| r/r/r/r: How long
ago did you find the ohrrpgce, and how did you find it? |
| M1: Found it in December 1999 (Editor's note:
I think that might have been 1998, because I had the Ohrrpgce since May
1999 and I remember him having Moogle Quest and Mystic Sky released even
then) on a QBasic RPGs page. I stopped programming in QBasic shortly
thereafter, because A) I started learning C++, and B) the OHRRPGCE can
do much more than I could do in QBasic, even given the limitations. |
| r/r/r/r: What games
have you worked on for the ohrrpgce that are either 1) released already
2) will be released eventually? |
| M1: My first game was Mystic Sky, which featured (surprise!) me
and my friends. It was actually pretty good for a newbie game. Then was
Moogle Quest, which was an ok game, but never went anywhere. I then started
on Never Forget, which is still a current project. While I was working
on it, plotscripting came out, so I added some scripting to the game (though
it still has substantial fake PS) and created Moogle1's Plotscripting Examples,
based on PSTUTOR. Along with Scary Game, Minesweepa, and perhaps something
I've forgotten, it is one of my limited-work games, meaning that it took
less than a week to make. I'm also working on Way of the Wizard, due for
release sometime this quarter. Can't wait. |
| r/r/r/r: Do you feel that
ohrrpgce games can have a wide audience outside of the community (those
who actually make ohrrpgce games) among people who play rpgs? By word of
mouth, do you think it would be possible for an ohrrpgce game to have really
big (50,000+) audience of players? |
| M1: Possible, certainly. I don't think it's realistic, though. EotE2,
the widest-release OHR game I am aware of, has 32,000 downloads on download.com.
Granted, that's a lot -- but how many of those 32k gave up the game when
they saw the resolution? I think the OHRRPGCE is more about the thrill
of game-making than the fun of game-playing. |
| r/r/r/r: Besides yourself,
who do you consider to be the greatest game designers in the ohrrpgce community? |
| M1: HoFonix and FyreWulff are both mad scripters. Don't be too surprised
if you see something awesome coming from them in the next few months. Charbile
and Royal are awesome artists, and I'm always impressed by what they do.
Valkayree has an amazing ability to finish his games, and Shaede does some
of the best solo work around. There's a lot of other talent floating out
there, but I'm not going to go deep into detail. Don't feel insulted if
I didn't mention you! |
| r/r/r/r: What do you feel
is/are the essential element(s) of a good game? |
| M1: Despite what people like to say, graphics are quite essential.
People play games because they see screenshots in the OHRRPGCE community.
If you have a plotscripting "gimmick," that makes a big difference too.
The SoJ2 demo had a pretty wide release even though it wasn't even a game
per se, and I think Way of the Wizard will fare at least that well for
the same reason. In terms of traditional RPG fare, the most important aspect
is fun. Hands down. I won't keep playing a boring game. |
| r/r/r/r: Why do you think
most ohrrpgce games are never finished? |
| M1: People come up with better options after a while. Mystic Sky
stopped production because I thought Moogle Quest would make a better game,
then MQ stopped for NF... NF hasn't stopped because it's a different genre
than WotW, and because I have a team working on WotW. (Kudos to Ralfo for
actually contributing, heh.) |
| r/r/r/r: What do you think
the future of the ohrrpgce will hold? Will better games keep being made,
or have the best games already been seen? |
| M1: I'm excited about a lot of the games that are coming out in
the next few months. Some of the OHRRPGCE's great "veterans" have left
us, but the talent pool is greater now than ever before, in my opinion.
We'll be seeing the OHR's finest works this year. |
| r/r/r/r: When do you think
game design will be recognized as the art form that it is? |
| M1: Frankly, it doesn't matter to me. My reward for making the game
is having it played; seeing people say, "This game is good." If they say
it's one of their favorites, all the more so. It's incredible to me that
someday I can get paid for doing this. |
| r/r/r/r: Do you feel that
a person may start out as believing that game design is just a hobby or
something to do for profit or for his/her ego but eventually come to understand
it as something more? |
| M1: The quality of the game will reflect the quality of the author. |
| r/r/r/r: How do you come
up with characters? |
| M1: I basically take aspects from my personal experience that could
make a good story, add some fiction, add some outside story, add a little
distinction, and voila! A character. In keeping with high literary standard,
my characters lately have often had symbolic names. |
