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[The Worst Superheroes]

 Previously, on Photoshop Phriday:

Photoshopping isn't drawing a completely new image -- It's editing images to create a new image, such as editing one image or combining several images. The contest usually lasts for a fortnight. Also, you don't have to specifically use Photoshop -- Paint Shop Pro, MSPaint, or any other programs can be used. Please make sure your image doesn't exceed the width of the screen.

See this link:
http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop/

And for other examples, see here:
http://www.worth1000.com/

-------------------------------------

I'm sorry, I'm idealess...  Oh well, here we go!

The Worst Superheroes

Show me the worst superhero (or supervillain) to ever patrol (terrorize) the streets.

Sorry, I won't be posting any photoshopped examples because my website is going to be going through DNS hell for a while while I switch hosts.  But here's a WACKY list that a Google search turned up that might help you get some ideas.  I hope you can do better than that list...

Previously, on Photoshop Phriday:

Photoshopping isn't drawing a completely new image -- It's editing images to create a new image, such as editing one image or combining several images. The contest usually lasts for a fortnight. Also, you don't have to specifically use Photoshop -- Paint Shop Pro, MSPaint, or any other programs can be used. Please make sure your image doesn't exceed the width of the screen.

See this link:
http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop/

And for other examples, see here:
http://www.worth1000.com/

-------------------------------------

My main man Jack Thompson, crusader against videogame violence and sex, has finally done it!  He's convinced the governments of the world to give him free reign over the video game industry!  His first act as Lord of the Games is to dissolve the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) and form the new JTRB (Jack Thompson Ratings Board).  In order for any game to be released, it has to comply with his rules:

1) No sex or nudity of any sort
and
2) No violence of any sort (unless it is the brutal slaughter of a video game executive)

So, you've been called upon to help save your favorite violent/sexy game by adapting it to fit JT's rules.

Modify the box art or a screenshot from a game to make it comply with the new JTRB standards.  (Don't forget the new JTRB rating!)

I single handedly saved the Mortal Kombat series with this image. 



Jack Thompson almost threw it out but then I revealed the ending to him:

Spoiler

Jesus wins!

[close]

Next (because I thought of it over lunch) I rescued the Max Payne series and invented a new genre in the same stroke of genius.



Now it's your turn.  Strip all the evil from a game and let's see what's left!

Good luck, and thank you for joining in His fight.

[EDIT: Jack calls this "Satire" and has cancelled his offer]

EDIT: Jack calls this "Satire" and has cancelled his offer

Jack Thompson, in case you don't know, is a lawyer who has been pushing around money and laws in America because he has some personal vendetta against video games.  He riles up the government about violent and sexual imagery in games and proposes censorship and legal penalties.

Now, the nutter has proposed that the game industry publishes a game in which the main character is the father of a boy who was killed by another boy imitating his favorite video game.  The father then goes on a rampage across America, brutally murdering game executives of companies that make violent video games.

Jack claims that if a game company makes and sells a game that follows his proposal, he will donate 10,000 dollars to charity.

In his head, he is proving that the game companies know that gamers are influenced by the games they play and will act out the scenarios in real life.  He seems to believe that, the game companies will not make a game in which game execs are killed because gamers may act out the scenario in real life.

The fact is, game companies would never make a game like this because it would make a terrible game and no one would buy it. 

Regardless, Jack will claim that the fact that the game companies won't make the game proves his point that games make people more violent.

Here's the rub: Jack's proposal states challenges ANY game company to make this game, and reading his proposal, it's completely possible that one of us could make this game and sell it via cafePress or something, making a monkey out of Mr. Thompson.  Not to mention that simply making and offering to sell this game would get you instant media notoriety and probably a lot of novelty sales.

I believe that one could make this game to his specifications in AGS and, through the story, mock people who blame the easiest thing (video games) while ignoring the harder (but more likely to be valid) issues such as poor parenting, economic status, mental illness, etc.

Here's the full text of his ridiculous proposal that he mailed out to a number of game execs:

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule

This writer has been saying for seven years that violent video games can be "murder simulators" that incite as well as train some obsessive teen players to be violent.

I've been on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest this year explaining how an Alabama teen, with no criminal record, shot two policemen and a dispatcher in their heads and fled in a police car--a scenario he rehearsed for hundreds of hours on Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto video games.

I have sat with boys in jail cells, their lives over because of murder convictions, after they, with no history of violence, have killed innocents while in a dreamlike state. Said one cop who investigated such a murder in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "The killing was like an extension of the game."

