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In today’s episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I’m joined by Jonas Tyroller, one of the developers behind Thronefall, a minimalist indie strategy game that blends tower defense and kingdom-building, now available on Steam.
Jonas takes us through the journey of creating Thronefall from start to finish, offering insights into the world of indie game development. We explore:
• Why indie developers often skip traditional testing and how they find bugs
• The developer workflow using Unity, C# and Blender
• The two types of prototypes game developers build
• Why Jonas spent months building game prototypes in 1-2 days
• How Jonas uses ChatGPT to build games
• Jonas’s tips on making games that sell
• And more!
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Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(02:07) Building in Unity
(04:05) What the shader tool is used for
(08:44) How a Unity build is structured
(11:01) How game developers write and debug code
(16:21) Jonas’s Unity workflow
(18:13) Importing assets from Blender
(21:06) The size of Thronefall and how it can be so small
(24:04) Jonas’s thoughts on code review
(26:42) Why practices like code review and source control might not be relevant for all contexts
(30:40) How Jonas and Paul ensure the game is fun
(32:25) How Jonas and Paul used beta testing feedback to improve their game
(35:14) The mini-games in Thronefall and why they are so difficult
(38:14) The struggle to find the right level of difficulty for the game
(41:43) Porting to Nintendo Switch
(45:11) The prototypes Jonas and Paul made to get to Thronefall
(46:59) The challenge of finding something you want to build that will sell
(47:20) Jonas’s ideation process and how they figure out what to build
(49:35) How Thronefall evolved from a mini-game prototype
(51:50) How long you spend on prototyping
(52:30) A lesson in failing fast
(53:50) The gameplay prototype vs. the art prototype
(55:53) How Jonas and Paul distribute work
(57:35) Next steps after having the play prototype and art prototype
(59:36) How a launch on Steam works
(1:01:18) Why pathfinding was the most challenging part of building Thronefall
(1:08:40) Gen AI tools for building indie games
(1:09:50) How Jonas uses ChatGPT for editing code and as a translator
(1:13:25) The pros and cons of being an indie developer
(1:15:32) Jonas’s advice for software engineers looking to get into indie game development
(1:19:32) What to look for in a game design school
(1:22:46) How luck figures into success and Jonas’s tips for building a game that sells
(1:26:32) Rapid fire round
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The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:
• Game development basics https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/game-development-basics
• Building a simple game using Unity https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-a-simple-game
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See the transcript and other references from the episode at https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast
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