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Archives => GW Blog => Community Content => Blog: Games => Topic started by: HL on June 05, 2008, 12:39:14 pm
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It was raining heavily outside this old and isolated motel. My car had stopped working on my way home, and I had no other choice but to seek shelter and wait until the next day. I was sitting in my small and cheap room, when the door burst open. A man in a raincoat rushed in, wet and panting. I quickly grabbed my shotgun and aimed at the man's head -- I was always ready for everything, ever since that encounter with a vampire 3 years ago...
This comes from your lovely IGD mod, RPG:
I N T E R V I E W W I T H S T R A N G E L U V
It was raining heavily outside this old and isolated motel. My car had stopped working on my way home, and I had no other choice but to seek shelter and wait until the next day. I was sitting in my small and cheap room, when the door burst open. A man in a raincoat rushed in, wet and panting. I quickly grabbed my shotgun and aimed at the man's head -- I was always ready for everything, ever since that encounter with a vampire 3 years ago...
"Don't shoot... I'm human.", said a harsh and trollish voice
The man took off his raincoat and hat to reveal a small indian-looking young man of early 20s. He pulled a cigarette out of some pocket and lit it using a low level fire magic spell. I could already tell he's one of them game making people, rogue warriors who travel across wasteland in search for rips that flow in harmony.
(http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/23135/4058539_97040fea56.jpg)
Mysterious man of mystery...
"Kevin's the name, but you can call me Strangeluv.", the man said, without even looking at me.
"Listen mister... this is my room... you'd better get out."
"What do you plan to do about it? Shoot me? Heh, things can't get worse for me anyway, so you might as well do it."
Suddenly I became intrigued, I wanted to know the man's story. I wanted to know what he meant. That's why I asked him for an interview, and so it all started:
RPG: W-Why did you break into my room? You must be a troll! Tell me, stranger, why are you a troll? Why are you a trouble maker?
Strangeluv: I wouldn't call myself a troll anymore but I was one before. This was because I had gotten sick of the usual antics of the gameotus hypus (scientific name for G&D regular). They pushed me over the edge. I had gotten sick of seeing advertisements flying all over the place and none of them coming to fruition. *coughs ketchup*
RPG: I see... so, who are you anyway? Tell me a bit more about yourself.
Strangeluv: I am a 21 year old college student living in the island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. I'm currently studying Environmental and Natural Resource Management and finishing this year. I have a lot of hobbies, though I haven't really worked in excelling in any of them. These include drawing, writing, swimming and playing the guitar. And well, amateur game development. I'm a bit of a mischief maker in real life but I'm an easy-going guy.
RPG: That's cool, but I still can't trust you. I believe that having a good father figure is essential for the development of all humanoids. Tell me about your father.
Strangeluv: *pauses a bit, trying to remember* My dad is a pretty easy-going person as well. He has a big bushy mustache and laughs really loudly. He enjoys Steven Seagal movies and usually rents DVDs like Ghost Rider and The Covenant and wants me to watch them with him.
(http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/23135/bjpMartyrDec06.jpg)
My dad forces me to watch bad DVDs... but I forgive him.
RPG: Sounds like a fun guy, does he know that you make games?
Strangeluv: No. All my friends know I make games. But my father doesn't really know much about my business to know I make games. I would tell him if he asked. In fact, where I live, people think it is amazing I make games and think it is really hard work. Girls tell me it's impressive and creative. Guys tell me it's cool and "dread" (Trini slang). My sister thinks it's silly, though; but she also thinks I'm a silly person overall.
RPG: Are you?
Strangeluv: I can be, I guess. I don't like being serious all the time. As Jim Morrison said, "I like to regard myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments." That's me. *dumb smile*
RPG: Is that a book you're carrying? You're into literature, aren't you? A game maker interested in literature... that could be interesting. So, what's your take on the relationship between games and stories?
Strangeluv: Story depends on the type of game you're playing. If you're playing a platformer and much of the game immerses the player in gameplay, you don't really need to have an impressive story. But in my opinion, an RPG NEEDS a good story to keep the player going and not just gameplay. It's what makes the game memorable to people, I think. In an RPG, they're more likely to remember story than gameplay, whereas in a platformer, it's the other way around. However, I think we have to remember games aren't books. Imagine there's a buggy: when you're reading a book, you're more or less in the passenger's seat, just enjoying the view, contemplating what's going on. When we play a game, we want to be in the driver's seat. We want to drive and when we let the story take over the gameplay, it's like you're giving your sister to drive when you really want to drive. So you have to find the balance between story and gameplay if your game has to be story-dependent.
(http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/23135/hideo-kojima.jpg)
Storytelling is like riding a buggy...
RPG: *yawns* Right... so what's the best way to balance storytelling and interactive gameplay? Can they be combined or are they orthogonal?
