Declarations of Independents: Kingdom of Loathing

Fri, Apr 18, 2008

Declarations of Independents focuses on the most independent of game developers: Small teams or individuals whose games have little or no marketing, advertising, or outreach, yet which have extremely loyal and dedicated followings. These games are the hidden treasures of the game industry, and it is our pleasure to bring you the thoughts and experiences of their creators on what it means to be an independent developer.

Today, we focus on browser-based phenomenon Kingdom of Loathing. A turn-based RPG that's heavy on writing, KoL is simultaneously minimalistic and deep. While on its surface, the game plays out with stick-figure graphics and humorous variations on standard RPG quests, a glance into the game's forums reveal an army of players willing to dissect the mechanics and statistics of the ever-growing content. The game's zones, monsters, items, and everything else are borne of a mix of the authors' own humor and a constant parade of pop culture references, providing for several jokes the player might not catch, but dozens more that will leave him chuckling aloud. A simple browser interface and in-game chat (accessible once you have passed a simple grammar test) allow for a casual at-work play session, provided you can keep your giggling to yourself. The game's one shortcoming is its "turns" system, wherein a player is only allotted a certain number of chances to complete their in-game tasks per day. Presumably, this is likely done to balance the free-to-play game's server load, but it is a shortcoming precisely because of how addictive and engrossing KoL is -- a player will hungrily devour the hilarious and clever content, only to find that they're out of turns for the day.

We spoke with Josh "Mr. Skullhead" Nite, a writer and designer for the game, to ask about the game's design and community.

GameCyte: When did you first decide you wanted to develop an independent game?

An Adventurer is You! Josh Nite: This question is one that [game creator] Jick/Zack can answer better than I can. From what he's told me, he had worked on several small games, but never had anything beyond the early testing stages. So he challenged himself to put together a game in one week, actually put it online, and invite people to test it.

GC: Tell us about Kingdom of Loathing. What inspired the project? How has the development process been treating you?

JN: Both of us had a long history with this type of game, from Zork to Barren Realms Elite to, especially, Legend of the Red Dragon. We took those influences and let them simmer in the pop-culture stew that passes for our minds. We were both fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Monty Python, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction -- the standard nerd passtimes -- and we both thought it was hilarious to talk in song lyrics and movie references. So that sensibility informed the process.

The game has changed a lot from the early days. It started as more of a piece of interactive fiction than a game -- click a button, read some funny text, and some numbers would go up arbitrarily. Our player base did a lot to turn KoL into an actual game. They asked questions like "so, what's the difference between a Turtle Tamer and a Pastamancer? What does this equipment do?" So we turned KoL into a game by answering those questions.

After people started seriously playing the game, we had to at least try to seriously design it. People did things we never would have imagined they'd do -- we had to start trying to outsmart them to keep the game fun for them. So we slowly built layers of complexity for them. The only thing we resisted, and still resist, is making the first couple of days of turns more complicated.

GC: Have you worked a part of a larger development team before? If so, how has it compared to directing your own project independently?

Council of Loathing JN: No, we had no experience with this stuff. We did try to deal with a development team to make a card game, and we found we don't like being told what to do :-). We'd rather keep control of what we're doing. We take advice from our dev team -- we rely pretty heavily on them at times -- but we always keep the final say.

GC: How have you managed to sustain the project? Do you make money from donations? What is your "Day Job?"

JN: Shortly after Jick put up the notice asking for donations and introduced the Mr. Accessory, the donations were sufficient to support the game. We pretty much had zero start-up costs. The donations rapidly increased to the point where Jick quit his day job, and after we introduced Mr. Store, the donations were enough for me to quit mine. My day job is writing humor for Kingdom of Loathing, improbable though that may sound.

GC: How has word spread about your game? Has it all been word-of-mouth?

Random Encounters JN: It's been all word-of-mouth, starting with Jick's initial posts in some MMO discussion boards. Game review websites like little fluffy picked up on us, and that lead to a few appearances in print magazines (Game Informer, Games Magazine, Wired). The best advertising has come from players, though -- they wander in, tell their friends, and their friends tell friends, and on and on it goes. We have an average of, say, 1,500 people logged on at any given time, and a steady playerbase of 150,000. Roughly 1,000 people join every day, but the active playerbase hovers between 150 and 200,000. I think we're at about 1.75 million total sign-ups so far.

GC: What has it been like to have such a dedicated fan base? Has it helped or hindered the development process; how receptive are you to suggestions or demands from your community?

JN: I absolutely love our fan base. When I start to feel burned out on the process, they're the ones who encourage me, or at least provoke me to do better to prove them wrong. Sometimes we feel a little beholden to a vocal minority of dedicated gamers, and that can be draining, but those people are the ones who are responsible for KoL becoming a better game. In the end, when we disagree with the fan base, we have to stick to our guns. Our vision is what drew them to the game, and we hope they trust our vision to continue to develop. I mean, there are people who are convinced we ruined the game every time we put something new in, but usually they come around.

The social networks the game creates continue to astound me. I have met many, many wonderful people through KoL, many of whom have become close friends. I used to never chat or socialize online, but with KoL -- well, we tend to have a smart, funny, and interesting group of people on at any point.

GC: What's the best part of being an independent developer?

Ballroom Blintz JN: I still can't believe this is my job. I set my own hours, I get to entertain people, we get to build the game how we see fit and react in real-time to feedback that we get. No bureaucracy, no middle managers -- it's good stuff.

The low operating cost means we can choose to not do lame things that would make us more money, like putting Google and banner ads all over, or charging a subscription fee. We make less money, but we get by, and we get to feel like we keep our street cred.

GC: What's the worst?

JN: I still do worry about the audience drying up for the game, people just moving on. Relying on this for my livelihood without a safety net can be scary, but it's never really been an issue. It's more my nerves.

GC: If you could share one valuable experience or piece of advice with ambitious game designers, what would it be?

JN: Don't be afraid to put your game out there before it's finished. Put out what you have, take feedback, seriously consider it, and let the players help build the game. It worked for us!

GC: What can we expect to see from you next?

JN: We have several projects that are in long-term development, and we have a couple more big chunks of content for KoL, too. I don't think we'll stop updating KoL as long as people are playing, but I'm working on another game, and so is Jick, and so is Riff [another KoL developer]. I think the next round will be three smaller games that will more-or-less stand alone -- that is, games that will evolve less than Kingdom, but still have the replayability. Right now, we're all planning our projects seperately, but when the time comes, we'll all work on all of them.

We thank Mr. Skullhead for taking the time to speak with us. You can play Kingdom of Loathing, for free, here.