SERIES MASTER! PART 8 BEFUDDLE QUEST WITH KENTONA

Dive into RMN's community game series!

  • sbester
  • 02/03/2013 09:49 PM
  • 3367 views
Welcome to the eighth issue of Series Master!

All hail Lord kentona (the A is for Anderson, damnit)! Your Supreme RMN ruler has graciously allowed me to interview him about the community puzzle series, Befuddle Quest! There are currently SIX (yes, freaking SIX) entries in the series, of which I’ve played… 2 of them, since the 2nd one was too hard for me. What can I say? I’m a lover, not a thinker. Anyways, commence interview!



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Sbester: How did you get started making Befuddle Quest?

kentona: Aeons ago, when RMN was still a bit of a fledgling community, we used to have a sporatic map making event dubbed Map Design Fun. One hadn't happened in a while so I volunteered to do Map Design Fun #8, except with a twist. Inspired by the ALEX/JENQ collaborative projects on GamingWorld, I thought we could do a similar thing here at RMN. See, in the ALEX/JENQ games, people would submit a single map, and the organizer would cobble them together into a single project and make a game/experience out of it. I put my own spin on the idea and instead of just any old map, I asked people to make a puzzle - any puzzle - and submit that. Being that we used RM2k3, I made Zack the hero of this game. I then cobbled the puzzles together in a linear fashion, bookended the puzzles with a story, and out came Befuddle Quest!


Images from BQ1.

Sbester: How have they evolved from game to game?

kentona: While all of the Befuddle Quest games follow the tenets of people building a puzzle on a single map, what has changed is the way I've organized the puzzles. For the first 3 Befuddle Quests, I had ordered the puzzles in a linear fashion, where you have to do them in the order I specified. However, beginning with the 4th one, I rearranged it so that players can visit any puzzle in any order, and even revisit completed puzzles. To progress to the ending, players would have to collect tokens of some sort (by completing puzzles, and the number of tokens rewarded correlated roughly with the puzzle's difficulty) and once they reached a threshold they could do the final "puzzle" and finish the game. In this latest one, we also upgraded the engine from RM2k3 to RMVXAce.


Images from BQ2.

Sbester: What are some of the greatest difficulties you face when making community games like these?

kentona: PEOPLE ADDING IN TELEPORT EVENTS EVEN WHEN I EXPLICITLY STATE FOR THEM NOT TO. That, and finding the time to do the compilation, coming up with a half-coherent story for it, bugs, and - unfortunately - drumming up interest from the community to participate in the event. I guess making a single puzzle map is too onerous a task for some people?


Images from BQ3.

Sbester: How have the reactions to each game been from the greater RMN community? Which one is your personal favorite and why?

kentona: The reactions have been largely positive with a good dose of apathy. But whatever - they are still fun to do, in my opinion! I keep saying that "this one is going to be the last one" but then months later I end up doing another one. But this past one was definitely the last one. Anywho, my personal favorite is probably Befuddle Quest 2: Charmed & Dangerous! The idea was still a novelty, enthusiasm was high and this game has some of the best puzzles the series has seen. Also, while Befuddle Quest 3: Love is a Four-Legged Word was probably the weakest of the series, I thought it had the best chapter of the story (and the second best ending). The best reaction I've seen was for the most recent game Befuddle Quest 6: The Next Generation

author=pintelpen
this game was in the front page so i gave it a try. i saw it has over 200mb size i was excited to play it but after spending at least 3 hours and finished playing all the mini games, i was like "is that it?" "is that all it has to offer?". SUCH AN OVERRATED GAME!! FCK YOU FOR MAKING ME PLAY A GAME SO BORING IT DESERVES TO BE BURNED AND BURNED OVER AND OVER AGAIN SO THAT NO ONE SHALL EVER DARE MAKE ANOTHER ONE!!
author=pintelpen
by the way i like settlers of kentan the only worth while mini game in this stupid game. why don't you guys make a separate game for the settlers of kentan. i assure you it would be way more interesting than THIS TRASH THAT IS A WASTE OF TIME..


That's just gold right there.


Images from BQ4.

Sbester: Can you explain to us the jump from rm2k3 to VX ACE? How did that affect the latest entry?

kentona: Well, as I alluded to earlier, I had decided that the 5th one was the last one ever, but then I was chatting up with Touchfuzzy on IRC one day about how we should do some sort of collaborative event to bring our communities closer together, and I suggested that we do another Befuddle Quest because of its ease to run and low barrier to entry (I mean, it's just one puzzle map! Not much effort is needed to participate!) and Touch thought that was a good idea. However, I didn't get it started when I wanted to, and even though Touch promoted it on RMWeb it didn't garner much feedback yadda yadda. Anywho, we decided that Ace would be a good fit for this as well, both as an introduction to the new engine and the fact that it is actually legal. I have also grown tired of working in RM2k3.


Images from BQ5.

Sbester: Any news on a seventh entry or more?

kentona: Nope. The 6th one is definitely the last one. (Check back in 8 months)


Image from BQ6.

Sbester: Any final thoughts?

kentona: I am always fishing for complements looking for feedback on the games! And although I grumble on about it, I am always pleased with the participation I do get, and I have to admit that these events were fun to run (and the makerscore is nice, too).

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Congrats to all contributers on this gigantic milestone of a series! Your fellow RMNers have been made proud.

Next week, I have yet another special issue (which will be released differently than previous issues, for reasons that will become obvious). I'll throw up a link when it's online.

Posts

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I have to admit that I really like the story of the Befuddle Quest series - almost more than the puzzles themselves.

I am vainglorious like that.
Series Master issue #9 is now available (as a blog this time) at this location:

Series Master! Part 9- Eden Legacy with SBester...
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