HYPER MAGAZINE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

It's probably best to just shoot through a series of questions via email so you can answer them whenever you like - hopefully you're not scared stiff by the sheer number of them. I'll just copy and paste them below and if you could answer any of them at all then that would be amazing! Just a quick heads-up, the article itself will be mainly looking at why people spend hours and hours creating these games that they give away for free, and examining whether or not RPG Maker games are legitimate gaming experiences despite the fact that they're built with a game creator tool. Anyway, onto the questions!

How do you define "legitimate gaming experience"?

Also, I was rather verbose and personal in my responses. I hope that was okay. If not, I can go through them again and try to give more objective answers and analysis. Or feel free to pare down the responses.




First things first, why did you start using RPG Maker? (And the associated questions, How long have you been using it? How did you find the program in the first place?)

I started using RPG Maker because it offered everything I was looking for in an RPG engine combined with a very easy-to-use and intuitive interface. I started using it back in 2001 or 2002 with a translated version of RPG Maker 2000. I moved onto RPG Maker 2003 a couple of years later after it was translated (since it had a few more bells and whistles) and spent the majority of my RPG making time using that version. I have only recently moved on to the (officially) translated RPG Maker VX (skipping over RPG Maker XP completely).

Backtracking a bit, I started designing RPGs in earnest after my 3rd or 4th playthrough of Final Fantasy VI on my SNES back in...oh...1996. I had reems of looseleaf paper filled out with weapon and equipment tables, story and plot ideas, storyboards, experience tables and maps and whatever-else. So designing RPGs has been a longtime passion and hobby of mine. Surprisingly, though, I did not get into D&D or the like (this probably had more to do with growing up in a small city in the middle of Saskatchewan, Canada - us kids would spend all of our time playing street hockey).

I've been involved with RPGs for a long time, starting with Dragon Warrior for the NES (which came free with my subscription to Nintendo Power). I was probably about 8 at the time. This started my love affair with RPGs in general. Of course I didn't spend all of my time in front of the TV playing videogames - that was for evenings and rainy days. I spent a heck of a lot of time romping around outdoors with my reems of wooden swords, garbage can lid shields, broomstick spears and hockey stick scythes. My first RPG was a pen & paper RPG a lot like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, but with stats and items. Long story short, designing RPGs has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember and I suspect that it will stick with me for a long time in the future.



Can you tell me a little about the first games you created, and how long it took you to build up the skills to create something (what I'm assuming is) your current project, Trials & Tribulations?

The first games I made in RPG Maker suffered heavily from first-game-itis - overly ambitious, conflicting ideas, scattered plot, weak characters and many many rebuilds. I did not finish it. My first finished game was Hero's Realm and it was started in 2006 and finished in 2009. I learned a lot about game design and player expectations from that experience. Part of the process is helping other people make their games - helping them fine-tune their story, beta testing, writing game design articles and tutorials - it is a very co-operative environment. I have also read a lot of books on the subject, such as the the aforementioned "A Theory of Game Design", "Swords & Circuitry" by Neal Hallford and Jana Hallford and "Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling" by Chris Crawford.

Incidentally, I have two current projects on the go - Trials & Tribulations and Generica: The Next Generation.



About Trials & Tribulations in particular, it seems to have this off-kilter sense of humour that a lot of RPG Maker titles have, why do you think that is?

While making RPGs is a hobby and, like any hobby, you do it primarily for your own enjoyment, part of the appeal is having others play and enjoy your work. In that regard, game creators using RPG Maker face stiff competition against commercial RPGs - why would someone play an amateur 2D RPG when rafts of professional RPGs beckon? One answer to this would be to make your game quirky or off-kilter.

On the topic of the appeal of amateur RPGs, the first draw is naturally nostalgia - older players want to replay the types of games they enjoyed in times past. And, being amateur and non-commercial, creators are free to experiment with new game mechanics, original stories or even explore taboo subjects.

Someone once described Dragon Quest games as "videogame comfort food". In a way, that is what we are making - rehashes of old RPG mechanics and tropes presented in a slightly new or different way. As Ralph Koster pointed out in his book "A Theory of Fun for Game Design", games are fun because we are hardwired to find learning fun and applying what we learned in a consequence-free environment. This implies - to me anyway - that people find the familiar mechanics of the RPG Maker engine comforting and fun.



Can you tell me how long it takes you to create something like Hero's Realm or Generica?

Hero's Realm took 3 years of off-and-on work starting in April of 2006 and releasing the first version in March of 2009, with the final stable release (v1.5) in June of 2009. Generica, in contrast, took 10 days start to finish. I spent so much effort and time to Hero's Realm that I pushed a lot of ideas I had during its development to the backburner that when I finally finished, Generica just kind of blurted out. Hellion, another game of mine, took about 2 years to make in my spare time, and was completed in October of 2009.



And just to get philosophical - why have you spent so long making these games?

