GamersInfo.net: Please tell us a bit about yourself.

Mark Frohnmayer: I'm Mark Frohnmayer, one of the co-founders of GarageGames. Before starting GarageGames, I was the lead programmer on the Starsiege: TRIBES and Tribes 2 titles for Dynamix.

GamersInfo.net: This game was made in a very short period of time. Why was it made and why in such a short time and what was the initial seed or concept for the game?

Mark Frohnmayer: Well, see it goes like this. Back in the day (say, 1998'ish) when we were finaling Tribes 1, we had a Robotron machine in the office. When I was a kid, I was always like, "What's with that game and its wacky lame graphics?" Well, Scott Youngblood (the design lead on Tribes) was a Robotron fiend and I would watch him play -- it was amazing. The moves that he would pull off, avoiding certain death, moving one way, firing another, got me hooked on the game... and I totally fell in love with the control scheme. Simple, yet not restrictive, it allowed a good player to achieve a sort of zen state of presence where amazing things happened.

So anyway, after the Tribes games, I wanted to make a multiplayer game that blended the simplicity of Robotron with cutting-edge team game types and communication features. When we released the Torque Network Library (TNL), we needed a game to be a showpiece for the technology. We wanted to keep the graphics and gameplay simple, and figured the Robo-Tribes++ game would be the perfect vehicle.

It was done in a short period of time by mostly one person because that's a really fun way to develop games :)

GamersInfo.net: When did you realize you had a real, marketable game on your hands?

Mark Frohnmayer: When we took it to IGC (the Indie Game Conference, here in Eugene), and it had its first serious LAN test. It was pretty awesome to watch these frenetic games of 30+ people. It ended up taking the players' choice awards for best multiplayer and best overall. At that point, we thought it might do well as more than just a demo.

GamersInfo.net: This game is such a simple design, but you do make patches and updates for it. Is Zap! the Game feature complete, or will you be adding additional features to it?

Mark Frohnmayer: The game is in a working state as it is, but we are still actively working on it. We're currently porting the commercial version to a stripped down version of the Torque Game Engine, adding better community building features, keyboard bindings, improved AI, and some limited scripting ability. Zap will be a work in progress for some time yet.

GamersInfo.net: I've noticed on-line that players have created metagames within Zap! One example is Pac-Man, where one guy gets to play Pac man, and the rest are ghosts. Is there any plan to build support for additional game types like this?

Mark Frohnmayer: It's very easy to add new game types to Zap -- with the move to Torque and its built-in scripting system, it should be easier still. Right now we're focusing on the community aspects of the game, but I don't doubt that new game types will make it into the game as time goes on.

GamersInfo.net: Are player mods in the future for Zap?

Mark Frohnmayer: Quite possibly.

GamersInfo.net: "Don't let graphics get in the way of your gameplay." Do you really believe that advanced graphics are an impediment to gameplay?

Mark Frohnmayer: I think, relatively speaking, gameplay often gets shortchanged in the development cycle in favor of adding cool graphics and special effects. It's like an arms race - each new generation of hardware requires more art assets, more programmer time, more effects in order to maximally use it. The focus on these production requirements inevitably takes the attention away from what we think it should be - namely making the game fun to play. With Zap, adding a new ship or weapon or pickup item is as simple as a few line render calls. Compare this to a game where the developer has to create a 3D model, texture it, implement complicated 3D physics and animation code to make it work, etc. This added effort, in addition to increasing implementation time, also makes it more likely that a non-fun feature will be left in the game because more work has been invested to make the feature happen.

GamersInfo.net: I really appreciate the built-in level editor. Was this a feature that you felt you had to release to the public?

Mark Frohnmayer: Yes -- it makes editing new maps a snap. The first test level I did I mapped out on graph paper (CTF1 - Kompressor's Gambit). What a pain!

GamersInfo.net: Is this the same level editor you use internally?

Mark Frohnmayer: Yup.

GamersInfo.net: How do you like working with Garage Games and the Torque 2D engine?

Mark Frohnmayer: I haven't worked with Torque 2D yet, but by all accounts it's awesome :)

GamersInfo.net: The AI is really insane/idiotic at times. Are you actively developing new AI agents?

Mark Frohnmayer: The Bot AI was done by Ben Garney one weekend when he was bored. He promises that when he's finished with the Torque Shader Engine terrain code that he's going to make it not suck.

GamersInfo.net: How does your game design and organization deal with griefing?

Mark Frohnmayer: Bad word filters, no team damage, spam filters, etc.

GamersInfo.net: Currently, Zap! is a very young game, with only a few active servers. How do you look to manage scale as the game grows more popular?

Mark Frohnmayer: We're building a community system that will make it easier for players to find friends, make teams and join games. This should hopefully scale to many times the current user base size.

GamersInfo.net: Zap! the Blog is another example of developers reaching out to the public and budding designers/programmers. I know I've enjoyed reading it. What was the compulsion to release a blog?

Mark Frohnmayer: We heard all the cool kids were doing it, so we had to jump on the bandwagon ;) No, seriously though, it's a good place to stay in touch with people who may be interested in the progress of the games. Blogs are fun!

GamersInfo.net: Have you had any feedback about it?

Mark Frohnmayer: It hasn't generated any serious controversy, but you never know when a blog entry might make waves in the blogisphere.

GamersInfo.net: What's next for this team? Perhaps a sequel? What would you put in the sequel?

Mark Frohnmayer: We have lots of games in prototype and few in development, beyond the development I've mentioned on Zap! currently we're not planning any super mega Zap! deluxe gold versions, but you never know what marketing might come up with.

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