The video game industry, through its lawyers, its spokesmen, and its head lobbyist, Doug Lowenstein, the president of the Entertainment Software Association, all say it is utter nonsense to suggest that what is dumped into a kid's head hour after hour, day after day, year after year, could possibly have behavioral consequences. Cigarette ads can persuade kids to smoke, but interactive simulators in which these same kids punch, hack, bludgeon, and maim affect not a wit their attitudes and behaviors, notwithstanding the findings of the American Psychological Association, published in August 2005.

The video game industry says Sticks and stones can break my bones, but games can never hurt me. Fine. I have a modest proposal for the video game industry. I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg ranks as #43 in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:

Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat. The opening scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles courtroom in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after the judge and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the game and the murder.

Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.

O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.

O.K. first hops a plane from LAX to New York to reach the Long Island home of the CEO of the company (Take This) that made the murder simulator on which his son's killer trained. O.K. gets "justice" by taking out this female CEO, whose name is Paula Eibel, along with her husband and kids. "An eye for an eye," says O.K., as he urinates onto the severed brain stems of the Eibel family victims, just as you do on the decapitated cops in the real video game Postal2.

O.K. then works his way, methodically back to LA by car, but on his way makes a stop at the Philadelphia law firm of Blank, Stare and goes floor by floor to wipe out the lawyers who protect Take This in its wrongful death law suits. "So sue me" O.K. spits, with singer Jackson Brown's 1980's hit Lawyers in Love blaring.

With the FBI now after him, O.K. keeps moving westward, shooting up high-tech video arcades called GameWerks. "Game over," O.K. laughs.

Of course, O.K. makes the obligatory runs to virtual versions of brick and mortar retailers Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart to steal supplies and bludgeon store managers and cash register clerks. "You should have checked kids' IDs!"

O.K. pushes on to Los Angeles. He must get there by May 10, 2006. That is the beginning of "E3" -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the Super Bowl of the video game industry. O.K. must get to E3 to massacre all the video game industry execs with one final, monstrously delicious rampage.

How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've got the tech. It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game, right? Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you.

Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has for 18 years been involved in efforts to stop the marketing of adult entertainment to minors.

I don't personally have the time right now to work on such a project, but I want to challenge anyone in the community to make such a game, even if it completely sucks.  You can probably make a bit of money off of it as well!  Just an idea I wanted to throw out there.

The three Governesses and their daughters undertake a long journey into the desert to kill a child who is prophesized to bring destruction to the golden city.   Their journey is about to come to a sudden end.

I wrote this up for the Monthly story contest and there are about five days left to polish it up, so I wanted some imput.  I'm confident with the story and its construction but I'm not confident with the actual writing part.  I'm particularly worried about my ability to help the reader keep the six characters straight.  And while you're reading, make sure I keep the proper tense throughout.

Here it is.  It's around ten pages.

"A Long Procession is Brought to an End When a Black Silhouette Appears on the Horizon"
(an epic story needs an epic title, right?)

.doc format
.txt format

Any critiques are welcome.  Thanks!

[Play it again... for the first time!]

====
anna
====

=======
summary
=======

This is a polished up version one of the OROW Competition 2 joint winners, Anna.

The game is presented in pseudo-3D with a keyboard interface.

This updated version contains a number of updates including sound and music as well as a new and novel Flash manual that actually communicates with the AGS game in order to unlock story background and hints as you play the game.  For example, if you find yourself stuck in the game, before consulting a walkthrough or the forum, open up the manual.  It will check to see how far into the game you've progressed and unlock the appropriate hint for you.  There are also several other hidden tidbits that will unlock as you play.

Play it again... for the first time!

====
links
====

The xii games Website.

The AGS Game Page.

Direct Download Link.

====
story
====

Welcome to Outpost Station.  A deep-space lookout intended to serve as an early warning system in case of attack by "the enemy."  You are Hero, a clear-room technician charged with the maintenance of all the station's systems including Anna, the intelligent computer system that runs the station.

The day starts as routinely as any other, but ends with Homeworld's very survival in jeopardy.

==============
version information
==============

This game was originally made for the One Room One Week Competition.  The OROW Competition release version 0.9 was released  July 16, 2005.

This is version 1.0.  The following changes were implemented:

-Added sound and music
-Complete face-lift for the main menu
-Added new load GUI to main menu
-Added custom save/load GUIs to in-game menu
-Added credits
-Slight changes to dialogue text
-Speech is now ALL skippable
-New Flash Manual

=========
links (again)
=========

The xii games Website.

The AGS Game Page.

Direct Download Link.