It is my passion. Some people spend their time painting, or rebuilding cars, or cooking, or travelling - I design and make RPGs.



Did you, or do you, ever plan to charge people for your RPG Maker games? Or is money not really an issue?

I have not ever charged people for my RPG Maker games, but I have entertained the idea for future work - though I doubt that will ever be realized. Besides the logistical issues (How much do I charge? How do I collect the money? How do I distribute it? What about support? Legal issues? Copyrights?), a commercial game comes with higher expectations that I am not sure if I am up to meet. However, I did receive about a dozen messages from people saying that they would have paid money for Hero's Realm. Opportunity lost, I suppose! Who knew?



And if money isn't an issue, then why do you create these games?

I find it an enjoyable and rewarding challenge. To have someone enjoy your work thoroughly enough for them to comment on it or even write a review is very satisfying. To be interviewed by a gaming magazine such as Hyper is just icing on the cake!



What do you think of other people and even companies now that are selling games created in RPG Maker?

More power to them. While the engine is simplistic compared to, say, the latest Unreal engine, buying an engine and crafting a game from it is a pretty common practice in the industry. Furthermore, now that RPG Maker supports Ruby scripting, the engine is much more powerful and capable and generalized, allowing for greater freedom in the mechanics and games that you can implement. Besides, the world needs more old school RPGs.



Why do you think so many people create these amazingly detailed games and make them available for free?

Probably the same reason why people create amazingly funny webcomics or amazingly catchy songs or amazingly beautiful artwork and post them all for free - it is a love of the craft that is rewarding, not monetary recompense.

That isn't to say that these same people wouldn't take the chance to go commercial and sell their works, be it games or music or art, but very few plan to make a living on doing this. I know I would love to make that leap to publishing commercial games, but I accept that I do not neccessarily have the time, resources or wherewithal to make it happen, realistically speaking.



Now I know you're pretty active on RPGMaker.net, I'm just wondering why the community is important to you?

RMN is my social networking site. It is fun to hang out in a place with people who share your interests and passions. Plus, the site has a mature userbase who are good at what they do, co-operative and generally positive and encouraging.



Can you tell me about the community? (Is it friendly or competitive or bursting at the seams with creative juices?)

RMN is friendly (maybe a little odd-ball) with a suite of great services geared towards amateur game development and presentation. August (a.k.a. WIP), the site's current administrator, has done a great job at providing us users with great tools to present and develop our games, such as customizable gameprofiles (with custom CSS), hosting services, blogging tools, forums and notifications, to name a few. It is quite easy to set yourself up with a few slick looking gameprofiles with blogs and downloads, subscribe to some cool looing games, and hang out in the forum or IRC. There are some incredible game creators and artists and muscisians there, too, and many are willing to lend a helping hand. We also have a great global cross section, with people from places like Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Finland, Brazil, Australia, Grand Cayman Islands, and Japan.



And finally, do you think games created with RPG Maker are looked down upon just because they've been made with a game creator tool?

To a certain extent, yes. There is a perception that the engine is a "kiddie" engine - but the engine a game is made in doesn't determine whether or not the game is good. However, because the engine is so easy to use it tends to attract a younger or more inexperienced crowd full of ambition for making their Final Kingdom Mushroom Hearts game where Mario and Sonic team up with Naruto to defeat Sephiroth and Ganon, but then they abandon it a week later when they realize that making an RPG is tedious work. As such, there is a higher ratio of chaff and unfinished work when it comes to the RPG Maker community and I think that contributes to its negative image more than anything else. But there are some real gems in there, too.



So, that about wraps it up! Thanks in advance for taking the time out to answer all of these, you've been an absolutely integral part of this article! Just for editorial purposes, what would you like to be called in the article? (Kenton Anderson or Kentona or, well, anything you like really). And if I have to mention it, where would you like me to say you live, and what do you do when you're not messing around with RPG Maker (work, hobbies, anything like that)? Anyway, I look forward to reading your reply, and I can't thank you enough for helping out!

Kenton Anderson is fine, though you can also say that my handle or screenname is kentona.
I live in Regina, SK, Canada. I happen to be a professional systems integrator healthcare IT. I enjoy hockey (I am Canadian after all), volleyball, Canadian football, video games, reading, writing, watching movies (my favorite movie is Princess Bride) and playing board games such as Settlers of Catan and cards games such as Bridge. I am 29 years old (today, July 7th), married to a beautiful woman named Kristin, own a house, and have a 9 month old son named Cayden.


I am quite flattered and surprised that you contacted me for the interview and was more than happy to answer the questions. If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask. Incidentally, I was interviewed by a fellow member back in December 2009, and I derived a few of my answers for this questionnaire from my answers in that interview. If you visit rpgmaker.net and go to the Podcasts section, there is a podcast called Shinan Interview Series #1. Also, these questions are quite good - would it be okay if I posed them to the community at RMN. I would like to hear their responses to these questions.

Thanks,
Kenton Anderson