RIG Riot – Developer Interview

Sage Boatman is the indie dev behind RIG Riot—a wild, fast-paced game that’s all about chaotic mech battles and strategy on the fly. I asked him about what sparked the idea, what it’s like building a game from the ground up, and what players can look forward to when the riot kicks off.

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got started in game development.

Sage: I am a first-time game developer. My day job is in software development and I’ve always done art as a hobby, so game development feels like a perfect intersection of my interests.

What inspired your latest game, and what was the initial vision behind it?

Sage: I decided to make RIG Riot when, after 100%ing Armored Core VI, I still felt like I wasn’t done playing with the systems therein. Between the deep customization and the addicting movement I knew I had to have more and, when I couldn’t find anybody else who had announced what I wanted, I decided to make it myself.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during development?

Sage: The first month of development I found myself getting pretty overwhelmed. There is a ton to do when making a game and I had to stop myself from trying to learn everything at once. I decided to start by implementing the movement system, since I knew there wouldn’t be a purpose in making the game if the movement didn’t feel awesome, and I have been much better about doing one thing at a time since then.

Is there a particular moment or feature in your game that you’re especially proud of?

Sage: I think the best thing about my game is how the movement feels, and I think the second best thing is the way the roguelike structure meshes with customizing your mech between runs. The game really gets you into a loop of doing a run, playing with your build, doing another run to test your build or find new parts, and playing with your build more. Overall I’m just really proud that the central mechanics are solid and fun.

How do you approach balancing creativity with the realities of budget, time, and resources?

Sage: I think deciding to make a roguelike was one of the best decisions I could have possibly made for the game. My time is spent way more efficiently due to the amount of reuse I get out of every piece of content I add. This means that I can focus on the quality of the core systems while also making a game that players can spend a ton of time with if they so choose.

What advice would you give to aspiring indie developers just starting out?

Sage: I think the main advice is to focus on making a core mechanic that is fun enough for people to want to play with it in isolation- you can add everything else from there, but I really think refining a fun core mechanic is a big deal. Since getting my game out to community playtesters I have been very pleasantly surprised to see people continuing to spend time with the game even in a state where it has a lot of bugs and missing content. Players will put up with more if the core experience is super fun, which gives you access to way more feedback and excitement as you work to refine the rest.

What’s next for you — any future projects or updates in the works?

Sage: My next goal for RIG Riot is to get the steam playtest ready- it’s close but there are just a couple things that need a bit more improvement before I feel ready to open the floodgates to people that don’t have the luxury of easy access to ask the developer of the game questions. From there the plan is to release the first version of the demo, hopefully sometime in early May.