Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

Dinner With Swords & Sorcery: Underworld Creator Charles Clerc

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 4, 2012

Friday night, my wife and I had dinner with Charles Clerc, of OlderBytes (formerly Classic Games Remade), creator of the upcoming Swords & Sorcery: Underworld Gold. He treated us to a great dinner at Le Fumoir, literally across the street from The Louvre in downtown Paris.

Meeting fellow indies in other countries — that’s awesome.

We didn’t actually chat about our current projects all that much, but naturally the subject did come up now and then over the course of something like three hours.  We met about forty-five minutes before our reservation and just talked games. Charles spoke of his love of some of the early RPGs, which inspired him to make his own in that style many years later. Part of it came from having an underpowered, older computer for many years incapable of playing more modern games, so he was “stuck” playing some older titles, and really fell in love with them.

His brother showed up a little later and joined us. A good time seemed to be had by all.

So how did our plans for world domination of the RPG genre go?

Well, let’s just say… beware!

Actually, let’s just say that said plans aren’t super-detailed at this point. We did swap some tales about the difficulty of getting attention as an indie developer and getting the word out on your game, and shared a few suggestions with each other about who and when to contact, but I guess next time we should really invite a marketing genius to dinner. Neither of us claim to be one.

So okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly a power-meeting or anything like that. But we did have a great time, with great company and great food. And we managed to leave a little before the metro trains quit running, which was a good thing for all of us.

One of the many topics we did discuss was the challenge of making indie RPGs compared to most other genres. Not that they are inherently difficult to develop, though that can be an issue. But they are considerably more time consuming. You can spend 4x as much time developing an RPG as an action or casual title, yet sell only 1/4th as much. This used to be offset by the fact that the RPG was poorly represented by indies (and, at the time, by mainstream studios). But lately, with the quality and quantity of RPGs appearing lately of all budget levels, I don’t feel that’s a big issue anymore. There’s a lot more competition out there than when I started working on Frayed Knights.

If we were in it for the money, we wouldn’t be making indie games at all, let alone RPGs. But I guess we do what we love and hope that we can find enough of an audience out there to afford to keep doing so.

But in the meantime, I have a day job that sends me to places like France, and it’s great that I had a chance to meet a fellow indie in the process. Good times!


Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: 7 Comments to Read



  • UDM said,

    So that’s what Charles looks like…

  • Felix Pleșoianu said,

    Part of it came from having an underpowered, older computer for many years incapable of playing more modern games

    I know this feeling all too well, having always been behind the curve in computing power. But most people no longer know what it’s like to own a machine many generations behind. My recent article advocating for less demanding games received quite a strong reaction.

    More on topic, meetings like this are always good. Thumbs up!

  • GhanBuriGhan said,

    You mean you are real people and not just internet memes? Shocking! 😉

    Ah no, I see Charles is wired in to recharge his internal batteries, so he at least clearly IS a cyborg 😉
    Hope you are enjoying your time in Europe! I wish making indie RPGs were more profitable for you guys, but it’s great you are doing what you do regardless – I hope financial success will follow eventually.

    Oh, and btw: Coke in a french restaurant? Even more shocking!

  • Charles said,

    So that’s what Charles looks like…

    No, UDM, it’s not! I’m wearing a disguise!!! 🙂

    Yes GBG spare battery handy at all times. I also briefly considered using the built-in camera but no flash, so Jay’s camera did all the work.

    About the coke that was me. I grew up (in part) in the Chicago suburbs and causing outrage by drinking coke here is one of my favorite pastimes.

    Jay, how are things going in LeHavre? I’ll send that link today.

  • Modran said,

    *sigh*

  • Rampant Coyote said,

    Le Havre has been kinda busy. 🙂 Between a trip to Honfleur on Sunday, work, and taking Julie to the airport this morning, I haven’t quite settled into a routine yet. I’ll probably finally have it down about the time I go back home.

    BTW, sans traffic, the trip really is only about 2.5 hours. Whew!

  • Charles said,

    Yes I checked since and Le havre is way closer than I figured. Geography class is so far away… I pictured it closer to Brest 🙂

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