[Jozef Purdes has never released a game. He's not a frequent poster to the message board. He has never even used AGS. Nevertheless, he is a well known and important figure among the AGS community. Jozef is the author of the relentlessly thorough Independent Adventuring column over at DIY games. In his monthly column Jozef does his best to play and review EVERY independent adventure game released. It's a daunting and unenviable task, but nevertheless, Jozef continues to deliver.Seeing as how he has turned a critical eye to more AGS games than just about anyone, I knew that he would have some excellent insights on amateur adventure game development. I was lucky enough to bump into him at the Bloody Towel and have a fabulous confabulation over some baconburgers. I wanted to hear his thoughts on common flaws in amateur adventures but got sidetracked on some other subjects first.]

Twelve Interviews is a series of discussions with AGS community members.  The goal of this new feature, apart from learning a bit more about the interviewee, is to discuss some issues involved with AGS game development to help and to inspire other community members.

After reading the interview, feel free to post any related questions or comments that you may have for the interviewee.  Any comments, questions, or suggestions on this feature may be PMed to me here.


Previous Twelve Interviews:

Twelve Interviews #1: Kinoko

[/size]

Jozef Purdes has never released a game.  He's not a frequent poster to the message board.  He has never even used AGS.  Nevertheless, he is a well known and important figure among the AGS community.  Jozef is the author of the relentlessly thorough Independent Adventuring column over at DIY games.  In his monthly column Jozef does his best to play and review EVERY independent adventure game released.  It's a daunting and unenviable task, but nevertheless, Jozef continues to deliver. Seeing as how he has turned a critical eye to more AGS games than just about anyone, I knew that he would have some excellent insights on amateur adventure game development.  I was lucky enough to bump into him at the Bloody Towel and have a fabulous confabulation over some baconburgers.  I wanted to hear his thoughts on common flaws in amateur adventures but got sidetracked on some other subjects first.

The following is a transcript of our discussion:


First off, tell us a bit about yourself.

I was born slightly over 29 years ago in Bratislava, Slovakia.  Came to the US in 1995, went through college in New Jersey, where I then stayed for another four years working as an investment analyst.  Last August, I moved to Atlanta, where I entered the MBA program.  I've got one more year to go, and then I hope to find a job in the business incubation area.

As far as my gaming past goes, I started out with the Zinclair ZX Spectrum.  After two years or so, I got a bootleg tape full of interactive fiction; my first exposure to adventures. I got exposed to PCs as part of my part-time work in Slovakia.  They were PC 286 computers, and my first game, Crystals of Arborea, I was hooked, spending nights mainly with strategies at that time, especially Warlords and Civilization.  I went through the usual Monkey Island series and Sierra adventures, but got really hooked only after I played Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.  Since then, I've been gaming all the time, but stayed almost exclusively with adventure games, puzzles and turn based strategies.

How long have you been involved in gaming journalism?

I started writing for my abandonware site in 1997.  I later abandoned it, and in 2000 I started writing reviews for Epinions.com.  I soon became an Expert in gaming, which on the site was a function for the top reviewers in each category.  They served as a buffer between other reviewers and the site management, and to advise new members (the function later transformed into two, Top Reviewer and Adviser, which I retained till I stopped writing).  In 2002, me and a few of the top reviewers from Epinions created Netjak.com, where I'm still writing, even though not as much as before.  In early 2004, the editor of DIYGames has asked me to join the site, and since then I've been writing the monthly columns and the occassional reviews when I found some extra time.

How important, in your estimation, is objective evaluation (that is to say, reviewing a game based on its merits and not on one's own biases as a gamer) to mainstream gaming journalism?

I think that objectivity is overrated. Especially if I read five reviews of the same game, I don't want to read the game description over and over again.  Instead, I'm much more in favor of consistency.  There are simply game reviewers who have been consistently rating games for years now, and even if I don't share their tastes, their score and review can tell me more about how much I'd like the game than any consistent review.  The most notable example here is Tom Chick, the writer for Quarter to Three and most recently Computer Games.  He dislikes some genres that I like and vice versa, but having played some of the games and compared them against his reviews, I know what to expect now, whenever I read one of his game reviews, because he's been so consistent over the years.

How about non-mainstream or specialized journalism such as DIYgames?

I'd like to see more objectivity here.  Not for the sake of objectivity, but I think the non-mainstream media is skewed too much towards the subjective.  The problem I'm seeing here is that the media have too few dedicated reviewers.  Even DIYGames, which is relatively well staffed, is struggling with the amount of games that are flowing in.  As a result, we all are free to select from an enormous number of games to review, and we naturally gravitate to the best or most appealing ones, so we consistently rate between 3 and 5 stars, out of 5.  While we may be right in our rating, the review selection is not representative of the independent scene.

Can bias be blamed for the fairly consistent low scores garnered by adventure games in mainstream reviews, or are the games of today that still follow the tried-and-true adventure game formula just not as good as they used to be?

