KILLER WOLF'S PROFILE

I've always had a thing for making games. I've made board games, card games, text based games, all sorts of stuff through the years. I had Rpg maker for the PSX, but was utterly disheartened when trying to enter text with a controller or do art editing. I made a couple of 'games' with the stock resources, but realizing that nobody I knew could ever experience them sucked a lot of the life out of the process for me. Not to be overly crude, but there was a scene in swordfish that pretty much nailed it. With apologies to AgeTec, just substitute "Using Rpg Maker" for fly-fishing, and you've got it.

Then my life kind of took an insane left turn for a while and game making was just about the last thing on my mind at any given time. By the time things normalized for me again, I stumbled into Rpgmaker2000 and shortly thereafter 2k3 (I was kind of late to the party).

Of all the stuff I've used to make games with before and since, and I'm even one of those people who carved all the way through Andre LaMothe's weighty thousand page tome on the subject of game programming, rpg maker is easily the most approachable.

For someone who just wants to generate content instead of the framework to support that content, the rm series is top of the line. I love being able to click in the editor and make an event that says "This is a table." That is a lot quicker then allocating memory, defining pixel dimensions, setting bounding boxes, entering palette info, editing transparency, selecting layer and texture type, putting the screen into magical Mode 13H, figuring atomic weight, calculating boiling point at high elevation, utilizing the cosines of x, y, and z to get my camera to track properly, writing reams of code just to explain to the computer what the concept of 'table' means in order to get it to acknowledge that I have actually created one... etc.

I don't think I've ever actually quit it, or almost quit it. There have been times when I just didn't have time for game design (or even play for that matter), but it was never a conscious "This is total crap, I'm never using it again!"

Well, that is as unfortunate as it is oddly timed. Did you not tie a bell around your scripter's neck? Those darn scripters... always wandering off when needed most.

After I submitted my page, I combed through the games list and did notice a couple others with a similar approach. I'm rotating between a couple other projects right now, but I should have another update and some new screens ready this weekend.

The game is designed to take around six hours, maybe with some optional content towards the end that might add another hour or two. One of my main goals has been to keep the project small enough to remove any possible excuse I could have for not releasing it!

I do this all the time, sometimes without even trying. I use movies to try to get into a certain mood for a project. When I'm working on my western, I watch a couple Clint Eastwood movies for ambiance, stuff like that.

My problem is that if I happen to watch something that doesn't tie in with anything I'm doing, it pretty much breaks my concentration for like a week or more at a time. An example, I was working on my western for weeks. I redesigned all the main characters, was knee deep in a new combat system. I was actually roaring to work on it every night when I got home from work. I saw that Pale Rider was going to be on that weekend, so I made a point of watching it because one, it is one of my favorite Eastwood films (maybe tied with High Plains Drifter), and two, because it always makes me gung-ho to work on something western themed.

Of course, when it was over I made the mistake of channel surfing. I lucked into Blade Runner and it totally wrecked my ability to think in the whole Spaghetti Western milieu. I actually haven't been able to get it back since, because my knee has been acting up so I've been spending more time than usual lounging in front of the tube. Near eidetic memory and severe attention deficit issues are not the best possible combination.

When I'm working on something, I usually have to make a definite effort to avoid contaminating my concentration with something completely outside of its scope, if that makes any sense.

In the past, I have found that I've subconsciously lifted elements from movies and books that I like. I remember thinking myself clever for using the phrase "a cannonade of cannon," right up until the next time I re-read Mark Frost's 'The List of Seven' and remembered where I'd gotten the line from.

I also do this with music, unfortunately. Discs with hidden tracks always used to screw me up. I'd put on a cd to go to bed to, and I guess I'd learn the band's style hypnoaedically. My conscious mind prevented me from writing songs that sounded like the ones I knew about, but those hidden tracks were apparently fair game. Now, any time I write a new song I have to make a point to check through my recent playlists to make sure I'm not ripping someone off, hidden or otherwise.

I'm not familiar with .gem files.

Compatibility is another problem with using such an old program. DPaint2 uses its own extensions for pictures and brushes, being .lbm and .bbm respectively. It can also save files as .pcx.

What I usually do is save my stuff as a pcx, open the pcx in photoshop and then convert it to a png. If I use dpaint's dedicated background color, I don't even have to correct for the transparency.

Any file that can be converted into a pcx format can be opened in dpaint2, as long as it is in 256 color. Because Dpaint uses a page file that allows you to open two separate files at the same time, you can actually load images up to double the resolution size you are set for, if you sacrifice the second page option.

I've occasionally seen files corrupt for seemingly no reason when you constantly save over the same image, so it is a good idea to back up your work. It only happens with the picture formats though, so I back up critical pieces as brushes.

Also, if you have 500+ files in a directory, it will stop displaying them in the load file menu.

The program is a little temperamental, but for low res stuff I really wouldn't want to work with anything else.