LOOKING BACK: VELSARBOR

Who is Lachsen?
Lachsen is some German guy, who started playing videos games starting with SNES and always had the dream to create his own game.
He came across the RPG-Maker 2000 when he was about 16 and immediately started working on something.
Later he started studying computer science.
In general: He's a great fan of food. Of any kind.

...It's kinda awkward to talk about yourself in third person...

How did you start off in the rpg maker scene?
I downloaded the RPG-Maker 2000, I started my own game, I posted questions at the board, eventually I presented my first game...
That game was Tara's Adventure. The first demo was very simple, but at that time, people weren't quite a picky as today, so it actually got some good feedback.
It wasn't until the third or fourth demo of Tara's Adventure (yes, there were that many), that I released my first game with a custom battle system.
I eventually canceled Tara's Adventure, which was taken over by GSandSDS and started working on Velsarbor.
Anyway, that were my first steps in the RPG-Maker Szene.

What is your inspiration, what inspires you?
I get mostly inspired by other games. For Tara's Adventure, it was mostly Final Fantasy 6.
For Velsarbor, it was a mixture out of Final Fantasy X (mostly the battle system) and Valkyrie Profile (the stylish attack animations...).
Whenever I play games or rather watch other people playing games, I like to have a close look at the mechanics and several other aspects of the game and that's where I get most of my ideas from.

Have your games been a success in your eyes?
Both Tara's Adventure as well as Velsarbor got a lot of attention in the German RPG-Maker Community.
Velsarbor also won serveral prices, e.g. demo of the year, some Golden Deji (some kind of annual award from German RPG-Maker communties).
Considering that I think my games have been successful in a way.

They certainly haven't been successful in that none them was ever completed, though. :/

What do you think about your own games?
I usually like my games. I wouldn't continue working on them if that wasn't the case.
The thing about me is also, that I always like to play my own stuff - way too often actually. I goes way beyond the amount of test playing you should do...

Why the cancellation & what becomes of the brand now?
Velsarbor was canceled, because is was too large in scope and I simply didn't have the time to work on it anymore.
Shortly after I released the first demo, I finished school and started my studies in Computer Sciences. During that time I found less and less time to work on Velsarbor until the development came to a complete halt.

At this point I really can't take up the development of Velsarbor for 3 reasons:
1. It's hard for me to work with the chaos of the projects code basis - which is mostly there because of the limitations of the RPG-Maker 2000
2. The RPG-Maker itself doesn't run too well on my new machines. That will become a larger problem each year when people get new machines with upgraded operating systems. RPG Maker 2000 simply isn't supported that well anymore. It's kind of a shame.
3. The project is too large of scope. I would probably work another 5 to 10 years until it's finished.

What's been the most rewarding thing for you so far?
Concerning my work with the RPG-Maker, that would probably be my second presentation of Velsarbor at some kind of community meet-up we had in winter (I think 2004).
I simply showed the intro of the demo and Seldan's Lucislasus attack. The whole audience fell silent during the attack animation, following a lot of cheering.
I don't thing I had this kind of reaction ever before. That was certainly a very rewarding moment.

What Rpg Maker games do you like or play?
Unfortunately, I hardly find time to play games in general these days.
I remember some old RPG-Maker Games, that I really liked to play: Kindred Saga and A blurred line would be two English games I played and really liked.
Some kind of not so well known German RPG-Maker game that I quite enjoyed is "Voice of Destiny". All of these games are really old, though...

Have any words of wisdom for the community?
Start small. I know I didn't do it my self, but it's still my advice.
Try not the most epic plot line, try to do something smaller, more personal, with few characters and smaller scope. It's probably more effective and easier to develop.

What are your aspirations for the future?
I'm still developing games, just not with the RPG-Maker. I moved to another technology, which is HTML5. I got there, simply because I learned a lot about Web technologies during my studies.
Anyway, I teamed up with another person (R.D.) and together we started our own game development group: Radical Fish Games.
Our first project is CrossCode - and it's going quite well.
So for the future I hope that CrossCode will be a game, I'll finally be able to finish.