Strangeluv: It definitely should be as interactive as you can make it. There are some anomalies that might work also (Hideo). There can even be highly interactive stories with little to no gameplay such as Sunset Over Imdahl. I found that highly enjoyable even though it was just story. On the other hand, we have games like Beloved Rapture, a game that's not fun in the slightest and that preaches on and on about a story nobody cares about. It doesn't even have gameplay to back it up. So if you want to compare stories and there was a spectrum, Imdahl would be one end. Beloved Rapture would be on the other. Sorry, man. Nobody wants to read your text boxes, so, I'd advise against making your game like a book or a movie unless you have a high amount of interactivity to go with it. You'll put players to sleep if you don't.
RPG: That's deep. Well stranger, I think I like you. I don't normally trust people who make games but you seem like a harmless guy. Tell me about the games you make.
*dreamy music starts playing in the background*
Strangeluv: Ever since I was little (like around 7), I always wanted to make a game. Didn't really care what kind of game. This might sound incredibly odd but around that age I used to get like a bunch of copybooks and write out "mock game manuals" for fake games. I didn't really have any good stories, though. They were all recycled stuff. When I first got RPG Maker, I was excited as hell, seeing how easy it was to use and that my goal was a tangible one because of all the available resources. So I decided to make Wyesse. The game still has a weird fanbase but it really is awful. All it had was nice visuals and a story that went in circles.
Christmas 2006, I broke my leg, and I confined myself to my computer. One of my friends gave me Fable to play until my leg healed. nd I didn't even make it past the start. I just liked the atmosphere and I decided to scrap Wyesse and make a new game, A Home Far Away, and make it a very simple story. It's really basically about a little brother and an bigger sister getting lost, stumbling aboard a pirate ship, being dumped off on another continent and have to find their way back home. I worked on it for two weeks straight and released a demo and it was well-received by the community. Instead of a deep, serious atmosphere, I decided to work with something lighter and 'cuter' and I liked the way the whole thing was going. I just wanted my theme to be 'simplicity'. Instead of many towns, there was one. Instead of customizing and customizing with numerous weapons and armour, I confined all the characters to sticking with the same equipment throughout the game. Oh, and well, some mini-games because I think the RPG Maker DBS, for the most part, sucks.
I also released another game, Spike Lee's Joint, which was just mini-game oriented and starred Psyburn as a boy trapped in Spike Lee's movie sets.
(http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/47794/AH2.PNG)
Yo ho! A Pirate's Life for Me!
RPG: Wow, you're like a living legend, man. Where do you get inspiration for your games from?
Strangeluv: Wherever I can, I guess. Literature, film, music. I read a lot and I watch a lot of movies. When I'm making a game, I would listen to classical music like Moonlight Sonata or maybe some James Horner soundtrack stuff or Neil Young. But a lot of my inspiration comes from other games posted here as well. I've tried to put aspects of Homeland, Rainbow Nightmare, Rose Chronicles, Wilfred the Hero and Sunset Over Imdahl in my games because I admire the creativity that was put into those games.And some commercial games also, such as Majora's Mask, which I've pretty much based the second half of A Home Far Away around. But sometimes you have to bang your head against a wall to get what you want out of it. Eddie Murphy just called. Told me to tell you to eat a dick. Don't steal too much. Don't be a Ciel.
RPG: Uh... that was random... So I take it you mainly make story-oriented games? Would you consider making a game where story isn't the primary focus?
Strangeluv: Storytelling is definitely what I enjoy more when making a game, but I won't sacrifice gameplay because of that. But I'd say no, I can't see myself making a platformer or any game, which primary element isn't story.
(http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/47794/AH3.PNG)
I don't copy, I imitate...
RPG: Well, I'd love to learn more about you, so tell me your favorite....
Book: The Catcher in the Rye, because I feel like I could always relate to it, a tragic character such as Holden. Hating hypocrites but sort of one himself, intellectual but failing classes.
Movie: Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Song: The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Animal: Kangaroo
Videogame: Conker's Bad Fur Day
RPG: That's cool man. I can tell from your skin tone and your weird accent that you are from some fantasy land beyond the end of the world. You said it was Trinidad, right? Tell us more about the exotic place where you live.
Strangeluv: *looks sad and homesick* America's too big for me. I don't like driving for an hour to get to the grocery. In Trinidad, I just have to drive for twenty minutes to get to anywhere I want to go; grocery, mall, friends' houses, cinema, restaurant, pool hall. But there's a lot of kidnapping and murdering, so that's the downside. I don't really hate it here because I've accustomed to the fact that whenever I go out, someone can snatch me, have my pops pay ransom and still chop me up and throw me into the river. *pauses to smoke*
It's weird to say that! But that's how a lot of us live, I think. Hopefully, things will get better later on. Americans don't know how good they have it, though, with their cheap everything. Prices are jacked like double or triple than they should be here. So yeah, enjoy your Wii! I don't even know anyone who has one because it's so rare here. Still... our beaches are nice.
