Thank You for the Opportunity

Fly: Hello Inquisitor. Let's start our interview talking about you. Who is Inquisitor in real life?

Inq: Hi, Fly. In real life I’m pretty quiet and timid, spending most of my days doing graphics on my computer. This is my hobby and it is also my job, when I have one. Alternative I also like playing the odd computer game, but not too often as I tend to be a bit of a workaholic and I get moody when I don’t think I’m doing enough. I like watching the football (soccer/futbol) as an Arsenal fan because I admire their careful spending and beautiful football. I also sort of support England, although I don’t have much faith in our national team and I think we’re pretty rubbish. I expect in the next world cup that Brazil will give us our traditional thrashing.

Fly: Let's move to the main subject of our interview, the RPG Maker. So Inquisitor, tell us about how you met this wonderful tool called RPG Maker.

Inq: I first started using RPG Maker 95 after my brother got it. As a program it was a great first step into the world of game making. The program was extremely user friendly, although very limited. As a starting point, there was nothing better. We always worked on projects together and were quite good at making enjoyable characters and decent maps. None of our RM95 projects were finished and they were probably terrible if I looked back now.

We immediately switched to RPG Maker 2000 when it came out (and then subsequently 2003). These two programs were fantastic, especially 2003. There were far more options available and, importantly for me, the resolution of the graphics were the same as the major snes RPGs of the 90s, like Crono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. There was a huge array of graphics available and it started the boom of the RPG Maker glory years. At this point I took the approach of making maps and some very poor graphics whilst my brother worked on the graphics and coding. We worked on a lot of different projects, failing to release pretty much all of them, but they were certainly enjoyable to make, some of which I still think were very good. Unfortunately one of us, not me, doesn’t have the motivation for the long haul projects. By the release of RMXP, we had a role reversal where I started being the main creator of graphics and he started working on more maps and we continued to work on RPG Maker 2003, as we considered it the superior program. RPG Maker 2000-2003, were my favourite two instalments of the franchise, and both started the RPG Maker craze in the late 90s. The programs were so easy to use and so enjoyable to work with that they helped budding game makers ease into the creation process without difficulty.

On RMXP, I noticed a severe lack of graphics available, with the famous snes RPG graphics being a different resolution to the RTP’s. At the time of the release, I was still midway through a lot of RM2K3 projects that I wanted to finish, so I chose not to make a project on RMXP. However, I was aware that there wasn’t a world map with the RTP and so I decided to try and make one, one which would allow people to make whatever maps they wanted. Before this I made an earlier version of the outdoors town (the last RMXP tileset I made), which I’ll show you at the end of this question. It’s dreadful, but very nostalgic. After finishing the world map tileset, I decided that I was more successful at making graphics than games. I never really got into RMXP or RMVX as I don’t feel they have the same charm that RPG Maker 2003 does. They’re harder to use and graphics are harder to make for them (because of the higher resolution), so with these two instalments I feel they’ve lost the simplicity of the old RPG Maker that made it so enjoyable for me.

Incidentally, most of those projects that me and my brother worked on have been cancelled by now. We did manage to release an alpha demo of a joint map competition entry on RPG Maker 2003: http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Freedom%20Fries.rar Screenshots: http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Hiding%20from%20the%20Hun.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/HUD%201.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Battle.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/StEduard.png Extra Features: It featured a fully animated and interesting battle system, some original graphics (Most graphics were ripped from Civilisation 3 and public resources from TeddyPlaza). This project was a joint effort with me doing the maps, some of the plot and game concepts and additional graphics, my brother making the whole game and doing some really fantastic coding. In its current unfinished state, the game is extremely difficult to play and has many faults in it.

Also, for another map competition on RM2K3: http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Pirate%20Cove.zip Screenshots: http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Map%20Contest%20Pic%201.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Map%20Contest%20Pic%202.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Map%20Contest%20Pic%203.png Extra Features: There are some original graphics (most taken from SD3), no battles. This is mainly my brother’s project, with me only having time to add in a few graphics and help out on the design/concept.