That's difficult to say.  I'd say that adventures are being misunderstood by magazine editors, and they are being assigned to the wrong people.  As I understand it, console adventures are mainly platformers with adventure elements, and so if a fan of such games gets a PC adventure to review, he or she may be disappointed.  I consider myself to be a fairly hardcore adventurer, and it reflects on my ratings: I rated games like Salammbo and Journey to the Center of the Earth very highly, much higher than the average, while games like Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon and Wanted received quite low ratings, due to their simplicity, interface and non-adventure elements. 

In fact, if you look at Gamerankings, you'll see that many adventure games are highly rated by adventure-reviewing sources, while more mainstream media rates them lower.  Good examples of this are in particular Journey to the Center of the Earth, and A Quiet Weekend in Capri.  More than bias, I think that the mainstream media simply don't have any adventure-dedicated reviewers anymore.

Quite frankly, I didn't think of looking at game journalism before, so these are only my opinions, based on absolutely no facts, so take them with a grain of salt.

Lets move on to your Independent Adventuring feature.  What made you want to take on the daunting task of playing and reviewing every amateur adventure game released?

I appreciate art, and I see amateur adventures as art.  Nobody can agree on a definition of art in gaming, but for my purpose, it's a game that has been created by a real developer, not by marketing consultants.  And even though there are quite a few titles that I wish I haven't played, others more than offset this.

But to be entirely honest, it wasn't my idea.  Greg Micek, the editor of DIYGames, has come with the idea, and I told him I'd try to do it, but I wasn't too enthusiastic until I wrote the first column and realized how much fun it's been to play all the games.

Do you enjoy it?  I mean... there are so many! ... Aren't there some real stinkers out there?

You're right; there are quite a few poor games.  Still, there are so many great games that I can live with the relatively fewer stinkers.  Also, I tend to give a lot of benefit of the doubt to people, so the worse games don't hurt too much

Any recent or classic favorites, AGS or otherwise?

Most recently, I fell in love with Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment.  I'm also very fond of games that are slightly out of the ordinary.  For example, SSH's Princess Marian series is one of my favorites, because of its very unique and cute personality.  Last year, some of the games I enjoyed the most had either very unique graphics, such as Biwa of Blood, or great humor, like Who Killed Bambi?.  And while I enjoyed larger games, such as titles by Pinhead Studios or the Ben Jordan series a lot, there's so many of those that after a while they tend to blur together.

Do you feel that the underground adventure game scene is important?

I think it's very important!  For some reasons.  First of all, it proves that game genres can never die.  In the days before Dreamcatcher (and even now), the vast majority of adventure creation activity takes place with independent developers.  As a result, commercial adventures are always pushed a step further in their development, to justify their price in the face of free competition.  Consequently, the overall quality of adventure games is higher than it would have been otherwise.  Second, the underground adventure scene is quite important to me.  I really don't like any action games, and with such titles dominating the store shelves, without independent adventures I'd have nothing to do.  And finally, just look how much creativity is being allowed, thanks to AGS and other engines.  I grew up primarily with books, and I never dreamed of self-publishing or reading self-published stories.  Even today, we don't see too many of them.  Yet, lots of people are coming up with their own stories, and an entire vision of a world where the stories take place. With so much creativity going on, I can only expect computer gaming in general to greatly benefit in the future.

Compared to the other amateur adventure game engines and communities, what are your thoughts on AGS and its community?

Now this is a difficult question.  I have never tried to create anything with any adventure engine, so I can't comment on the AGS software.  However, considering the number of games released every month, I can imagine it's easy to use.

As far as the community goes, I believe that AGS is the only significant underground adventuring community.  There are others I visit, especially the Adventure Developers and Adventure Gamers forums, most of the activity takes place on AGS, especially after The Crow's Nest closed.  That said, however, I found the AGS community to become too entrenched.  There are very few new people joining, who actually contribute on the boards for the long run.  While things like the Mittens show that the community is very close, I'm also afraid that the community is becoming a little exclusive.

Concerning amateur adventures, how important are the different aspects of the game (graphics, sound, story, programming, gameplay, etc)?

That's difficult to say.  Obviously, story is very important, but I found that my favorite games are those with a unique personality.  This is usually a result of unique graphics and writing.  But I wouldn't be too worried about what's more important.  Instead, I personally focus on things that hurt the game.  The most visible problem tends to be poor grammar, but in the long term, I find lack of originality to be the biggest problem.  I don't think we need another haunted house or a mystery detective; Ben Jordan should be enough.  Chances are I'll remember the original story, not its clone.

Having played so many amateur adventures, you must have spotted a multitude of common flaws that even the most experienced amateur developers drop into their games.  Lets discuss some flaws in each aspect of the game's production:  What are a few common missteps that you see regarding a game's story?  How can these flaws be avoided?

