Dinkerview #4: Path to Glory, Kyle's story
Time for another one of Skull's Dinkerviews, this time it's Kyle's turn!
Click on the comments to read it, and add your own
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Hello and welcome to another edition of Dinkerview! This time, on the Dinkerview number 4, I interviewed one of the legends, yet perhaps a little bit unnoticed Dinker, Kyle. I absolutely admire him as a person and a Dinker, and think he is a great guy for staying within our community for so long. And I also thank him for his great, long answers. This Dinkerview would have been a very boring one without them.
Q1: Greetings Kyle, and thank you for this chance to interview you. How are you doing there in Belgium?
A1: I'm doing good, my creative juices are flowing more than ever and I'm in good health at the moment. There's some small irrelevent things like this year's winter has been harsher than previous years indicating the end of the world and the whole economic situation is messing up employment opportunities, which is why I'm still unemployed. I studied computer science and Japanese, but neither of these is offering me the chance to get to work. On the flip side, lots of spare time is fun and productive in other ways, such as d-mods and my writing.
Q2: What do you like most and least about living in Belgium?
A2: I like our food a lot. The french fries here are delicious and so are our chocolate, waffles and pancakes. I wouldn't say we have flashy Belgian specific recipes for our daily meals, but I prefer our simple combinations to the sometimes weird or borderline crazy food combinations I've come into contact with in other countries
As for what I like least, well, there's a lot of things but I guess it's man's nature to whine about all the small things. Still, I dislike that there's two languages being spoken in a small country like Belgium. It messes up the sense of community and has been the cause for a lot of issues we've had and are still having. I also really dislike our TV shows. They're uninspired and just plain boring to watch. Our shows also suffer from scripts written by baby monkeys at gunpoint, begging for a banana. I'm stuck scouring the internet for good US shows (of which there are plenty) because not even those are shown on TV here on a regular basis.
Q3: So tell us a little bit about how you first found Dink.
A3: Well that's quite a story (or not...). I first played the demo for Dink when I was really young and I think I must have played it over three times from start to finish. There was a little message about the full version coming out soon and I had a games magazine subscription at the time that I hoped would have the release date information soon enough. But unfortunately, it never showed up and I forgot about the game for a while.
Then some time later, I think it was shortly after the release, I accidently stumbled on it again at a local games store. I picked it up right then and there, went home and finished it in only 2 days because I just couldn't stop playing. It was awesome then and it's still awesome now, in its own nostalgic little way
Q4: You have been active in The Dink Network for a very long time, from the beginning you could say. Yet you are not known to many of the current Dinkers. Tell us a little bit more about your Dink history.
A4: I read that there were extra addons I could install or even create and that kept me hooked for a little while after I finished the original game. There were some decent d-mods coming out over the weeks after, but none were really super special or anything. I can't even remember most of the names of those d-mods. But then a demo for Prophecies of the Ancients was released and it was awe inspiring at the time. I believe it ended when you reached the village with the goblins, which means I'd already got to play around with the shapechanging a little and I kept thinking that was so unique and fun. So, I set out to learn how to make my own d-mods. Unfortunately, I sucked at it and I soon gave up. In my defense, I was young and there were very few resources to learn the craft from.
I stopped playing d-mods for a short while because I got turned off due to my own failure, but I came back around the time Prophecy of the Ancients was finished. Man, it was just an exceptional gaming experience. I finished it and again I felt I should try d-modding again. This time I managed to make some simple stuff, mainly from looking at the scripts of the original Dink and other d-mods that I remember had this and that feature that I also wanted. I finished some screens and became completely and utterly overambitious and overconfident in my abilities. At the time my favorite game was Final Fantasy VII and I was determined to make a d-mod that would serve as a sequel. I wanted someone to do all new graphics and someone to help me do the more challenging scripting. So I enlisted a guy named Killerbee, who actually came through and made a fully animated Cloud sprite. It didn't look extremely good or anything, but just releasing something like that in a time where new graphics were rare would have made waves. For the scripting, believe it or not, I got Gary Hertel on the team who was my personal idol of course. He made some scripts for the stores, a spell and was able to replace Dink with Cloud. And then... I lost interest because I saw this giant wall of work before me that I could never overcome and I disappeared for a while.
