FW Editor: There are so many MMORPGs available at this moment. What determinate you to develop The Goblin and the Butterfly? Do you think The Goblin and the Butterfly can compete against more popular names like RuneScape?
The_Piper: With only one person working on the game right now, me, it is impossible to compete against companies with a budget of millions of dollars. TGatB is a hobby project, i wanted to find out, if i could make a MMORPG on my own and how far i would come. So the chance of TGatB to be successful is not to be just another copy of an existing game, but to have it's very own world, where players can have fun.

FW Editor: Can you tell us a few things about The Goblin and the Butterfly graphical engine? Why have you decided over a 2D graphic engine?
The_Piper: The ancestor of TGatB was a MUD. Easy to develop for a single person, no graphics needed. Later i wanted to have something better looking than the plain text interface of a MUD, so i started to use the SDL libs to create the 2D client. I am not an artist, so it was quite easy for me to make a 2D client which uses some free available 2D artwork. In the future i might develop the skills to use 3D models and the needed libraries, then i might change the client into a 3D one.

FW Editor: Are there any special system requirements in order to use The Goblin and the Butterfly?
The_Piper: No, any standard PC you can buy from a shop should be able to run the game client. TGatB even runs on netbooks, you can change the config file to adjust the input line and the buttons to the given screen size. What the client needs is RAM, i've heard from someone, that it's possible to run the client on a comp with 512MB RAM, so older computers with less RAM might not be able to run the game. It might be helpful to run Windows or Linux on the computer. The client might run under Mac OS too, because of the SDL libs, but that wasn't tested until now.

FW Editor: How big is the The Goblin and the Butterfly world? How many places are to explore?
The_Piper: With the next update the world will have 49 different places, inside and outside maps. With every future update the world will become bigger and bigger, i'm working constantly on that.

FW Editor: Is there any final boss to fight with? What is the final goal for a player in The Goblin and the Butterfly?
The_Piper: TgatB does not have an end, the game is never over or you can never *win* it. The plan is to create a world where people can log on and have fun by doing what they want. They can go exploring, kill monsters, fight against other players, chat with other players, do quests, make items or gather resources in game and sell them, cast magic spells, play games with bots and so on.

FW Editor: Is The Goblin and the Butterfly a team oriented game? It is possible to create groups (3, 4 or more players) and to complete quests or fight against various monsters?
The_Piper: Team orientated things like dungeons/instances, quests are on my to-do-list, but not implemented yet.

FW Editor: How can a player receive online support if he needs it? It is possible to communicate in-game with moderators and admins?
The_Piper: There is a #help_me command, which sends a message to all moderators online. If no moderator is online, they can register and post in the games forums, which is linked on the web site. A moderator is still a player, so finding a moderator in a chat channel is not unlikely.

FW Editor: The Goblin and the Butterfly allows players to buy and sell items to shops. What about trade between two players? It is possible to trade with another player?
The_Piper: It is possible to trade with other players. Right now there is a #trade and #accept command, the next client update will add a better GUI including a trade window, so you can just point and click on the items.

FW Editor: Do you have any plans to extend The Goblin and the Butterfly world and add new places to explore, new quests and new monsters to fight?
The_Piper: The world expands permanently. With every update new places, quests, NPC's and/or monsters or other features will be added. So even players, who played for a longer time, will get new things to explore or to try out.