BLIND'S PROFILE

Wow, I’ve actually been wondering about getting a new podcast onto RMN for quite a while. Nice work guys!

Congrats man. Take what you've learned from this experience and hopefully craft a project that's even stronger in the coming years.

Glad to see you finally went through with this interview! We've been in need of a new weekly/monthly series to chronicle RM developers. XDD

author=bleet
At best, they're pieces of art that you can directly and intimately interact with. They let you explore things you never could in real life, tackle concepts and art styles and just…I could go on forever, I love video games, dude!

author=bleet
Don't give up. Don't be upset if you can only work a little bit at a time. Some days I would work on Huntress for hours, other days I would make a single object in a chipset or sketch something in my notepad and then play video games all day. Any progress is good progress and you should be happy if you get anything done whatsoever.

Couldn't agree more with these sentiments.

Yayyy! The return of the RMN podcast! ;D You guys have a great speaking presence.

My only suggestion is to tone down the use of the music. A lot of pod-casts use songs to transition between topics, which maybe you can do for future versions? But IMO it was a bit distracting having it play throughout the entire thing.

author=Liberty
2k3 is actually fun to use, though. Yeah, I've had fun with Ace, sure, but 2k3 is FUN to use. And it has graphics up the wazoo, a built-in side-view battle system and did I mention it's fun to use? Also, hello non-square mapping! 16x16 tiles are the shit.

(I like Ace. I like the RTP a lot, but even I think that 32x32 is pretty bad for tiling purposes.)

This. xD

This is a great article! I don't know why I didn't notice it before! ;p

Anyhow, the way I see it, there are two major reasons some people stick with RM2k3:

1.) Age/Nostalgia Factor: This one pretty much speaks for itself! There are still a considerable amount of members who have migrated to RMN from other sites and communities (myself included), during a time when RM2k3 was placed high up on the developer pedestal. In fact, I can even recall on Gaming World that when RMXP was released, very FEW of the developers who had previously worked with 2k3 were very eager to make the jump.

2k/3 ALWAYS had inherent limitations that couldn't be coded-out via scripting, but that in itself is an allure for some people. When you work within boundaries, sometimes you can find yourself being more creative. I myself have used every trick in the book to overstep the color and graphical limitations of Rm2k3.

For other members who have worked so many years on certain projects, it's difficult to let go of that nostalgia and so many layers of learning curves. It may seem like a silly comparison, but it did take several decades for digital photography to truly become the mainstream versus film, etc. I'd say the same is happening here (on a smaller scale.)

2.) Ease of Use: It's undeniable that there's a much smaller selection of graphic material available for VX/Ace's 32X32 resolution. The fact is, not every aspiring designer out there is going to sit down and learn the craft of pixel art (although they should!). Rm2k3 had a VAST library of rips, edits, etc.. that were widely available 5-10 years ago. Because a majority of users therefore use the RTP on Ace, the "look" of those games is much more homogenized than in the past.

In terms of the scripting, it's not something everyone's familiar with or able to learn overnight. It can take months at a time to learn for your average user. It may even be difficult for older members to adjust (versus the newer members) because it's so radically different.

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xD But with all that being said, contrary to popular belief I'm actually not a Rm2k3 fanatic haha. When my project is finished, I'm pretty sure that I'll be migrating to something fresh and more refined in VXAce. The expanded visual capabilities especially have me excited. In the end it all comes down to your individual creativity. There are still dozens of SNES games from 1995 I'd play to death before I'd touch garbage on the newer consoles. Tools are nothing without the artist.