I can't say exactly when I returned. When I did I had a nice back log of d-mods to play so I spent a long time doing just that. I beta tested a lot of d-mods during that period, like most of SimonK's d-mods and some others. This was also the time I was on staff. Of course, history has a foul habit of repeating itself. Once again I got stung by the development bug and together with my friend Tallis I started out on a massive design for a whole saga of d-mods. I managed to really improve my scripting, mapping and writing and the Legend's Tale demo was born out of that. I also made New Shores: The Maori during that time as a school project, together with Tallis and Nitronic (the creator of Eternal Suicide). I was very happy with how the Legend's Tale demo turned out, it actually had about two hours of playtime in it if you did all the optional stuff too. But... I gave up AGAIN (Dink community syndrome...). The reason I gave up was the same one as it had been before of course: overambitious. And the "horrible" part was that I repeated the same mistakes of the past by asking other people to make stuff for me, in this case the graphics. I got SimonK to do a LOT of enemies and decoration for Legend's Tale which I still feel guilty about. Fortunately he used or released most of them after I gave up on the project so they're still around And I still have two of SimonK's enemy graphics that nobody else has ever seen (yet)!
After that episode of my life I moved on from Dink once more, this time for years until I got back about a year ago?
Q5: What keeps you drawn to this community and have you got any plans on leaving The Dink Network anytime soon?
A5: That's a very difficult question to answer and I've asked myself that in the past as well. Why do people keep coming back here? I think the answer lies in a combination of the community and the actual game. It's aged fairly well and has always had people creating content for it. This content has also kept evolving, more intricate d-mods have been released and there's just a certain flare of being part of something seemingly eternal. And now with Dink HD, a new editor in the works and a new d-mod contest rolled out just yersterday it doesn't seem like Dink and the Dink Network are dying anytime soon. As for myself, I don't have any intentions of quitting Dink again in the foreseeable future. I have past mistakes to rectify and I intend to do just that.
Q6: Here's a question I like to ask from legendary Dinkers such as you; What do you think has changed in The Dink Network during its many years, if anything?
A6: Hmmm... Well obviously the number of users has declined, which is totally normal and not necessarily a bad thing. There's still people around from the past that pop in now and then to say hi. Hell, even WC said hi a while back, that was cool.
Another thing that's changed is that Redink1 is no longer active in the community or the site. He's the guy who we all have to thank for this community still being alive. He's a Dink god in my eyes and it was very sad to see him go.
There are still just as many noobs around as before, at least they now seem to evolve into decent and productive members faster
There's no doubt that stuff has changed, but I'm not a guy to start rambling about the good old days because that just makes me sound ancient. I wouldn't have returned all those times if I didn't think the same enjoyable and crazy atmosphere was still around. So really, the only thing that's truly changed is the activity level. But considering there are so many other game editors to play around with nowadays I don't think Dink's doing too bad at all.
Q7: During your long stay with Dink, you have only released two D-Mods in all the time, with the latest one being from as far as 2002. Do you have any plans to release more D-Mods in the near, or far future?
A7: 2002 feels soooo long ago. I've been keeping it relatively quiet so far but I've been working on a d-mod for a long time now. I don't have a set release date, but "2011" is my goal. Hopefully around summer.
Q8: This Dinker named Tallis, was the one to create your two D-Mods with you. Can you tell us more about this Dinker and your relationship with him?
A8: Tallis has been my friend since we were 15. We graduated together, studied both computer science and Japanese together and are both unemployed at the moment So you could say we're very close friends. Tallis isn't around in the community anymore, but I still ask him for input on my new d-mod and he'll be there to betatest it.
We started the script for Legend's Tale during lunch breaks at school and made major plans for it as episode one of a saga. I still have the design documents for it, detailing dozens of quests and locations. It's kinda cool to look back at things you were thinking of in the past and this is no exception. Some of the quests and stuff sound a little childish when reading it now, but some of it still stands as good ideas.
Q9: If you had to choose ONE thing in ONE of your D-Mods, what would you change?
A9: This one is easy. I would make New Shores: The Maori a lot more true to the real Maoris and their culture. I depicted them as primitive human beings who have never come into contact with civilization. I knew that this was wrong. I did do research into their culture and had big plans to include faithful material, but we ran out of time real quick (we only had 2 weeks) and decided to take the easy way out by turning it into a fantasy game. Only the trivia is faithful to reality if I remember correctly. I'm even a little ashamed of that d-mod still being around on TDN because I feel like I'm somehow offending this minority group which was never my intent, but it's there to remind me of my mistakes so I guess it's fine.
