I recently had some time to chat with Chris Pelling, creator of Mayhem Intergalactic and founder of Inventive Dingo games. In part 2 we discuss development processes, the evolution of the game and his gaming preferences in general.

[SG]: What kind of problems did you run into? Has it changed your approach to the development process?

[CP]: You always learn new things on every project. Many of the lessons I've drawn from this are quite technical and therefore boring; guidelines on program architecture for client/server games, for example. I won't elaborate for fear of sending the audience to sleep...

One thing I can tell you: I'm going to start using self-testing code ("unit tests", in programmer lingo) a lot more. During development I kept having to go back and fix bugs that I'd already fixed, since I'd improve one part of the program and that would have cascading effects over several other parts, causing bugs. It's sort of like trying to dig a hole in a pit of very fine sand; as soon as you shovel out one load of sand, another shovel-full comes sliding in to replace it.

Thankfully, there are techniques you can use to control this. One of the best is to write code that tests all the other pieces of your code. That way you can immediately see the consequences of your changes rather than seeding the code with bugs which you then have to find and fix later. So I'm going to do that a lot more in future.

[SG]: From the forums it looks like you are still evolving Mayhem Intergalactic, where do you see it going in the future? Will it remain turn-based or perhaps have a real-time version in the future?

[CP]: Absolutely, I expect to continue developing Mayhem Intergalactic for a long time to come. This is one of the great things about downloadable games, as opposed to traditional retail games; releasing new versions is basically free.

Patching a retail game is expensive. You have developers and testers to pay and QA to re-do, and while you're devoting resources to that you're taking away resources from your next game. Beyond a certain point it's just not cost-effective to do it any more; once a game has gone gold, the publisher never really wants to see it again. This doesn't apply to MMOs of course, but that's a different ball game.

Downloadable games are a different story. I just have to recompile, test it, upload it to the website, and I'm done. Anyone who buys the game will get the updated version automatically, and I have a mechanism in place for providing all the updates for free to existing customers. Easy, cheap, and definitely worth doing. So you can expect the game to be continually improved for a while to come.

[SG]: So what exactly does the future hold for Mayhem Intergalactic?

[CP]: Well, mostly polish. The Internet game system will get more features, to make it even easier to find a game. I want to overhaul the graphics at some point; they're not really that bad, but they could be a lot better. The audio also needs some tender love and care. I'm going to port the game to Linux shortly (actually it's mostly done as I type this), and eventually to Mac OS X as well. In addition to all of this, there are literally dozens of little things I want to add and tweak; I have a text file several pages long listing desired features. I expect to keep myself fairly busy over the next couple of years...

As for real-time, no; that's one thing that won't change. The game will stay turn-based. Making it real-time would probably require rewriting half the game!

[SG]: What's next for you and Inventive Dingo? Do you have another game in the works already?

[CP]: Like most game developers (I suppose), I have a couple of dozen game ideas all jostling for pole position in the primordial soup of my brain. I haven't started working on any of them yet, though I've prototyped a couple of the more promising ones. So we'll see what happens. I expect that updating Mayhem Intergalactic will keep me fairly busy in the short term.

[SG]: Do you find yourself playing Mayhem Intergalactic just for fun or is it sort of an all work and no play situation now?

[CP]: It's still fun; I guess I'm lucky that way. I'll sometimes be testing a feature and then get a bit carried away with playing the game! Thankfully the games are so quick that my productivity doesn't suffer too much as a result. I just get a bit sidetracked and forget what I was doing.

When I'm not testing something specific, I can still play it with a clear conscience; it's not "wasting time gaming", it's "productive time testing". Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

[SG]: So you must be a gamer. What are your favorite platform and game?

[CP]: Speaking of "platforms", old-school platformers will always have a special place in my heart. Commander Keen, Crystal Caves, Jazz Jackrabbit... fun times. But to answer the actual question, I'm a PC gamer. My lounge room isn't really set up for gaming and my monitor is better than my TV, so getting a console has never been a priority. That, and I'm afraid I'd spend all day every day playing [Nintendo] Wii.

I love lots of games from all kinds of genres, so it's hard to pick just one favourite. Starscape, Mount & Blade, and Sam & Max Episodes are some of my favourite indie games. Then there are the AAA classics like Deus Ex, System Shock 2, the Thief series, Grim Fandango (best adventure game ever), the Monkey Island series, Worms, Call of Duty, Civilization, Age of Empires/Mythology... that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are dozens of games that I've forgotten to mention.

Recently, I've been playing Prey, which is a lot of fun. It just oozes polish. I love their setting and level design, and the way that you basically can't die. Usually I get very cautious in FPS games because I'm so mindful of how much health and ammo I have; and I suck at shooters, so I *need* to be careful or I'll get my ass kicked. But in Prey, dying is merely a minor inconvenience, and the ammo for the basic gun actually recharges when it gets low. Genius. Now I, too, can charge around like a maniac without any regard for consequences!

Our thanks again go out to Chris Pelling at Inventive Dingo. Don't forget to check in for the Mayhem Intergalactic dueling review coming next week. I predict I will thrash CigDangle like the AI thrashed Chris in part 1 of the interview.

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