As I said, the one flaw I tend to pick up really quickly is grammar.  This is not as much a problem with experienced game developers, but even a single typo can stand out.  That's just me, though.

Probably the biggest design problem that I'm seeing is the lack of explanations.  Sometimes, the authors have the entire setting in their heads, and they make assumptions that they don't communicate to the player.  This, in turn, makes some puzzles or actions appear illogical.  This has killed very many adventures for me.

But at the end, most seasoned adventure developers have their game mechanics pretty well covered.  I just wish they added a little more emotion to the story, to make it more engaging to the player.  Very often, even in otherwise great games I feel absolutely no attachment to the main character.  Maybe it's just me, but in those cases I feel like the developers created a game they thought the gamers would like to see, and not the one they wanted to create.

What common mistakes do you see regarding a games graphics?

There are two, both having to do with the character animation: characters facing the wrong direction, and poor perspective.  In the former, I see way too often that the characters seem to walk sideways.  As far as perspective goes, sometimes the character size doesn't seem to change appropriately, according to their location.  I guess both problems are connected with the AGS editor, so I wouldn't know how to fix them.

Discuss a few commonly-recurring flaws that you've noticed regarding a game's sound.  How can these flaws be avoided?

There's only one thing that irritates me: full mp3s, which inflate the overall file size.  Other than that, I only have a problem with music I recognize.  That's not inherently wrong, but sometimes the music clashes with the setting.  I don't mind listening to "We Don't Need Another Hero" and "Eye of the Tiger" in Supergirl; in fact, the music selection was appropriate.  However, if I heard "Chariots of Fire" while exploring a haunted mansion, I'd be very unhappy.

What about the gameplay design?  Where do you commonly see mistakes and how can they be avoided?

There's only one flaw I can mention here: action or timed sequences.  Avoiding this problem is easy: avoid adding them into your games.  I don't mind what anybody else says, I'll be always whining about them.  But to be fair, sometimes they work, such as in the Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, where they were very easy.

And finally, the game's interface.  Discuss a few commonly-recurring flaws that you've noticed in this area.

One problem I'm seeing, especially with new developers or people who want to use intricate interface graphics are very large cursors, which you don't know where they point.  This can be avoided very easily; some games added a bright pixel on each cursor, indicating where it points.

What about programming?  How often do you see minor bugs?  How much do they affect your opinion of a game?  What about major bugs?

I don't see too many major bugs.  In fact, I'm very happy to say that I haven't seen a game-ending bug for a long time.  However, I wish people would be more careful when flagging non-recurring things.  Sometimes even very good games allow for the came conversation to take place over and over again.

My family has grown greatly in the last year and has also spread across the globe and we'd like to find an easy way to link up the ol' webcams and have a good chat (preferably with audio as well as video).  We'd obviously hope for it to be free.  There's also the added hurdle that my parents are Mac users and we would thus have to use a program that supports cross-platform video conferencing.

I was hoping that someone here might have had some experience with this and could offer some advice.

[Update: 10.30.2005]

This game has a dirty mind, which doubles as a heavily animated in-game menu!

Help the detective reconstruct the events of that fateful day at the Hicks' Home... err... double-wide!  Get in to the minds of both members of the Hicks family to reenact their over-the-top, back-and-forth, all-out war!  Decode their secret messages to help you make your next ridiculous move!  But, since you're playing as both characters, you'd better be able to plan ahead and block each attack, or it will be lights out for one of them!

And if he drops this one, he's got a backup remote.  He calls her "Lurleen."

Step into the shoes of Tubby Hicks ("Hey, but he ain't wearin' no shoes!") as he launches an all out offensive on that loud mouthed wife of his by using only the items he can reach from the couch... because what's the point of doing anything if you have to leave the couch to do it?

To Do: -Pick up eggs -Feed the dog -Eliminate your husband -Iron

Enter the kitchen of Lurleen Hicks.  Who are those secret love letters from?  She can't remember, but she's certainly not going to let a little thing like being married get between her and her love for... whoever it is.

Is that the smell of... MURDER?!  Nope... No... It's just mold.

The stage is set, the pieces are in place, and the cold ones are cold, let the battle begin!  Who will survive and who will wind up wearing a toe-tag?  Play Domestic Conspiracy and find out!

