Dungeon Scroll
A crazed look through the underground
By Russell D. Carroll [March 3, 2004]

Seth Robinson is one of the more interesting characters in the Independent Gaming world, and honestly that is really saying something.  He has long been involved with game development, dating back to the Commodore 16.  For any who have been around the gaming world awhile, Seth's name is synonymous with the game Legend Of the Red Dragon, which was a huge underground hit back when BBS boards were popular.  I use the word "underground" lightly.  In fact, the only thing that would classify that game as underground is the relatively small portion of society that got into the BBS world of computers years ago.   That game paved the way for Seth to move on.  "It really opened my eyes to the possibilities, I’ve been a self employed developer ever since" Robinson said. In addition to being a finalist in each of the last two Independent Games Festivals (IGF), he also has been a speaker at the Game Developer's Conference where the IGF is held.

This year's entry by Robinson Technologies, the two person team of Seth and his artistically inclined wife Akiko, is Dungeon Scroll, a game that places players in a dungeon where they must fight off enemy creatures, including dragons with nothing but a bag of jumbled letter tiles.  What did Seth have to say about the most innovative feature in this combination of the puzzle and RPG genres? "Well.. Uh.. Let’s see here… Um, that spider effect on the main menu is sort of neat? Seriously, I stole two concepts, word game mechanics and some RPG type things (hit points, dungeon ambience) and merged them. I wouldn’t award myself any innovative-points unless it’s for integrating them. Oh, and the random treasure generator cracks me up." 

Those who have played the game give it a few more points in the innovative category.  In fact the game was a finalist in the "Concept" category of our own Game of the Year awards last year. In addition to the concept being a nice meshing of two different genres, the game packs a lot of fun.  As even Seth agreed, "It’s fun. It has good rhythm. The speed, delays, sounds and timing were very carefully placed. You quickly become absorbed and stop thinking about the GUI or keyboard and directly interface with the heart of the game. It becomes very intense."

Yet in any game, and especially those that push the limits a little, there are points in the development that challenge the developer, in this case, Robinson mentioned it "would probably be the code dealing with the quick generation of anagrams from a given letter set. (The Oracle item in the game uses this)." Quickly following up that comment with his characteristic gusto, Robinson said "I’d never written a word game and there is something very sexy about the idea that unlimited interesting game play can be created with a few random()’s and a dictionary. I found it a really pleasurable project to do."

Dungeon Scroll, and indeed Robinson Technologies is one of the highlights of Independent Gaming.  As Robinson is one of the longest standing successful Indie developers , I asked him about what he thought of all the changes that have been occurring in the world of Independent gaming and what he sees as an indie developer being.  While he didn't want to get into the definition of what an independent developer is, he did give some comical feedback on the idea, saying  "My non-technical, romantic definition of the ideal indie is a very stubborn person who creates what he thinks is beautiful without regard to critics and weekly sales data. This kind of indie tends to have crazy eyes and live with his parents or in a park."  Further pressed about the future of indie gaming he said: "There is a lot going on right now. When the dust settles I think we’ll see after all the changes it’s still basically the same thing but with more (frequently slimy) middle men & virtual publishers."

With the advent of Garage Games, and a literal explosion in the number of developers doing Independent game projects, it has been increasingly difficult for developers to get noticed.  In fact, one of their great selling areas in the new world of the internet has been through affiliate sites, and software sites that are available in a seemingly endless quantity across the internet.  While having an increased selling base can certainly be helpful, "Finding a developer’s homepage can be tough when the top ten Google results are affiliates. I think we need to fight to be noticed, not settle for the backseat. The developer should be the star, damnit!" said Robinson.

Certainly being an independent developer has changed over the years, and while we are at perhaps the greatest point of expansion in the history of Independent Games, what the future holds is certainly up in the air.  As for the future of Seth Robinson and Robinson Technologies?  "I’ve finally graduated from being in a constant state of "that’s a cool idea, but can I really program that??!" to just caring about the game design. I’m getting crazy eyes."  While for a normal, boring developer that might sound a bit odd, for the Independent Gaming world it sounds like we can expect more interesting projects from Robinson who sounds like he is becoming the ideal indie developer that many already believe him to be.