Interview with a Games Designer (Amanda Finch of Amaranth Games)

Some time ago I interviewed Amanda Fitch, owner of Amaranth Games. In order to give her and her games some more exposure, I'm reproducing the interview her. Amaranth Games has produced several freeware and shareware RPGs as well as dabbling in the adventure game genre.

What were your favourite games when you were younger?

I loved the Kings Quest and Final Fantasy series.

What is your favourite genre?

Adventure.

When did you finish your first game? What was it? Did you ever release it as freeware?

I finished the first game about five years ago. I made it in Flash and it was about five minutes long. Ironically, I never got around to naming it. I released it on my site at the time, but I didn't attempt to get it listed anywhere.

You've made the jump from distributing your games as freeware to shareware? How big a decision was that?

It was huge. I was afraid, and I felt guilty... I thought I was *yet another* betrayer of the freeware revolution. However, I hated my job, and I really wanted to get out. I realized that making games could be my ticket out of corporate life... It was also amazing to think that I would be able to do my favorite hobby for a living. It was one of the best decisions I've made in my life.

Are you / do you think you will ever be able to make a living solely from designing games?

I've been working full-time as a game designer for one year. So, yes, that question has already been answered.

What's the single most important piece of advice you can give an aspiring game developer?

Keep it small and conserve. Don't stop working on it when you get discouraged... you will get discouraged. That's why 90% of indie games are never finished. Good graphics and music will not make your game a hit. The gameplay will. And if anyone tells you differently, tell them that Amanda says they are wrong. (and don't send them my email address!)

What are your proudest achievements in terms of game design / programming?

Aveyond 2. This game was my favorite to work on. I loved the main story and all of the fairytale quests. It's not as large as Aveyond, but I felt it was more... complete. I also like the new quests a bit more. Especially the unicorn girl and Warthog and Hilda.

I see that you've experimented with various game engines - AGS, RPG Maker, RPG Maker 2003 and RPG Maker XP. Which was the best, or does each one have its own particular good points?

So far, RPG Maker XP has been my favorite. Torque was pretty easy to use and I was able to make Grimm's Hatchery very quickly with it. I'm now messing around with BlitzMax for my next *secret* project.

What do you find the best / most enjoyable aspect of game creation?

The programming and initial brainstorming. I love creating clean code and I day dream about game ideas all the time.

Now a little advertising space for you - what would you like to tell us about your games and website?

All of my games and website are build around the same fantasy universe that is in Ahriman's Prophecy, Aveyond 1 & 2, and Grimm's Hatchery. While the games may change, the theme is the same.

What's your next game in production? Do you have any ideas for games that you want to explore now that you have a lot of programming and design experience?

The next game is in the early stages of development. Today was actually the project kick off date. I can't tell you much about it except that it is going to be a cute casual simulation game. It should be out in June.

Finally, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. I hope you get a bit more interest from the exposure this might give you! If you ever want a hand with script-writing give me a shout!


Amaranth’s website can be found here: here

I reviewed Ahriman’s Prophecy here.

You can find some of the best freeware examples of Amanda’s favourite genre here.