Features:

• First person perspective
  
• Stylized cartoon graphics
  
• Animated cut-scenes
  
• Voice acting
  
• An innovative, user-friendly, and seamless interface
  
• More than thirty contextual cursor graphics
  
• Hint system via the detective's observations
  
• Multiple endings
  

Estimated progress:

Story and Puzzle Design: Graphics: Programming: Sound:

100% 80% 75% 10%

[/size]

This has been in production for a long time and a lot of care is going into it.  (The secret ingredient is love.)  Unfortunately, after my recent wedding and finding out that there's a baby on the way, I've got a lot less love to go around.  Things have been quite busy around here, but I've been continuing to diligently plug away at this game.  Though, obviously,production is not moving as quickly as it used to.  Because of the fluctuating time that I'm able to devote to the project, I'm not willing at this point to estimate a release date.



Update: 10.30.2005

The demo is released for Release Something day!

Download the demo here: domcon.rar -- 3MB

[/list]

[Kinoko, who is constantly being mistaken on the boards for a man (How's that for an introduction?), made a splash in the AGS community with her first game, Cirque De Zale. It was nominated for several AGS awards and Inventory awards, and won the Inventory award for Best Indie Adventure. She is currently hard at work on her next game, an action RPG in the style of the old SNES classics, titled Gift of Aldora.]

This is the first in a series of interviews with AGS community members.  The goal of this new feature, apart from learning a bit more about the interviewee, is to discuss some issues involved with AGS game development to help and to inspire other community members.

After reading the interview, feel free to post any related questions or comments that you may have for the interviewee.  Any comments, questions, or suggestions on this feature may be PMed to me here.

Kinoko, who is constantly being mistaken on the boards for a man (How's that for an introduction?), made a splash in the AGS community with her first game, Cirque De Zale.  It was nominated for several AGS awards and Inventory awards, and won the Inventory award for Best Indie Adventure.  She is currently hard at work on her next game, an action RPG in the style of the old SNES classics, titled Gift of Aldora.

I was fortunate enough to sit down around a few pints of grog (and an internet browser) with Kinoko to chat a bit with her about herself, games, and herself making games.  The following is a transcript of our discussion:


First off, tell us a bit about yourself.  Who is Kinoko?
[/b][/size]

I'm a 22 year old Aussie girl who was brought up spoilt with video games galore. I love cats, noodles and rugby league.


Tell us one strange fact about yourself that we don't know.
[/size]

Popsticks scare me (seriously).


This August, you're packing your bags and moving to Shizuoka, Japan.  When did you decide to apply to teach English in Japan?
[/size]

Probably around October last year. I'd always known about JET and I was nearing graduation from uni, so I had to do something with my life. I needed to get to Japan somehow to complete my study of the language and JET came highly recommended. I'm now thrilled I was accepted.


What kinds of games and genres do you play?  What are you playing now?
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Right now, almost literally right now because I WILL be playing the game as soon as I'm done with this, I'm playing Zelda - Minish Cap. I wasn't to thrilled about the game when I got it months ago but I've recently picked it up again and now I'm hooked. I'm also playing Harvest Moon - Friends of Mineral Town on GBA.  I recently got married, and my wife is pregnant now! [Interviewer's side note: Ok, I totally did a double take at that.  It took me a second to realize you were talking about a game...][Interviewer's more narcissistic side note: Me too!][/size]I do play a bit of D&D with some friends every now and again but I almost never play PC games these days (besides AGS games). I used to be big into PC gaming when I had an amiga and C64, but these days I'm all about console gaming. It's what I was brought up on. I play all sorts of things, I love anything that's genuinely unique or just plain well-made and fun, but my real love is for RPGs.


How often do you play games that come out of the AGS community?
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It varies. I guess it depends on how often something that really grabs my attention comes out. I dont play everything released, just the things that strike a chord with me, particularly when I can see real effort put in.


Any favorites?
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I'm a bit of a Yahtzee whore, I love 5 Days, 7 Days and O.K. Noone can go past Pleurghburg, and I adore the Apprentice. More recently, Saturday School had been the best thing I'd played in ages.


When playing other AGS games, what common mistake do you see repeating itself over and over again and how can developers avoid making it?
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I've always thought one of the biggest mistakes is believing that graphics don't matter. Adventure games tend to be lovers of "old school" graphics and simplicity, and we're always saying that graphics don't matter when you have a great story and game in general, but too many people take that to mean that graphics can be completely... scat-house. It works in joke games, but when you're putting a lot of effort into story and programming, I think the graphics, as simplistic as they may be, should at least show effort and care. It'll make the player care more about your game to know that you did. The other big one is not enough beta-testing. One scripting error can be enough to turn you right off a game. While I'm on the subject, spelling and grammar, people! Fixing up all these things can really make your game seem like a great piece of work.


With a lot of developers, the initial concept is a difficult one, and Cirque had a very unique concept.  How did you come up with it?  Where did the inspiration come from?
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I'd love to tell a charming story, or a clever one, but I honestly just sat down with a notebook and thought about what would "sell". I knew I wanted to make it in the style of early Lucasarts games, and I knew I wanted a main character with a lot of personality, I just had to think of a theme. I thought about what had been done in adventure games so far (pirates, magicians, royalty and whatnot) and thought that a circus would serve the purpose.