Q10: What are the aspects that you like and don't like in D-Mods?
A10: I always appreciate a good story. You can have a crappy d-mod with a good story and it will lift it up to a good d-mod, but a d-mod that has a bad story will fall flat even with good gameplay. Having said that, I realize not everyone is good at writing stories or dialogue so I do respect people trying their hardest and I give credit where credit is due. One of my pet peeves in d-mods is the lack of decoration. I played Friends Beyond 3 when it came out and that game had nearly no decoration at all, it was sad. It even had TWO maps which clearly cut into the time spent decorating. It ruined the whole experience for me. And in d-mods where the decorating is done really well, like Tyrsis' "As Good as Eternity" it adds a whole new level of immersion that really keeps me playing. And that's what I think d-mods need most right now: an immediate way to get the player hooked on your d-mod, because I think a lot of people need to be persuaded to spend their time on a d-mod these days when there are so many other games out there to play instead.
Q11: What is your favorite D-Mod?
A11: Probably Stone of Balance because it's just so epic. Cycles of Evil is a close second because of its story driven nature. I guess that puts Lyna's Story third on the list too. I'll never forget how I felt about Prophecy of the Ancients though, but playing it now I can't in good faith call it my "favorite" anymore.
Q12: Who is your favorite Dinker?
A12: Redink1 without a doubt. But as that might be seen as a cop out answer because he's no longer around, I would have to say that I don't have a favorite Dinker, but I admire people contributing content to the site most. That content can be in the form of tutorials like RobJ has put out, d-mods, development files or social stuff like the Let's Plays, Award voting, poll updating and also Dinkerviews like this. But every Dinker has his place here, the developer, the noob, the d-mod players, the site staff, ... Without this mixed culture our community would be very boring.
Q13: Bananas or cookies?
A13: What's the point of liking cookies if RobJ just steals them away during the night anyway. I'M INSTALLING A NEW SECURITY SYSTEM RIGHT NOW YOU HEAR ME?! I enjoy the occasional banana too
Q14: What is your favorite movie and TV show?
A14: I've seen literally hundreds of movies and TV shows, I don't have a favorite one I think... Well, off the top of my head I loved The Last Samurai, The Lord of the Rings (who didn't like that one?), Kick Ass, Mr. Nobody and Triangle. My two favorite TV shows are Dexter and Firefly. I used to love Lost but that show's final season ruined it for me.
Q15: What is your favorite book, if you read at all?
A15: I read every now and then, mostly fantasy books. My favorite book is Twilight of course... Kidding I did read it and liked it, but it's not my favorite. My all time favorite book must be Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. It's sequel was also a very good book. I also really liked The War of the Ancients trilogy that's based on the World of Warcraft lore.
Q16: You were in The Dink Network Staff way back in the days. What made you give this mighty power away, and are you regretting that you withdrew?
A16: Every night in bed I cry myself to sleep because I lost all my godly powers. I was close to ruling the world but I gave it away. Everyone makes mistakes!
I first got on staff to maintain the d-mod timeline (I think that feature is gone?). The problem was that it was very hard to figure out the exact time period of some d-mods, people weren't looking at the timeline all that much and I had to manually change the HTML code for all of it. So I didn't feel very motivated to keep that up to date. Looking back it was a cool project idea, but it should have been organized a little better with d-mod authors supplying this information themselves.
I then moved on to doing mostly news, uploading d-mods, writing reviews and I held Dink related discussions in a specific format. That was actually quite successful, but when I left it quickly died out. I think SimonK took it over for a few times? Or was that someone else... I can't quite remember.
Q17: Who's the hottest chick in the world? I sincerely hope you will not answer "Tal".
A17: Summer Glau and Lea Michele. The first is a godly actress and the second a godly singer. What can I say? Talent excites me!
Q18: Tal vs. SabreTrout. Who will win? Believe me, this question can reveal a lot about one's personality.
A18: Oh my... Here goes nothing: SabreTrout! No further comment.
Q19: What is your favorite game?
A19: My favorite game of all time is Xenosaga. I actually count that as the whole trilogy, though the second installment fell short of greatness for a variety of reasons. Other games that I hold very dear are Heavy Rain, Rule of Rose, Beyond Good & Evil and Final Fantasy VII. The theme for my picks is "story" if you hadn't noticed
Q20: Is there something major you would like to say about your D-Mods, your Dinkish stuff, or anything in general?
