a link where you can download the Rodina demo to see if you would like to participate in one of their purchase tiers.