Take me through the process of making your first game.  Did you meticulously plan everything out, wing it as you went along, or somewhere in between?
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I planned the basic elements I wanted in the game, and a couple of specific jokes I wanted to work in. Then I planned the whole game from start to finish, story and puzzle wise. After that, I drew sketches of my backgrounds and the "map", Alexander's sprite and basically started from there. I didn't have everything planned from the start, I added and changed things as I went along, but the bulk of the game was planned out before I started. I think you have to do that, really. Plan, plan and plan and have everything sorted but be flexible and open to change as you work on the game.


In this process, what went right and what went wrong?
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Scripting went wrong most of the time, seeing as I was learning the problem as I made the game. Also, I fell into a lot of the same traps most people fall into when making their first game, such as only having one style of puzzle, a very linear storyline (not always a bad thing) and things like that. I'd say one of the things that went right is that the dialogue I pretty much wrote on the spot was pretty well-received, and things I thought would seem corny/obvious/lame because I'd seen it so often and in such detail were, again, well received by people who hadn't been working on the game for 3 months ^_^


What made you decide to make an RPG as your next big project?
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Adventure games and RPGs were always my "Big Two" in gaming. I'd done one, it was time for the other. I think I was also replaying Terranigma at the time (greatest game ever) and felt like I wanted to carry on the flame a little. Very few RPGs these days really excite me the way they did 'back in the day'.


Cirque is widely loved for its excellent writing and humor, great art and animation, and entertaining puzzles and gameplay.  It grabbed me because playing it for the first time evoked a sense of nostalgia, as if it was a long lost LucasArts game.  It nailed everything that made classic adventure games classic.  In doing this (and at no expense to the game's quality, may I add) Cirque never attempted any new gameplay innovations, instead opting for the tried and true LucasArts verb-based gamplay.  You've stated that the gameplay of Gift of Aldora is based on the Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma series and The Secret of Mana.  Will GoA be playing by the rules and sticking closely to the action-RPG formula laid out by these series or will you be adding some interesting gameplay elements of your own?
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It's hard to say, since it is still in development and I do keep scribbling new ideas all the time. For the most part, it will be made up of 'tried and true' methods from various games. Don't expect anything terribly revolutionary, but I hope the game will invoke a feeling of uniqueness simply because it isn't just a tribute-style game like Cirque was. The main motivation behind this game, however, IS that I want to relive my old SNES console RPG days. I guess I hope will simply feel like something worthy enough to be placed at the feet but among those old games I love.


For you, what's the best (most enjoyable) part of making these games?  The design, the art, the coding, the vast amounts of money that you make...? 
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The vast amounts of money I make... gee, I wish that was it. Given that I've spent the last 10 years calling myself an artist, it's probably weird that I consider one of the funnest parts of game-making to be programming. I find it incredibly satisfying, and you don't have to wait for things to dry or scan a thousand pages. It's easy (physically so, that is) and just like problem solving. I think the winner would have to be conception though (not the baby kind). It's so utterly fun coming up with characters and ideas and trying to mush them together in a story.


What's the worst (least enjoyable) part?
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Animating. It's satisfying when it's done, but sitting there trying to animate a little sprite, moving pixel by pixel and then testing and testing... I find really tedious.


Building an adventure game, as we all know, is a huge undertaking.  It requires a lot of time and work.  So many games get announced, gain a lot of attention, and then fade into oblivion (only to have their "in production" threads dug up by a guest, invoking the wrath of the Mandarb).  You've recently started the "Release Something!" thread, which aims to jump-start some of those ailing games.  Since you've taken it upon yourself to help those poor dust-collecting game projects and since you've proved that you can finish a game (and a quality one at that), do you have any tips for developers to help them be able to follow through with their projects?
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Work on it every single day. The biggest problem comes from taking "breaks" (which I'm very guilty of). It's too easy to forget about your own game when it isn't in your every day life. that said, don't spend 24 hours 7 days a week on it either. It needs to be a part of your life, not your whole life. If you do that, it'll eventually wear you down and you'll stop out of spite for the game.


