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Miacis: Please introduce yourself to our readers who don't know who you are.
Qndel: I'm Qndel, your regular neighbour living in the basement (:D), I like playing games and ... playing games. Oh and I like programming too! So whenever I program stuff, I usually program stuff for games, like bots / hax / clickers / addons / you name it
Got bored with vanilla d1 pretty fast but then I discovered that there were some mods for it - I first played the hell, probably belzebub was next, then I coded some cool stuff for the hell 2 and that was my first contact with diablo's code. After quitting I found out there was a cool project https://github.com/diasurgical/devilution , so I watched it and decided to create a mod from it https://github.com/qndel/Infernity - it's pretty dead at the moment, I'm going to rewrite it later I also wrote a program for a guy named Noktis. It was a cool program, because it allowed to create dubbing for Soul Reaver, through Noktis I managed to contact Brightlord (Tchernobog's creator) and they decided I was a cool guy and could be trusted with continuing Tchernobog 
And here I am. In my spare time I watch memes with cats, clean devilution's code and cook small but cool stuff like discord online list for tchernobog M: What were your goals when you've decided to continue the making of Tchernobog?
Qndel: I was a bit torn because I wanted to focus on infernity and maybe make it my master's thesis (the main topic would be making it true hd while using AI) - and I've already coded truecolor/HD for it - also quite an achievement, people weren't even sure if devilution's code would allow that - considering it's early state - that'd sound better than working on tchernobog, where I could say "I messed around with some guy's code"
I actually touched tchernobog's code for the first time 3 months after getting access to it (!!! xD) - I guess it was the stuff I mentioned above that held me back. After launching the code you want to fix a small thing like magic find and the fixes never end At the moment I'm waiting for devilution's progress and when it's ready, I'll probably split my time between infernity / tchernobog M: Have you played other ARPGs? If yes, do you have any cool concepts from them that you'd like to introduce?
Qndel: Diablo 2
, I loved Chronotrigger and its music, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout: New Vegas, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Path of Exile, Borderlands, Gothic, Titan Quest, Planescape: Torment (mindblowing story! loved it!), Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (I think this game isn't very popular and it's amazing, while playing it I regretted that I can only program stuff, programming alone would never let me code awesome finishers like in that game )With tchernobog most of the work porting features from it is already done (hp bars, alt highlighting, sets etc.) but yeah, whenever I play a game and see something cool, I think how I could port it to the stuff that I'm currently working on.
I think I stick to old stuff like diablo 1 because I don't have to worry much about the graphics and can focus on programming
M: Could you tell about some features that came to your mind but you know you aren't gonna add them to the game for whatever reason?
Qndel: Well, tchernobog's code is so complicated for me that at the moment I really have no clue what I might be able to do and what not.
Like everyone else I'd like to have closed bnet, all quests, bugs fixed, balance, new maps and stuff but knowing life when it comes to this list I'll probably be able to code just one thing - displaying a random meme in tchernobog
What makes me laugh the most is when people point out cool features in TH2 that they'd want to see in tchernobog and I was the one to code them!
M: You've been developing other mods in the past. Can you tell a little more or maybe advertise them?
Qndel: But Infernity doesn't need advertising at the moment.
It's dead!
M: You've mentioned earlier that you're gonna rewrite it though!
Qndel: DevilutionX (version of devilution that aims to fix bugs and add cool stuff - works on windows/linux/mac) will be definitely a good base for new infernity. In fact it will be an even better base as I'm going to first port some of infernity's features into it before going my own way (So you can expect alt highlighting - best code on current d1 mod market
- HD, cooldowns and more. I'd want infernity to become the ultimate mod to play - for people that like to see tons of new content in d1 mods and also for people that are hardcore vanilla players - I think I can convince them with an option that'd allow you to turn features on and off - if they despise HD for making things too easy, they can turn it off while enjoying highlighting items with alt etc. I think it'd fill a certain niche, many people were very happy about infernity already as it was a bridge between vanilla and going full retard with porting d2 features (:D)
The feature I liked the most in infernity were customizable loot filters scripted in LUA. I like pretty colors
M: As the one that have asked you to make it, I like it too! What is the main difficulty that you've faced while developing Tchernobog so far? How hard it is to implement single-player quests into the multiplayer?
Qndel: No idea, must ask brightlord if it was too hard or too time consuming. I have time xD
The main difficulty is that everything is so goddamn separated, classes, namespaces and all the turtle voodoo. I had a much better time while working with decompiled d1 code (yummy global variables!
)M: For such small time that you are the part of the developer team, you've put quite a lot of work into Tchernobog, which resulted in a lot of changes or bugfixes already . How do you manage to find time and inspiration for all of that?
Qndel: Dunno, I'm probably jobless and neglect my family life.
When I find a job everyone will be like "good old times when qndel didn't have a job"
1 update per month - "fixed typo in mana shield shrine"
M: That is still probably better than 2 years without ANY updates though! Now let's talk a bit about balance. Is community helpful at all when it comes up to balancing the game? Did you get any useful information from all the discussion and feedback threads? They've been quite controversial.
Qndel: Community is my only source when it comes to balance so far as I'm very biased - my best character is lvl 50 sorcerer, which got his lvl by doing THOUSANDS of lost treasure runs so I can't say much. I didn't play tchernobog. I played lost treasure
I'm trying to level up a bit and play all classes before doing balancing.
M: How hard you want the game to be? What do you think of its replayability right now and what would be the desired one?
Qndel: Certainly I don't want it more hard than it is already
(Damn you poison enchanted bosses!) I can't say much about replayability because as I've said, I haven't reached lvl 60, but I have a feeling that once you hit it, there's not much to do. You probably have most of the best items at that point so what's left? Trying to farm these items with a better roll? exciting ...I'm thinking about adding something similar to talismans from diablo 2, they'd be a nice addition while being super rare. I also got this cool idea right now - what about making some of the best items only drop if you are playing with someone?
I mean, I don't know how exactly it works at the moment, but monsters are stronger when there are more players and the loot is better. If better loot means higher qlvl, then it'd be possible to add such uniques, that'd only drop with sufficient players in game, that'd be hard and challenging imo
M: Do you think that such thing as class identity is in a good place right now?
Qndel: The ancient chinese saying goes 'jack of all trades is a john of none'
if all classes were equally good at everything, there would be no reason to play them
anyway, I can't say much because I haven't even played all classes
M: Some of community members might be wanting to help you completing Tchernobog faster. Tell us if there's a way to support your development beside giving feedback and finding bugs!
Qndel: You can support me on patreon https://www.patreon.com/revived1
and also subscribe on Twitch and YouTube
https://www.twitch.tv/qndel123
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeHxcf ... subscriber
M: Thank you for all the answers and the work you've been putting into Tchernobog so far!
Next time I'll try to do an interview with Ogodei, the other of two developers that has joined the team recently! Until then, have a good time, everyone!