(https://legacy.gamingw.net/etc/bananana.bokee.com/inc/nick222.jpeg)
Life is tough... but we manage
RPG: *wipes a tear* You look the leader type. Is it true that you're aiming to be an admin at GW?
Strangeluv: Yeah. I'm taking over soon. I'm what you can call a rising star. The days are numbered....
RPG: What do you like about GW anyway? Why don't you move on to something bigger and better, like RMN?
Strangeluv: I like the community - most of it. I like to make games and I think there a lot of smart guys at GW, so I appreciate the comments here. There are a lot of smart guys here, overall, and I like talking to them. That's what keeps me here, I guess. That, and habit. But I've taken many breaks from GW, some of them spanning months, because it gives me a headache sometimes.
RPG: Do you have any future projects now that you're done with A Home Far Away?
Strangeluv: Yes, I'm working on "The Kids' Guide to Vampire Slaying", an AGS with bloodbath and Frankie. We're planning to release it sometime this summer.
Suddenly, my finger slipped and I pulled the shotgun trigger, sending a bullet right through the stranger's skull. He simply smiled, to my utter astonishment.
RPG: Y-You're alive!
Strangeluv: Heh, of course... you can only die once... *throws cigarette on the ground and puts it off with his army boot* Looks like it stopped raining outside, thanks for having me in, pal. Just remember: Make your games for yourself, not your friends, if it's just a hobby for you. Make it a fun experience for you but if you want to share it with others, listen to what they have to say about your game. You may not agree with what they have to say but it should always be there in the back of your mind. You can't please everyone and that should never be your goal. Just don't put too much pressure on yourself. Enjoy yourself. It's a hobby, not labour.
With these touching words, the man who identified himself as Strangeluv left my room. I watched as he walked in the direction of the rising sun, his huge bastard sword hanging majestically across his back. Eventually, he faded away into the horizon, only the memory of the encounter lingered, and the text of this interview.
Strangeluv... I hope we meet again... I'll be looking forward to playing your vampire game.
(http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/47794/Prettyprincess.JPG)
Strangeluv before the operation
All credit goes to RPG, I'm just posting for him.
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Merkwürdigliebe.
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Oh my god... why is this shit up so fast!
Don't expect interviews of this calibre ever again. RPG purposely made it really 'vibrant' to fuck up our other interviews. What a troll.
Also, can you post something saying we'll be doing one for each gamedev member every Thursday or something, and change the topic title to a series name or something like "Get to Know Your Gamers" or "Inside the Gamers Studio" or something.
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really, Magnolia?
Idk I thought it had some pretty weak parts! I don't like Julianne Moore much and Tom Cruise's WEEPING scene was awful and then when they all sing Aimee Mann together I uncomfortably looked around hoping no one was watching me see this.
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I don't really have one favourite movie but RPG pestered me to pick one so I picked that. It had weak parts but I liked it a lot as a whole. Julianne Moore was the worst, though, but I liked the other performances a lot, even Tom Cruise. Idk, I was kind of obsessed with it a few years back!
Also, I am still kind of pissed that this one got posted first!
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I hope the other interviews are like this. Unfortunately, Strangeluv already told us that RPG messed this one up on purpose!
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I hope the other interviews are like this. Unfortunately, Strangeluv already told us that RPG messed this one up on purpose!
Well, we're trying to make them the best we can. Basically (and I hope the interviewees so far don't mind because we didn't tell them), we would be interlacing crazy scenarios like this when we post the interviews so they would be a lot more fun than just :words:
Also Jesus Christ that picture of me
Could have at least reduced the size
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That final picture is one that will haunt me for the rest of my days.
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Good interview. RPG kept pumping me for information in Chicago but I didn't lt anything slip. Two days of awkward silence.
Also, Lastlife is doing music for the project. We are a whole team, united.
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I don't really have one favourite movie but RPG pestered me to pick one so I picked that. It had weak parts but I liked it a lot as a whole. Julianne Moore was the worst, though, but I liked the other performances a lot, even Tom Cruise. Idk, I was kind of obsessed with it a few years back!
Also, I am still kind of pissed that this one got posted first!
I'm sorry.... .. ...he paid five times as much.....
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That final picture is one that will haunt me for the rest of my days.
I want to see yours
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rpg is trying to make us look bad... pull a stunt like this again and you might just have two certain parts of your anatomy broken (break legs).
p.s. good job
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RPG did a great job with this one. Excellent interview!
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Man KEV sure lookin sexual in that last pic there. If you're ever in the UK I love you long time xx
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Is yur name from Kubrick's Dr. Stragelove?
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if it isn't he's the worst.
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Ya. When I joined I also had a Jack Nicholson from The Shining avatar, another Kubrick movie.
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dr. strangelove rules but strangeluv is g*y the pics prove it...
(testing something for G&D)
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edit: hey cool article, who will be the next one?