And some screenshots from some of our even older cancelled projects: http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/outdoors2.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/torch.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Landscape%20-%20City.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Landscape%20-%20Campsfire.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Shotgun%20Firing.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/Cop%20Corpse.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Topsecret3.png http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Topsecret.png - This one was made with a mixture of tileset and fixed panorama. http://www.rpg-palace.com/maxy/beaumonde%20cathedral.png Fly: And what was your first impression about the programs?

Inq: I loved it, especially the map making side of things! The chance to create my own games was too good to pass up. What I loved most was its ease to use as I am very poor on the scripting/coding side of game making. Later I found that RPG Maker 95 was extremely limited, but when RPG Maker 2003 came out, I thought it was brilliant.

Fly: If you had the opportunity to improve something on RPG Maker, what would you do?

Inq: I would take the best parts from RPG Maker 2003 and RPG Maker XP/VX (the scripting and more powerful coding) and combine them. I would make sure that any future instalments of the series go back to the same resolution and RPG Maker 2003, Crono Trigger and Final Fantasy. This resolution would be much easier for rookies to work with. I would also want to see the side view battle system from RPG Maker 2003 in future versions. I would also change the RTP so that it was more cartoon and less drab than the versions in RMXP and RMVX.

Fly: You must have created some test projects to test the program or even done some experiences. But tell me, do you have any RPG Maker project under development?

Inq: I have two game projects at the moment. I am currently working on one and have the other in my mind to be made in the distant future. The one I am working on now is a Point and Click Adventure Game in the same style as Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max. It’s being made on Adventure Game Studio instead of RPG Maker. This genre was always my favourite and I’ve always wanted to make a game like this. I finally feel comfortable with being able to take on such a demanding project.

Liberating Liberators

Plot: The Red Snake, the biggest, baddest villain in all of Manhattan launches an audacious heist on City Bank, escaping with millions and millions! Before the mighty, the heroic and unfortunately the pompous Captain Flag could save the day, he had a restraining order thrust in his face! Those damn interfering bureaucrats up at City Hall have granted the Red Snakes’ an injunction against all Superheroes on the grounds of causing him distress! With immunity, he makes a clean getaway leaving Captain Flag furious! Flag will not stand for this, he will not have the Red Snake embarrassing him in public and making getaway with all of society's money! It's time for action; it’s time for all superheroes to go on strike! …but without heroes, who will stand up against the evil that lurks in the streets? Who will be there to stop all injustice against the innocent? WHO WILL BE THERE TO TEACH OUR INTREPID PROTAGONIST THE SUPERHERO TRADE?! …Our hero, Percy Powers, is studying Superhero Studies at City College. He's got finals coming up and all of his lecturers, superheroes, are on strike. It seems that only you are willing to take on the system by cutting corners and breaking the law. Only you can put a stop to the Red Snake's latest scheme...... if only you had your superhero license. And so the game begins...

Screenshots: http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/PNCMockup4.png - The main characters dormitory room. The character and menu are both mock ups. http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/dormfem7.png - Your neighbour’s dormitory room. http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/PNCBackgroundcorridor.png - Your dorm corridor http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/animtest.gif - Early work in progress main character animation.

[Working Title Name]

The other is an RPG Maker 2003 game that I’ve wanted to make for a while but couldn’t because of the lack of resources. I can make my own now, so it’s finally a possibility. I have a few resources that I work on every now and again, but the project is more a collection of ideas than a full blown project.