A20: I think this is the part where you're trying to get me to divulge all the information about my upcoming d-mod. Well, it's a secret still! ... Alright, I guess I owe you at least some interesting tidbits right?
My upcoming d-mod is called "404". The title might sound weird, but there's a good reason to it. "404" is the ultimate tribute d-mod to this wonderful community. Over the years many people have created development files, such as gameplay additions, music, graphics and more. My goal is to integrate as many of those resources as possible to pay tribute to the hard work that was put into them. I've finally learned from my past mistakes and have kept the scope relatively "small". I'm not making an "epic", but I'm making a d-mod that feels epic. This means that I've tried to take the elements that make a d-mod good and elevate those to the next level. For the story, I've made sure the cutscenes feel like cinematic scenes, timed to music and full of animated elements. For the map, I've concentrated on decorating each screen to the max without making it feel too cluttered. And for the gameplay I've focused on including as many different gameplay systems as possible. It has plenty of new spells, weapons and enemies as well as a character growth system independent of XP. To reward exploration as much as possible I've gone to great lengths to include a mesmerizing amount of secrets.
I'll be releasing more details incrementally as the beta testing period approaches. For now, you can enjoy three handpicked screenshots that show off the level of detail I put into map decoration and layout.
I'm listening to a Glee song right now and it's saying: "Finish what you start". I should seriously take that to heart when even songs and puppies are giving me this advice. Don't ask about the puppies. I hope that in the end, this d-mod will redeem all my past Dink mistakes.
Screenshots:
Angel's Descent
Frostbite of the Heart
Depths of Creation
Q21: What do you do during your free time?
A21: Well, being unemployed means I have a lot of spare time that I try to spend on things that don't cost too much I mainly play games, work on my d-mod, write stories and watch movies/TV shows. I should fit in more physical excercise though! And the rest of the time I spend surfing the vast ocean that is the internet. I can tell you that Wikipedia is bad for time management!
Q22: Now the question everyone has been waiting for!! What is the meaning of life? You cannot answer sex, Street Fighter, 42 nor Coffee n' Chocolate fudge.
A22: Creativity.
Q23: Is there anything else you would like to say to your fans, enemies, those inbetween and God?
A23: I would like to thank my sponsors for being there for me financially when I was sleeping in the gutter. My manager for when I couldn't see a future. My wife for being my erotic outlet...
Wait... Wrong persona, need to swap to Kyle again!
Well first of all I would like to say that without all the Dinkers that have been here throughout Dink's lifetime this place wouldn't be what it is today. And that would be a bad thing. Never have I seen a community so resilient and consistently inspiring as this one, it's truly a gem on the internet. So it goes without saying that I also thank Seth for creating Dink in the first place and for porting it to its new HD incarnation. I want to say thanks to Skull as well, for choosing me for this interview. I had a blast answering all of his (sometimes crazy...) questions and I hope it's been an entertaining read. I look forward to staying a part of this community for as long as it exists or until it throws me out! I prefer the first option by the way.
See you Dinkers around on the forum!
I want to thank Kyle for this great Dinkerview, which was an honor and a privilege to me. I see you other Dink addicts the next time. And you know, possibly Kyle too, if he bothers to read this insanity. Now come over here, and give me a foot massage... wait, we're still on the air?! Goddam...
Click on the comments to read it, and add your own
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Hello and welcome to another edition of Dinkerview! This time, on the Dinkerview number 4, I interviewed one of the legends, yet perhaps a little bit unnoticed Dinker, Kyle. I absolutely admire him as a person and a Dinker, and think he is a great guy for staying within our community for so long. And I also thank him for his great, long answers. This Dinkerview would have been a very boring one without them.
Q1: Greetings Kyle, and thank you for this chance to interview you. How are you doing there in Belgium?
A1: I'm doing good, my creative juices are flowing more than ever and I'm in good health at the moment. There's some small irrelevent things like this year's winter has been harsher than previous years indicating the end of the world and the whole economic situation is messing up employment opportunities, which is why I'm still unemployed. I studied computer science and Japanese, but neither of these is offering me the chance to get to work. On the flip side, lots of spare time is fun and productive in other ways, such as d-mods and my writing.
Q2: What do you like most and least about living in Belgium?
