Interview with Hare, Owner of Leporidae.org

[Digital]

I had a chance to ask a few questions of @Hare, who runs http://leporidae.org/, a sim site revolving around rabbits. If you haven't had a chance to check out http://leporidae.org/ yet, please do. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask @Hare, or respond to this thread.

1. Give us a little insight into your game such as what is it about, player base, and when did it start?
   
   http://leporidae.org/ is a browser-based rabbit showing and breeding SIM that began development in late 2014. You can own various breeds and species of rabbits, build your ideal rabbitry, and compete with other players in an online community.
    
2. What hardships faced your team early on when getting your game going?
   
   The greatest hardship early on was getting started with coding. Back then, I did not know any coding beyond HTML and CSS. Leporidae was planned three years before anything got started, since I didn't know where to begin at the time. 
    
3. What feature of your game do you think was the hardest to develop or add?

   The most difficult to develop feature is our genetics, image layering system, and color name system—which are all working together to render the proper names and colors for rabbits. This code is complicated, and so are how we save the image files that have to be formatted to work with it. It required a thorough understanding of genetics to really get the code working efficiently. 

4. Any failed features that you thought would be great additions to the game, but turned out not to work with your users?
   
   One thing that was planned for the site early on, and which still hasn't been added (and might not) is magic stats and features that use it. While this idea seems like a lot of fun, it isn't the selling point our demographic joined the game for and we might end up putting our time into something else. We do have some fantasy breeds and colors, and alien species, (which are popular and fun for many players), but our main emphasis is on simulating realistic livestock related activities.
   
   Also, I had wanted to incorporate more features for people who prefer pets over livestock (since rabbits are considered a dual-purpose animal), but I've come to realize that our butchering feature will probably scare away most of the people who would want alternative features. We do have players who keep some bunnies as pets, but the main focus of the game, again, is on livestock. 
    
5. What do you think is the most important factor that keeps your game’s team going to provide new content?
   
   Working with the community is a huge part of what keeps us working on Leporidae. There are a lot of dedicated players who love our game just as much as we do. It's also important for the site owner to keep everyone motivated, organized, and happy. 
    
6. What advice would you give a new game maker who is starting out?
   
   I recommend being open to learning code. It only took me about 3 months to get the hang of it. It was very hard at first, but gets much easier later on! I also recommend (if you can) having a general idea of your game and your demographic. Planning is a great way to start. Start writing stuff out and brainstorming ideas (with or without a team), make an outline, draw ideas for your site's layout and navigation. Lastly, definitely get to know people here on TGL! This community is a great resource. 
    
7. I wanted to thank you for your time to do this interview, is there anything you feel should be added to that you feel would be helpful or a great resource for new game makers aspiring to create a game?
   
   You're welcome and thank you! The only other thing I can think of might be, if you are going to be doing an advanced genetics system with your animals' colors, Imagemagick is a great resource. I wished we had used it in the beginning because it's taking about 6-10 months just to transition everything over to it (which I am more than happy to do because it is so worth it). 

[SingSong]

Wow, some interesting stuff in there. Hare does the coding and art? I'm impressed, especially about the "it only took me about 3 months to get the hang of it" part. Almost makes me want to try to get into coding again, but I think I'll just stick to art.

 

I actually haven't tried this game out yet, but I think I will now, because I want to look at that butchering feature and whatever else there is that I haven't seen before. 

Edited March 20, 2017 by SingSong
Edit: Need to message Hare for a beta code.