Plot: The game is set in a Steampunk world (although in this world it isn’t steam but a red smoke) that is unlike any other. There is no sea, there is no space, there are no clouds, no earth, no universe, there is only one spire of rock and the rising, deadly red mist below it. The inhabitants have been building their great cities higher and higher up the spire until they reached the peak, Antenna town. Built upon the highest point in the known world, there is nowhere else to go but chance the skies and seek out new land. The society is ruled over by a comity of squabbling scientists, their highest official being an eccentric mad scientist by the name of Dr Herman Boile, who’s determined not to let his family and ancestor’s grip over society be taken away by fleeing citizens. The latest to get on his wrong side is a young (late 30s) vibrant scientist, with a flair for bizarre new ideas and an eagerness for exploration, who designs radical new plans to create mass machines capable of evacuating thousands of citizens from their doomed society. His name is Dr Phinnius D Copell, and he soon finds out that new ideas are not always welcome when he is banished to the prison city built on a giant trash heap below the city. Only he, and a few new friends* can escape from the inescapable prison, cross the uncrossable jungle beyond, return to his family, end the corrupt reign of Dr Boile and save society from their ever-shrinking world! http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/world3.png - Here’s a work in progress shot of the world. That’s Antenna town at the top, the prison city below and the jungle surrounding it. There’ll be more to come over the many years in development.

* Like a country gent with a dislike for “upper class city folk” and his tatty looking robot who annoyingly runs on rechargeable battery power

Here are some enemies that I’ve created: http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Steampunkrobot.png - This here is Mr Hyde, a mad robot who’s just a head. He may be on a motorbike here, but you’ll find that he switches bodies more times than you can possibly imagine. He’s the personal creation of Dr Boile and sent out to eliminate you after you escape from jail. http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Steampunkgang4.png - Antenna town is a rough place. The economy isn’t doing well these days so people will happily beat you up for cash. “Watch out, guvner!” http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Steampunkcannon4.png - Security can be tight in Antenna town. http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/SteampunkPOD2.png - And it can be even tighter down below in the prison as well!

This is a game I’m very passionate about. It’ll be a long time coming before I complete this, if I ever do. At the moment I certainly do take a big interest in getting somewhere with it.

I am also, for paid employment, currently working on a project for Battalion on Urbansquall.com where I am working on some of the graphics, like shooting animations. For privacy reasons, I cannot show you any pictures for this until the latest version of the game is released. This should be coming pretty soon, but for now I don’t think it features any of my work yet.

(If yes): Fly: And is there another game that influenced you to start this project?

Inq: For Liberating Liberators, my main game inspirations were “The Secret of Monkey Island”, “Day of the Tentacle”, “Sam and Max” and all other similar games in this genre. I also, rather obviously, am using superhero movies and mythology for reference and inspiration, particularly the old Batman series of the 60s. http://www.teamteabag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/3413-dott2.jpg http://www.williamwilling.com/blog/pictures/day-of-the-tentacle.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkXw3jPgpy0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whgBnumr3QQ&feature=related

For my untitled RPG Maker project, my main source of inspiration was undoubtedly “The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello”, a fantastic animated movie short. It’s well worth the watch and the money, so I hope there is a Brazilian version available. There have been numerous different sources of inspiration, but none more so than this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vORsKyopHyM http://www.jaspermorello.com/

Fly: What do you think about the national/international maker communities?

Inq: I’m glad to see they are there and that they are active. I honestly do not know much about them and tend to stay away from foreign language websites. I’m surprised at the popularity of RPG Maker amongst Brazilians. This is not the first Brazilian community to contact me, not even the second. Out of all the non-English speaking nations, Brazil, to me, appears to be the most actively involved in RPG Maker. On the English sites, there are many comments about how good the foreign games are, particularly from the French and German communities. I don’t know if this is just a myth or if they are just looking at the very best projects that these communities offer, but the national competition is always enjoyable. Where are the Brazilian, Germany and French RMXP tileset makers though? :)

Fly: How do you feel about being someone important in the maker community? And also being staffer of one of the best RPG Maker XP websites of the world?

Inq: It actually comes with an awful lot of problems. I get a lot of emails from newcomers to RPG Maker asking me to make graphics for them, asking me how to make graphics, asking me how to code and script (which I know nothing about) and many other general questions. Also people tend to talk to you as if you are something special, making unnecessary apologies and being in awe, which I just don’t deserve and find unnerving. On the plus side, you get a lot of thanks, a lot of advertisement for your projects /websites! And you get to do interviews too! The biggest plus above everything else though is that everyone is willing to help you out on your projects with coding, concept art and whatever else, which is a luxury that most users do not get. Being a staff member and running websites is a lot more work than it is fun, unfortunately

Fly: Are you following any project? Do you have any favourite?