Thus far, you've been flying solo, creating the graphics, code, music and everything in between for your games by yourself.  Lets say you were given the freedom and funding to assemble a dream-team of people from the AGS forums to work on a new and exciting game.  Based on the work you've seen on the boards, who would you choose?  What roles would they fill?  What role would you fill?  Or would you prefer to continue working on your own?
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I think I'll always prefer working on my own, because I'm incredibly picky and bossy. I wouldn't mind some help with scripting sometimes, and an animator. Still, if I were gonna be working with other people, I'd need to do it face to face because I'm a control freak and it's too easy for people to get away from you online. There are all sorts of people on the boards I'd love to do a project with though. No names [Interviewer's side note: Wuss...][/size]


And finally, the sarcastic titular character of Circue de Zale endeared himself to players by insulting people.  Insult me, thereby endearing yourself to the masses.
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Oh, Vince, but I LOVE you! *hugs and cuddles*


Oh please... you're not going to endear yourself to anybody like that...

I'd like to thank Kinoko for her time and for sharing some of her wisdom with the community.  Before I open up the thread to questions from the peanut gallery, do you have anything clever and profound to say to finish the interview? 
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One of my favourite quotes and very applicable to me - "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources".


Kinoko, thank you so much.  We look forward to your game.

Now, people, make with the questions!
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I need a bit of help and I know I can count on the AGSers.

I'm building a website in the hopes to form a community.  Of course I'd like to be able to make enough money off of this site to cover the hosting costs and if I get some extra on top of that to pay for the time that I've spent making the site, so be it.

So, I'm trying to find as many sites of a similar nature to see what kind of business plan they have going on (subscription fees/ad revenue/donations/merchandising/corporate partnerships, etc).  I'd like to learn from their mistakes and successes and use that knowledge to help form my own business plan.

The site that I am building is along the lines of Deviant Art or Great Writing where you create your own personalized page where you can showcase your creative or intellectual work, except that my site is aiming at a different creative target audience -- one that I believe is not represented properly on the web.

So if you know of any "post your {insert creative work type here} on your own personalized page and recieve c&c from other members of the community" websites... post them here.

Thanks for your help.

Sites listed so far:

• Deviant Art
  
• Great Writing
  
• Elfwood (currently down)
  
• Art Conspiracy (also currently down)
  

Sorry this took so long.  I had a busy week involving wedding preparations, a bachelor party, and my marriage.  I didn't even think to check the photoshop contest that I had forgotten about after the board downtime.  Anyway... onto the phun.

What is the Photoshop Contest?

Duh! Isn't it obvious?

Okay, see this link if you don't know:
http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop/

And for other examples, see here:
http://www.worth1000.com/

The two above websites should give a fair idea of what is involved. Also you can check out the earlier Photoshop contests in this forum.

Note: Photoshopping isn't drawing a completely new image -- It's editing images to create a new image, such as editing one image or combining several images.

Also, you don't have to specifically use Photoshop -- Paint Shop Pro, Gimp or any other equally good programs can be used.


With the new Star Wars coming out during the course of this Photoshop contest installment, I felt the need to choose a topic related to the series.  Our good friend George has spent a small part of his life creating a beloved series of movies, and a large part of his lifetime ruining them.

With the recent announcement of two new Star Wars TV shows, the new possibilities for Mr. Lucas to erase your pleasant childhood memories and dreams are almost endless.



Will it be the innevitable stunt casting? (as depicted in my terrible example above)  The Desperate Housewives cross-over episode?  The reality-TV hook?  Or will it be the new video game tie-in that will finally destroy the (still barely) good name of Star Wars for ever? 

For this Photoshop contest, you are tasked with creating new ways of completely ruining Star Wars.  Have at it.

OK.  This is not your usual "George Lucas broke my Star Wars" rant.

I knew that Star Wars was supposed to come out in the U.S. on May 19th.  I live in Japan, and being a Star Wars fan since I was just a little Vince, I decided to check out the IMDB site to see when it would hit theaters here.  These days, the really big films usually have simultaneous worldwide releases, so I wasn't too worried.

I did the IMDB search, found this page, and everything was looking good as I started scrolling down...

See if you can find anything strange about that page...

I looked around for a bit.  Sue me if it's been covered.

I'd like for my cursor to change to a short (usually only 2 frame) animation when you mouse over any hotspot or item.  I know how to do this, simply creating a cursor mode that animates with a set view.  My problem is that each object and hotspot has its own cursor animation that gives some idea of what you're about to do with that object.

Hypothetical examples:  mouse over a button, you see a finger pressing a button.  Mouse over a dog, you see a hand petting a dog.  Pick up your inventory key and mouse over a lock, you see the lock fitting in the keyhole... etc.

The problem I have is that I'd like to have more cursor anims than I have cursor modes.  If I can only have 20 cursor modes, and there is no way to change the cursor's animation view in script... does this mean I can only have a maximum of 20 cursor animations?  Or is there a way to change the cursor's view in script that I can't find?

This probably hasn't been a problem before because no one is crazy enough to make that many cursor anims.  Well... I am that crazy, and it is a problem.