A2: I like our food a lot. The french fries here are delicious and so are our chocolate, waffles and pancakes. I wouldn't say we have flashy Belgian specific recipes for our daily meals, but I prefer our simple combinations to the sometimes weird or borderline crazy food combinations I've come into contact with in other countries
As for what I like least, well, there's a lot of things but I guess it's man's nature to whine about all the small things. Still, I dislike that there's two languages being spoken in a small country like Belgium. It messes up the sense of community and has been the cause for a lot of issues we've had and are still having. I also really dislike our TV shows. They're uninspired and just plain boring to watch. Our shows also suffer from scripts written by baby monkeys at gunpoint, begging for a banana. I'm stuck scouring the internet for good US shows (of which there are plenty) because not even those are shown on TV here on a regular basis.
Q3: So tell us a little bit about how you first found Dink.
A3: Well that's quite a story (or not...). I first played the demo for Dink when I was really young and I think I must have played it over three times from start to finish. There was a little message about the full version coming out soon and I had a games magazine subscription at the time that I hoped would have the release date information soon enough. But unfortunately, it never showed up and I forgot about the game for a while.
Then some time later, I think it was shortly after the release, I accidently stumbled on it again at a local games store. I picked it up right then and there, went home and finished it in only 2 days because I just couldn't stop playing. It was awesome then and it's still awesome now, in its own nostalgic little way
Q4: You have been active in The Dink Network for a very long time, from the beginning you could say. Yet you are not known to many of the current Dinkers. Tell us a little bit more about your Dink history.
A4: I read that there were extra addons I could install or even create and that kept me hooked for a little while after I finished the original game. There were some decent d-mods coming out over the weeks after, but none were really super special or anything. I can't even remember most of the names of those d-mods. But then a demo for Prophecies of the Ancients was released and it was awe inspiring at the time. I believe it ended when you reached the village with the goblins, which means I'd already got to play around with the shapechanging a little and I kept thinking that was so unique and fun. So, I set out to learn how to make my own d-mods. Unfortunately, I sucked at it and I soon gave up. In my defense, I was young and there were very few resources to learn the craft from.
I stopped playing d-mods for a short while because I got turned off due to my own failure, but I came back around the time Prophecy of the Ancients was finished. Man, it was just an exceptional gaming experience. I finished it and again I felt I should try d-modding again. This time I managed to make some simple stuff, mainly from looking at the scripts of the original Dink and other d-mods that I remember had this and that feature that I also wanted. I finished some screens and became completely and utterly overambitious and overconfident in my abilities. At the time my favorite game was Final Fantasy VII and I was determined to make a d-mod that would serve as a sequel. I wanted someone to do all new graphics and someone to help me do the more challenging scripting. So I enlisted a guy named Killerbee, who actually came through and made a fully animated Cloud sprite. It didn't look extremely good or anything, but just releasing something like that in a time where new graphics were rare would have made waves. For the scripting, believe it or not, I got Gary Hertel on the team who was my personal idol of course. He made some scripts for the stores, a spell and was able to replace Dink with Cloud. And then... I lost interest because I saw this giant wall of work before me that I could never overcome and I disappeared for a while.
I can't say exactly when I returned. When I did I had a nice back log of d-mods to play so I spent a long time doing just that. I beta tested a lot of d-mods during that period, like most of SimonK's d-mods and some others. This was also the time I was on staff. Of course, history has a foul habit of repeating itself. Once again I got stung by the development bug and together with my friend Tallis I started out on a massive design for a whole saga of d-mods. I managed to really improve my scripting, mapping and writing and the Legend's Tale demo was born out of that. I also made New Shores: The Maori during that time as a school project, together with Tallis and Nitronic (the creator of Eternal Suicide). I was very happy with how the Legend's Tale demo turned out, it actually had about two hours of playtime in it if you did all the optional stuff too. But... I gave up AGAIN (Dink community syndrome...). The reason I gave up was the same one as it had been before of course: overambitious. And the "horrible" part was that I repeated the same mistakes of the past by asking other people to make stuff for me, in this case the graphics. I got SimonK to do a LOT of enemies and decoration for Legend's Tale which I still feel guilty about. Fortunately he used or released most of them after I gave up on the project so they're still around And I still have two of SimonK's enemy graphics that nobody else has ever seen (yet)!
After that episode of my life I moved on from Dink once more, this time for years until I got back about a year ago?