I am not following any at the moment, but there are plenty of games I’ve played that I’d gladly recommend:  “The Way” series for RM2K. These are fantastic games for RM and one of the best I’ve played. Apart from the last in the series which was a lazier effort, the games for the most part set the bar for all RM projects to date. The creator has a fantastic grasp of dialogue and makes his characters enthralling and entertaining. He is also very inventive with his dungeon design, which has made “The Way” a joy to play. His use of mixing 2D and 3D rendered graphics worked surprisingly well. This series is the very top of RM2K. http://www.rpg- palace.com/downloads/file.php?type=Img1&id=138  “Sunset over Imdahl” is a great short game. It doesn’t have much going for it in terms of gameplay, but the story was very enjoyable. What makes it standout though is how it put a whole new spin on what you could do with RPG Maker games. http://www.rpg-palace.com/downloads/file.php?type=Img1&id=135  “A Blurred Line” was another great game. The graphics are very poor, but the gameplay is terrific and the plot is well told. http://db.tigsource.com/screenshot/image/87/medium/Abl.png?1229563362  “Idunn Ymiraldor” is a well made game with completely original graphics and a very fine battle system. http://www.rpg-palace.com/downloads/file.php? type=Img1&id=98  “Enter the Cave” is a simple but very well made project. Don’t let the graphics fool you, they are intentionally like that. http://www.rpg- palace.com/downloads/file.php?type=Img3&id=97

All of these can be found on RPG Palace except for A Blurred Line. That can be found on http://rpgmaker.net

Fly: Is there someone you admire? Some idol from the maker community?

 LunC – Creator of “The Way”.  Teo – Creator of “Sunset over Imdahl”  Lysander86 – Creator of “A Blurred Line”  Kamau - Creator of the “Legion Saga” series. The games aren’t particularly good but he was one of the first users to finish multiple projects and really help boost the popularity of the RPG Maker series.  InderinaFalls - Creator of the “Laxius Power” series. I don’t like the games, but I admire his advertising skills. He achieved getting thousands of downloads of his games and I believe he’s made lots of money out of them. That’s impressive!  ChickenSoupCheese - Hasn’t made any projects but he’s a good community member who always gives me good help on my projects by the way of contributing ideas. He’s a great guy and deserves the praise!

Fly: Do you have any speciality on RPG Maker? Or something you like to do in it? Inq: I haven’t used RPG Maker for a while now, but my speciality was making maps, making graphics, dungeon design (that’s puzzles, interesting battles and original concepts), character design and dialogue. The area I am definitely weakest at is coding, and that is a big miss. Fortunately I have my brother to do that for me. I first started making maps and then developed onto pixel art. I like to keep my maps on that fine line between empty and cluttered, leaving all the heavy detail in out of the way places that won’t affect the mobility of the game character, which is something I believe a lot of self proclaimed map makers tend to forget about. Also, I make sure to add plenty of active NPCs like people and animals (that follow paths) and use other mediums to give the maps as much atmosphere and possible. I think most people would say that making maps is the most entertaining part of working in RPG Maker as it lets you show off your creative side.

Fly: And do you have any objective on the maker world? Help the community, finish a project...

Inq: I feel I have done enough to help out the game making community by now, so my main objective is to finish at least one project, ideally the one of the two I mentioned above. I still do the odd small graphical request when people need help on RMXP.org, but for the most part I just offer critical advice these days. If you can speak English and are looking for advice on your projects, you can sometimes find me in the RMXP.org’s MIRC channel. I’m always happy to provide critique on projects and make suggestions.

I’ve made a lot of RPG Maker projects over the years, but I have never finished any serious ones. “Freedom Fries”, which I linked to above, was the closest I came to completing a major project.

Fly: What do you think about the future of the RPG Maker? What can the makers improve on?

