@EGurt - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is the Internet like from your perspective?

I remember what it was at much earlier times, a lot has changed since then. There were both nice and mean people, but there is no heroes if there is no malicious/mean people. I think Internet kind of reverts back to what it was, but it still feels a bit too desaturated. It is like we had more originality back then. I honestly like Newgrounds for being the reminder of what Internet been like before, people aren't trying to be simple here.

Q: How would you describe your experiences with the Internet?

Hmm. I think I actually specifically remember starting to use Internet at a rather old age, yet still much earlier than people around me. Real world at my location was far more simple, boring, illogical and delusional before Internet I'd say. But it is just my point of view, I'm quite eager to want everything to be perfect and to doubt social norms.

Appearance of Internet did also made real world interactions even more boring too though. I guess that makes real world just a lobby, it doesn't really need to be that personalized and fun if we have Internet.

Q: Do you have any advice for staying safe online?

Internet takes your real you out of physical world. You might want to still care about who you are outside of it. Also it can be worth to learn to not trust or take anything personally on the Internet.

And like, common stuff like don't reveal your real identity too much, don't click links from people that appear mean and definitely don't download executable files. But you can play browser games, they are pretty safe as long as you keep your software updated.

But at the same time some people actually use Instagram and it works for them, I guess it depends where you live, what you do and whether it is safe there.

Q: How did you first discover Newgrounds, and how was it different back then compared to now?

I'd not say I been recently too active on Newgrounds. It still has more free and unique people out there, much more compared to other websites I feel like. Was surprised to be able to exchange a few DMs with TomFulp too :O

Newgrounds was a big thing back then and I think it still has potential to be as big as let's say Steam.

I originally discovered Newgrounds as one of 2 biggest Flash game websites. Ever since then I've been amazed by how many cool & insanely talented people hang out there, it wasn't just a place to play games - it looks much more like a place to hang out.

I remember uploading my first game to Newgrounds and it was like instantly popular. I really wonder if any of my game development success really comes down to my decision to publish Plazma Burst: Forward to the Past game here in 2009. A lot of great and often totally random feedback in form of reviews too. I think only better thing would be if players were suggested to make video playthroughs/reviews, which I think I've told someone before ^^ I do feel like seeing players not understanding gameplay mechanics or UI is something new developers often struggle a lot.

Q: What was it like developing Plazma Burst 2? How did you get the multiplayer to work? What was your experience with the portal system?

I believe I was trying to make a best Flash game in a way I technically could, hoping it would also motivate Adobe to put more effort into it. Basically make something that is beneficial to someone else and you might just make a whole new great thing with you being directly responsible for it.

I'd say I did not have too much hope for Plazma Burst 2 initially, I did hit technical limitations fairly early in development (game just would lag/not compile due to Adobe Flash errors, something connected to the amount of code game had, very similar issue happened to Plazma Burst: FttP, though newer versions of Flash since then did started to allow much more code to be put into) so eventually I decided to wrap it up and publish it, keeping the most of the ideas for the next game.

Q: Your advice for game design

Experiment with everything and as much as possible. Maybe following someone who also does this can help to learn passively. Generally checking out popular games also might help to get the general direction of what modern audiences like.

Your own game design direction might be quite often shaped by playing other games and realizing that something just bothers you no matter how much you play that game - that is probably a good thing to try and fix in your projects.

For example:

• You might play the game and realize that you just don't like being time limited;
• You might play the sword fighting game and realize that swords going right through enemies without slicing them in 2 parts but dealing 5% of damage instead is just unacceptable;
• You might play the game and get 10 pop-up screens trying to get you to buy in-game items, but in reality game developers could just try to implement server hosting feature by players rather than keep everyone playing on costly rented servers;
• You might play the game where cheating is a serious issue. You might be just the kind of a person who rebalances whole game into not requiring good aiming skills to be a good player or them to be matter in any way at all;
• You might play the game and realize that all characters are same gender/humans/aliens and then you come up with idea to make everyone robots. It gives originality points and so it can work very well too.

But then there is a game design document thing which most game companies do. You can learn that too but it doesn't define a good nor bad game in my opinion.

Q: What do you think would make the world a better place?

The lore of Star Defenders game I'm working on is that Earth falls into a black hole and Star Defenders are the organization that escaped Earth in time to not be eventually trapped in it (they are basically mockingly called Star Defenders because they defend the idea of space exploration, basically humanity pushed hard against them in a game's lore).

So I think nothing really matters unless humanity escapes Earth. But I'd personally think that being nice and honest to people can be a good thing too, even though drama generally attracts people better.

Q: What are some of your favorite games, and why do you like them?

I think Doom was one of my first games I played, it had a really nice aesthetic I clearly saw potential in multiplayer part of it. Also I did not really understood why gibbed enemies were just a 1 animated sprite.

I liked Quake 3 for the development towards multiplayer aspect, but even then I felt like some stuff were missing from it, which gives me personally exactly that kind of feeling of something being not quite right, thus very motivational too.

I believe Homeworld and Rainbow Six were a really cool games too. I love Homeworld aesthetically and I like how Rainbow Six played (lack of ragdoll physics and no visual damage from explosions kind of bothered me, which is great).

A while later I saw Havok physics engine being added to 3D graphics software and some time after that I've seen Half-life 2 which was one of the first games that had actual ragdoll physics in them (I'm pretty sure there was Hitman game before that). But then ragdoll mode being a toggle was still bothering me.

I guess I can say that I'm rather a technical person, even though I occasionally try to get more of a creative approach to things.