Q5: What keeps you drawn to this community and have you got any plans on leaving The Dink Network anytime soon?
A5: That's a very difficult question to answer and I've asked myself that in the past as well. Why do people keep coming back here? I think the answer lies in a combination of the community and the actual game. It's aged fairly well and has always had people creating content for it. This content has also kept evolving, more intricate d-mods have been released and there's just a certain flare of being part of something seemingly eternal. And now with Dink HD, a new editor in the works and a new d-mod contest rolled out just yersterday it doesn't seem like Dink and the Dink Network are dying anytime soon. As for myself, I don't have any intentions of quitting Dink again in the foreseeable future. I have past mistakes to rectify and I intend to do just that.
Q6: Here's a question I like to ask from legendary Dinkers such as you; What do you think has changed in The Dink Network during its many years, if anything?
A6: Hmmm... Well obviously the number of users has declined, which is totally normal and not necessarily a bad thing. There's still people around from the past that pop in now and then to say hi. Hell, even WC said hi a while back, that was cool.
Another thing that's changed is that Redink1 is no longer active in the community or the site. He's the guy who we all have to thank for this community still being alive. He's a Dink god in my eyes and it was very sad to see him go.
There are still just as many noobs around as before, at least they now seem to evolve into decent and productive members faster
There's no doubt that stuff has changed, but I'm not a guy to start rambling about the good old days because that just makes me sound ancient. I wouldn't have returned all those times if I didn't think the same enjoyable and crazy atmosphere was still around. So really, the only thing that's truly changed is the activity level. But considering there are so many other game editors to play around with nowadays I don't think Dink's doing too bad at all.
Q7: During your long stay with Dink, you have only released two D-Mods in all the time, with the latest one being from as far as 2002. Do you have any plans to release more D-Mods in the near, or far future?
A7: 2002 feels soooo long ago. I've been keeping it relatively quiet so far but I've been working on a d-mod for a long time now. I don't have a set release date, but "2011" is my goal. Hopefully around summer.
Q8: This Dinker named Tallis, was the one to create your two D-Mods with you. Can you tell us more about this Dinker and your relationship with him?
A8: Tallis has been my friend since we were 15. We graduated together, studied both computer science and Japanese together and are both unemployed at the moment
So you could say we're very close friends. Tallis isn't around in the community anymore, but I still ask him for input on my new d-mod and he'll be there to betatest it.We started the script for Legend's Tale during lunch breaks at school and made major plans for it as episode one of a saga. I still have the design documents for it, detailing dozens of quests and locations. It's kinda cool to look back at things you were thinking of in the past and this is no exception. Some of the quests and stuff sound a little childish when reading it now, but some of it still stands as good ideas.
Q9: If you had to choose ONE thing in ONE of your D-Mods, what would you change?
A9: This one is easy. I would make New Shores: The Maori a lot more true to the real Maoris and their culture. I depicted them as primitive human beings who have never come into contact with civilization. I knew that this was wrong. I did do research into their culture and had big plans to include faithful material, but we ran out of time real quick (we only had 2 weeks) and decided to take the easy way out by turning it into a fantasy game. Only the trivia is faithful to reality if I remember correctly. I'm even a little ashamed of that d-mod still being around on TDN because I feel like I'm somehow offending this minority group which was never my intent, but it's there to remind me of my mistakes so I guess it's fine.
Q10: What are the aspects that you like and don't like in D-Mods?
A10: I always appreciate a good story. You can have a crappy d-mod with a good story and it will lift it up to a good d-mod, but a d-mod that has a bad story will fall flat even with good gameplay. Having said that, I realize not everyone is good at writing stories or dialogue so I do respect people trying their hardest and I give credit where credit is due. One of my pet peeves in d-mods is the lack of decoration. I played Friends Beyond 3 when it came out and that game had nearly no decoration at all, it was sad. It even had TWO maps which clearly cut into the time spent decorating. It ruined the whole experience for me. And in d-mods where the decorating is done really well, like Tyrsis' "As Good as Eternity" it adds a whole new level of immersion that really keeps me playing. And that's what I think d-mods need most right now: an immediate way to get the player hooked on your d-mod, because I think a lot of people need to be persuaded to spend their time on a d-mod these days when there are so many other games out there to play instead.
Q11: What is your favorite D-Mod?
