Desktop Dungeons dev: indie scene gives back

Danny Day of Desktop Dungeons developer QCF Design has described indie development as "participatory", adding that it can be a path to international collaboration.

"I think the indie scene is so large and varied that you get out what you put in," Day told Game Set Watch. "It's very participatory."

Speaking of the company's South African base, Day added "Coming from a rather isolated place in terms of game development, we tend to view the international indies as this big collection of people doing a bewildering array of awesome stuff.

"It's exciting being able to emerge from our local sphere and meet all these cool people that we've only read about before. We're realising that you need to just get out there and poke people, make stuff happen."

After crediting Desktop Dungeons' growth to international attention, Day said he's looking forward to attending the Independent Games Festival; the streamlined rogue-like is nominated for several awards.

"I'm dying to see what we end up making after all the things we learn and the people we meet at the IGF and how we can bring that all back to SA," he said.

Desktop Dungeons is in alpha, and freely available on both PC and Mac from the QCF Design website - but not for long.

"We're going to start courting Steam very soon, then once the full game is out on PC/Mac we're be heading for iPhone and Android as fast as possible. If we can figure out a way to make the same kingdom carry over to your portable device, that'd be perfect," Day explained.