Andrew Krausnick
Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
Discussion
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
I have spent the last 8 years designing online games and am at present the lead developer of Trove (a free to play sandvox RPG for PC and Mac which you should download right now). When I’m not making or playing games I also enjoy a well-made cocktail and exploring San Francisco. I can be found online making only the finest tweets at @heyandrewk.
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Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
@heyandrewk Thanks for being here today. 🙌During your career to date, what has been your a) most challenging moment and how did you overcome it? b) proudest moment and why? c) most surprising moment?
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@ems_hodge Definitely!
a) We've gone through three iterations of the game that is now Trove. Starting from 0 multiple times and expecting that each time you're going to make something great is a huge challenge. End of the day you have to always give it everything you have, no matter what the outcome could be.
b) Beta launch for Trove. This is when it felt real. This was something that I'd been working on from nothing, seeing it grow has been fascinating.
c) The most surprising thing has been how much I've enjoyed live streaming on Twitch. We do it every Friday and I'm a natural introvert, but I've gotten used to being there and it has been a blast.
Tyrynn
@tyrynnstormrage · twitch.tv/tyrynn
Hey Avarem! I've been so impressed with how interactive the dev team has been with its players and specifically (and selfishly) the streaming community as well. What made you guys decide to be so interactive with the players and streamers? I have never played a game with devs as interactive and supportive as you guys are!
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@tyrynnstormrage It's cheesy, but the games are about the players. I actually wish we could do more!
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@heyandrewk @tyrynnstormrage And to elaborate a bit - we also knew with the type of game we wanted to build (community content, collaboration, etc. that it would be very important) On top of that we have a dev team which I think as abnormally high skills when it comes to being able to be let loose in front of players (it can be a tough relationship, obviously we can't always keep everyone happy or doing what they want, plus also you guys can give us feedback we need to hear but it can be hard to hear sometimes too).
Tyrynn
@tyrynnstormrage · twitch.tv/tyrynn
@heyandrew I honestly think that this is what makes Trove stand out - seeing community created content in game is really awesome and something I find super intriguing. Thanks for making such a fun game! :)
Russ Frushtick
@russfrushtick
@heyandrewk Hey Andrew! Obviously you guys have done a great job separating Trove from the pack, but when you were starting out, were there concerns that people would dismiss you guys as just another Minecraft clone because of the art style? Obviously the two games are vastly different, but I'm curious if you ever ran into any issues with this.
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@russfrushtick Absolutely! And Cube World also came up. Especially when it came to talking about the game very early, before a lot of our features were ready.
At the end of the day you have to trust that what you're making will stand on its own and that you'll be able to win people over.
Jacqueline von Tesmar
@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻
What idea in game design have you seen recently that made you think, "Damn, I wish I thought of that first"?
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@jacqvon I bet if I said Minecraft here that would get some attention... but I'll go personal and say "Magic: The Gathering". It is probably my number one all time game and I love everything about it. From how they work in a sense of world and place to the interlocking mechanics and giant community. Despite the success of other games in that area I think it has really stood the test of time.
Ken Kaneki
@_shadowkaneki_
@heyandrewk when in trove come the mastery cap patch will it be 250 or 300 ?
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@_shadowkaneki_ Not sure yet, but it will be either 250 or 300! And we'll be doing it before the end of the year.
Kukui
@kukuigaming
@heyandrewk Are there any plans to add harder content? Currently the content is so easy that everyone wants to build pure dmg, but with the new class, Revenant, we somewhat brake that meta. Because of this, a lot of players feel that playing another class that can do higher dmg is better, as why would you want to be super tanky if you can kill everything in a matter of seconds with a class like the Lancer or Boomeranger?
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@kukuigaming Fantastic question. There is plans for harder content, and we also want to add more variety where different classes can shine. Not something that will happen until a bit more in the future, but it's something to be on the lookout for.
Derekxec
@derekxec
@heyandrewk Love the game man, but I have to grill you some. One of the main problems I see with Trove is optimization. What is being done to improve it and are we going to see any pure bug fix patches instead of new content patches anytime soon?
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@derekxec I like the grill. If we need our feet to the fire, I really don't mind if you guys do it.
One of our goals going into Christmas and New Year is to make sure we can enjoy our holiday and feel like things are in a good place. We're going to slow down content some and focus on improvements to game mechanics. The PvP/Battle Arena stuff is the last major feature of the year.
I'm going to start a thread hopefully later today to solicit some additional community feedback on this as well.
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@heyandrewk @derekxec Also, to add some more detail here.
There are some areas that are easier for us to address and we're committed to in the short term (mechanical fixes, individual system optimizations) and some areas that are higher priority but also going to require some longer form refactoring and work (server downtime and optimizations).
These will both be ongoing and you'll see more immediate results from the short term fixes and the longer term ones will come online as that work is completed.
Nima nadari
@nima_nadari · Shneems McDunmire
@heyandrewk How does your face being an emote on @dunmire1234's stream make you feel? We're you even a little bit surprised when he did that?
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@nima_nadari It makes me feel the love. Not at all surprised.
Ryan Dunmire
@dunmire1234 · Twitch Partner, I yell on the internet
@heyandrewk On a serious note, thank you so much for doing everything you do for the community! We appreciate it more than you know<3 Now on to my questions! What's it like being so beautiful? Also, tell us about your path leading up to being the Lead Dev of such a successful game! A lot of people ask where you see yourself in 5 years, did you ever see yourself in this position 5 years ago?
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Andrew Krausnick
@heyandrewk · Executive Producer, Trion Worlds
@dunmire1234 Beauty is a curse my friend.
Mostly I just kept working on it and nobody told me to stop so that's how you ended up stuck with me.
In 5 years... I could barely tell you what I'll do in 5 months. But hopefully still doing the type of thing I'm doing right now. It's a lot of work and also a lot of fun.