A11: Probably Stone of Balance because it's just so epic. Cycles of Evil is a close second because of its story driven nature. I guess that puts Lyna's Story third on the list too. I'll never forget how I felt about Prophecy of the Ancients though, but playing it now I can't in good faith call it my "favorite" anymore.
Q12: Who is your favorite Dinker?
A12: Redink1 without a doubt. But as that might be seen as a cop out answer because he's no longer around, I would have to say that I don't have a favorite Dinker, but I admire people contributing content to the site most. That content can be in the form of tutorials like RobJ has put out, d-mods, development files or social stuff like the Let's Plays, Award voting, poll updating and also Dinkerviews like this. But every Dinker has his place here, the developer, the noob, the d-mod players, the site staff, ... Without this mixed culture our community would be very boring.
Q13: Bananas or cookies?
A13: What's the point of liking cookies if RobJ just steals them away during the night anyway. I'M INSTALLING A NEW SECURITY SYSTEM RIGHT NOW YOU HEAR ME?! I enjoy the occasional banana too
Q14: What is your favorite movie and TV show?
A14: I've seen literally hundreds of movies and TV shows, I don't have a favorite one I think... Well, off the top of my head I loved The Last Samurai, The Lord of the Rings (who didn't like that one?), Kick Ass, Mr. Nobody and Triangle. My two favorite TV shows are Dexter and Firefly. I used to love Lost but that show's final season ruined it for me.
Q15: What is your favorite book, if you read at all?
A15: I read every now and then, mostly fantasy books. My favorite book is Twilight of course... Kidding
I did read it and liked it, but it's not my favorite. My all time favorite book must be Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. It's sequel was also a very good book. I also really liked The War of the Ancients trilogy that's based on the World of Warcraft lore.Q16: You were in The Dink Network Staff way back in the days. What made you give this mighty power away, and are you regretting that you withdrew?
A16: Every night in bed I cry myself to sleep because I lost all my godly powers. I was close to ruling the world but I gave it away. Everyone makes mistakes!
I first got on staff to maintain the d-mod timeline (I think that feature is gone?). The problem was that it was very hard to figure out the exact time period of some d-mods, people weren't looking at the timeline all that much and I had to manually change the HTML code for all of it. So I didn't feel very motivated to keep that up to date. Looking back it was a cool project idea, but it should have been organized a little better with d-mod authors supplying this information themselves.
I then moved on to doing mostly news, uploading d-mods, writing reviews and I held Dink related discussions in a specific format. That was actually quite successful, but when I left it quickly died out. I think SimonK took it over for a few times? Or was that someone else... I can't quite remember.
Q17: Who's the hottest chick in the world? I sincerely hope you will not answer "Tal".
A17: Summer Glau and Lea Michele. The first is a godly actress and the second a godly singer. What can I say? Talent excites me!
Q18: Tal vs. SabreTrout. Who will win? Believe me, this question can reveal a lot about one's personality.
A18: Oh my... Here goes nothing: SabreTrout! No further comment.
Q19: What is your favorite game?
A19: My favorite game of all time is Xenosaga. I actually count that as the whole trilogy, though the second installment fell short of greatness for a variety of reasons. Other games that I hold very dear are Heavy Rain, Rule of Rose, Beyond Good & Evil and Final Fantasy VII. The theme for my picks is "story" if you hadn't noticed
Q20: Is there something major you would like to say about your D-Mods, your Dinkish stuff, or anything in general?
A20: I think this is the part where you're trying to get me to divulge all the information about my upcoming d-mod. Well, it's a secret still! ... Alright, I guess I owe you at least some interesting tidbits right?
My upcoming d-mod is called "404". The title might sound weird, but there's a good reason to it. "404" is the ultimate tribute d-mod to this wonderful community. Over the years many people have created development files, such as gameplay additions, music, graphics and more. My goal is to integrate as many of those resources as possible to pay tribute to the hard work that was put into them. I've finally learned from my past mistakes and have kept the scope relatively "small". I'm not making an "epic", but I'm making a d-mod that feels epic. This means that I've tried to take the elements that make a d-mod good and elevate those to the next level. For the story, I've made sure the cutscenes feel like cinematic scenes, timed to music and full of animated elements. For the map, I've concentrated on decorating each screen to the max without making it feel too cluttered. And for the gameplay I've focused on including as many different gameplay systems as possible. It has plenty of new spells, weapons and enemies as well as a character growth system independent of XP. To reward exploration as much as possible I've gone to great lengths to include a mesmerizing amount of secrets.
