The sun is at its zenith. A breeze blows a tumbleweed past my lonely ranch. I wipe my forehead with my dirty handkerchief. I step out on my porch and peer in the distance. A speck approaching me amidst all the dust and dry. I sit on my chair and rock as the speck draws closer... I can see a silhouette now. A lone horseman. What was he doing here? I contemplate whether to get my shotgun but I see he is alone. Heh, a bandit? Or just a wanderer passing through? I chew on my straw. I see it is not a man but a boy. A youngling...
Credits go to Strangeluv for this interview
INTERVIEW WITH DYNEThe sun is at its zenith. A breeze blows a tumbleweed past my lonely ranch. I wipe my forehead with my dirty handkerchief. I step out on my porch and peer in the distance. A speck approaching me amidst all the dust and dry. I sit on my chair and rock as the speck draws closer... I can see a silhouette now.
A lone horseman. What was he doing here? I contemplate whether to get my shotgun but I see he is alone. Heh, a bandit? Or just a wanderer passing through? I chew on my straw. I see it is not a man but a boy. A youngling.SL: *tips cowboy hat* Whatcha doing out here, padnah? What's your name, son?Dyne: Name's Dyne, stranger.
I wipe my sweaty hands with my rag. Heh, I like this kid already.SL: Whaddya want, stranger?Dyne: Some water for mah horse, sir.
SL: Come over yonder, padnah.Dyne: Thanks, sir.
SL: Tell me about yer travels while your horse drinks, young'n.Dyne: I'm travellin' alone. I live in a town that no one has heard of in Colorado, pretty much middle of nowhere. I'm 17 now. Hobbies, let's see, I used to be pretty into soccer but I'm kinda growing tired of it. I love listening to music, pretty much any genre I can handle - like rap and rock the most. Love to party it up, haha... and I guess I'm a pretty easy going guy, I suppose I'm a "casual gamer", I used to be pretty big gaming nerd but I've kind of lost interest.
Then I got into RPG Maker, I think I was just browsing like a ROMs site or something and found a link to it and thought it was the coolest thing ever... This was in like 2004 I think. Actually, maybe earlier cause I had RPG Maker 2000 before 2003.
But the only kinda game I know is blackjack... I guess I ain't been to town in a while, heh.SL: Ayuh. Games, huh? Is this like blackjack? Tell me what you like in them games.Dyne: I'd say one of the biggest I consider is consistency, such as in graphical, storyline and dialog terms. I hate seeing games with just random rips thrown around into one thing. I like everything to look pretty consistent. Another important thing is gameplay, of course, to give the game some appeal.
I've played a million RPG Maker games with the normal default battle systems and it's the ones with something added to them that I like the most. So that's another important thing - creativity added to the gameplay.
SL: *takes out pipe and lights it* Creativity, eh? Where's a young lad like ya gonna get creativity?Dyne: All over the place. Other people's games, commercial stuff, movies. When I see something I like in something else, I try to expand on a good idea. The game I'm working on now, Western Story, I consider as "Fable meets Old Western Movies".
Music also gets me thinking about things too and sets me in the mood. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of Coldplay and Radiohead and such. I guess, abstractly I just zone out and work to that kind of thing. It just helps me work more efficiently.
SL: Heh. Radiohead? Dunno what that is but tell me more about them games. I ain't know of none of these games. I'm in'nerrested in them games! Tell me the best 'uns so I can see if I can get 'em one day.Dyne: I have to admit, when I was younger and first getting into this stuff, the Legion Saga series really sucked me in. Now, I don't know how well they're regarded nowadays, but when you're like 12 or so those games were cool. Just seeing like 3 complete games made my some kid was pretty impressive. I had a lot of admiration for that.
I am also a big fan of Barkley. What a funny game and props to Tales of Game's, haha. It's because it has that kind of originality I'm talking about in gameplay - it could have had just a boring battle system but instead did things differently, sort of like the Mario RPG's.
You're a regular ol' John Wayne!SL: I guess you like your battles with lots of excitement! Yee-haw! So you're the lone rogue gamer of the Wild West, huh, kid? I wanna know what you've done.Dyne: I have had so many projects, I'm like Silver4Donuts. Haha. But seriously, it all began with my silly Legend of Zelda fan RPG. I don't know why but that thing attracted a lot of attention at GW. Like, way too much. Maybe it's cause I hyped it up so much. Anyway, eventually I lost interest and moved onto a more serious attempt, some game called "Until the End". I worked on that and turned out a demo that went well, but I eventually realized I was being way too ambitious.
So I think I just bounced around for a while and then, I dunno where it came from, I started making a little game called Western Story. I think I was like, listening to music and I heard something from one of the Wild ARMs games. And I realized that that kind of deserty setting was pretty awesome. So thats what I've, very slowly, been working on. I've released a demo and I think it's my best bet as far as releasing a full thing.
SL: Western Story, huh? Now there's somethin' a rancher like me would be interested in!Dyne: Well, the game is essentially like what I said earlier, Fable meets like... The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly... or something like that. It's meant to be somewhat open-ended, with lots of other things to do besides "the main plot". In fact, the main plot is really just a way of advancing and discovering new places and towns to do even more within.
The plot iself isn't really that big a deal, you're an adventurer/cowboy named Roy Williams looking to make a name for yourself. You go out and do jobs and such and you build up a renown.
There will be some central antagonists but it's really not too serious. It's light-hearted and really meant just to be fun.
SL: Whoa, padnah! Hold yer horses! Don't get cocky now!Dyne: I think a lot of game makers at GW, like myself, are overly ambitious. A game with a billion night and day and aging systems is never gonna be finished. Just set out to make something creative and fun, I guess, it doesn't have to be serious. When UPRC was making his game Reminisce, sure, it wasn't ground-breaking, but it was fun and enjoyable and it was nothing overly complex. A Home Far Away is also a great example of just making a game with the intent to entertain.
We just have to remember we're not really pros here, and a bunch of us are probably not going to strive to be pros (I'm not) so don't set so many crazy goals.
SL: *shakes hand* Looks like yer horse's done drinkin', stranger.Dyne: I better be on my way... it was nice meetin' ya, padnah.
I never saw the young traveller again... but ever'day I think bout that young man's journey and wish 'im well. Maybe one day he will be the fastest gamer in the West. We can only wait and see...
A picture of Dyne... making all the cowgirls swoon.
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Inside the Gamer's Studio #5: Dyne