Inq: They must take what is best of RPG Maker 2003 and what’s best of RPG Maker XP/VX and combine the three. Sometimes simpler is better and this is definitely the case with the graphics. They need to remember who their main audience is; beginners getting into the game creation process. Young, inexperienced people have found RPG Maker from RMXP onwards to be too difficult to get into, with the main problem being it is daunting and overwhelming graphically.

Fly: What motivated you to help the people from RMXP.org and RPG Maker Palace?

Inq: My brother owns RPG Palace, so of course I’d like to help him out. Before we took over the site, it was the first community I joined, and so I wanted to stick around and help the community grow as much as it could. Unfortunately it was hard to compete with a lot of already well established RM websites. I made the tilesets partly for my own enjoyment and partly to help boost the activity of RPG Palace, which had always had a lack of activity. This is the reason I like to keep my tilesets exclusive to RPG Palace as well.

Fly: When someone uses a resource made by you, how do you feel?

Inq: I’m always very proud when I see someone choosing to use my graphics. Sometimes I can be a little disappointed when I see them being used poorly though. I do wish I had the time to be able to make more. I would’ve wanted to complete the set and make characters to go with it, but I didn’t have nearly enough time and then RMVX came out. http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Blackbeard4.png - Here is a character example I did that would’ve gone with the tile sets. http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Structures2.png - And in a screenshot.

Fly: Have you had any problems with plagiarism? Has anybody ever stolen one of your resources?

Inq: I’ve only seen a couple of times when someone has tried to plagiarise my work, but in each instance they were noticed quickly. I’ve had far more problems with people hosting my tilesets without permission as I want them to be exclusive to RPG Palace. For Brazilian and other foreign websites I don’t mind this so much as I appreciate it may be hard to navigate through a foreign language to download my sets. As long as the foreign hosts leave a link to RPG Palace I am fine with it.

Fly: Do you want to leave a message to the makers reading this interview?

Inq: Keep making good projects and help out new young members! Make sure you don’t put down inexperienced newcomers, like many English speaking communities do, as they will probably improve with encouragement.

Fly: What defines a good RPG in your opinion?

Inq: The most important part of an RPG is the gameplay, and not the plot as most people would suggest. The best RPGs have the best gameplay, like the Final Fantasy series includes a number of mini-games, interesting battle systems and levelling up systems. A lot of the RPGs always have unique and interesting dungeon/world designs. For me, a plot of an RPG is one of the least important areas because even if your plot is full of clichés, as long as it is welled told with sharp dialogue and the characters are interesting, they game will be fun to play. Gameplay, characters and dialogue – the three big areas of an RPG!

Fly: And before we begin our quick answers game, we would like to know what you think about the Brazilian maker community. Have you ever had the chance to participate in one? Inq: I know very little about the Brazilian community in particular. I know of ReinoRPG and have seen a couple of other websites. I’d be unable to participate in one though because I cannot speak a word of Portuguese, “desculpe”. We do have a couple of Portuguese regulars on RPG Palace though, they would slot in nicely between the two national communities. I know that on some Brazilian communities there’s a member called “Striker” who has made some nice map tutorials for my tilesets, so I’d like to thank him for his good work.

Fly: Well, we are reaching the end of our interview! That means it's time for the quick answers game. Ready?

Inq: Fire away!

"Bate Bola, Jogo Rápido"

Playing: Fable 2, Pro Evolution Soccer, Mario Kart Wii, ThieveryUT, Sam and Max: Freelance Police

Best game: Many favourites; The Secret of Monkey Island, Pirates Gold, X-com UFO: Enemy Unknown, Starcraft

Software: Adventure Game Studio, RPG Maker 2003, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop

Event command: [What does this mean, Fly?]

Kind of resource: [What does mean, Fly?]

Best RPG Maker game: The Way.

You love: Disney films, 80s and early 90s films and making games!

You hate: MMORPGs, they waste your time.

Like: Cooking, exercising, animals, football/soccer

Don't like: Cleaning, exercising, anime