I'll be releasing more details incrementally as the beta testing period approaches. For now, you can enjoy three handpicked screenshots that show off the level of detail I put into map decoration and layout.
I'm listening to a Glee song right now and it's saying: "Finish what you start". I should seriously take that to heart when even songs and puppies are giving me this advice. Don't ask about the puppies. I hope that in the end, this d-mod will redeem all my past Dink mistakes.
Screenshots:
Angel's Descent
Frostbite of the Heart
Depths of Creation
Q21: What do you do during your free time?
A21: Well, being unemployed means I have a lot of spare time that I try to spend on things that don't cost too much
I mainly play games, work on my d-mod, write stories and watch movies/TV shows. I should fit in more physical excercise though! And the rest of the time I spend surfing the vast ocean that is the internet. I can tell you that Wikipedia is bad for time management!Q22: Now the question everyone has been waiting for!! What is the meaning of life? You cannot answer sex, Street Fighter, 42 nor Coffee n' Chocolate fudge.
A22: Creativity.
Q23: Is there anything else you would like to say to your fans, enemies, those inbetween and God?
A23: I would like to thank my sponsors for being there for me financially when I was sleeping in the gutter. My manager for when I couldn't see a future. My wife for being my erotic outlet...
Wait... Wrong persona, need to swap to Kyle again!
Well first of all I would like to say that without all the Dinkers that have been here throughout Dink's lifetime this place wouldn't be what it is today. And that would be a bad thing. Never have I seen a community so resilient and consistently inspiring as this one, it's truly a gem on the internet. So it goes without saying that I also thank Seth for creating Dink in the first place and for porting it to its new HD incarnation. I want to say thanks to Skull as well, for choosing me for this interview. I had a blast answering all of his (sometimes crazy...) questions and I hope it's been an entertaining read. I look forward to staying a part of this community for as long as it exists or until it throws me out! I prefer the first option by the way.
See you Dinkers around on the forum!
I want to thank Kyle for this great Dinkerview, which was an honor and a privilege to me.
I see you other Dink addicts the next time. And you know, possibly Kyle too, if he bothers to read this insanity. Now come over here, and give me a foot massage... wait, we're still on the air?! Goddam...
Good read, the unreleased SimonK graphics must be like... A holy grail or something.
Oh, and Kyle, those screenshots are looking seriously awesome. Can't wait for it to get finished (don't rush it though ). Are they shots of individual screens, or several screens 'fused' together? It looks like the tiles are smaller than normal, and it's almost as if the colours are... deeper? I dunno, they look more vibrant or something (or it might just be my eyes getting tired again) The 'depths of creation' screenshot looks particularly enhanced (colour-wise) or something.
Oh, and Kyle, those screenshots are looking seriously awesome. Can't wait for it to get finished (don't rush it though
). Are they shots of individual screens, or several screens 'fused' together? It looks like the tiles are smaller than normal, and it's almost as if the colours are... deeper? I dunno, they look more vibrant or something (or it might just be my eyes getting tired again) The 'depths of creation' screenshot looks particularly enhanced (colour-wise) or something.
Yeah they're taken in WDE by setting the screen gap to zero. And like any good PR screenshots, yes, they've been color enhanced Well it's not like people don't know how the real Dink graphics look anyway so it doesn't matter much xD The funny part is, Dink COULD handle these graphics if someone adjusted all of them like this. Could be cool.
Well it's not like people don't know how the real Dink graphics look anyway so it doesn't matter much xD The funny part is, Dink COULD handle these graphics if someone adjusted all of them like this. Could be cool.
OMG!! ITS KYLEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! YAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIII!!
CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH??!!
I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEE YOUUUUUUUU!!
*cough* uh, cool interview... ahem...
CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH??!!
I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEE YOUUUUUUUU!!
*cough* uh, cool interview... ahem...
yeah good interview and great pi.. what the i got 404 error's all over the pics?(whats up with that(hehe kidding ))
Edit: wonder who is the next to be interviewed.
))Edit: wonder who is the next to be interviewed.
This was quite an interesting read, indeed. ^_^
The next Dinkerview will be posted as soon as my "victim" will post his answers.
Holy Mexican Hamburger! It's PureEvil! *memorizes awesome moment*
I wouldn't mind an interview.
